Mayans and Inner Knowing

MAYANS

AND

INNER KNOWING

By

Rubén González and Inés M. Martín

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Rubén González and Inés Martín

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the authors.

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Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

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"Long time ago, a really long time ago

The lord Iztzamá decided to create a land

that was so beautiful that anyone

who knew it, wanted to live there,

in love with it’s beauty.

Then he created the Mayab, the land of the chosen ones and

he seeded on it the most beautiful flowers so they could

adorn the roads,

He created huge natural wells in whose crystalline waters

the sun light would be reflected

And also created deep caverns full of mystery

And after, Itzamná gave the Mayas

the new land…"

(Mayan Leyend)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL EXTENSION

SCIENCES, LANGUAGE AND WRITING

ARCHITECTURE AND THE CITY

THE MAYAN AND ANCIENT EGYPT

THE CYCLIC CONCEPT OF TIME

THE BOOKS OF CHILAM BALAM

THE MAYAB, A MAGICAL WORLD

MAYAN GODS

THE CREATION OF OUR WORLD

THE CREATION OF MAN ACCORDING TO THE POPOL VUH

THE MAYAN UNDERWORLD

XIBALBA, THE PATH OF INITIATION

THE BALLGAME

PAKAL, THE LORD OF PALENQUE

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INTRODUCTION

The Mayan culture was developed during the ancient times in Yucatan (Mexico) and the nearby areas from Mesoamerica, they reached their prime between the third and ninth century of our age. They built several cities and ceremonial centres that represented a reflection of the Cosmos on earth, and, that involved pyramids, temples, palaces, ball game courts, sculptures, astronomic observatories, etc. as well as a very advanced arithmetic system, more accurate calendars than those of the Europeans of the time. They also had the most developed writing of the New World.

In the ninth century BC, an enigmatic phenomenon took place in the Mayan region: the main cities were abandoned, their people disappeared and the main settlements became depopulated and taken over by the jungle until the sixteenth century, when the settlers and explorers discovered a number of sites and ceremonial centres most of them already archaeological sites to the natives.

From that moment on, the Mayan culture wouldn’t be understood or valued properly, which is the reason why it was left out and almost forgotten for many centuries. But it was not until the last few decades that the extraordinary level of civilization they had acquired in every field started to be truly recognized, mostly due to a general change of mentality, the new archaeologic discoveries, as well as Mayan script decipherment.

In this book we develop aspects like the geographic and chronologic framework of the Mayas, their sciences, language and writing, the similarities between the Mayan and the Egyptian culture, the diverse and amazing Mayan calendars, their sacred books and the predictions and prophecies contained in its pages, the myths about the creation of humanity and the world, the symbolism of the Ball Game they used to practice, the meaning of the Xibalba or Mayan underworld etc. However, our main aim is to look at the teachings that this mysterious culture expressed through its legends, codices, traditions, stelae and monuments. Their messages were addressed to human’s psyche from any age in any place, with a transcendental knowledge beyond their own physical space and time that constitutes helpful for those currently seeking the development of mind and soul, since such knowledge is linked to internal realities of the human being.

For Mayan peoples time was a cyclical phenomenon. By studying it they found out there were repetitive periods of changes and transformations, some of them shorter and with little consequences whereas others were longer and more intense. Among these last ones, the so called Long Count must be highlighted, which ends on the winter solstice of 2012 with the consequent transformation of mankind.

Besides the scientific and artistic knowledge, the Mayan culture left us a spiritual legacy which reveals a deeper and more conscious way to understand our own world along with the way to self-awareness, initiation and rebirth from the inside. It is a path that leads us to the depths of the Mayab, the land of the Mayas, the land of the chosen ones, our inner land.

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GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL EXTENSION

The Mayan area covers an extension of about 325 000 square kilometres, which includes the Mexican states of Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche. It also includes some regions of Tabasco and Chiapas; in the same way in the Petén area, with the republics of Guatemala and Belize and other regions of Salvador and Honduras. It extended from the Pacific coastal area, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean all the way to the high inland mountains, from the leafy tropical jungle to the high volcanic plains, with weather and regional diversity.

Besides this geographic scope, it is known that the Mayas travelled through earth and sea to other Mesoamerican and perhaps even Southamerican regions, hence many artefacts from their Culture were found in other Mexican towns - Christopher Columbus found himself with a Mayan boat with 25 people who were trading goods in the Yucatan coast - and there are some records that describe ships of up to 50 crew members. Therefore it is believed that Mayan culture could have reached what is now Colombia.

Many cities and ceremonial centres were erected in the Mayan area, with pyramids rising above the highest jungle trees. Attention should be drawn to the fact that, even though they knew about the wheel, they didn’t use it. Neither did they use animals, for which the transport system depended uniquely on small shipments, or human power. The is why we can imagine the great difficulty that transporting goods represented, or materials and the huge stone blocks needed to build pyramids, temples, ball games, palaces, steam baths, sculptures an so on, in a places dominated by jungles and deep forests or by volcanoes.

