Maya

. . . expressing the intuitive with perfect confidence

2012: A Turtle Shell Year

Posted by ike
/ January 13, 2012 / 3 Comments

For the Dakota, the umbilical cord that once connected a newborn to her/his mother is never thrown away. Instead, it dried and placed inside a soft doe-skin sack. The hide is carefully cut and stitched into the shape of a small turtle or salamander. The bag is decorated with bead work and usually strung on a thin piece of hide for donning in ceremony. It is kept for the life of the individual, promising a long and blessed walk-on-earth. This new year, 2012, I am ending a season of my life and starting another. During the past six years in Europe, I have watched all that once sustained me—physically, mentally, emotionally and most importantly, spiritually—slowly dry up. Ever-swelling astral interference has made for a difficult weaning process. Still, I like to imagine the European cycle of time provides an ‘umbilicus’ that can be built upon. Perhaps, by comparison to the last few years, the coming ones will seem wrapped in softest doeskin. It’s as if inherent in the soul, endurance is assured—like somehow we all wear around us a supple turtle shell charm.
The New 3 R’s of Learning

Posted by ike
/ September 12, 2011 / Leave a comment

Recently, I was invited to participate in a Fire Ceremony lead by a Guatamalan elder, a descendant of the great and ancient Maya. I find it so wonderful that these days while every Texan complains unendingly about the unending high summer temperatures, we are asked to come together and celebrate our relations, and the goodness in the relationship, to fire. Some could see this as the ultimate irony: in the midst of the hottest summer on record, we are being asked to appreciate the beauty and strength of fire. I can almost hear the collective sigh of everybody invited. “Not more heat,” they must be groaning. But I view the situation differently. Like a great cosmic joke, we are asked to be Heyoka or contrary—to quite our whining and do the opposite: appreciate and honor the intense, hellish heat we are living through by participating in the Maya Fire Ceremony. Maybe that is how the hot spell is broken. Personally, I happily anticipate the ceremonial event, having already made the paradigm shift to welcome, rather than bemoan the weather outside. In fact, I often giggle just thinking about our celebration of fire; what a great reminder to not only accept but embrace what we cannot change.
Time After Time

Posted by ike
/ December 27, 2010 / 5 Comments

As we race through our lives, most of us know that time is no longer accurately reflected by the clock or calendar. As a result of continually trying to base reality on the clock and calendar, our stressors become unnatural as we fill to the brim with a constant sense of urgency. Ancient American forecasters predicted that in our ‘times’ time itself would blossom into new ‘calendrics’ or what the Maya refer to as ‘fresh movement and measure.’ Already we feel time move more quickly, but we want to stick to what we know, believing we can continue with our slower measures: the clockworks and calendrics created to keep track of yesterday’s time.
Turtle Anchors in Tomorrow

Posted by ike
/ November 13, 2010 / 5 Comments

In the Mayan cosmology, every year and greater cycle of time has a different spirit guiding it in. These spirits appear as elements in nature, taking the form of plant, animal, stone or human. Moving from phase to phase, one of the four main spirits serves as leader for a current time period which in our case is dying out. During the upcoming cycle, another of the “big four” spirit guides takes over the duties of leadership. In this way the group of four spirit guides shares responsibilities, making sure a fresh period of time is truly ‘new’ and different from the last. But not too different.
Human Hands: Creating Our Astral Moves

Posted by ike
/ November 8, 2010 / 2 Comments

To this day, the Maya consider human hands sacred instruments. They believe that Creator Intelligence works through humans in order to make grace-filled movements and to measure numerically. Hand gestures provide a means of communication. And by extending, raising or lowering the fingers from the base of the hand one can count and configure numbers. Scientists now realize that before ancient people ever devised a written language, they first developed a complexity of hand signs. Each system was practiced and passed on from one generation to the next. Every generation could add more signs to the language, but the most useful were retained over centuries.
The Powerful Tree of Life

Posted by ike
/ October 4, 2010 / 1 Comment

Like so many other cultures with deep roots into the past, the Maya regard the cosmos as ‘the tree of life.’ This is more than simple allegorical comparison. The truth in this statement is readily evident when the Earth’s place among the stars is observed astrally. The roots to the world tree are the dense astral dimensions that came before the solid material planet existed. These astral roots now encapsulate and penetrate the depths of Earth.
The Shape-Shifting Deer Reflect Life to Come

Posted by ike
/ August 15, 2010 / 4 Comments

The Dakota share stories about deer as spiritual shape-shifters. If a human spirit wants to change astral form, it is easy to take that of a deer. As a deer the shifted soul can quickly run across the prairie or sneak forward to eavesdrop on other humans who may not suspect that inside the animal form sits a temporarily altered human consciousness. For westerners, the process of shape-shifting is way beyond the parameters of what is comprehensible. Still, such mind-stretching and spirit-morphing are the exact abilities expected of us during the transformative times ahead. At some point, we must discover the means to navigate not only the physical or material realms we’ve grown used to, but also the multitude of astral dimensions surrounding earth. This requires adapting in the shape-shifting sense of the word.
Bear Awakens Us from the Slumbering Past

Posted by ike
/ August 3, 2010 / Leave a comment

As ‘time travelers’ able to render the future familiar, Ancient Americans had to know that we who would live during this current transition time would get stuck in our ‘modern’ approach to pretty much everything. What I am talking about is the kind of societal glamorizing that sounds like this: “What we currently have, do and know is the best or only way to go. We must never surrender who and what we are, do and know—especially for what is unknown.”
Grandmother Moon: Guardian of Our Souls

Posted by ike
/ June 30, 2010 / 1 Comment

According to the Ancient Americans, we will soon face both an ending to what we know as reality and a new beginning, or fresh state of consciousness. The Maya and other Tribes say the Earth, and our entire cosmos, is due for a grand flowering that will move our focus from the dense material realm, to life in dream-like astral dimensions. And the momentous changes aren’t going to be faced by humans alone, but by the whole planet together. I find it helpful to keep in mind that our fate is a collective one.
Mayan Elders Ask Us to Share Special Prayers For Guatemala

Posted by ike
/ June 3, 2010 / 3 Comments

What follows are two emails I received from my friend Chris who lives here in Texas and often holds Sacred Ceremonies with the Mayan Elder, Felipe Guate. Chris wrote the first email and the second one he passed on. As you will see, it’s a plea for help on behalf of the Maya in Guatemala. Because the English was difficult to understand in the original, I took the liberty of cleaning up some of the sentences for better understanding. I am quite certain the essence of the message remains the same as first intended. I hope it is as moving.