What is Magic?

Traveler’s Guide to Real de Catorce and the Peyote fields of Mexico 

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            Kej is the deer.  It also symbolizes the four supports, the four pillars; that is to say, the four cardinal directions.  The four cardinal points were created from the beginning to forcefully and energetically sustain the Earth, the Moon, and the stars.  Since Kej is the present year-bearer,(6)  the priest petitions this Lord to bring strength to the great-grandchildren, to lift their legs and backs and heads, to give them the strength of a deer, to overcome weakness and tiredness, to grant them power and success.  Then he counts to thirteen Kej.               Qanil is Venus.  It also symbolizes the four colors of maize existent in Mesoamerica:  red, black, white, and yellow; as well as the four colors of skin amongst humans.  Moreover it symbolizes the creation of humans:  the nine Creators – Formers made the first four men out of ground red maize (their blood), ground white maize (their bones), ground yellow maize (their skin), and ground black maize (their hair).   Qanil is the nagual of the farmer, the day to pray for a good harvest.  The priest calls upon this Lord to bless the maize seeds, the bean seeds, the seeds of every cultivated plant; also to bless the leaves of all plants.  This Lord is asked to bring forth bounteous harvests of grain and fruit to feed the hungry, and drink for the thirsty.  The priest also petitions this nagual for good communications, reciprocity, and peaceful relations.  Then he counts to thirteen Qanil. 

Toj is jade, or payment.  In the Popul Vuh the first humans were very cold and unable to cook their food, so they applied to Tohil, the god of fire (and the principal deity of the Kiché Mayans).  Tohil demanded the torn-out hearts of sacrificial victims in payment for the gift of fire. This involved the Kichés in considerable conflict with their neighboring tribes, whom they raided to obtain sacrificial victims.   The nagual Toj symbolizes offerings, the payment of what is due, and the leveling of justice.  It’s a day to seek peace with God and man.  The priest begins the ceremony by offering payment (the chicken), and now he asks Kawa Toj to accept the tribute of candles, copal incense, etc. to protect the lives and roads (journeys) of his client and all the great-grandchildren.  Then he counts up to thirteen Toj.             The final nagual is Tzi, the dog.   On this day offerings are made so that negative forces won’t triumph and so that the authorities will use wisdom and vision to administer justice.  The priest petitions Kawa Tzi to influence and win over judges, lawyers, police, and the military on behalf of the great-grandchildren; to guide and protect them in the legal system and with all governmental authorities.  Then he counts to thirteen Tzi.    

            After all twenty of the naguals have been invoked the priest thanks them for bringing the great-grandchildren together on this occasion, and to bless everyone.  Then all the participants are given a candle and instructed to kneel down around the fire and pray for whatever they desire; then the candles are thrown into the fire.   The participants stand and clasp their hands behind their backs, and everyone dances a slow, rhythmic son in a circle around the fire.  The priest closes the ceremony as he began it, by thanking the four cardinal directions:  Balam Kiché where the sun rises, Balam Akab where it sets, Ik Balam to the north, and Mahukutah to the south.   In toto the ceremony lasts about five hours.   

            The ritual site is dismantled, the marimba is carried back down the mountain and loaded onto the truck, and the participants retire to the client’s house for a lunch of turkey soup and tamales.  By this point everyone is pretty exhausted and tending to doze off; but the marimbists are still going full blast.              “Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth!  Give us our descendants, our succession, as long as the sun shall move and there shall be light.  Let it dawn; let the day come!  Give us many good roads, flat roads!  May the people have peace, much peace, and may they be happy; and give us good life and useful existence!  Oh thou Huracán, Chipi-Caculhá, Raxa-Caculhá, Chipi-Nanauac, Raxa-nanauac, Voc Hunahpu, Tepeu, Gucumatz, Alom, Qaholom, Xpiyacoc, Xmucané, grandmother of the sun, grandmother of the light, let there be dawn, and let the light come.”              - Popul Vuh 

NOTES

(6)   The current Haab, or period of 365 days, ran from 4/4/2006 – 4/3/2007.  Since 4/4/2006 = 8 Kej in the Chol Qij, Kej became the year-bearer for 2006-7.  

