Orryelle's TRAVEL JOURNAL continued…
MAGIC MUSHROOMS and MAYAN TEMPLES in MEXICO
Reported Mon, 31 Jan 2000
Lunar Eclipse Report -Palenque
FULL LUNAR ECLIPSE January 2000
After a flight from New Orleans to Mexico City then a 12-hr busride, Aloas and I arrived in Palenque town just before dark,
found storage for most of our luggage and jumped in a
'collectivo' combi-van to the Mayan ruins. We arrived just after dark to a
guard with a very large gun (typical Mexican authority
figure!) and a closed site. Unsurprised, we wandered off
up the road a bit then off it into the surrounding
jungle. Found a nice spot, did some chakra meditations
and felt a bit more earthed and 'arrived'. According
to our calculations there were 3 hours or so til the
eclipse.
Aloas stayed with the bags while I went on a
scouting mission thru the denser jungle on the other
side of the road, closer to the ruins.
The full moon was very bright above. After some time
I found an entry point to the very thick undergrowth.
I was excited to be back in lush tropical rainforest,
surprisingly similar to what I was familiar with from parts of northern NSW
in Australia. The narrow path through the foliage
opened onto a riverbed with just a trickle of water
through it, so I rolled up my jeans and continued. At
one point I ventured away from the river towards the
lights of the Mayan site to spy out a possible entry.
My foot immediately sunk deep into a mossy marshy
thing, and upon withdrawal began to itch and sting.
Uh-uh, not that way! I washed it in the river, the
sting subsided and I continued, feeling rather like an
amateur Indiana Jones.
I eventually reached a place where the riverbed
began to thin and veer away from the lights which
flickered through the undergrowth, so I set out
towards them through the jungle. I soon turned back
though, as it became apparent that I could easily lose
my way back if the temples still proved inaccessible.
Last thing I wanted was to be lost in the jungle on a
total eclipse!
As I retraced my path along the riverbed, a large
frog kersplotted through the shallows. An omen of
things to come...
By the time I had got back to where Aloas was, a
faint shadow had begun to climb the edge of the moon.
Earlier than we expected, apparently our Timezone
calculations were a bit off. As the ruins seemed out
of the question, we decided to at least see the
eclipse from a wider part of the riverbed I had
discovered, where there was a gap in the leaves to see
the moon. I grabbed pipe, salvia divinorum concentrate (a potent psychedelic I had not yet tried), prayer to
Hunab K'u, lighter and water bottle and we set off.
It began to darken rapidly as we plunged through the
forest. By the time we got to the desired location
there was only a slither of the moon left visible. We
peered at her through the foliage as I prepared for my
journey. A strange gutteral yet simultaneously highpitched roaring cry
echoed distantly through the trees. We wondered what it was,
discovered later it was Howler Monkeys, actually rather small and cute despite having voices that every death-metal singer wishes they had.
I read the Mayan prayer to Hunab K'u (the 'spirit of the Universe' or galactic core), asked my
guardians for protection, packed the pipe and breathed
deeply, sitting on some dry rocks near the edge of the
riverbed. Staring up at her disappearing glint, I
prayed to Hecate the moongoddess that with her I should return...
Remembering the frog, I invoked the voltiguer, to
leap between dimensions in this crack between the
worlds. The moon vanished, the jungle was plunged into
blackness, and I inhaled deeply the strange fumes of
salvia divinorum.
My reality shifted dramatically. The closest I can
get to describing the sensation was flattening out
into a 2-dimensional plane. The world of form was
gone, there were only shapes and I was squashed into a
plane of yellows and reds and blacks.
I pulled myself up out of this very quickly however,
even as I sat back up from the cold rocks. I was back
after only a couple of minutes (confirmed by Aloas who
was straight) not the expected 15-20, feeling quite
here although a bit wobbly. It was still very dark, I
had returned way before Hecate!
A bit disappointed, I arose and wobbled around the
riverbed for a bit, pointing out a firefly to Aloas
which then cheekily winked out as soon as she looked.
It did soon come back for both of us though,
confirming that I wasn't just off with the fairies.
Well I don't know why the salvia was so ineffective
- perhaps my environment was not comfortable or safe
enough to let my body go, or the tobacco pipe I had
acquired in Villahermosa inept technology. Guess I'll
have another go of it on the imminent solar eclipse...
At the time I was too awed by the beauty of my new
environment to really care for long. We decided to
make our way back out to the road for a clearer view
of the moon's return. We lay in the long grass beside
the road and gazed up. She came back a glorious bright
orange, the colour attributed to the lunar Svadisthana
chakra! A wonderful omen for the Svadisthana working
on the following Feb. full moon...
The Voltiguer (amphibian 'leaper' between the dimensions in French voodoo) invocation seems to have had lasting
effects. While not going anywhere much at the time, I
have been leaping all over the place since in my
dreams as well as my physical surroundings. A few
nights after the eclipse I was feeling a bit depressed
and travel-weary -I think jetlag combined with my
body's adaptation to the increased intake of
estrogen. I kept wondering whether it was actually
time to head back to Australia and be still for a
while, see my friends and familiars.
Before going to sleep I tested a method of pranayama
I felt would be suitable for the Svadisthana working
-breathing in and out only thru the left nostril and
nadi to induce an intentional imbalance for scrying or
astral work. While I intended to meditate to
consciously analyze the effects, I fell asleep
instead.
I had vivid dreams all night, remembered much more
than usual of them, and they felt like actual astral
contacts with other sleeping individuals. I was back
in Australia, connected with friends and family.
Nothing much had changed, some things were still awry
with certain connections. I felt the same frustration
as a month or so before I left Australia, and thinking I was there physically, wished I
hadn't gone back too soon as I could not afford to
leave again. Towards the end of the experience it
actually occurred to me that perhaps I was just
astrally travelling to Australia to check it out. With
this realization, of course, I awoke, relieved to
still be in Mexico. I did some rebalancing
right-nostril-only pranayama, took a small dose of
local magic mushrooms procured the night before and
headed for the Mayan temples...
Tue, 1 Feb 2000
Flesh of the Gods
MAYAN MUSHROOM TRIP
The ancient Mayans used psilocybin mushrooms
ceremonially, calling them 'flesh of the Gods'. Small
wonder, then, that their use connected me directly
into their mythos while at the temples and pyramids at
Palenque.
During the two previous days I had explored and
marvelled at most of the buildings at the site, spread
throughout the jungle, some well-preserved in fields,
others towards the waterfalls reclaimed by the jungle,
crumbling ruins with tree-roots winding through them.
I had marvelled at the patterns and colours of the
lichen and fungi growing over the ancient eroding
stones, at the impressive huge Temple of the
Inscriptions pyramid (interior currently inaccessible
due to maintenance), at the labyrinthine remains of
the Palace, the hieroglyphics and reliefs depicting
the priests and gods of the area; and performed
extended chakra meditations in the dank underground
chambers.
Especially of note in relation to my personal
journey was a large stone relief depicting a figure
standing on a large feline with a head at each end. It
seems that Hrumachis, the 'double lion' form of Horus
in the Egyptian pantheon representing the two
horizons, exists in some form in the Mayan culture
too, along with pyramids, sacred twins and the rest of
the corellations...
