NMR ISSUE 38

Astrological Forecast 38
Beyond the Need to Control
Editorial 38
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Ethics and the Ethic
Ghigau's Song
I'm a Witch, Okay?
Letters 38
Luna
Meditation on the Elements: Air
Pagan Meets Neo-Pagan
Place Between the Worlds
Prophecy II
Protection Charm for your Car
Rain
Saturn Rising
Shadowland
Soul Mates
Summer Opportunities
The Magician
Trout and Dragonfly

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Pagan Meets Neo-Pagan

By M.J. Makransky

I have the incredible good fortune to live in Guatemala, a country that, beneath a thin veneer of Roman Catholicism, is still essentially pagan. For the most part, the local Indians go their way and I go mine, but since we all use the same sacred sites, sometimes we stumble into one another.

Last February I was leading a group of two Americans, two French and two Guatemalan ladinos to a sacred cave near my home. As we arrived we ran into a group of ladinos leaving the cave, who told us there was a large group of people inside the cave. Damn! I thought, since I like it quiet and peaceful when I do my little propitiation numbers. When we got there, there were perhaps sixty Indians in the cave doing a ritual. We found out later that they had been waiting for the ladinos to leave to start their ritual. Then we arrived, but they had already started and it was too late to stop.

Our group went in and burned candles and walked around a bit, and then we just watched the Indians doing their ritual. They were standing in a loose circle around an enormous fire. One by one, as the spirit moved them, they threw things into it—candles, copal pom incense, fruits, bread, aguardiente and boj (local liquors). The ceremony was led by five brujos who wore bandannas. You could see that it was half a routine that they were accustomed to performing, and half channeled on the spot. People stepped forward and threw things into the fire. The brujos blessed people with candles, touching them on the head, chest, thighs, legs and feet, and then threw the candles into the fire. Often people would walk circling the fire three times clockwise and three times counterclockwise. Sometimes the brujos picked up a child and waved it above the flames. Sometimes the brujos would take a drink of aguardiente and spit/spray it in someone's face and over the person's body; then the person would circle the fire. The thing was very free-form, no set order to it. Occasionally the group (led by the brujos) would do a count up to thirteen in their language (Pokomchi Mayan)—e.g., 1 dog, 2 dogs, 3 dogs, etc., up to 13 dogs; or 1 cow, 2 cows, 3 cows, etc. up to 13 cows. One brujo kept talking about intelligence, education, studies, careers such as engineering, medicine, law, architecture, etc.; we later figured out that he was calling a blessing upon those Indians who are studying in the ladino educational system. Now and then the brujos called down blessings on businesses, stores, crops, livestock etc. All the while music was playing, a monotonous but plaintive rhythm of drums, flutes, and chitimiya (like a clarinet); the silhouette of a musician playing the chitimiya was visible through the veil of smoke against the sky at the cave entrance up above. In the end, the ceremony lasted over four hours.

I was standing there watching it and wishing I could obtain a blessing when the spirit of the cave told me, Join them! I thought, No, I can't do that, that's really presumptuous. The spirit of the cave said replied, Sure, go ahead, join them! Well, that argument went back and forth for a while, till I got bold and stepped forward to join the circle. All five of my companions stepped in right next to me (they had all been wanting to join too).

After a few minutes one of the brujos who was leading the ritual, a very handsome and impressive man of about fifty, stepped up to us and one by one asked us our names, touched us with candles on the head, chest, thighs, legs, feet, and then threw the candles into the fire. In other words, he was welcoming us to the circle. I knew they would have preferred not having whites there, but they were also channeling the spirit of the cave, which obviously told them to welcome us. The brujos cued us on what to do, when to circle the fire, and gave us incense to make wishes on and throw them into the flames.

After many hours the ceremony wound down. The brujos did a slow dance around the fire, and everyone was invited to draw a cross in the embers with a stick. Three of the brujos gave closing addresses - one in Pokomchi Mayan, one in Kekchi Mayan, and one in Spanish (for the benefit of our group). They explained that they were Mayans, and were performing the ritual to celebrate the end and beginning of their sacred year of 260 days (see appended calendar for 1995). They explained that their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers had performed this ritual from time immemorial, and that their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren would perform it forevermore. Then the group broke up and food (tamales and soda pop) were passed out.

Everyone in our group was very impressed by the experience (for none of us was it a Oh, how quaint to participate in a Mayan ritual kind of thing). It was emotional for all of us—cleansing, liberating, uplifting. One of the Guatemalan ladinos in our group kept saying how he felt baptized—that a new life was beginning for him. When I saw him a few days later he said he felt as though a burden of anxiety had been lifted from him. I felt much the same way myself—much lighter and more optimistic. We were scheming on how to finagle an invitation to the next ritual in November, but the spirits who guide me said no. It's not up to me to manipulate. That the six of us stumbled onto that ceremony was a gift of the Spirit and it would be wrong to con the Indians into inviting us again. The six of us were indissolubly joined in spirit, and the gifts we received that day would take us years to sort out and appreciate.

Note on the appended calendar (given to us by the brujos at the ceremony): The first date (E 9 Pop) = Sunday 26 Feb. 1995; 2nd date (Aj 10 Pop) = Monday 27 Feb. 1995; 3rd date (I'x 11 Pop) = Tuesday 28 Feb. 1995; 4th date (Tz'ikin 10 Pop) = 1 March 1995; etc. The Mayan New Year next occurs on B'atz' 8 Mak = Sunday 12 November 1995; the last date (Ajmak 9 Wayeb') = Sunday 25 February 1996.