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Bob Makransky is a systems analyst, programmer, and professional astrologer.  For the past 30 years he has lived on a farm in highland Guatemala where he is a Mayan priest, runs an eco-hotel for travellers, and is head of the local blueberry growers association.   His books, articles, stories, cartoons, free monthly astro-magical ezine; complete instructions on how to channel by automatic writing and how to run past life regressions; free downloadable Mayan Horoscope software; etc. are available at:  http://www.dearbrutus.com.  

Subscribe to Bob Makransky’s free monthly ezine at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagicalAlmanac

Noj is the Lord of intelligence and wisdom.  This day is chosen to meet in council to unite ideas, seek knowledge, and to find good paths for social betterment.  The head priest asks this Lord to bless his client with wisdom and divine guidance.   Kawa Noj is also asked to bless children who are studying in the ladino school system:  at this point in the ceremony the children come forward and the priest blesses them by touching them with candles on the head (where ideas are born) and hands (with which they write), and then he throws the candles into the fire.  Then the priest counts hun Noj, kwib Noj, oxib Noj, to oshlahu  Noj.   Tihash represents the obsidian blade, and it is the Lord of danger.  This Lord is petitioned to cut off people’s problems and to defend them from evil.  This day is used for rituals to avoid evil influences for people and sickness in domestic animals, and to remove curses.  On the other hand, sorcerers use Tihash to perform witchcraft.  After calling upon this nagual to protect his client from injury, the head priest counts to thirteen Tihash.   

            Kawok is the thunder.  Its power is fire; its lightning illuminates the darkness.  The head priest now invokes the three gods of the lightning:  Nimlikakulha is the lightning that blazes across the heavens; Rashikakulha is the lightning that strikes the earth and kills; Chipikakulha is the lightning that jumps from one cloud to another or flashes within the clouds.  In the Popul Vuh the names are:  Caculhá Huracán, Raxa-Caculhá, and Chipi-Caculhá. These three lightning gods form a trinity which together makes up the Heart of Heaven.  They are always in the background directing and guiding the creation story.  This day is used for ceremonies to cure sickness and to overcome conflicts and difficulties.  The priest prays to the three lightning gods not to hurt the great-grandchildren, but to strengthen their spirit; then he counts to thirteen Kawok.               Ajpu is the sun.  This Lord represents Hunajpu in the Popul Vuh creation myth, which the head priest briefly recounts:  the hero twins Hunajpu and Ishbalankej journey to the underworld Shibalba (the Caverns of Candelaria, located just north of present-day Cobán, Guatemala) to avenge the murder of their father by the Lords of Shibalba.  There they face many trials, even dying in a fire, but their cleverness and magic restore them to life each time.  In the end they disguise themselves as impoverished dancers and perform a dance in which they cut men, and even each other, to pieces; and then they bring the dead one back to life again.  The Lords of Shibalba are delighted by this performance, and ask the twins to do the same to them.  The boys cut the Lords to pieces but don’t restore them to life, thus they defeat their enemies and avenge their father’s death.  They then ascend into Heaven where Hunajpu becomes the sun and Ishbalankej becomes the moon.   The priest prays to this Lord to overcome sorrows – all the tribulations which the Mayan people have suffered at the hands of their conquerors – and trials like Hunajpu did.  This is the day created by the ancestors to make a balance between the good and the evil; their teachings show us that good will always triumph over evil.  Rituals done on this day are as powerful as the sun in banishing evil, sickness, and personal problems.  Then the priest counts to thirteen Ajpu.   

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The Lord Aj, the maize plant, is then invoked.  Aj symbolizes the maize plant in the house of the grandmother of Hunajpu and Ishbalankej (twin heroes of the Popul Vuh legend).  In the Popul Vuh story Hunajpu and Ishbalankej journey to the underworld, but before leaving they planted two maize plants in their grandmother’s house, saying that if these plants should dry up, it would mean they had died.  When the plants dried up the grandmother was stricken with grief, but when the plants resprouted (when the twins were reborn from a fire in which they had perished) she knew they had triumphed in the end.  The priest calls upon these twins (Hunajpu and Ishbalankej – the sun and moon) to protect humanity.  Where the great-grandchildren have forgotten their traditional ways, Aj reminds them of their inheritance and culture – how to count the days and to remember their forefathers and their past.  Then the count is made to thirteen:  hun Aj, kwib Aj, oshib Aj, etc. to oshlahu Aj, and the participants make wishes and throw candles into the fire. Hish is the jaguar, who is the protector of the woods, the rivers, and the temples.  The jaguar roams the earth and sees everything under his domain.   Hish guides and protects the great-grandchildren and provides them with food and raiment.  Hish represents strength and fertility, so clients seeking to have children might commission petitioning ceremonies on the day Hish.  Then the count is made to thirteen:  hun Hish, kwib Hish, oshib Hish … and candles are thrown into the fire. 