In the site museum I discovered the priests of
Palenque who were considered physical incarnations of
/messengers of the Gods were called 'AHAU-OB'.
Amusingly enough one of the Spanish-Mexicans selling
souvenirs at the ruins had asked me if I was Mayan,
despite my pale skin. Perhaps it was the macaw
feathers in my hair (worn by the priests of
Quetzalcoatl) or the prominent probosci (all the
figures in the stonework have very eminent noses)...?¿
Aloas felt like resting the day I went back so I was alone
(almost oblivious to the trickle of camera-wielding
tourists) in the Mayan ruins on local psilocybin mushrooms...
There were two smaller pyramids remaining to be
explored on this last day (or so I thought at the
time) at Palenque.
These turned out to be the most
significant two for me, no doubt even if I hadn't have
had the shrooms that day. They were the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of
Chan-Balum -Mayan for 'Jaguar-Serpent' (both seen at left).
I climbed the wide stone steps up to the Temple of
Chan Balum in the hot sun and stood before the central
relief, about 6' tall and 12' wide. It was the most
impressive one I had seen yet, perfectly preserved
except for a few cracks which only enhanced its aging
flavour. A reddish colour seeped through the stones in
patches, probably cinnabar but it vividly brought to
my mind the blood sacrifices the Mayans performed.
Staring at the work I could feel the power and
intensity of this tropical culture, and it suddenly
made sense to me how they viewed life and death, and
considered it an honour to die ritually as a reward
for winning the sacred ballgames. Much like Nema's
view of the future 'Feast of the Hive' perhaps -maybe
the Mayans had attained a similar groupmind and
physical incarnation was just another alchemical
process...?
I retreated into one of the shady side chambers of the temple as
other tourists came up the steps, and sat in there
quietly restringing my warped (from flight and temperature changes) violin.
Afterwards I descended the steps, awestruck, and went up into
the Temple of the Sun next to it. The relief therein
was also mindblowing, depicting Chan Balum and his
father, the famous Pacal Votan, revering two crossed
arrows and a symbolic shield hovering between them.
There is a face on the shield, tongue out in Bes/Kali
fashion; this is Sunshield, Pacal Votan's other name and seemingly like some kind of family heraldic symbol.
I knelt before it and read Hunbatz Men's daytime Prayer to
Hunab K'u. I had been reading this and the nighttime
one every day since arriving in Mexico, but now it
suddenly clicked into place. The words rolled off my
tongue, it seemed I knew how to pronounce and intone
the mantras more accurately.
As I returned to the temple of Chan Balum, it
occurred to me the significance of his name and role.
In the Mayan mythos the sun is often shown in the jaws
of a jaguar, this being its nightly descent into the
Underworld in much the same fashion as the Egyptian
'sun in Amenta'.
Chan, the serpent represents the heavens. So
Chan-Balum is the psychopomp, taking souls down to the
underworld and back. The name Sunshield
suggests that this was the Temple of the Black Sun -
the sun in amenta. I wondered if it was Chan Balum also depicted in
the Palace on a double lion -Hrumachis, the son behind
the sun? This was later confirmed by a local information booklet about Palenque.
How apt that I was here now after invoking Baphomet
and the Nightside tunnel of Raflifu (reflex of the Sun path/trump): I have begun my journey of
the Black Sun with the daily ingestion of estrogen,
sublimating my solar nature to bring it into manifest
balance with emerging lunar-cy.
In a side chamber of the temple of Chan Balum I took
a length of fresh rainforest vine I had collected
earlier and began to entwine a length of it around my
wrist while chanting the name Chan Balum. It encircles
my caduceus tattoo, the staff of that other
psychopomp, and now it has dried can only be cut
off...
A picture of Chan Balum I began drawing that day on magic mushrooms
ANIMATE
AhauOb
Chan Balum
Jaguar-serpent
Swallow the sun
Jaws of death
Sunspot hide
Chan Balum
With you I ride
Unto Amenta
Black sun
Nigri solis
Hrumachis
Sun-shield
Son behind the sun
Pyramids of the immortals
Syrian portals
Bliss of Abyss
Psychopompous
Lord of Raflifu
Harmachu
-doublewanded, doubleheaded
Take me down -solve et coagula, change deified
Then return me to the surface
Transmogrified
Tue, 25 Jan 2000
Svadisthana travel dilemnas
I'm in a bit of a crux, not quite sure which way to
turn, hoping someone may be able to help me process my
new and unexpected situation:
After a wonderful 3 days at the Palenque mayan ruins
and surrounding jungle I begin to
realize I probably can't really afford to get to Lake
Titicaca for the proposed SVADISTHANA SABBAT -I think! It's hard to tell as local bus co.'s only
deal with their own country and passage to the next, and
there's about 7 countries between here and Bolivia!
After my unexpected customs crisis etc. I am already
in debt, and while living is very cheap down here
(small tacos with rice and beans and salsa for 30c US!)
buses aren't quite so and it's a fucking long way
-then back. Plus I am getting rather travel weary...
Yesterday I spent too much $ in this netcafe
formatting all the material about the global Svadisthana
working for my website. It came out well but then I
started realizing how much it is perhaps just an
aptly-lunar fantasy and realistically implausible.
Discussing this with Aloas last night clinched her
growing discontent with our lifestyle and travel
differences -severe mood
swings from my eostrogen intake probably haven't
helped- and she is now on her way back to Chile,
leaving me in an unfamiliar culture where few people speak English. She has taught me enough basic Spanish
terms (toilet, bus station, etc.) for me to get around
but the whole thing is looking more and more
problematic.
Yesterday I received an email from Australia saying the
locals at the cometcrater near Uluru where the global
Manipura working was planned for are not ready for
such a thing, although it may be possible in years to
come. So now after its wonderful foundation at the Mt Shasta Global Muladhara Working the whole global chakra plan I have been
putting so much energy into is up in the air.
Perhaps I should abandon it, at least for now and
try to muster more support for picking it up at a
later date??
I'm going to at least travel around for a few more
weeks in Central America, making my ticket down here
worthwhile, heading southwards until a decision clarifies...
I feel rather lost after my major 'plot' for the last
few years has been dramatically upheaved (damned and
blasted tower!) but ready and willing to adapt as
necessary...
'Thou hast no kingdom beyond transiency,
Who art exiled amid perpetual metamorphoses' -Andrew
Chumbley.
Love from the Abyss....
Fri, 28 Jan 2000
Chaak Baack - travel situations
---Aion wrote: Io Pan and Chac!
Well I went to the Chaak camping ground in Palenque
the other night for a wonderful party, but I still
don't know what it means...?¿
My mood and situation have changed somewhat
melodramatically since my last post! I have spent
much time finding travel info then Tyger helped from the US (many
thanks!) as travel agent and airline 1800 free-calls
don't work from here. Seems I can fly to Lake Titicaca and
back for a lot cheaper than I first deemed... cheaper
and more predictable than buses and it doesn't take 2
weeks!
So what to do in the meantime, as with the airfare costs I don't have mucho
spare pesos to see many local wonders. Well due to
my alienation I did a spell the other night to meet an
interesting English-speaking freak. The next day I met
a whole bunch of them - members of a travelling circus
from the US in fact, with more arriving soon.
