An initiate’s inside account of ancient Maya spiritual practices alive today

• Includes a Foreword by José Luis Tigüilá NABÉ kaxbaltzij, spokesperson of the Maya municipality

• Details the initiation process the author went through to become a Maya shaman-priestess, including rituals, prayers, and ceremonies

• Explains the foundational spiritual wisdom of the Maya calendar as a living entity, its cycles of time, and the significance of “the counting of the days”, which helps keep time itself alive

• Examines the power of dance and Maya ceremonies, Maya future-telling, and communication with ancestors through the sacred fire

Offering an insider’s experiential account of ancient Maya spiritual wisdom and practices, initiated Maya shaman-priestess Gabriela Jurosz-Landa opens up the mysterious world of the Maya, dispelling the rampant misinformation about their beliefs and traditions, sharing the transcendent beauty of their ceremonies, and explaining the Maya understanding of time, foundational to their spiritual worldview and cosmology.

The author, an anthropologist, details the initiation process she went through to become a Maya shaman-priestess in Guatemala, including rituals, prayers, the presence of numinous forces, and the transmission of sacred knowledge. She explains the spiritual wisdom of the Maya calendar as a living entity, its cycles of time, and the significance of “the counting of the days,” which helps keep time itself alive. She examines Maya spiritual and cosmological concepts such as how the universe is shaped like a triangle over a square. She reveals the profound power of dance in Maya tradition, explaining how ritual dance halts the flow of time, reactivates primordial events, and captures vital energies that keep the Maya spiritual tradition vital and alive. Exploring other Maya secret knowledge, she also details Maya ritual attire, Maya future-telling with the calendar, the reading of the Tzi’te beans, and how the Maya communicate with ancestors through the sacred fire.

Illustrating how contemporary Maya life is suffused with spiritual tradition and celebration, the author shares the teachings of the Maya from her initiate and anthropologist point of view in order to help us all learn from the ancient wisdom of their beliefs and worldview. Because, to truly understand the Maya, one must think like the Maya.

Gabriela Jurosz-Landa is an anthropologist and Maya shaman-priestess initiated by her teacher Tomasa Pol Suy in Guatemala. She has researched Guatemala for more than 20 years, living there for 6 years, during which she participated in ceremonies with Maya spiritual and political authorities, including the 2012 New Era celebrations. The founder of the Forum of World Cultures, she writes and lectures internationally. She lives in Connecticut.

FOREWORD

The Foundations of the Maya Worldview by José Luis Tigüilá NABÉ kaxbaltzij (Spokesperson of the Maya municipality)

Acknowledgments

PREFACE Widening the Scope of Science

INTRODUCTION The Contemporary Search for Meaning

PART 1
2012--The End and the Beginning of an Era

1 A Journey into Maya History and Tradition

2 2012--“The End of the World”

3 The Inauguration of Plaza Oxlajuj B’aqtun

4 Honoring the Cycles of Time, Nature, and Space

5 Traditional Reenactments during the Solstice Season

PART 2
Diary of Life with the Maya

6 A Fusion of Ideas

7 The Welcome Ceremony

8 Visits, Past and Present

9 Meeting My Mentor, Doña Tomasa

10 Santo Tomás Changes Cofradia PART 3 The Spiritual Journey

11 What It Means to Be Initiated as a Daykeeper

12 Arrival and Acclimation

13 Women’s Wisdom at the Hearth

14 My Introduction to the Maya Calendar Energies

15 The Life of Sacred Fire and Sacred Seeds

16 Embodying the Energy of Creation and Time

17 The Altar of Purity and Truth

18 The Darkness and the Light

19 The Weaving of Tradition

20 The Promise of Spring

21 The Mystery of Tz’ité Seeds

22 Snake Incarnation

23 The Day of the Deer and the Cave Ceremony

24 Consecration

25 Walking as a Shaman-Priestess Selected Bibliography Index About the Author