Tzikin (bird) is the guardian and messenger of the supreme deity Tzul Taka.  It is the nagual of communication between the Heart of Heaven and the Heart of the Earth, mediated by space, the air, light, clouds, the cold, and the heat of nature which gives us life.  It is the Lord who brings money, wealth, livestock, and property.  Anyone who suffers loss of property or possessions prays to Tzikin, or does a ceremony this day, to replace his wealth.  The participants will approach the fire and wave their wallets or purses above it; and the head priest asks this nagual for abundance for his client.  After counting to thirteen this time the head priest and participants each give the fire a handful of sesame seeds as an offering, since sesame is the food of Kawa Tzikin; then they wish for prosperity and throw their candles into the fire. Ajmak is the Lord of sinners.  The head priest and participants now kneel down around the fire and call upon Kawa Ajmak to forgive them their faults; to pardon wherever they have made errors, wherever they have committed sins, wherever they haven’t done as they should.  This is the nagual of restoration or retribution for every happening which has ever occurred since the beginning of the human race.  The dead are a record of the past who guide the present and help to better that which will happen in times to come.  The head priest and participants prostrate themselves, touching their foreheads to the ground and kiss the earth, and humbly beg forgiveness.  Then the count is made to thirteen Ajmak and candles are thrown into the fire.    

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            After the offering is made to Tzul Taka, the order of the ceremony follows that of the twenty naguals of the Chol Qij.   The twenty Lords are called upon in serial order to bless the “great-grandchildren,” (mam inmam) which is how the Mayans refer to themselves.   The first nagual is the nagual of the day the ceremony takes place.  Often the day Batz is chosen for ceremonies since it is considered to be the noblest of the Lords, and is the initial nagual in the 260-day cycle.  The ceremony being described here was commissioned to dedicate a ritual site, so the day 9 Batz was chosen.  In a sing-songy litany the chief priest explains that Batz symbolizes a ball of thread, which is the Mayan metaphor for time.  The Mayans represent time as a thread rolled up in a ball underneath the earth, and the unraveling of this ball of thread is the passage of time.  History is woven with the thread of time, just as garments are woven with cotton thread.  Batz is the weaver of the family and community, the ties which bind people together.  The priest asks this Lord that his client be able to roll up family, children, wealth.   Batz is the ruler of all ceremonies such as weddings and the formation of organizations, since these are the threads which tie the great-grandchildren together.                At the end of Batz the priest counts up to thirteen for the thirteen powers (gods of the upper world):  hun (1) Batz, kwib (2) Batz, oshib (3) Batz, kayib (4) Batz, ob (5) Batz, kwakib (6) Batz, kukub (7) Batz, kwashakib (8) Batz, beleb (9) Batz, laheb (10) Batz, hunlahu (11) Batz, kablahu (12) Batz, oshlahu (13) Batz.  These thirteen powers correspond to the thirteen principal bones in the human body – i.e. where the nine gods of the lower world are the Creators – Formers, the thirteen gods of the upper world are the Sustainers.  The Mayans consider that there are thirteen days to a “week” (sheman, from the Spanish word “semana”).  After the count to thirteen is made for each nagual, the participants in the ceremony make a wish on one of the twenty candles they were handed at the outset and then throw the candle into the fire.  The portion of the ceremony devoted to each individual nagual varies in length, but typically lasts five to ten minutes.  At intervals there is ritual dancing of the slow son dance around the fire by the priest alone, and sometimes by participants as well.  Participants are cued by the high priest as to what to do next.   When a nagual’s turn ends the next nagual becomes “host” of the ceremony:  after Batz comes Be (road), and the priest sing-songs a litany about the road of life, and asks for guidance and protection along that road.  He asks this Lord to protect his client’s journey, that no matter where he goes he should have no accidents and live a long life; that he should have good roads, beautiful roads, level roads.  During this invocation the priest and client journey (dance the son as they slowly circle the fire) three times.  If the client had commissioned a ceremony to win a bride, the priest would have recommended performing the ritual on Be since it represents the future, hope, good fortune – the road of life which begins with Batz and ends with Tzi.  The invocation of Be ends with the count up to thirteen:  hun Be, kwib Be, oshib Be, etc. to oshlahu Be; and then the participants make their wishes and throw a candle into the fire.  

