Solstice in Tikal

21^st December

I have spent many a night, usually cold, waiting for summer solstice sunrise in England only to be thwarted from seeing the sun rise by cloud, mist and/or rain. My dedication to celebrating the rebirth of the year has never extended to waiting out a British winter solstice, but the prospect of one in perhaps the most important Mayan ruins with Mayan shamen was much more appealing. It would be warmer for a start and there shouldn’t be cloud now the rainy season was over. Should there? This was to be the culmination of Unificacion Maya so there would be lots of hippies just like in England.

Free access to Tikal was arranged by Guatemala’s institute of Mayan, Gaifuna and other spiritual guides and we were collected in two minivans from El Remate at four in the morning to follow one of the festival organisers, Denilo, in convoy. The sky was clear, the stars shone out in brilliance after the setting of the near full moon. After 5km we hit thick mist hanging over the jungle, at the entrance we were told foreigners did not qualify for free entrance so would each have to pay the normal £10 entry fee. As the group groaned and prepared to pay, Georgia and me silently melted into the shadows and at the next checkpoint eased our way past the guards with a £1.30 payment for their time and trouble.

Sounds deadened, shadows dismissed, Tikal in the mist was silently beautiful, temples and trees casting different shades of grey amongst their white blanket. We had the Gran Plaza to ourselves until the rest of the group caught up. Here Guatemala’s finest traditional flautist, Pablo Collado, played a mesmerising concert to people sitting on the steps of Temple 2. A mist shrouded Temple 1 was his backdrop.

By 10.00am we waited for the other organiser, Anne of IxCanaan, to arrive with the shamen. We waited and waited, by 12 midday Georgia gave up and decided to go home. News was that they were held up outside because of the issue of the entry fee. Rumours circulated that they would hold the ceremony outside the gate, some said we should join them in a show of solidarity so that those who could not afford the fee would not miss out. We would give them half an hour said Denilo. Within minutes some of the second group began to enter the Gran Plaza. Another organiser had paid for those without much money, and the ceremony was on for where it was intended – the centre of the Gran Plaza between temples 1 and 2. Just like festivals of the 70s and 80s, the atmosphere rose with the realisation of overcoming the authorities and the odds. Battle of the Beanfield it wasn’t but we all thought we had succeeded against ‘The Corporation’.

The ceremony itself as a 4 hour extravaganza led by Tata Pedro Cruz and his fellow shamen. Part-Mayan fire ceremony, part-Hippy festival, it was a mix of old tradition and new counter culture. Perhaps 200 people participated, maybe 20% Guatemalan. By the end everyone was hot, tired and hugging each other. Unificacion Maya had pulled off a spectacular event that meant a great deal spiritually, emotionally and socially for everyone who attended. The mist parted mid-morning, no one got cold and both the fire and the sunset were spectacular. Only the mist was reminiscent of a British solstice!

Unificacion Maya

15th-18th December


Three shamen

This year’s festival in and near Tikal to celebrate the Mayan solstice and prepare for the beginning of the next Mayan 5,200 year long count era is upon us. We are back in El Remate for a week to participate and help with the festival, organised by Anne of Project IxCanaan. This year is special because the 19th December is the New Year’s Day of the 260 day annual Mayan sacred calendar – the first time in a while the new year and solstice are so close to each other.


Tata and Nana

Three Mayan shamen from the Guatemalan Highlands are leading sacred fire ceremonies each morning by the lake, keeping a sacred fire continually burning where they are staying, and giving information and consultations on the relevance of each person’s Mayan birth date before leading ceremonies with up to 2,500 shamen at Tikal on the 21st to 22nd December.



It is very interesting learning about the traditional Mayan spiritual world and the shamen who connect people with that world of energies that influence our lives. It is a continuation of a 3,000 year-old tradition that has outlasted the abandonment of the Mayan city states, Spanish Conquest and Inquisition, smallpox, denigration of indigenous identity, Civil War, genocide, globalisation and even North American evangelism.


Tata Pedro Cruz welcomes the sun

The people attending the festival, apart from the shamen, are approximately 25% Guatemalan and 75% North American or European. The latter are much the same people who would be attracted to stone circle paganism in Britain, except here there is a direct continuation of the tradition managed and perpetuated from one generation to another by generations of Mayan shamen.



Three things strike me at present.

The spiritual principles discussed by the shamen are similar in many ways to the principles of Hindu Yogis including reincarnation of a spiritual body, meditation, the body as connecting rod with the divine. Now that’s worth thinking about how we explain this without cynically kicking the question in to touch or getting all Graham Hancock over everything. What does this mean? I should find out afgter my consultation with the shamen.

Is it better for westerners searching for spirituality to hang out with people who know what they’re talking about or stone circles?

My birth date sign is a turtle which is highly significant for my life. The lake is my doctor. My birth date is 2 turtle, origin day is 7 monkey, my mission date 10 noj (not yet sure what animal this is). Together it means I am well-balanced, have lots of forward momentum and can go anywhere - sunrise, sunset, where the winds blow, where the winds hide to do my mission which may or may not be about healing but is to do with helpìng others in some way.

Lamanai

11th December 2007



Lamanai is a Mayan city next to lagoons and amongst jungle in northern Belize. They are much smaller than Tikal, comprising a couple of beautiful restored pyramids, a ball court and some palace/administrative buildings around plazas. What mostly drew us here was an amazingly well-preserved white stucco mask – probably the face of a god or king – that had been preserved under a later pyramid until archaeologists discovered it in the late 20th century. The visit was well worth it, the 4 metre high mask being one of the best preserved in the Mayan world.



We also enjoyed the excellent visitor centre and museum, howler monkeys, picnic lunch by the lagoon and photographing lots of delicate, gorgeous mushrooms found by Georgia.

Yaxha

The last weekend in El Remate before we go to Caye Caulker in Belize for a 10 day holiday. Can't wait.

On Saturday I visited La Blanca and Yaxha while Georgia worked on a couple of inHeritage comics. I was kindly given a lift by Lou, an American living in El Remate with half a dozen businesses and ideas for a hundred more. We met the archaeologists digging in La Blanca, were comically charged 80Qs for two lunches that should have been 40Qs and settled on 50Qs, then he dropped me off at Yaxha for the afternoon before returning to collect me after sunset.

Yaxha is another fantastic jungle-clad Mayan city that has recently been renovated and had some great infrastructure added to it - wooden walkways and decent signs. It's right next to a lake too.

Here's some photos


Yaxha Pyramid


Lake Sunset from Templo Mayor


Stucco Glyph