A Day in the Life
Okay, well maybe two. I’ve been back in Xela now about a week-and-a-half, and am enjoying my time here again. I’ve got some great friends here, and really do enjoy where I live and what I do. Including what happened last weekend.
A Guatemalan friend of mine who has a lot of interest in the religion of the Mayans brought his spiritual guide, Tata Pedro, to Xela for a two day event. Day one was a class on the Mayan Calendar, including its use of twenty Nahuales, which make up the twenty days of the calendar, which repeat in a cycle of 13 months. Each Nahual contains certain characteristics, holding importance both to people born on the individual day, as well as to any activities that might take place on that day. I found the information interesting, but a little much to take in, given the immense amount of information, plus the fact that it was all in Spanish. (I found I could translate the words but had trouble uniting them in any meaningful way). There’s great information about the Mayan Calendar on Wikipedia, and also on the Tzolk’in, or calendar used in Guatemala . There’s also a nice presentation of the nahuales on the web page of a local magazine, Xelawho, prepared by my friend Pedro who organized the event.
The second day of the event, and the “day” mentioned in the title of this post, involved a trip up a mountain above Xela, called La Muella, or the Molar. La Muella was and is a sacred place for the indigenous religion of the region, with its mix of beautiful views, abundant plantlife, volcanic rock outcroppings and steam vents converted into saunas. The group who attended reunited Sunday morning, and after some time gathering materials, stuffed into taxis and cars to get to the trailhead for the hike up La Muella. The hike consists of first a short, easy walk up a trail to a soccer field used by locals of the neighborhood, which this day had a lone horse tied up and awaiting its owner as well. After the field, the trail arrives at a lower-down sacred point, marked by a large rock outcropping and a small shack constructed to allow volcanic steam to be used for saunas. The Tata entered to meditate and use the sauna; we stayed outside, with me doing a little of my own meditation. After this point, the trail heads up a rocky hill, requiring a fair bit of scrambling to reach the peak of the day’s journey, literally and figuratively.
The top of La muella is a small space, surrounded on all sides by rocks and with an amazing view of the valley which gives the 200,000+ residents of Xela their home. In this space we built a fire ring, which was then filled with wood, incense, garlic, sacred seeds and LOTS of colored candles. The candles represent various parts of life on earth, with for example, red representing the sun and black representing the sunset. I found the ritual significance of all the items and their variations to be beautiful. The ceremony went for about an hour and a half, consisting, to my ears anyway, of much giving thanks for the world around us, for our thoughts, for the lives that we live. All this being led by a man who has lived his whole life on Guatemala’s beautiful Lake Atitlan, in a small village named San Pedro. He is 65, never attended school, knows very little of reading or writing, speaks Spanish as a second language (the indigenous Tzu’tuhil as his first). And yet he obviously knows SO much about the world. I’ve been to another ceremony, or banquete espiritual of his in the past, and more than anything they just cause me to feel. Pure emotion. Something about his leading of the ceremony, as well as his spirit, really brings an amazing feeling to me, and also obviously to those around me.
Other parts of the ceremony include a ritual spiritual washing with branches and flowered natural perfume, and the ritual smoking of a cigar. At the end of the ceremony I felt very united with those around me, and unspeakably lucky to be where I am living the life that I am living. Afterwards we shared a traditional Guatemalan meal of Tamalitos de Chipilin (corn tamales with a green herb mixed in), refried black beans and fresh avocados. We walked down the hill, grabbed a taxi, and continued to spend the next hour or so enjoying what a Sunday in a public park can be - friends walking in and out and chatting, just enjoying a nice day in the sun.
Afterwards, met up with a new friend who I have been showing around Xela. I had hoped that we could go off adventuring somewhere, but given the lateness of the day that seemed impossible. However, after doing some walking and exploring we ran into another new friend of mine, who arranged for us to get a ride up another of Xela’s beautiful hills to talk and watch over the beautiful night lights of the city from a covered gazebo.
And so went one of the better days I have had in this town. Through the specialness of the banquete, the powerful feeling of friendship and the spontaneous adventure. Sorry for the long post, if anyone is still reading I hope to hear from people and be in touch. For those that I saw in California, it was great, for those that I didn’t I’m sorry and hope to see you all soon!
josh
neil says:
great post about a wonderful weekend. thanks for taking pictures, too.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:04 am