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            Then the priests invoke the earth god Kawa Tzul Taka (Mountain-Valley), the principal deity of the K’ekchi Mayans.(4)  Tzul Taka is one god, but there are also thirteen Tzul Taka’s which correspond to the thirteen major peaks in the K’ekchi Mayan area.  The K’ekchis hold that these thirteen mountain gods communicate amongst themselves with flashes of lightning in the clouds.  The priests call upon these mountains, and they also call for blessings from the other 166 sacred mountains and ceremonial sites in Guatemala:  Uaxactun, Ceibal, Tikal, Aguateca, Chajompec, Pecmo, Beleju, Chicoy, Chiajxucub, etc.   After the invocations are finished a handful of twenty small candles is given to each participant; and then the tower of candles in the center of the fireplace is lit by the client (the person who has commissioned the Mayan priests to perform the ceremony).  The tower of candles will slowly burn down and eventually ignite the other candles, incense etc. laid out in the fire pit, creating a large blaze which dances in the breeze.  The flames are regarded as being alive, as representing the presence of Tzul Taka, and as such the priests watch the fire very carefully for omens throughout the five-hour long ceremony.  For example, when the tower of candles burns down and the cigar bound in its center falls over, the direction in which it falls is taken as a sign:  if the cigar falls to the east (the daylight) then this shows that Tzul Taka is pleased and blessings will ensue; if it falls to the west (the darkness) then this is not so good.  If the fire swirls around in a counterclockwise vortex, then this is a good omen; but if it swirls clockwise then it’s a bad omen.  If the fire divides in two then it’s an omen that the present company will divide into factions and dispute.   Similarly, the behavior of the fire in response to petitions (e.g. for health, or economic prosperity) made during the course of the ceremony is a sign of whether and how the wish will be granted.   

The fact that the priests and participants have been awake all night lends an air of unreality to the proceedings; everything seems to be sharper and clearer, like in a dream.  The fire especially seems to be alive and moves hypnotically in the breeze.  Now and then during the ceremony one or another of the priests will dance around the fire sprinkling it with rum to feed it.               After the fire is lit the head priest sacrifices a chicken (li toj, or payment).  This payment is made to Tzul Taka to avoid illness and other troubles and to ask for blessings.  The Mayans are very much convinced that if blessings are to be petitioned and obtained, then the requisite payment must be made.  In the K’ekchi worldview, there is nothing free in the universe.  The head priest first offers the chicken to the four cardinal directions (so that they know the payment is for them also), then he dances with it around the fire, with the chicken draped around his neck.  Finally he kills it by hand by stretching the chicken’s neck until the head tears off.  The head is placed in the fire as an offering to Tzul Taka.  Then blood dripping from the chicken’s neck is sprinkled on the ground around the fire and on the four rocks delimiting the fireplace.  The priest dips his hand in chicken blood and marks the forehead, neck, wrists and feet of the client and other principal participants so that the wind (Ik) will guide and protect them.  Then the priest tears the chicken into pieces and places them in the fire.(5) 

NOTES:

(4)   Interestingly, even in Catholic and Evangelical Christian K’ekchi church services God is invoked as Dios loq’laj Tzul, Dios loq’laj Taka – God of the Mountain, God of the Valley – a seeming fusion of Tzul Taka and Jehovah.  This deity is also sometimes referred to as Tepe-Gucumatz, two of the Creators – Formers.   (5)   At some Mayan ceremonies the beating heart of the sacrificial chicken is torn from its breast by the priest, who hands it to the client to make a wish on until the heart stops beating, at which time it is offered to the fire.   

