Thursday, September 8, 2011

Pyramid at Oxkintoc


Oxkintoc: a sprawling system of pyramid complexes designed with mathematical precision according to the constellations and with the aid of "the gods." If you looked into the small viewing window of the labyrinth pyramid or sang into the communal cistern, said to return the sounds uttered in 52 years time, it is hard to deny the "aid of the gods" theory.

It is partially excavated, leaving a "mountain," also known as the Pyramid of the Mathematicians, covered in earth and bush. The ancestors and many modern Maya of the Ruta Puuc attribute the building of such exquisite edifices to knowledge and aid given by visitors who arrived in a serpent shaped aerial vehicle called Kukulcan. Many also believe that they are descendants of "sky people." Shaman use ancient Maya chants to contact their benevolent ancestors, and use medicinal plants of other planetary origins to cure patients of physical and spiritual maladies.

Like the Hopi of the American Southwest, black magic is blamed for many Maya cities being abandoned even before the arrival of the Spanish. The strength of oral history is obvious among the indigenous people of Yucatan, which is probably the main factor in the preservation of their culture, since most of their written tomes where destroyed by the ignorant Spanish invaders. The guide at Oxkintoc has extensive knowledge of the pyramids buildings as well as the curative properties of flora and fauna of the area. Oxkintoc's oldest pyramid is around 2400 years old and has been beautifully preserved by Mother Nature's coverings.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Healers (raw footage)



Here we have a "typical" session with Don Antonio, our beloved Maya shaman in his home located in the quintessential rural town of Halacho, Yucatan. There is always so much going on in the spirit world when he makes the preparations to cleanse his patients; mind, body, soul. Of course he probably does not differentiate between the spirit and material world. As he sits upon his little wooden stool he beckons his visitors to come and sit in front of him, washes his precious and rare carved crystal stones in aguardiente (crude rum). He lights copal and stares intensely into the smoke as if in another world. After performing the ancient chant he will proceed to apply "ventosa" to begin to move the blood and draw out the "mal aire," bad winds..

Ventosa is similar to an ancient oriental healing art we know today as "cupping." Don Antonio consults his wife, Dona Antonia, as far as placement of the cups that fits the patients needs, and he procedes to puncture a small hole into the area with a fish bone and using heat, he suctions the cup over the hole in the skin. If the persons blood does not easily flow, than the blood is stagnant, causing diesease. It is then determined what herbs are going to be utilized to overcome the stagnation.