They told me about a 5-day convention on local
entheobotanicals (plants that trip you out) here in
Palenque starting on the 12th Feb. -Terence McKenna's
first public appearance since the brain tumor was
successfully removed, plus the Huxley family and a
whole bunch of other mad scientists and other great
warped minds. With the amount of practical preparation
'workshops' involved I suspect it will be-come a
rather unconventional 'convention'!
It is an absurd $1300 US but my circus friends are
planning to become involved for free as performers.
After playing with them for a few days I have now
joined them in this endeavour - we are recreating some
local Mayan mythology (with touches of Egyptian etc.
from yours Truly) to perform as ritual theatre,
possibly at the actual Mayan ruins!
I'm going to travel to some other important temples
(gotta find a good one for nu moon solar-eclipse
draconian nu year!) near here for inspiration, come
back in a week or so and work it all out with them...
At the 'Pancham' campground they are staying at (though they are
about to get a house in the jungle) where I have
been the last few days there is an interesting barrage
of different cultures and languages from travellers.
Got stoned off my head amidst crossconversations in
Hebrew, French (the 2 Freds, I call them the Freddo
Frogs), Spanish, US English, English English,
OzEnglish and gibberish glossolalia (my
contributions)...
I should be able to to some tarot readings and even
tattoos for money at this strange traveller's campground in the jungle too.
Spent a lot of yesterday chilling out reading
J.M.Jenkins' 'Maya Cosmogenesis 2012' at last (copy at vegetarian restaurant of
campground) and totally spinning out on all the
correlations between Mayan and ancient Egyptian and
Thelemic and Voodoo mythologies/currents.
I better not get into it all now, as I have to email
the convention people, etc., but sometime soon.
Many thanks to everyone for their responses and
encouragement...
Aion I plan to go explore the Yucatan area on my way
back up from Lake T. - as Chichen Itza is there, where
the serpent spectacle happens on Spring Equinox/my
birthday.
Love from,
The Abyss
Sun, 30 Jan 2000
Tenstar Reprise
Went for a latenight wander thru St Cristobal last
night. Deserted streets. Found a ten-pillared dome in
a ten-pointed star concrete mandala outside the
magnificent Cathedral. Sat in the centre, did chakra
meditation and tones. Great acoustics. Felt very
earthed.
Apparently religion here is mostly a blend of
catholicism and local indian traditions, still with
chicken sacrifices etc. Kind of like Santeria!
May the upright and 'downwrong' pentagrams unite!
Tried busking violin in the colourful marketplace
today, no mucho dinaro (money) but a big crowd of delighted indian
children. Fun!...
Tue, 1 Feb 2000
?msicilohtaC¿
Last night a man with half his face tattooed
maori-style bought me dinner and told me how to get to
a strange little catholicized indian village near
here (San Cristobal, Chiapas).
So today I caught a combi 'collectivo' out there from
San Cristobal market:
Amidst a medley of thatch huts and modern concrete
boxes was a large spanish-style cathedral painted up with
bright primary colours. Inside, an atmosphere of
utmost sanctity and stillness. Hundreds of lit
candles, no chairs or pews, hay on the floor, plaster
statues of many different catholic saints lining the
walls in decorated glass cases. Indian women chanting
rapidly and crying on the ground.
Not far in from the entrance there was a big sign saying outsiders could step no
further, but after
sitting still there for some time someone invited me further
in. Maybe because I was the only 'tourist' there at
the time, or because of my instinctual reverence.
I was actually kind of appalled at the conversion of
indiginous people with their own strong earth
religions to a fucked up patriarchal white man's trip,
til I noticed that every saint statue had a large
mirror attached to its chest.
...Seems the indians know its really the divine
within themselves they are worshipping, so it doesn't
really matter what external form they use to reflect
it.
Knelt and murmured what I could remember of the daytime
Mayan Prayer to Hunab Ku, and left...
Still much confused about travel to Titicaca or not.
I'm already heaps in debt and its a stupid
unreasonable thing to do. But whenever I go into
meditation my Holy Guardian Angel -or is it my arachnean anima- insists
I should go there...
Black Moon/Black Sun Rite 4th Feb Tonina
I went to Tonina primarily because it was on my way back to Palenque
from
San Cristobal. I had heard little about this particular Mayan site and
expected it to be of little significance. Having re-routed my
journey (due to bus &
$
problems)
from the original plan to go to Guatemala via the Izapa site, I thought I might as well check out Tonina on the way
back to Palenque. I
am SO glad I did! It is a wonderful site, as special as Palenque and
of
unexpected significance to my current spiritual journeys. Seems my HGA
is
planning the route for me!
I arrived at the small dirty Mexican town of Ocosingo just after dusk
and
wandered about for several hours trying to find a cheap hotel room (no
jungle to hide in nearby, only farmlands). All the cheap ones were
full and
I eventually got sick of lugging my heavy backpack etc. around and settled
for a
more expensive (by Mexican standards anyway) one, grateful at least for
the
hot shower.
The next morning I waited around for hours for the 'collectivo' combi
to
Tonina, eating exotic fruits in the market place. No one seemed to be
able
to tell me with any certainty when it was due so finally, weary of the
large
crowd of curious
locals who kept gathering around me gawking and laughing (tourists and
travelers were rare here it seemed - I didn't see a single other one) I
caught a cheap taxi out to the Tonina ruins.
When I finally got there early afternoon it was WELL worth the ordeal
of
the previous 12 hours after all. A ruins guard took a liking to me and
showed me around the first crumbling buildings. We used our equal small
knowledge platform of Mayan to
bridge his little English and my little Spanish. He told me the stone
platform area where I had entered was once for 'de sacrificio', and
confirmed what people in town had said. The main temples ahead were
'de La
Luna' -how wonderful! I had inadvertently come to a lunar temple (rare
among the solar and stellar focused Mayans) on my magickal journey
towards
Gaia's Svadisthana chakra (Lake Titicaca) and into the Lunar dreaming
thereof.
As we approached the main cluster of ancient structures, I marveled at
the
difference between this site and Palenque. The buildings were
constructed
in similar designs but from more rounded stones, giving them a much
softer,
more feminine feel.
There was a large stone relief ahead of us of two diagonal stepped
zig-zag
shapes crossing. He confirmed that these were "can", serpents. Later discovered they were also a map of the 'Tzolkin' Mayan calendar pattern.
Up
some
narrow steps past a throne the guard showed me a statue of a cross-legged
figure
broken off and missing
from the belly up. He told me this was Kawak the River-God once
constantly doused from a stone chute fountain just above him which
channeled
water from a nearby river.
Then the guard took me down into an amazing
underground 'labyrinthio'. He showed me thru very quickly, flashing
his
torch here and there. There were square & cross shaped holes
allowing in light and air. At tunnel's end I felt a surge of intense
energy
around the last wall, and he confirmed that this had been the altar.
The
guard led me back out and walked off, leaving me to wander about the outer peripheries of the
Labyrinth, crumbling and exposed
to the day.
There were beautiful intricate spiderwebs stretched across
the
ancient stones in every mossy corner and crevice. Lunar temples
indeed! I
nodded in familiar homage to Arachne Moierae/Hecate, Goddess of the
lunar
labyrinth. I climbed some steps up into the bright sunlight.