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The priests wear their uniform of office:  white shirts and pants, red bandanas on their heads, sandals on their feet, seashell necklaces, and long red cloth belts.  One, in his mid-forties, is a fat, jolly sort with a perpetual smile on his face.  The head priest (Don Domingo Bolon in the Tikal photos) is a slender, wiry man of about fifty, relaxed and low-key but with a masterful presence.   The priests begin to lay out the fire: first a circle is described in the pit with sugar, and the four quarters are delineated with a cross within the circle.  On top of this 260 cylinders of incense are laid, and then a cross of many small candles, whose colors correspond to the four directions, is built in the center of the circle:  red candles to the east, black to the west, white to the north, and yellow to the south.  Chunks of copal pom incense are placed at the four corners, and more colored candles, dried herbs, cinnamon sticks, and cigars are arranged around the circle.  Finally the circle is delimited by sprinkled dried romero herb around its circumference; and a tower of twenty candles bound around a cigar, symbolizing the Tree of Life, is placed in the center.  The overall impression of the fireplace is quite decorative and colorful.                After the fireplace is laid out the head priest and his assistants make offerings to the four cardinal directions in a sing-songy chant. The words sung-spoken by the Mayan priests aren’t as important as the rhyme and rhythm, the hypnotic patter of the litany.  To the east the priests invoke Kawa Balam Kiche and his consort Kana Kaja Palumna (note that the term Kawa means Sir or god and Kana means Lady or goddess), together with Kawa Tojil and the year-bearer Kawa Ik.(1)   To the west the priests invoke Kawa Balam Akab and his consort Kana Chomiha, together with Kawa Agulish and the year-bearer Kawa Be; to the south the priests invoke Kawa Mahukutah and his consort Kana Tzununniha, together with Kawa Acabitz and the year-bearer Kawa Noj; to the north the priests invoke Kawa Ik Balam and his consort Kana Kakishaha, together with Kawa Miktah and the year-bearer Kawa Kej.  These deities are the guardians of the four directions (li kayib kashukut), and as such they are the foundation, they hold the world in place.(2)              Next the priests invoke the nine gods of the lower world (that is to say, the earth; as opposed to the thirteen gods or constellations in the sky).  These nine deities are also called the Creators – Formers:  Kawa Tzakol and his consort Kana Bitol; Kawa Kukumatz and his consort Kana Kulkukan; Kawa Ukushkah and his consort Kana Ukushuleu; Kawa Kaktzuik and his consort Kana Ishkpiakok; and finally Kawa Ixmucanè.(3)  They are called the Creators – Formers because they fashioned the first humans from maize.  Previously the gods had experimented with and destroyed two human-like races – the first made of mud and the second of wood.  These attempts were unsuccessful because they lacked the intelligence and spirit to worship the gods.  When the Creators – Formers made the first four humans they were a little too successful:  these creatures were so clear-sighted and proud that the gods had to blow mist in their eyes to dumb them down a bit and make them more respectful.  The first humans fashioned by the Creators – Formers were made of nine drinks of ground maize.  To this day special propitiatory ceremonies to invoke the nine Creators – Formers, called primicias, are still performed in Yucatan and Belize.  At these rituals nine gourd cups of maize gruel are blessed on the altar and then drunk by the participants.  These nine gods also correspond to the nine portals in the human body:  two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, genitals, and anus.  They are also symbolized by the nine colors of the rainbow; i.e., rainbows are considered a manifestation of the Creators – Formers.  In the Mayan worldview these gods are the creators and formers of human life and as such have dominion over all human activities.  They have their own calendar count, i.e. every day is not only under the influence of one of the twenty naguals of the Chol Qij, but is also ruled by one of the nine Creators – Formers.   

NOTES:

(1)   Four of the twenty naguals – Ik, Be, Noj, and Kej – are called year-bearers since they are the only days on which the first day (0 Pop) of the 365-day Haab calendar count can fall.  Every year is ruled by one of these four naguals in turn, and the year-bearer influences whether it will be a fortunate or unfortunate year.  Note that Tedlock (and her teachers) calculate the correlation between Mayan and Gregorian calendars incorrectly; they have the Chol Qij day right but they are 40 days off on their reckoning of the 365-day Haab count; so that their year-bearers are correct, but the coefficient of the present year-bearer is one less than it should be.  See the “What is a Mayan Horoscope?” section of my Mayan Horoscope software for a complete explanation. 

