Probably one of my favorite things we did was visit Iximche, a site of Mayan Temple ruins, but also current Mayan spiritual practices. It wasn't just that the day was perfect and the site was beautiful. But we also had an amazing speaker, Antonio. All of our speakers were wonderful, but at times it was like he was speaking directly to me.
We learned about our Nahual from Delores, our guide. Nahual's are your Mayan spirit animal or totem, much like your zodiac sign. Each person has a Nahual based on the date, month, and year of their birth, and it influences your character and demeanor. I learned from the book I read by Rigoberta Menchu that in Mayan culture, you don't find out your Nahual until you turn 13, although your parents know from your birth. You also never ask someone what their Nahual is, although they can tell you if they would like.
You can calculate your Nahual here: Link
Here is a carving at the entrance to the Mayan site with Nahuals
As we travelled through the site, our guide gave us information about the Mayan Religion. I wish that I could remember everything that he told us - it was very powerful. I will try to capture at least some of it.
The Mayans believe in creativity and imagination. However, now people want to be analytical and in control of everything. But this control is an illusion. The mind does not control anything. We have to be willing to let go of that control. We can't be filled with worry, or we will waste our energy on that rather than finding solutions.
When we are forced to be a certain way or write a certain way, we lose our creativity. This part was really interesting to me because, Josh, Ali, and I were just talking in the car about how academic writing has to be a certain way - use a certain writing style - and it can be so frustrating sometimes to write like that.
I really liked this particular temple. I took about 50 pictures of it. The tree growing out of the top, the sun shining on it - just beautiful. The pictures don't really do it justice.
Antonio, our guide, told us the only way to be happy comes from within. We asked him how we can be happy within, and he stated silence. We need to be silent and listen to ourselves at least five minutes every day. This is something I would really like to work on because I am very analytical and controlling. I hate sitting in silence. Literally, I always have something on - TV, music, white noise...
This was the alter of the Mayan site that is still used for worship. I am not sure if you can tell, but there are bright red chilis in the fire offering.
Antonio told us our minds are just tools for love, but we cannot just be ruled by our minds. We have to strive to have our eyes open - not just the physical ones, but the eyes of our heart and mind as well. We must ask the creator for help with this. Also, praying isn't a miracle, it's an exercise. Impatience causes the creator to be unable to help us.
Being grateful is very important, in fact, one side of the current Mayan site was for gratitude worship. We should thank our bodies for the work they do for us - our feet for carrying us about, our stomachs for digesting food, etc. We need to quit committing violence to our bodies. He cited the morning alarm as violence to our bodies (lord knows that is how I feel when my alarm goes off!!). We should just tell our bodies what time we need to be awake.
We finished the day by traveling to our homestays on Lake Atitlan.
To be continued....
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