The rest of the structures were built on the side of a large hill, so
it
was a gradual ascent upwards to explore them, climbing many steps into
the
hot afternoon sun. On the side of one building, under a protective
thatch,
was the most spectacular
large stone relief I had yet seen, most of it intact: (the picture below is only half of it -I ran out of film!)
Two long intersecting
shapes reminded me of the voodoo veve for the Manassa. At its ends, as
if
crucified on the diagonal lines, were two strange upside-down decorated
faces; nearby a skeletal Underworld deity, crumbling glyphs and a
large
feline face. (I have never seen a photo or drawing of this significant
piece
anywhere). I wound my way on and upwards to the great pyramid at the
top,
wondering about the strange steps everywhere - very narrow horizontally
(small feet?) front to back, yet very high vertically. Was this to
draw
attention to movement - 'dance' as ritual?; gnosis through exertion? -
I
found it easiest to move up & down, then sideways....
It was difficult for me to appreciate the main pyramid at this time as
there were noisy hyper tourists at the tip. I crept around a vine clad
back
way, waiting but they wouldn't go away, so I did. As I made my way
back
down between the carious
buildings, I spotted a narrow opening in the ground with steps leading
down
into the darkness. I climbed down into it, the damp coolness within a
welcome respite after all that clambering around in the sun sweating.
It
was just wide enough for me to fit, feeling my way along the damp stone
walls.
The steps ended and there was just earth underfoot, sloping down, the
stone
ceiling following this diagonal descent. As the light from the small
entrance receded, the passage narrowed further so that I had to turn
sideways to squeeze along, my arms scraping along the dank walls. As
the
darkness enclosed me
the atmosphere thickened tangibly. I continued down deep into the
earth,
the air very thick and still, almost liquid in its density. The slope
steepened and I had to move very slowly and carefully, unsure if the
uneven ground may suddenly drop away beneath me.
Eventually the ground
leveled out. I continued cautiously to a bend in the tunnel - it
veered off
to the right at a perpendicular angle, and down again. I'm not sure
how to
describe the feeling of being this deep underground in such a narrow
confined space, pitch black. There was a strange pressure in my head,
yet I
felt very calm, peaceful, submerged yet alert, wary. The passage was
still
only as wide as my body. Steps down again. The ceiling lowered
dramatically. Ahead seemed to be a long low chamber which the only way
to
enter was horizontally. I slid down into it. Two small
alcoves branched off to the left and right. Realizing it was a body
size
cross shape, I backed up and out, reversed and slid back in headfirst.
As
suspected I then fit perfectly (and only just) with my arms in the T of the snug cross
shape. Was this once a tomb? Or was it intended for initiation
rituals,
some kind of ancient sensory deprivation chamber? -It was certainly
effective in this function for me. I lay still in the cross, deep in the earth, feeling
rather blank and content. The heaviness of my submersion and
confinement
was somehow comforting. Realizing how apt this was for a dark moon in a
lunar temple, I smiled softly. And the solar eclipse was
also imminent. I began to chant the name of Chan Balum ('Serpent
Jaguar'), the psychopomp priest whose spirit I had connected with in Palenque; -
sun
in Amenta...
My voice echoed strangely through the underground chambers (this was
the
end - there were no further openings out from the horizontal cross) and
I
raised the volume a bit, changing to wordless droning. I found the
deeper I
chanted the more it
would resonate, a bass rumble through the earth. I could hear the
startled
muffled voices of distant tourists up above. They would have some
strange
tales to tell of Tonina when they got home, no doubt! A feline
atavism
crept over me, tingling of paws elongating, - the jaguar of the
Underworld.
I growled and stretched; then was silent for a while, deep
breathing the absoluteness of the dark, dim serpents
flickering-swirling
elusively therein.
Slowly I slid out and up the steps, feeling my way
back
along the tunnel. When I turned the corner the dim light beckoned me
gently, gradually brightening as I followed its lure.....until I
re-emerged
into full sunlight! There was no-one around; I stretched long and
thorough,
feeling incredibly invigorated.
I wandered towards a small pyramid
where I
had not yet explored. The sunlight & heat felt amazingly blissful.
At the top of the pyramid there were trees growing in mounds of dirt on the platform, blossoming with myriad beautiful violet-hued vulva-like flowers.
Entwined amidst its branches were three colourful gypsies, and a young
Mexican kid in a psychedelic shirt
who looked as if he had defected from the greyness of Ocosii town to
hang
out with hippy travelers. Continuing their conversation in Spanish
they
passed me a joint. I toked and passed it on, then picked up a fallen
flower,
staring at its satiny contours and crimson veins delightedly,
wondering if
the tree had been there during the Mayan reign - it certainly
seemed to belong!
After a while the other travelers departed and I also wandered off.
It
seemed pertinent to return to the top of the highest pyramid after my
underground journey. As I climbed up towards it I reflected on the
experience - only after darkness, a
full appreciation of light - and vice-versa. The cross-shape, as I had lain in at the end of the tunnel, to the
Mayans
represents the Crossroads of their Tree of Life - the dark rift at the
center
of the Milky Way - Hunab K'u - the 'black road ' to the 'Underworld'.
They
had reflected this
cosmological map deep beneath the earth - 'As above, so below'!
Now
that
the site was deserted, I took the
natural path to the top of the pyramid, and realized what a beautiful
mandala it was. The steps spiraled around widdershins to the peak
where I
sat in silence for a while in the sun, gazing over the labyrinthine
ruins
and distant fields far below. Then
I spiraled back down - unusual that up would be widdershins and down
deosil - lunar temple indeed!
....On the way back towards the labyrinth
I
discovered another beautiful sculptural altar. Serpentine carvings and
large curved stone fangs swirled around a small cave - kind of like a
decorated fireplace - in which sat a head-sized perfect sphere of solid
dark
stone.
The sign in Spanish said something like 'Monstro de Tierra' -
Altar of
the Monster Earth? I assumed it represented Coatlicue, the Mayan Earth
Mother - 'Goddess of a thoushd Serpent Skirts' - who spawned
Quetzalcoatl
(the wind) as well as the Gods and Goddesses of the sun, moon and
stars.
Was the sphere in Her Underworld womb-cave the Moon (dark moon?) or the
Sun
in Amenta?
I passed the half-statue of Kawak again and paused murmuring His name
reverently as I swigged from my water-bottle. It didn't seem right this River God
being all dry and dusty, so I splashed some 'agua' through the wire fence
which surrounded Him. As it trickled over the thirsty stone I felt a sudden flood of
energy
and began to move with fluid grace. Kawak showed me a wonderful water
dance as I chanted his name. It felt like my limbs were moving of
their own
accord, forming stepped serpentine diagonal undulations which
intersected each other centrally, crossing at my navel. I realized this
was
the same basic design as the stonework at the foremost temple on the
hill, and that
this design is not just 'can' (serpent) as the guard had told me, it is CannaC, the
positive & negative serpents which entwine the Cosmic Tree. Looking at
at a
book on Mayan astrology a few days later, it all clicked into place:
put
this design in a box and you have ETZNAB - the hieroglyph of the
'Magick
Mirror'. The male water-serpent reflects perfectly the female
fire-serpent, as in my Mayan name 'AhaCannaC'akNan'
(or 'OdXOb' in the voodoo pantheon) - how perfect that the pattern
representing this is also Etznab, glyph of
the Magick Mirror. The words 'KawaK' and 'CannaC' are of course also reflective -
even
as the moon reflects the light of the sun - thus Words of 'absolute
Truth'
in the Mayan esoteric Zuvuya esrever language.
