Mind States January 2008
The Ancient Maya
SAVAGE SACRIFICERS OR
WISDOM TEACHERS?
by Caite Mathis
The movie Apocalypto portrays the ancient Mayan as savage and violent worshippers of gods that demanded human sacrifice and torture. According to contemporary Mayan elders, this is a sadly distorted picture of the essence of Mayan culture. In fact, one of the most well known and respected independent researchers of the Mayan cosmology, John Major Jenkins, writes: “What emerges from study of Mayan time-philosophy is nothing less than a grand galactic cosmovision unparalleled in world traditions (1).”
Leonide Martin, author of the visionary novel Dreaming the Maya Fifth Sun, writes: “The true legacy of the ancient Maya is a vision that connects humans intimately with the galaxy. They were master astronomers who understood the cycles that tie earth life to the movements of the stars. All the forces of nature were alive to the Maya. They were consummate observers and based their conclusions on meticulous observance of nature’s laws. They also knew how to communicate with these forces through mystical techniques of spiritual development. They used techniques similar to the meditations, postures and self-disciplines found in yoga. These practices are enhanced by the powerful resonances created through the geometric energies of the pyramids, which have strong effects on human energy fields and thought patterns (2).”
This description doesn’t sound very primitive, does it? In his book, Martin brings up the entire question of “progress” and our assumption that we, in our western techno-culture, are superior to less “developed” cultures of the past. How could the ancient Maya, who had no telescopes, no metal, not even wheels (except as a child’s toy), have built such complex and awe inspiring temples and cities and have known so much about the cosmos?
In fact, the sacred Mayan Calendar may hold the key to our own future. According to it, we are in the last days of a great cosmic cycle, which began in 3114 B.C., and will end, according to Jenkins and others, on December 21, 2012. Don’t you have a sense that time has been speeding up? The Calendar says that’s true. It has been just 500 years since the printing press was invented and only fifty years since the computer was invented. Now our children grow up in a culture of instant, worldwide communication due to the Internet and cell phones. We’re global villagers on a lovely blue planet, whizzing through space, fast consuming our precious resources. But where are we going?
The Mayan Calendar has proved to be uncannily accurate in predicting just about all of the movements of recorded history, according to Swedish Biologist and Mayan Calendar expert Carl Johan Calleman (3). Astronomers tell us that on December 21, 2012, our sun and the solar system will align with the center of our Milky Way Galaxy—an event that occurs once every 26,000 years. This alignment is bound to have a profound effect on the earth. Will there be a human evolutionary leap leading to a golden age of peace and bliss? Or will there will be global catastrophe? It isn’t just the Maya who predicted some kind of “end time” in 2012. The Hopis and other Native American peoples, the Vedic astrologers of ancient Indian, the Egyptians, Qero elders of Peru, the Dogon Tribe in Africa and the Aborigines in Australia have similar predictions.
There is still much mystery surrounding
the ancient Maya. What did they mean by “the end of the Great Cosmic Cycle?”
How did they come to their understanding of a system of temporal and spiritual
time, including the movements of the sun, moon and Venus? Why did the Mayan
value crossed eyes and flatten the foreheads of their babies by strapping
boards to them? Why did the Mayas and Aztecs so readily accept the Christian
cross? What was it really like to be a woman in an ancient Mayan city and
how were the feminine deities represented? While archeologists are making
new discoveries every day and there are ever more books on both spiritual
and archeological aspects of the culture, if you really want to understand
the Mayan cosmology, and experience first hand some of the secrets of the
ancient temples, you must be lucky enough to meet and study with an authentic
Mayan shaman.
When I first visited the Mayan sites of Palenque and Tikal, I was impressed
but I didn’t know what to make of it all. The magnificent architecture
seemed inaccessible and the complex and convoluted carvings were difficult
to take in visually. It wasn’t until I was taken to Uxmal near Merida in
the Yucatan (one of the best restored and most beautiful sites) that I
had my first mind-expanding experience of the sacred energies encoded in
the stones. I was told to stand in particular places on either side of
the ruler’s throne. There I felt, without being told, powerful opposing
forces that strongly affected my body. How is it possible that the effects
that were built into the stone form in such a way as to still be entirely
active today? The more I read and study about the Maya, the more my sense
of awe grows for what their civilization represented and what it still
has to teach today.
Caite Mathis is a Life Coach and Founder of Turtle Island Coaching in San Diego, California. Part of her mission is to educate people about the Mayan cosmovision. She will be offering an 8-day tour to Merida, Yucatan, to visit Chichen Itza and other Mayan sites with internationally known Mayan Shaman Hunbatz Men, January 21-28. For information, contact Caite at www.turtleislandcoaching.com.
Notes:
(1) The Mystery of 2012 compiled by Sounds True. See also Galactic Alignment:
The transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian and
Vedic Traditions. Inner Traditions, 2002, www.innertraditions.com
(2) Martin, Leonide. Introduction to Dreaming the Maya Fifth Sun: A Novel
of Maya Wisdom and the 2012 Shift in Consciousness. Infinity Publishing,
2006. www.mayafifthsun.com.
(3) Calleman, Carl Johan. The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of
Consciousness. Inner Traditions, 2004, www.innertraditions.com