Read Online The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik'Nal of Palenque by Leonide Martin - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Leonide Martin
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Emptied by her catharsas, eyes dry, she gazed into the imperturbable Upperworld and found a spring of determination burbling upward inside her.
She was not helpless. She could seek answers for herself. She could use the shamanic skills that Lahun Uc had taught her.
She sat upright on the woven mat, cross-legged and very still. Intention took shape to get information about her dream and how it related to her life. The uncanny sequence could not be accidental: First she was designated bearer of royal blood, then she attended her first Popol Nah and learned of foreboding events, then her dream revealed immense human and planetary patterns that shaped Maya destiny.
Using shamanic practices, she joined her mind with the Jeweled Tree, the ceiba whose roots penetrated down into the Underworld, whose mighty trunk rose through the Middleworld of earth, and whose lofty branches soared into the Upperworld in the sky. She saw herself seated at the base of the tree, merging into its sturdy trunk covered with thick thorns, becoming fluid as its sap so that her spirit could rise. Upward and upward she went through the arteries of the tree, into the branches that became smaller, through the capillaries of the tiniest twigs, until her spirit evaporated out of the cloud-touching tips into the sky above.
Floating in the domain of gods and ancestors, she shaped her questions. Inter-polity conflict and the nature of warfare had not crossed her mind before; now she needed to understand. The messenger in the Popol Nah revealed serious disturbances of social order. First was the discontent within B’aakal cities over the May Council’s decision to make Lakam Ha the May Ku for a second cycle. What forces of change propelled this questioning of long-established, god-given protocols that maintained the balance of power? Second was the escalation of warfare by Kan, violating the venerated flower war tradition that managed ambition and aggression in men. Surely the gods had shown great wisdom in providing this model; by what right and for what purpose would a city overturn it?
The cosmic calendar appeared with cycles of rising and falling stars that formed the eras or “Suns” of Maya timekeeping. As things began, so they ended. As cycles completed, other cycles started. Cycles embedded in cycles, from the most vast to the tiniest. Again she saw the Tzek’eb cycle of K’in Ahau and its planets, moving closer and farther away from the Heart of the Sky. As it moved farther away, the exalted consciousness of the highest age began to wane, slowly at first then more rapidly until times of darkness, of constricted consciousness and all the atrocities this brought, reigned during the farthest point.
As Maya civilization deteriorated in the descending cycle, the social structures given by the gods to maintain harmony began to crumble. Human ambitions and greed began to outbalance the divine wisdom of cooperation and sharing. This phenomenon was underlying the changes reported by the messenger. It was the harbinger of darkness.
Sadness tugged at her heart, quickly replaced by calm acceptance born of the visionary state. Such was the way of the cosmos and the divine forces that shaped and ordered it. The cycle of existence simply was. To dance as a star was her people’s fate, until the ultimate dissolution into cosmic dust.
She felt her awareness being drawn back toward earth and knew her vision would soon end. A final question formed quickly; what was her role, what was she to do?
Times of strife and conflict, betrayal and plotting formed a matrix followed by a burst of brilliant light which transformed Lakam Ha into a large city with magnificent structures, level upon level climbing the steep mountainside, architecture she could not have imagined. A ruler yet to come, of creative genius and incomparable leadership, would shape this new city and leave an unrivaled legacy of Maya civilization. His mission was to preserve Maya knowledge, their
She was not helpless. She could seek answers for herself. She could use the shamanic skills that Lahun Uc had taught her.
She sat upright on the woven mat, cross-legged and very still. Intention took shape to get information about her dream and how it related to her life. The uncanny sequence could not be accidental: First she was designated bearer of royal blood, then she attended her first Popol Nah and learned of foreboding events, then her dream revealed immense human and planetary patterns that shaped Maya destiny.
Using shamanic practices, she joined her mind with the Jeweled Tree, the ceiba whose roots penetrated down into the Underworld, whose mighty trunk rose through the Middleworld of earth, and whose lofty branches soared into the Upperworld in the sky. She saw herself seated at the base of the tree, merging into its sturdy trunk covered with thick thorns, becoming fluid as its sap so that her spirit could rise. Upward and upward she went through the arteries of the tree, into the branches that became smaller, through the capillaries of the tiniest twigs, until her spirit evaporated out of the cloud-touching tips into the sky above.
Floating in the domain of gods and ancestors, she shaped her questions. Inter-polity conflict and the nature of warfare had not crossed her mind before; now she needed to understand. The messenger in the Popol Nah revealed serious disturbances of social order. First was the discontent within B’aakal cities over the May Council’s decision to make Lakam Ha the May Ku for a second cycle. What forces of change propelled this questioning of long-established, god-given protocols that maintained the balance of power? Second was the escalation of warfare by Kan, violating the venerated flower war tradition that managed ambition and aggression in men. Surely the gods had shown great wisdom in providing this model; by what right and for what purpose would a city overturn it?
The cosmic calendar appeared with cycles of rising and falling stars that formed the eras or “Suns” of Maya timekeeping. As things began, so they ended. As cycles completed, other cycles started. Cycles embedded in cycles, from the most vast to the tiniest. Again she saw the Tzek’eb cycle of K’in Ahau and its planets, moving closer and farther away from the Heart of the Sky. As it moved farther away, the exalted consciousness of the highest age began to wane, slowly at first then more rapidly until times of darkness, of constricted consciousness and all the atrocities this brought, reigned during the farthest point.
As Maya civilization deteriorated in the descending cycle, the social structures given by the gods to maintain harmony began to crumble. Human ambitions and greed began to outbalance the divine wisdom of cooperation and sharing. This phenomenon was underlying the changes reported by the messenger. It was the harbinger of darkness.
Sadness tugged at her heart, quickly replaced by calm acceptance born of the visionary state. Such was the way of the cosmos and the divine forces that shaped and ordered it. The cycle of existence simply was. To dance as a star was her people’s fate, until the ultimate dissolution into cosmic dust.
She felt her awareness being drawn back toward earth and knew her vision would soon end. A final question formed quickly; what was her role, what was she to do?
Times of strife and conflict, betrayal and plotting formed a matrix followed by a burst of brilliant light which transformed Lakam Ha into a large city with magnificent structures, level upon level climbing the steep mountainside, architecture she could not have imagined. A ruler yet to come, of creative genius and incomparable leadership, would shape this new city and leave an unrivaled legacy of Maya civilization. His mission was to preserve Maya knowledge, their
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