So my Magick Mirror journey continues, from the initial message from
Masala Flambeau in Spain, heralding the beginning of the making of
the
Magick Mirror, to my possession by Her (a voodoo Loa) in New Orleans,
presumably towards some
kind of reflective culmination oat the imminent global astral
Svadisthana
Sabbat next full moon....
Realizing how much less significant an experience the tomb-tunnel
underground crossroads would have been with a torch, I ventured back
into
the Labyrinth before leaving Tonina. I'm so glad I did! Walking
slowly
along dark wide earthen
corridors, one turns a corner to a beam of light through one of the
small
square windowholes to the lush green forest outside. The first had 3
spiders weaving webs across it - spinner, weaver, cutter I presume?
One
continues along, back into the dark, feeling along the wall, until
after
several corners once again a beam of light. A second window-hole lined
up with the first - a tunnel of light and air to the outside world. One
continues to curve into the center. There is a central shaft which the
guard had shown me earlier, above with more windows opening out to the
Labyrinth below - a brilliant design.
When I turned the final corner and was greeted with a cross-shaped (Hunab Ku again!) beam
of
green light, I was enraptured. Breathing deeply, I felt each chakra in
my
body ripple and blossom like a flower. (As with the Hindus, the energy
centers were seen/felt by the Mayans to be petalled. They used the
same
word for chakra and flower: LOL --- L-vibration O-Sacred, L-vibration
Another reflective word of perfect Truth, vibrating both ways in
timemit.)
As the energy burst from my crown in a shower of violet, I remembered
the
beautiful violet flowers on the tree at the top of the pyramid, and
Laughed
Out Loud. To the
Mayans the pyramid form represents the ascent & descent of energy from
Hunab
K'u to Earth (Kether to Malkuth/ Sahasrara to Muladhara). I turned
from
the Humab K'u Crossroads portal to the far wall at the end of the
Labyrinth
which it illuminated - the altar, long-cleaned but still charged - did a
short song and dance of joyous appreciation to/from
Kulkulkan/Quetzalcoatl,
and wound my way back out.....
418 (The Great Work/Alchemical Marriage) =(by reduction) 13 (both lunar and solar
no.) =Achad =Unity =1
Coda:
As planned, I arrived back at Palenque late that night. The
completion of
a cycle. I had first arrived there for the full moon lunar eclipse.
Two
weeks later I had returned for the Nu Moon Solar Eclipse. According to
Robert Coon, whose
geomancy is one of my main reference sources for the global chakra work
I am
engaged in, Palenque is the 'planetary androgyny balance centre'. My
journeys there certainly reflect this, although I would also include
the
lunar Tonina site nearby as a part of this energy nexus.
Just after I arrived at the Palenque 'Pancham' campgrounds it
began
pouring
with rain, and I had to find shelter fast. I was unsurprised as I had
heard
on the way back that Tonina is also a temple of Chac, the rain god, whom the RiverGod KawaK is a form of.
I awoke early next morning with rain still pounding down around the
wall-less thatch hut I was in, and went back to sleep. That was I
later
found, around the time of the eclipse (partial solar), not that I would
have
seen anything through all the
grey clouds.
I awoke later still feeling invigorated and quite tranced
out
from my experiences at Tonina. I had obviously already performed a
black
moon/black sun Rite of unexpected intensity the day before (my HGA
accommodating the then-imminent downpour?); nevertheless I felt moved to go
down
to the Palenque ruins and do a more specifically 11-star orientated Nu Moon/ Nu Sun/ (Chinese)Nu Year rite.
ADDITION WHILE EDITING: I recently discovered that who the guard called a 'river God' is much more: His name is spelt CAUAC not 'kawak' and this is also one of the Mayan calender glyphs. And it is about precisely the information which I received from the 'statue' -'fire on the water' -the water serpent reflecting the fire serpent -an amazing confirmation of my experience!
Nu Moon Nu Sun Chinese Nu Year
Salvia Divinorum Rite
I wanted to take Salvia Divinorum
concentrate -a potent psychedelic- in the Jaguar
Temple
to complete the cycle begun on the full moon lunar
eclipse on first arrival at Palenque two weeks
earlier. I had smoked Salvia then, but in the jungle
outside the ruins, and had been somewhat unsatisfied with
the experience...
I had wanted to have my friend Spencer accompany me
as a non-partaking minder, it being only my second
attempt at the Salvia concentrate and feeling I had
not had a full hit of it on the lunar eclipse; but he
was busy with moving into his new house so after some
consideration decided to do it alone anyway...
The rain cleared up mid afternoon so I headed down to
the ruins, thinking what a perfect day it was for the
experiment in that the wet weather would probably mean
few tourists in the ruins on this Tuesday afternoon.
I was right but unfortunately there were still enough
of them around to be annoying. As it was near closing
time I entered through the closer exit gates and moved
rapidly uphill through the jungle which the older
ruins was dispersed through. So by the time I arrived
at the main area, then went back into another patch
of jungle to find the Jaguar temple, I was already
quite out there just from all the fast walking.
The Jaguar Temple is a powerful small ruin, quite
crumbled in parts but with an intense presence about
it. I sat inside and meditated for a while. Some
tourists came by, chatting and peering, and I realized
I could not take the salvia there without the
possibility of interuption. Though relatively out of
the way it was still on a path. I remembered one that
wasn't a small broken-down temple nearby which I had
discovered while prowling catlike through the jungle
on mushrooms weeks ago, probably a tomb by the looks
of it...
I found it again without much trouble and it felt
right. A little dark alcove within seemed the perfect
spot for an uninterrupted short journey.
I took from my pocket a beautiful beadwork necklace
I had found in San Cristobal, which has ten golden
squares with purple dots in there centres. Naming each
one after a sephiroth, I used this as a link to the
HML 11*, I being the 11th, the 'non-sephiroth' of
Daath which relates to the Vissudha chakra, the throat
around which I now encircled the band...
I spiralled around and then into the small stone
temple while inhaling the word, 'IPSOS' then sat doing
my chakra breathing meditations. I stopped on the
throat chakra, invoking the throne of Daath/Harpocrat
and lighting a candle before me. I then pulled a tarot
card for my imminent trip -the 3 of Swords, pain and
sorrow and suffering!
This did not bode well but I was determined to
persevere so I pulled another card with the silent
question of how I could avoid or overcome this
potential painful outcome. I drew the Ten of Cups, the
card of Tribe, of coexistence with others in mutual
understanding and happiness.
As a lone traveller in a strange land, the only
Tribe that seemed relevant at the time was the
Horus-Maat Lodge, performing synchronous nu moon
rituals.
I also took the 3 of swords card as a warning and
completed my chakra work, rather than leaving myself
in the Vissudha/Daath Abyss for my Salvia intake...
