Jun Raqan

As Christenson (2007: page 59, footnote 56) explains, there is a complex etymological and conceptual link between Jun Raqan (juraqan/hurricane) and the creator diety, Uk'u'x Kaj (Heart of Sky); they are sometimes referred to as one in the same. According to Christenson, Uk'u'x Kaj "appears to be the principal god in the Popol Vuh account. He is the only deity to appear in every phase of the creation, as well as throughout the mythologic and historical portions of the text. K'ux refers to the heart as the source of the 'vital spirit' of a thing, or that which gives it life. According to Coto’s dictionary, it is also believed to be the center of thought and imagination. This deity, therefore, combines the powers of life and creativity, which are believed to exist in the midst of the heavens. During each creative period, Heart of Sky is the deity who first conceives the idea of what is to be formed. Other deities then carry out his will by giving it material expression."

And yet, the rich etymologies embedded in the name Jun Raqan, Christenson (2007: page 60, footnote 62) adds, are "too complex and obscure to give a definitive translation. In its simplest interpretation, Juraqan means 'One Leg.' Belief in a one-legged god was widespread throughout Precolumbian Mesoamerica. An important example was the Maya god K'awil (God GII of the Palenque Triad, who was often depicted with one anthropomorphic foot and the other a serpent), associated with kingship and the sky. Raqan, however, may also refer to the length or height of an object. The following line uses the name to refer to a bolt of lightning as a long flash of light. Coto interprets raqan as something 'long or gigantic in size.' According to Dennis Tedlock’s Quiché collaborators, 'leg' may also be used as a means of counting animate things, in the same way that we refer to the counting of 'head' of cattle. 'One Leg' might therefore mean 'one of a kind' (D. Tedlock 1983a, 138). The god’s name would thus refer to his unique nature as the essential power of the sky. In addition, the homophonous word huracán was used along the Gulf Coast of Mexico and the West Indies to refer to powerful swirling winds. The modern English hurricane may be derived from the Taino version of this word (Recinos 1950, 83 n. 7; Hunt 1977, 242; D. Tedlock 1996, 223). This interpretation is consistent with the god’s nature as the 'heart of the sky,' the eye of the hurricane forming the divine axis around which time and creation revolve in endless repetitive cycles of birth and destruction."

Por su parte el destacado investigador-escritor k’iche’ Sam Colop (2008: página 26, nota 21) apunta que la voz “raqan”, así formada por los morfemas jun, ‘uno’, y raqan ‘su--pie’, tiene un significado que “es más amplio” que la palabra ‘huracán’ implica. Por ejemplo, el lexicográfico Coto observa que “raqan” quiere decir “gigante” o “grande”, así señalando “la fuerza y poder de las tormentas tropicales, conocidas como huracanes. Es más Brinton propone que ese término maya pasó a las Antillas donde la escucharon los navegantes europeos y luego pasó a formar parte de vocabulario de las lenguas indoeuropeas.”

Observamos semejantes conceptos de luz y poder en los nombres de diversas deidades del texto k'iche'. Por ejemplo, según escribe el sabio Colop (2008: página 27, nota 21) el significado de la deidad Raxa Kaqulja, o ‘Rayo hermoso’, señala etimológicamente y conceptualmente “la hermosura de su contraparte envueltos en plumas de quetzal en el mar reposado. Nótese que a ‘Corazón del Cielo’ se le identifica como ‘Huracán’, que implica su fuerza acuática en un espacio donde sólo existía el mar y el Cielo y luego se enumeran tres manifestaciones de esa fuerza.”