(2)   In the Popul Vuh legend the Lords of the four directions, Balam Quitzé, Balam Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui Balam, were the first four humans who were fashioned from maize by the nine Creators – Formers.  Their wives, who were created after the men, are named: Cahá Paluna, Chomihá, Tzununihá, and Caquixahá.  The gods they worshipped, who are the principal deities of the Kiché Mayans, are named Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz.       (3)   In the Popul Vuh these deities are called Tzacol, the Builder and his consort, Bitol, the Former-Shaper; Gucumatz the Feathered (quetzal) Serpent and Tepeu the Conquerer or Sovereign (The head priest may have been in error about who is the consort of whom since in the Popul Vuh  Kulkukan is another name for Gucumatz); Qaholom the father god and Alom the mother;  Xmucané, the Midwife or Shelterer, is the consort of Xpiyacoc, the Patriarch or Protector.  These last two are the grandparents of Hunajpu and Ishbalankej, the hero twins of the Popul Vuh story.  The foregoing eight deities are joined by the Heart of Heaven and Earth (associated with the three lightning gods).  However, Mayan deities are not as distinct as e.g. Greek gods and goddesses; Mayan deities shade into one another, and are usually dual male-female.  Thus in some enumerations in the Popul Vuh (and in ceremonial prayers) there are more than nine Creators-Formers, such as Zaqui-Nim-Ac the wild boar god and his consort Zaqui-Nimá-Tziís the great white coatimundi; and u Qux cho, the spirit of the lake.  Mayan priests chant in a sing-songy litany in which rhythm and poesy are more important than making literal sense; thus even their invocations may repeat or omit names of deities being invoked.   (continued …)

            The client has hired a marimba and three marimbists.  Although a marimba physically resembles a xylophone, the reverberating sounds it makes (played by three men) are much more like woodwinds – bassoon and oboe from the base and middle of the marimba keyboard, and a tinny clarinet melody from the high end.  The marimbists start playing around 8 pm and, with only a few short breaks now and then, they will continue playing for the next eighteen hours.                Per K’ekchi custom, as new arrivals enter they greet and shake hands with everyone in the assembly (women only nod and smile, not shake hands), and then they take seats.  In the middle of the room there is a pile of all of the paraphernalia which will be used the following day:  bundles of candles of different sizes and colors; chunks of sticky copal pom incense wrapped in banana leaves and bags of frankincense; cigars, cinnamon sticks, herbs, seeds, and bottles of rum, boj (fermented sugar cane juice), and aguardiente liquor.   

Most of the evening is spent in casual conversation among participants.  Then at midnight the Mayan priests, who wear bandanas, long red woven cloth belts, and necklaces of sea shells and jade beads to identify their status, call everyone together in a circle around the pile of ritual materials.  They welcome everyone and welcome the Mayan spirits, and petition them to bless the ritual paraphernalia.  Afterwards tamales are passed around, accompanied by hot chocolate and boj.  Shots of rum are also offered now and then.  As the night wears on some people lean back, close their eyes, and take little naps; but the children present never seem to tire, and the marimba keeps playing.                At dawn a truck pulls up outside the client’s house.  The three marimba players carry the marimba to the truck and pile in, followed by the rest of the company.   The truck drives up mountain roads through lush rainforest to a remote village outside of San Juan Chamelco, the ancient K’ekchi capital.  On arrival everyone disembarks and begins walking up the mountain through maize fields and forests.  Two of the marimba players strap the instrument upside-down on the back of the third marimbist, who slowly and haltingly carries the thing uphill on muddy trails and slippery slopes to the ceremonial site.   There the three marimbists set up their instrument and play it in the background throughout the ritual.     The ceremonial site is a large open circle surrounded by colorful red bromeliad flowers and boughs of ferns.  The bright bromeliads around the circle are constantly visited by purple and green hummingbirds during the course of the ceremony.  An area is cleared around a shallow pit dug for the fire, and four large rocks are placed at the edge of the pit to mark the four cardinal directions.  Then the cleared area around the fire pit is carpeted with pine needles and fragrant allspice leaves.   

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This article will describe a particular Mayan ceremony from start to finish; but comments and observations on Mayan rituals in general will be offered where appropriate.  The photographs accompanying this article were taken at a gathering of the K’ekchi Mayan priests’ organization, Consejo Regional de Guias Espirituales Releb Saqué, which was held at the ancient Mayan city of Tikal.  They are filed in the Tikal Ceremony Photos folder at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagicalAlmanac/files/Mayan%20Calendar%20and%20Shamanism/Tikal%20Ceremony%20Photos/.   Glyphs for the twenty naguals of the Chol Qij are filed in the same folder.

Mayan ceremonies are by no means solemn occasions (although they are serious in intent).  On the contrary they are light and joyous.  The marimba music is lively and animated.  The son dance around the fire is a slow dance but is carried out with élan and verve.  The Mayan spirits are joyous, and they love it when people remember them and perform ceremonies to honor them; they shower blessings down upon all participants.   