I combined masturbation with kambukka pranayama to
raise the Dragon/Serpent/Quetzalcoatl power within me,
and felt quite charged by the time I was ready to
partake of the psychoactive sacrament. I breathed
deeply for a while then drew deeply from the pipe,
inhaling all of the salvia divinorum in a few long
breaths.
The salvia concentrate (x10 in intensity of the
regular dried leaves) took me so far from my normal
perceptions that I can only really describe, in fact
only really recall or semi-understand with those
normal perceptions the process of return.
I don't know where I went -it was almost like a
blackout... my first memory is of a vast yellowness,
inwhich 'I' was somehow reforming from an
incomprehensible bright void. I seemed to come back on
some kind of diagonal tangent, folding back from
severe molecular dispersion into my form. The last
part was somehow (words seem very inefficient to
attempt a description) like long orange-yellowish
stalks, snapping back together to form my being
somehow, little particles interlocking and re-lacing
to recreate my 'reality', surroundings as well as
self. Then I was back, I opened my eyes and there I
was in my not-yet-quite-familiar-body lying on a
blanket in the little stone temple with pipe on the
ground amidst the stone rubble piled around me.
It had once again seemed very rapid, that no sooner
had I smoked the stuff than I was zooming back to this
dimension, and had not really had more than a scant
glimpse of that incomprehensible other it had
fleetingly flung me into. It had not been an
unpleasant but neither particularly pleasant
experience, and I felt kind of disconsolate now about
its inconclusiveness and lack of any real discernible
form or tangible result or lesson.
I sat up and went back into meditation, and this
seemed to enable me to prolong the effects of the drug
somewhat, and make use of them withing physical
reality. I went back into chakra breathings and found
I was hyperaware of every pore of my being, I seemed
to be able to breathe through the vertebrae of my
spine where I felt the dragonpower tingling and
twisting. I sucked this up into my brain and then back
down and around via the kechari mudra and felt quite
blissed...
After some time I emerged from the manmade cave and
spiralled out and around chanting, 'Abrahadabra!'
although I did wonder just what I was trying to reify!
I returned to Pancham campground quite elated and
put on my golden silk jacket with Chinese glyphs of
Joy and prosperity all over it in celebration of the
Chinese Nu Year of the Dragon. Although I had not
experienced any obvious connections or astral contacts
during the rite, I felt as if other HML members
performing 11* rites around that time period had
somehow helped me through the experience, and
subsequent mail (especially Tyger's dream,etc. -does
it make more sense now Tyger?) consolidated this.
That night I smoked some pot, further exacerbating
the tingling in my head, and played music late into
the night with other travellers.
The next day I felt absolutely awful. My energy was
really low despite a late rise and I felt fuzzy, vague
and very depressed all day. This is very rare for me,
and seemed to be some kind of hangover combined with
emotional dissatisfaction, despite the beauty of my
environment.
The rite I had done the day before the eclipse, in
fact my whole initiatory experience at the Tonina
labyrinth, on no drugs, had been as intense (in a
different manner) as the Salvia trip, and a lot more
enduring and earthed in this plane. I felt I had
perhaps gone too far having the salvia the day after,
and felt (still feel) in no hurry to try it again. I
find DMT of a greater intensity and more playful, more
able to be explored and that there is something to be
gained from it, rather than just having my being
blasted briefly into some yellow netherealm then
folded back into itself. Perhaps I had too much? Or
perhaps its just not my thing...
My visit to the Jaguar Temple inspired the drawing
at left. The plaque outside said that there had once
been (now there were only a few crumbly corner glyphs)
an engraving on the back wall of AhauOb ChanBalum
('SerpentJaguar') with jaguar heads at the end of his
limbs. As the Jaguar was usually depicted in Mayan
iconography swallowing the Sun, this seemed relevant
to my black moon black sun trip the day before at
Tonina.
The original drawing was more Mayan-iconographic and
flat, whereas after losing it in my travel journal
in Peru months later this attempted recollection
turned out inferior, more figurative and strangely
like a self-portrait. Perhaps I was ChanBalum once?
(Linking February 2000 Nu Moon Rites of the 11-star Collegiate of the Horus-Maat Lodge)
Sat, 12 Feb 2000
Yaxchilan & Bonampak
I just got back from checking out a couple more local
Mayan sites. Bit of a trek as the tourist industry has
a lot of the cheaper transportation bought up to make
them almost inaccessible without overpriced
meal/hotel/tour package deals. So much walking,
insectbite rash driving me crazy... worth it all
though!
Yaxchilan, ruins in the jungle on an island which can only be accessed via a hour's calm ride on a thatch-roofed boat, has lots of huge wonderful steles. On a
strange hunch I was looking for the Harpocratic Stele
of Concealing... it remains concealed however...
Aha...
Also wonderful dark tunnelled temple full of small
bats which shriek and whistle and flutter about your
head.
Bonampak is the only Mayan ruins with intact colour
paintings on the walls. They're awesome, beautiful
colours, patterns and adornments. The more I look at
this culture the more it strikes me how similar it is
to the ancient Egyptians. Especially the way the
figures and heiroglyphs line up along the temple walls
(similar colours too) to tell stories...
Thu, 17 Feb 2000
Halfmoon rite -SSS & Moonbase Astral Temples
HALF MOON WAXING RITE FEB 2000
I arrived back in Palenque from Bonampak and
Yaxchilan the day the ethnobotanical convention had
started. The next day upon returning to Panchaam
campground down the road from the hotel where the
convention was, I was amazed at how many freaks had
arrived in the vicinity. Apparently every time one of
these conventions is on a lot of strange people who
can't afford it's overpriced fee turn up at Pancham
down the road. The last few days there were indeed a
psychedelic unconvention of surreal magnificence.
Abundances of mushrooms from the surrounding fields
plus various other weird substances filtering down
from the convention.
I had a few mushrooms the first night, drew and
played lots of music. Walking up the road late at
night with my circus friend Spencer to see if the convention organizers would be
interested in our ritual theatre prospects, I felt a
powerful swirling cone of energy between myself and
the moon. Noticing it was halfmoon, I remembered Tyger's
unicorn working. The cone of energy became like a
unicorn's horn, a spiralling white glow between myself
(focused into my svadisthana/navel chakra) and the moon. I began to
trance and almost astral travel while walking, but
shortly we arrived and the connection left my
conscious mind.
The expensive hotel where the convention was is kind
of semi-integrated with the jungle and has some
psuedo-Mayan buildings, but felt kind of clinical and
sterile (stench of chlorine) compared to the natural
ambience of Pancham. We wandered about for a bit but
it was lateish and nothing much was happening -people
had just arrived and were chilling after the first
day's lectures.
Back to Pancham, with lots of goblinesque glossolalia
and dancing under the moon on the way.
Pancham was still exuding mushiness, but after more
play for a while I snuck off into the forest and sat
to meditate.
After some chakra breathing exercises I went to the
SSS astral temple, it being halfmoon waxing. Floating down
into the ring created by the Ouroboros, I was
surprised to find a large pillar of red and black
flame in the centre of the temple. My first thought
was red flame of force and fire -Horus, black flame of
balance -Maat. Then I remembered the working Tzeenj
and Lilith had done in the SSS temple on the nu
moon/chinese nu year of the Dragon - invoking the red
dragon of Eros and black dragon of Chaos. *nice* work
guys! That this rite had left such an immediate visual
in the astral temple reminded me how powerful sex
magick is, and of thus how powerful the imminent
Svadisthana Sabbat could be...
