Scripture: The Liahona’s discovery reminds us that, while the Lord typically uses natural means to accomplish his ends, we sometimes have no idea what those natural means might be. There is no return to Jerusalem for this prize object. There is no forging of tools. There are no instructions on its construction. The Liahona simply appears, apparently without human aid. The appearance of the Liahona is miraculous and outside our understanding, though certainly within God’s power.
Physical Description: It was made a known material: fine brass. What did “of curious workmanship” mean? One meaning of “curious” in Joseph Smith’s time was slightly different from “unusual.” According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the seventh definition is: “Wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work. Ex. 28:8.” In the case of the Liahona, the idea that it was elegant and “wrought with care and art” seem to be a more apt description that “unusual.”
One of the oddest aspects of this miracle is that, at least in Nephi’s record, the Lehites expressed so little wonder, suggesting that they found it understandable. There is no indication of any explanation, yet they knew that one of the spindles indicated the direction they should go.
The only indication of its operation is that it worked on faith—or at least the spindle pointing the direction did. What did the other spindle do? How did the Lehites know whether the directional spindle was working or not? The spindle that pointed the way would always, perforce, point some direction, so how could they tell not to follow the direction it happened to be pointing when, through their lack of faith, the Liahona didn’t work?
Robert L. Bunker, an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, asked these questions of the texts, and suggests a simple answer:
One pointer necessarily provided directional information. But to appreciate the elegance of the Liahona’s design, from an engineer’s viewpoint, is to understand the function of the second pointer. Since a single pointer is always pointing a direction, it was likely the role of the second pointer to provide the necessary additional information about whether the Liahona was “operational,” meaning that the pointing information from the first pointer was reliable.
There is but one engineering approach that provides the necessary functionality and meets all of the above requirements both efficiently and simply. This is how it would have worked: if an observer viewed the pointers and saw only a single pointer, then they were both aligned in the same direction, one on top of the other, and the director was providing correct information. Lehi’s party could then follow the indicated direction with confidence that it was the Lord’s instruction. If, on the other hand, the two pointers were cross-ways to each other, forming an “x,” then the device was not functioning, and the pointing information was not reliable. No other information was required of the Liahona, so no more than two pointers were needed. But the requirements demand a minimum of two.
Bunker’s solution is so economical that it must be correct. It provided immediate visual confirmation whether the director was working. The alignment of the two spindles also immediately provided information about whether the Lehite travelers were exercising the required faith.
History: There have been various attempts to find allusions to the Liahona in the literature of the pre-Columbian Americans. Unfortunately, such efforts have not proved encouraging. Diane E. Wirth, an LDS apologist, has suggested that the Liahona might be related to a sacred object mentioned in both the Popol Vuh and the Title of the Lords of Totonicapán:
The Popol Vuh, which contains a sacred history of the Quiche Maya of the Guatemalan highlands, and which was written from earlier sources shortly after the Spanish conquest, speaks of just such an object as the Liahona. In describing the migrations of their ancestor, the Maya claim that Balam-Quitze “left [them] the symbol of his being” and further instructed them that this object would be a source of power for their use. This symbol, or object, belonging to the ancestors of the Maya, was called the Pizon-Gagal [sic, should be Pizom-Gagal].
A danger in making cultural comparisons lies in accepting translations that may not provide the complete picture. Wirth is citing the Goetz and Recinos edition of the Popol Vuh, published in 1950. The relevant passage from a more recent and critical translation of the Popol Vuh (the Tedlock translation of 1985) is:
And then Jaguar Quitze [Tedlock’s translation for “Balam Quitze”] left a sign of his being:
This is for making requests of me. I shall leave it with you. Here is your fiery splendor. I have completed my instructions, my counsel, he said when he left the sign of his being, the Bundle of Flames, as it is called. It wasn’t clear just what it was; it was wound about with coverings. It was never unwrapped. Its sewing wasn’t clear because no one looked on while it was being wrapped.
The tradition of a sacred bundle (more specifically, a god bundle), is quite widespread in Mesoamerica. For the Mexica, it was a sacred representation of the deity which they carried during their migrations. But neither the “bundle of flames” (the name) nor the wrapped bundle which is never opened (its description) fit the Liahona. While both provide guidance through faith, the sacred bundles were a source of oracles and visions that can be related only in the remotest sense to the Liahona’s spindles. In Wirth’s defense, she wrote this analysis early in her apologist career. It probably would not appear in her more recent work.
The Liahona was important to the Nephites; but after they reached the New World, it was only a respected symbol among other sacred objects retained by the rulers. There is no indication that it was ever used again. Therefore, it was remembered only for its historic religious purpose and perhaps for its association with the reigning house. With such a limited base of exposure to the people, it seems unlikely that any memory of it would survive the passing of the Nephite culture. True, the object itself may have been preserved for a time, but what role could it have played?