From a paleontological point of view, human activity is found from 40,000 BC in areas like Santa Marta in Chiapas or the Loltun Cave in Yucatan. Later on, in what we call Preclassic period, the oldest things found are building ruins, utensils, jade and ceramics manufactured with great care from 2500 BC (Cuello, Belice), pyramidal structures in places such as Tikal and Uaxactún from 1500 BC, and the temples-pyramids, acropolis and extraordinary palaces located in El Mirador, in Petén region of current Guatemala. From 200 AD began the so-called Classic period - although more recent archaeological discoveries of real works of art like San Bartolo murals, or the frieze of El Mirador, dated from the year 300 BC, arise the need of reconsidering that date, defined by the use of the Long Count writing system that would remain up to the 9th century, date in which this complex notation formula stopped being used. It is in this Classic period when the Mayan cultural process reached its peak in terms of society, technology, politics, economy, and art, besides major advances in astronomy and arithmetic, all this resulting in one of the greatest Mayan contributions to the world, the Mayan calendar. This particular period is therefore considered as the Golden Age of Mayan Civilisation: It saw the emergence of many cities like Uxmal, Copán, Kabah, Izamal, Cobá, Calakmul, Palenque, Piedras Negras or Chichén Itzá.

Around this time they created extraordinary sculptures, friezes, steles and monoliths. Through them the Mayas represented their higher beings showing special features. In addition to its historical and chronological value, the steles and the friezes had also a symbolic, internal meaning. The characters carved in them showed different attributes, e.g. a sort of miters as a symbol of power and wisdom; solar faces as purity of soul and spirit; big ears symbolising the internal ear, the ability of listening; hands in a mystic gesture or forming an alchemical cross as a symbol of sublimation of the energies inside; scepter as internal power; belts as fusion between the human and the divine, working apron for the internal builder; and other alchemical symbols such as spheres, cube-shaped stones, triangles, the tree of life, the seed, the X-shaped cross, six-pointed stars, etc.

Similarly the paintings are very elegant, beautiful and symbolic as well as colourful like those encountered in Bonapak murals, where a number of scenes, musical instruments, conflicts, clothings and rituals were represented; or the paintings from the many vessels found in archaeological excavations. Again we can find Mayan sacred symbols in their frescos and paintings: the maize god, the spirit bird, the initiation serpent, the solar deities and the deities of darkness, the jaguar that can overcome any obstacle, the sacred tree as an expression of both the cosmos and the inner path, the spirits of fire, water, wind…

In ancient Mayan civilisation there were knights orders like the ones of jaguar, tiger or eagle, fully regarded as schools of transcendental and magic knowledge. The multiple alchemical symbols present in their works of art are proof of their concern for the psychic transformation and subtilization (the internal alchemy has been defined as the art of transmute the lead of the personality into the gold of the spirit).

According to a very strict ethics code and principles, they profoundly devoted to the study of diverse phenomena - from the stars through the reception and channelling of cosmic energies to the understanding of time cycles of the supernatural forces governing nature and the universe. They managed to give shape to their knowledge through art and architecture, their internal psychic development allowing them to flatly reject any expression of vices, defects and crimes such as greed, lust, ambition, profanity, sexual degeneration, theft, etc. which otherwise were severely punished. The natural deep water wells (called cenotes), typical of the Yucatan, were also centers of sacrifice for the most serious offenses. Among these cenotes, the ones in the city of Chichen Itza were the best known. During a ritual ceremony, they threw into this sacred cenote the human sacrifices along with offerings of jade, gold, ceramics and other items to honor the gods. Thus they were capable of maintaining for centuries a community with a high spiritual level and a physical and internal development as target.

In the 9th century an inexplicable phenomenon took place: the construction of monumental buildings and the inscription of hieroglyphic texts come to an end; the complex calendar systems are no longer in use and replaced with a simplified system or Short Count; and, the most striking thing, the main cities and ceremonial centers are abandoned and virtually deserted. So from 1521 the settlers, explorers and subsequent researchers found many cities abandoned and largely intact, at the mercy of the jungle and nature, and even today there are hundreds of Mayan buildings in need of clearing and recovery.

The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel relates some events in the history of the Mayan people of the Itzá:

"The Itzá were dispersed, it was fifteen score years when the foreigners arrived. after the town of Zaclahtun was depopulated, after the town of Kinchil Coba was depopulated, after the town of Chichen Itzá was depopulated, after the town on the Uxmal side , the great town of Uxmal as it is called, was depopulated, as well as Kabah. It was after the towns of Zeye, Pakam, Homtun, at the town of Tix-calom-kin, and Ake, Holtun Ake, were depopulated. It was after the town of Emal Chac was depopulated, Izamal…

Then the great Itzá went … the leading men among them, the heathen Itzá. But many supporters went with them to feed them. From many small towns the magicians went with them also. They did not wish to join with the foreigners; they did not desire Christianity. They did not wish to pay tribute, did those whose emblems were the bird, the precious stone, the flat precious stone and the jaguar, those with the three magic . Four four-hundreds of years and fifteen score years was the end of their lives; then came the end of their lives, because they knew the measure of their days. Complete was the month; complete, the year; complete, the day; complete, the night; complete, the breath of life as it passed also… In due measure did they recite the good prayers; in due measure they sought the lucky days, until they saw the good stars enter into their reign; then they kept watch while the reign of the good stars began.

Then