The (Maya) Shaman’s World (Part Two)

18th Apr 2021

Mexicolore contributor George Fery

This is the concluding part of the article by George Fery, a freelance writer-photographer of pre-Columbian history and archaeological sites of Mexico and the Americas, on the hidden world of Maya shamanic practices and perception of the world.

For the same reason as in the past, second burial rituals today aim at overcoming social death over biological death. With this ritual, descendants keep their connection with the departed and establish the fact that the ancestor is still not “socially dead” within the family. “Not all progenitors, however, qualify as ancestors, only those lineage members who left a compelling impact on family cohesion, resource acquisition or lineage alliance are worthy of being venerated in this fashion” (Tedlock, 1982). Second burial, therefore, sanctions the rights of surviving members of the family to socio-economic claims in the community, backed up by their ancestors. McAnany summarizes the ritual as “practices grounded in pragmatism that drew power from the past, legitimize the current state of affairs, and charted a course for the descendants” (1995).

What are the means, I ask my mentors, a shaman uses to establish his association with the supernatural world? They answer that to do so, a shaman is compelled to attain altered states of consciousness that vary among cultures, and may be achieved through deep meditation, sensory deprivation or sudden visions of supernatural beings or situation. In the Americas, however, ecstasy is more frequently attained by using psychotropic plants, the so called “vines of the soul,” since nature is regarded as a “gift from the gods, providers of food and medicinal plants on which human lives depend” (Tedlock 1990:87). The shaman’s tasks require communion with other stratas of reality, so how do they access the various levels of those other worlds?

According to the beliefs of indigenous communities, the echeloned worlds lying beyond the field of ordinary perception correspond to a microcosm (or micro-worldview) consisting of a sequence of dimensions of an individual’s own interior world, or inner scale of human consciousness. The shamans claim that in their sensory experiences, induced by psychotropic natural substances, they penetrate into the different levels of those “other worlds” as though through narrow openings. The use of hallucinogenic natural substances is an ancient worldwide cultural practice. In traditional cultures, hallucinogens are associated with the so called shamanic “flight,” or feeling of emotional rupture during which “ch’ulel”, the “soul stuff of the living universe from the other world” leaves the body (Freidel-Schele-Parker, 1993:142). The ethnohistorical record shows that there is no other means but that of ingestion of substances or severe deprivation, to reach the unfamiliar depths of the human mind… at times with devastating effect.

Tat Rigoberto agrees with Eliade when the latter says that “during these flights shamans call on supernatural and ancestral beings about present and future events, learn new spells, chants and dances, or search for cures to ward off diseases. “They roam the underworld for remedies to cure the souls of sick people and help those dying through the difficult path on the way to their last resting place. The idea of other dimensions as dwelling places of the spirit of the dead and fantastic beings is based on the experience of the ecstatic journey of the shaman. “The image shamans form of these dimensions and the description they give of them depends on the projective process of their psychological personality and experience as practitioners, as well as on the cultural and religious tradition of the community and its environment” (Eliade, 1964).

Are there “bad” shamans? I ask my mentors. Yes, as any human they may have a darker side that must be overcome, alone or with the help of another practitioner. He or she may not succeed in overpowering the influence of the underworld, for all beliefs and creeds have their dark side. It is up to spiritual leaders to stand up against such destructive forces, however, as for all human endeavors, they may or may not succeed. Other important ritual aspects such as conception, birth or marriage, the selection of the “nawal” or totem animal by the shaman and more, will be examined in a forthcoming paper. “Ancestor veneration is not a cultic practice by a group sharing an obsessive or esoteric interest in the dead. Neither is it a mindless worship of idol, nor is it about the dead. It is rather, about how the living make use of the dead” (McAnany,1995).

It is a type of active discourse with the past and the future, embodying what Carlsen and Prechtel described as “the centrality of Maya understanding of death and rebirth, as described in the K’iche’ and Tzu’tujil traditions” (1991:42). Neither is ancestor veneration a substitute for religion regardless of creed. The foremost difference between monotheism, among others, and ancestor worship, is that the first is collective while the second is strictly individual. Their antagonism, following the conquest of the New World, stems from the fact that ancestor worship was understood as an inadmissible means of escape from the new religion. During the 260-day sacred Tzol’kin calendar ceremonies, seven public fires burn in dedicated altars throughout Momostenango (Mumut’zli in K’iche’), to receive the supplicants offerings. The seventh and last altar (the kokoch) is in front of the town’s church. In pre-conquest times, however, informants say the kokoch was located at the crossing of the transept in the church, below which is believed revered shamans are still buried. Shamanism, as old as humankind, was forcefully coerced by history to bend to new truths and realities, but it still defies the test of time.

Bibliography/References:-
Mendez Martinez, Valey Sis and Domingo Hernandez, 2008 – Historia Mayab’
David Freidel, Linda Schele, Joy Parker, 1993 – Maya Cosmos
Eliade, Mircea, 1969 – Le Mythe de l’Èternel Retour
Rappaport Roy A., 1999 – Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity
Patricia A. Mcanany, 1995 – Living with the Ancestors
Eliade, Mircea, 1964 – Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
Jacques Cauvin, 1997 – Naissance des Divinités, Naissance de l’Agriculture
Carlsen, Robert S. & Prechtel, Martin, 1991 – The Flowering of the Dead: An Interpretation of Highland Maya Culture
T. Patrick Culbert, Edit. 1973 – The Classic Maya Collapse
Hutton, Ronald, 2011 – Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination
Lopez Austin, Alfredo, 1996 – Los Rostros de los Dioses Mesoamericanos
Houston, Stephen, 2014 – The Life Within
McKenna, Denis, 1975 – The Invisible Landscape
Eliade, Mircea, 1965 – Le Sacré et le Profane
Solecki, Ralph, S.,1971 – Shanidar, The First Flower People
Tedlock, Barbara, 1982 – Time and the Highland Maya
Lopez Austin, Alfredo, 2016 – La Cosmovisión de la Tradición Mesoamericana.

Image sources:-
• ALL PHOTOS in Part 1 and Part 2 by/© Georges Fery (george.fery.com), except:-
• Pic 3 (Part 1): photo © Marco Fernandez, ArqueoMex No.25
• Pic 7 (Part 1): photo © floydian.com – the “Totem Pole” Monument Valley, UT
• Pic 12 (Part 1): photo © Patricio Robles Gil in Arqueología Mexicana, No.25, P6
• Pic 15 (Part 1) : photo © Manfred Kielnhofer (Guardian of Time).

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