Wanting to then transfer the energy found at the SSS
Temple to the HML Moonbase temple for Tyger's unicorn
working, I shrank the red and black flame into my
belly, much as Ganesha carries the word in his belly.
With it flickering therein I went floating off to the
Moonbase Temple, going down into the crater. In the
first room the feline female figurine was not still as
last time. She was writhing and wriggling around and
purring, apparently on heat...
I went into the egg-shaped room and stared into the
magick mirror pool. Rather than releasing the flames
here as expected, I found the whole room shrinking
down and centering into my belly with the flames as I
returned to body-consciousness.
So there I was sitting meditating in the forest,
highly aware of the microcosm within my belly. The
snake from the SSS temple had coiled up -it was the
kundalini within the muladhara base chakra.
Its head was rearing up from the centre of the coil
and beginning to split into two heads. Flickering
fire-tongues from its mouth were the red and black
flames. The lunar egg from the moonbase temple sat in
my svadisthana chakra, and the water magick mirror
pool within (the swirling ganesha swastika globe from
the SSS temple in its depths) began to bubble and boil
from the kundalini flames rising up around this
cauldron... ...
Thu, 17 Feb 2000
Valentine's Day rite
On Feb 14th I went back up to the ethnobotanical
convention in the daytime to see about participation.
I met a few interesting people while waiting for the
organizer, but most of the discussion seemed centred
on the means rather than the end -drugs, how to
extract them from plants, chemical compounds, what
each person's tried, blah blah, nothing about the
experiences, magick or lessons thereof.
The organizer was very conventional. No matter what
interesting possibilities I offered (ritual theatre,
discussion of Mayan cosmology in relation to
psychoactive plants, interactive underworld
initiations for participants up at the ruins, etc.) he
just kept going on about money and schedules, even
though I knew several of the speakers (inc. McKenna)
had not shown up and many of the attendees had
expressed a desire (and even come down to Pancham
for) a counterbalance to the intellectual discussions.
I left quite disgusted, telling him I guess just
because something's about drugs doesn't mean it's
openminded, and went back to the unconvention at
Pancham...
There were some musical performance happening at
Rakshita's vegetarian restaurant there that night for
Valentine's day and we had been invited to participate.
Turned out to be a much better setting anyway, and
several people came down from the Convention for it...
We (five of us) opened by chanting the Chakra Tones
or '7 powers of Kukulcan', then went into some freeform
music for a while. I sung and danced my Kokopelli song
then we moved everyone downstairs to incorporate fire
performance (no walls in the restaurant) outside.
More jamming with fire juggling. Then Spencer
appeared from the bushes in his giant horned rabbit
suit. These people I have been working with (from
Washington, Vancouver in the US) are strangely obsessed with
rabbits, which keep popping up in their lives. In
several traditions, inc. Mayan the rabbit is
associated with the moon, and with fertility, so it
seemed appropriate that we ended up doing this show on
Valentine's Day (and with the rising lunacy towards the
Svadisthana Sabbat). Of course someone turned up in
the audience with a live rabbit!
As Spencer was hopping around in the bushes, a large
frog (real) hopped out unexpectedly between his legs.
They hopped around together for a while much to
everyone's hilarity, then le voltiguer disappeared
into the stream...
I approached the horned rabbit in cloak and macaw
feathers, chanting the Mayan 'Ti Tech, Ti tech X'Yum
Ixchel' (to you, Jaguar Goddess of the Moon) while he
cried, ´Calanten in Hunab K'u, Calanten!' (take care
of me, universe, take care of me). I grabbed him, drew
dagger and sacrificed him to the Moon-Goddess, then
walked slowly off into the night.
Zelda, painted white in wispy white veils, ever so
slowly butoh-danced towards the rabbit's still body.
Wafting her veils over him, she unzipped the rabbit
suit. Spencer sprung up, revealing the skeleton I had
painted over his body, with big juicy heart showing
through the ribs.
'Dios,' he cried to me who had circled back to the
balcony, 'In Poopsy Caal' (I thank you with all my
heart!).
I took up my violin and we launched into my
whimsical Circus song as he juggled fire and danced
about in his bones...
Thu, 17 Feb 2000
Final madness before leaving Palenque.
In my last night and two days at Pancham we
endeavoured to execute the tattoo I had half-designed
for Spencer. Amidst the madness of the unconvention
this was quite an achievement, but the headspaces we
did it in were quite apt for the work - a Mayanesque
vision serpent coiling around his hip onto his lower
spine. Emerging from its wide jaws were a horned
rabbit (yes he is obsessed with them) harlequin, which
in turn breathed out in smoke the water bird which was
already tattooed there by someone else.
I did the rabbit in the day on a single magick
mushroom, giving it one spiralling horn between its
floppy ears like a demented lunar unicorn, with little
bells hanging from horn and ears like a jester hat.
During the work a woodpecker began tattooing a
nearby tree like a demented echo.
Just before dusk there was a workshop in the Pancham
temple on body mudras for the 20 Mayan calendar
glyphs. This was great. At the end I showed the group
the alternate Etznab (magick mirror and sword of
truth) glyph that Kawak (riverGod) had showed me at
Tonina. Of course it turned out to be Etznab day!
Then there were some speakers from the
ethnobotanical convention up the road come down to
give some free talks at Pancham. One of them, a German
woman, wants to include some of my pictures in her
forthcoming book of visionary artwork.
After them I spoke briefly about the use of
psychoactive substances in magickal ritual, and using
meditation techniques to enhance psychedelic journeys.
Eventually, after both indulging in some very strong
mushroom tea which was going around (and around),
Spencer and I got back to the tattoo (the new gun is
beautiful thanks Tyger!) at about 2am. As there were
people sleeping all around the campgrounds by then, we
had to lug the car battery we had borrowed, plus a big
wooden bench and all the equipment up a trail off into
the jungle somewhat, through a tunnel of foliage which
although very dark was also very colourful in our
headspaces...
Soon as we put it all down multitudes of ants, ticks
and other insects began to attack us. We thought about
finding somewhere else then went fuck it, we have to
get on with it or we wouldn't get it finished (big
job). So we set up. As soon as I started up the gun
all the insects left us alone. Whirring like a giant
cybernetic mosquito, I guess it sounded like we had a
bigger stinger than them -which we did.
It went really well once we got the candles propped
up in the trees on the right angles. After completing
the basic shape I dispensed with pen, filling the
draconic visionserpent freeform with all manner of
psychedelic twisting and turning psychedelia. Some of
the best art I've ever done (and yes we did both still
think so the next day!)...
(Photos of this tattoo to be added when I get them!)
Some curious spider-monkeys swung around in the
branches above our heads during the process.
At about 4am the candles, water and toilet paper
(for wiping off ink) all ran out at once, so we had to
do the tail the next day. I wanted to go up to the
ruins anyway, as it was my last night there...
Off I went, running up the road then cutting off
into the jungle on the path I had found on my first
night (lunar eclipse) at Palenque to avoid the guards.