The Mayan priests – the members of the Consejo – are extremely impressive men and women.  Meeting them it is obvious they have been chosen by the spirits to serve their people and to carry on the traditions of their forefathers.  They have a commanding presence and yet are completely humble and self-effacing.  To be a candle burner is a true vocation and a tremendous responsibility.  Among the K’ekchi Mayans of Alta Verapaz and Peten there is nothing like the complex hierarchy of priest-shamans and the rich calendar of ceremonial observances characteristic of the Kiché Mayans in Momostenango described by Barbara Tedlock.  It can be said that the K’ekchi Mayans are barely holding on to what’s left of their culture against an onslaught of Catholic and Evangelical Christian persecution.    The symbolism of the Chol Qij is derived from Mayan legend, which can be read in the Popul Vuh, or book of the nation.  This is a creation myth cum history-genealogy of the Kiché Mayan people, which was discovered by a Catholic priest in the late seventeenth century.  It was written in the Kiché language using Latin characters, and it apparently was copied from memory from an ancient book which guided the Kiché kings, but which was destroyed by the Spanish conquerors when they burned the Kiché capital in 1524.  The Popul Vuh is not a completely accurate record of the original, destroyed Mayan bible since it contains obvious Christian motifs which must have been interpolated later.  E.g. parts of the creation story are taken directly from Genesis; and the parting of the sea to permit the people to cross into their land is obviously taken from Exodus.  The central tale in the Popul Vuh tells the story of twin brothers who defeated the lords of the underworld and cleared the way for the creation of the human race.               The night before a ceremony the participants gather in the home of the client – the priests, relatives, invited friends and neighbors – anyone who feels in need of a blessing.  The principal participants in the ceremony (the priests and client and his relatives) had to purify themselves by abstaining from sexual relations for a period of thirteen days prior to the ceremony.   

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Mayan religion, philosophy, jurisprudence, medicine, agriculture, hunting, intimate relationships, etc. etc. completely revolve around a 260-day almanac known as the Chol Qij, or count of days.   The Chol Qij consists of twenty naguals, which can be thought of as archetypes roughly analogous in significance to our twelve zodiacal signs; except they are considered to be alive and petitionable.    A nagual is preceded by a numerical coefficient ranging from one to thirteen which modifies its underlying meaning.  Thus twenty naguals x 13 numerical coefficients = 260 days.  The number thirteen symbolizes the thirteen constellations (star groupings) through which the sun moves in the course of a year.  The passage of time is symbolized by the unraveling of a ball of thread; and the number thirteen symbolizes the undulating rhythms, the ups and downs in human life and conduct, of this thread as it unravels.  260 days is also considered the normal human gestation period. A person’s character and destiny are determined by which of the twenty naguals, as modified by its numerical coefficient, rules the day that the person is born.  The person’s nagual is considered to be his or her inseparable companion for life, and predicts the person’s personality, relationship to the community, and good or ill fortune.  Everything which a person does throughout life is conditioned by his or her nagual; and everyone has a place and a purpose which are determined by that nagual.   To calculate and interpret a person’s birth nagual; together with a complete explanation of the Mayan calendar (including interpretations for the twenty naguals taken from authentic Mayan sources) see the Mayan Horoscope software, available as a free download from www.dearbrutus.com.   

The Chol Qij is also the basis upon which Mayan ceremonies are organized; that is to say, the order of a Mayan ceremony follows the order of the twenty naguals, beginning with the nagual of the day of the ceremony.   For a nominal fee ($15 - $30 plus travel expenses; the main expense of a Mayan ritual lies in purchasing the ingredients for the fire, hiring a marimba band, and preparing food for the participants), a client hires a Mayan priest, or spiritual guide (Ajk’ihab’ = day counter, or katok utzuj = candle burner), to perform a ceremony for a particular purpose:  to heal an illness; to bring prosperity in business or a suitable mate in marriage; to fecundate a sterile woman; to dedicate a ceremonial site (which was the purpose of the particular ceremony described in this article); etc.  Certain naguals are favorable for hunting, others for planting, others for asking a woman’s hand in marriage, others for launching business enterprises.  Initiating activities, as well as performing prayers or ceremonies to petition blessings for such activities, are done on the correct day.   For example, to consecrate a new ceremonial site, the day of the nagual Batz, which is the beginning of the cycle of naguals and which is the holiest of the naguals, was chosen.    

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