Following the riverbed ankledeep in cool water through
the jungle was beautiful, with patches of starlight
(moon had gone down now) coming thru the foliage and
fireflies flitting about.
Trod on a slimy frog, we both jumped. Same spot where
I had invoked the voltiguer on the lunar eclipse!
Creeping along I found my way into the ruins and up
to the Temple of the Inscriptions. It was beautiful at
night, a whole different feeling. No one else about
made it different too of course.
I climbed up the pyramid steps, finally realizing why
they were so high-spaced: on hands and knees it was
easy and natural, running up stealthily like a jaguar.
At the top I tore a small hole in the insect screen
- this temple had been closed for renovations or
something the whole time I had been there - and began
the long descend down into the Tomb of Pacal Votan.
The journey down into the depths of the pyramid was
great, but at the end there was a small metal door
preventing me from getting close enough to actually
see the inscriptions and famous relief on the tomb
itself with the torch I had borrowed. Oh well...
When I emerged back to the top of the pyramid, the
sun had begun to rise across the ruins. What an
awesome sight!
I crept down and across to the Palace, spiralling up
into the high Observatory Tower therein, the other 'out of
bounds' area (Gods know why!). The view from the top was spectacular.
The various buildings of the palace below had
beautiful stone mosaic work glowing softly in the dawn
light.
At the top I did the salute to the sun and read the
daytime prayer to Hunab K'u actually at dawn (when it is
supposed to be read) for the first time -invigorating!
I am lucky no-one saw me, doing yoga at dawn on the
top of the tower in my scarlet dress!
I ran off to the temple of the jaguar in the jungle
before it got too much lighter, and did my chakra
meditations there.
When the ruins opened an hour or so later I wandered
out and the guard asked me to leave as I didn't have a
ticket. They let me just walk off though, I think they
took one look and put me in their too hard basket (I
later discovered I also had tattoo ink smeared all
over my face!), especially when I started mumbling,
'no speak mucho espanyol' and 'Calanten in Hunab K'u,
calanten'.
On the way back I found a little caduceus staff of
winding vines and a small dead rattlesnake with
beautiful diamond patterns like in the tattoo, which
wound around the staff perfectly. I later skinned it
to make an Ouroboros necklace...
After I swapped with someone a tarot reading for a much-needed
massage, Spencer and I finished the tattoo that afternoon,
chanting the chakra tones (he said the vibrations of this helped transmute the pain) as I tattooed the 7
heart-shapes of the vision-serpent's rattle...
then I
stashed some sacraments and rushed off to catch my bus
to Mexico City. From there, my flight to Bolivia and Lake Titicaca.
As I rushed off to catch the bus, there was
the most magnificent strange sunset I have ever seen:
a huge Hunab K'u crossroads shape of black cloud in
the centre of a swirling miasma of red and orange
fire, distinctive draconian and serpentine flame-forms
spiralling out from it across a turqoise sky.
The lacandon indians of the Palenque rainforest
consider Palenque the navel of the world. If
the svadisthana chakra (Lake T) is threefinger-breadths below the
navel, the Gaian macrocosm seems to spatially echo
the microcosmic distances within the human body. This also fits with Robert
Coon's concept of Palenque as the planetary androgyny
centre, and all the crossroads imagery at the Palenque ruins.
Guess I gotta go back through between the svadisthana and
manipura workings...
We joked about these strange little mossy caves near the ruins being miniature temples of the 'faery Maya' or something. I don't know where the purple light in the photograph came from! (photo (c)2000 Aloas Kino)
NEXT in my TRAVEL JOURNALS:
GLOBAL SVADISTHANA WORKING
APPENDIX: Mayan Prayers by Hunbatz Men
Prayer to Hunab K'u for Daytime:
CUT TIP' IL K'INE C'K'AMIC A THAN YUM
With the rising of the Sun we receive your words, God/dess
TUMEL YETEL U ZAZILE C'AHAL C'PACTIC TU LACAL BAAL
Because with your light we awaken and contemplate
everything.
C'ILICBA XANTUMEN A PALALOOB XAN
We also contemplate ourselves because we are your
children.
LEBETICO CU ZAAZTALE C'K'UBICBA TECH
This is why at dawn we surrender ourselves to you
TIAL CA CALANTON. YETEL TOONE CANZAH TECH A MIATZIL
So that you may protect us and teach us your wisdom.
A UICH CU PACTICON CU YILCOOM, YUM
It is your visage that looks upon us and contemplates
us, God/dess.
LEBETIC C'K UBICBA TI TECH TATA YETEL YUM HUNAB K'U
This is why we surrender to you, God/dess
Hunab K'u.
YETEL TECH CU CU K'UBIC C'PALALOOB
And we surrender our children
HEBIXTU K'UBAHOON C'YUMOOB TI TECH
Just as out parents surrendered us to you.
YUM HUNAB K'U A UOHEL BAAX CA BETIC TETEL
God/dess Hunab K'u, you know what you make of us
TOONEC C'K'ATICTECH YUM HUNAB K'U CA A CANZAHOOB LE
BEHO
We ask you, God/dess Hunab K'u, to show us the path.
ANTON YUM HUNAB K'U U TIAL CA ZUTNAG LE IN LAK'ECHO
Help us, God/dess Hunab K'u, to regain fraternal love.
C'K'ATITECH C'YUM HUNAB K'U TIAL MA ZATAL.
OH, YUM HUNAB K'U!
We ask this of you, God/dess, Giver of Movement and
Measure, so that we do not lose ourselves. Oh
God/dess, Hunab K'u!
Prayer to Hunab K'u for Nighttime
DZU BULUL H'YUM K'IN, DZU TIP'IL X'YUM AK'AB
Already the God Sun has set, and the Goddess Night
has risen.
PEPENOBE CU LEMBALOOB ICHIL U LOL CAAN
The butterflies shine amid the heavenly flowers.
C'TUCULE TIAN TI TECH C'HUNAB K'U
Our thoughts are in you, dear God/dess.
TUMEN TECHE C'AZAHOLAL, TA K'AB C'K'UBICBA
Because you are our hope; into your hands we surrender
ourselves.
TECH A UOHEL BAAX CA MENTIC T'TEL HUNAB K'U
You know what you will make of us, Hunab K'u.
AK'ABE HUNAB K'U, A K'AB CUK'ALALA
The night, Hunab K'u, is your hand which closes.
T'ICHILE CU YUCHIL TU LACAL
And within it everything happens.
HEBIX U TOP'OL NEK'E, HEBIX U HOK'OL YALCHE Y TIP'IL
LOL
As the seed buds, as the flower emerges and blossoms.
BEYO HEBIX U ZIHIL LE WUINICE
In this way is born the human being.
BEL U YUCHUL TU LACAL TU K'AB HUNAB K'U
In this way everything occurs in God/dess's hands.
CALANTEN IN HUNAB K'U! CALANTEN
Take care of me, Giver of Movement and Measure! Take
care of me!
TI TECH IN DZAMA IN WUINCLIL YETEL IN VOL.
To you I surrender my body and my spirit.
Text, drawings and photographs except as where otherwise credited copyright © 2000 Orryelle Defenestrate.
NEXT in my TRAVEL JOURNALS:
GLOBAL SVADISTHANA WORKING
MUTATION PARLOUR HOMEPAGE