Leonide Martin's Blog: Lennie's Blog, page 3

What’s In A Name?

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Romeo and Juliet

In Shakespeare’s play about the eternal love story Romeo and Juliet she asks:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet was referring to their last names, for she was a Capulet and Romeo was a Montague, two feuding families of medieval Verona. As we know, things did not end well for the star-crossed lovers. It appears there is more to a name than Juliet imagined.

Names are important when writing historical fiction. They conjure personalities, attitudes, strengths and weaknesses, traits and inclinations. Can you imagine King Melvin of the Round Table instead of King Arthur? Mildred instead of Joan of Arc? Consider how much mystery would be lost if we mourned over the travails of Sam and Sally rather than Heloise and Abelard.

In historical fiction, names convey a sense of time and place. Names are part of creating the “imagined world” in which the story takes place. When the characters’ names are discordant with the period and culture, it creates a jarring dissonance for readers. How characters are named adds to mood and theme, as well as signaling qualities that shape their personalities.

That said, what if you’re writing about a culture and time that is far removed from the experience of most Western-educated people? How do names then figure into the construction of world and characters? Herein lies a difficulty for writers of ancient worlds fiction, set in cultures that are vastly different than those of historic Europe. Consider the complexity of names from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia, Polynesia, and my area:  the ancient Mayas of Mesoamerica.

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Babylon in Mesopotamia

 

 

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Palenque in Mesoamerica
National Geographic

Names in ancient languages vs names translated into English.

My approach to naming characters has been to use actual ancient Mayan names as phonetically spelled by researchers and epigraphers. Since conventions for these spellings have changed over the years, I had to choose which to use and selected those that seemed friendliest to English-speakers. Not all writers of ancient Mayan historical fiction do this; several use English translations of Mayan names, or a combination of translated and phonetically spelled names. I feel it’s important to use historic characters’ actual names phonetically spelled in Arabic letters. This preserves the cadence and qualities of ancient Mayan speech and helps create the feeling tone of their “imagined world.” To me, saying their names creates a vibration that resonates with their personality and attitudes. If I used English translations of their names, an essential quality would be lost, a sense of different place and culture that puts the reader into the aura of ancient Mayan civilization.

For example, these are the actual Mayan names of the four queens in my “Mists of Palenque” series, with the English translations. The Mayan names are pronounced using romance language vowel sounds: a = ah, e = eh, i = ee, o = oh, u = ooh.

Mayan name                           English translation

Yohl Ik’nal                               Her Heart/Center of North Wind

Sak K’uk                                   White Resplendent Quetzal

Tz’aakb’u Ahau                       Accumulator/Producer of Lords

K’inuuw Mat                           Sun-Possessed Cormorant

To me, a great deal is lost when these Mayan names are not used. I’ve read other books where the Maya characters have names such as Jeweled Skirt, Red Flint, Snake Jaguar, Tree Orchid, Iguana Wind, and Big Deer. These are easier for English-speakers to remember and pronounce, but lack cultural ambiance that sets mood and tone.

What’s In a Name is a Great Deal.

To disagree with Juliet, I believe names matter a lot in stories. My choice to use Mayan names for characters and places has led to bad reviews by some readers, who give low ratings with complaints that they couldn’t get past the difficult names. I wonder if they feel the same way about fiction set in ancient Egypt or Biblical times, with long and complex names but more familiar to

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Toltec City in Mesoamerica
Iztaccaltzin on Throne

European-based cultures. Moving beyond one’s comfort zone is essential to appreciate cultures that are very different from your own. Indigenous Mesoamerican cultures have some of the most complex names I’ve found, yet are rich in history and accomplishments. Recently I read a book about the pre-Aztec cultures around Lake Meztliapan, the Toltecs and Chichimecs. Many actual names were used—Ihuitimal, Eloxochitl, Topiltzin, Citlallotoc, Tlazolteotl—and I preferred these to translated names that were also used, such as Black Otter, Spear Fish, and Jade Flower.

 

One Concession to Difficult Names.

Of the four queens in my series, the third has the most difficult name:  Tz’aakb’u Ahau. This name does not roll easily off the tongue. To make reading (and writing) go more smoothly, I gave this queen the childhood name Lalak. There was no information about what her actual childhood name might have been, for she only appears in hieroglyphs after being granted her royal name. Since the love story between her and the ruler of Palenque is a dominant theme in the book, I found nice parallelism in the pairing of their names:  Lalak and Pakal—eternal Mayan lovers but with a happier ending than Romeo and Juliet.

 

Newly released print version–March 1, 2018!
The Mayan Red Queen: Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque
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The Mayan Red Queen

 

Join me for book release events:

March 8, 7-8 pm         Another Read Through in Portland, OR

March 23, 7-8 pm       The Book Bin in Salem, OR

April 7, 4-6 pm           Silverton Grange in Silverton, OR

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Leonide Martin at El Mirador, Guatemala

An Author’s Appreciation

[image error]In the writing process, an author comes to realize that readers are an invaluable part. We may write due to internal compulsions, and our books are fulfillment of the creative process, but without people to read those books, something very critical is missing. As we move into 2018, I’m reminded of how blessed I am to have your support and friendship as readers.

 

 

 

In appreciation, I’m giving you a gift. This is a nonfiction booklet I wrote bringing together material about Mayan Queens and women rulers in several cities in Mexico and Guatemala.

Magnificent Mayan Queens:

Native women of Power and Vision, Maya Preclassic to Late Classic Periods.

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Why do we read?

Storytelling has been part of  human society as long as anyone can remember. Before writing, primitive people gathered around a campfire to listen in rapt attention to the local storyteller weave tales of adventure or mystery. Now we sit down with a good book, e-reader, tablet, smart phone, even the TV or DVD for the same experience. Why is reading or listening to stories so compelling for humans? Psychologists who study the “Theory of Mind” say we’re always trying to guess what other people are thinking and feeling, even though we do this unconsciously. Why is this

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something people universally do? Because this helps us learn which people we can trust and which we cannot. It also provides basic foundations for social interaction; without this we would be in a quandary about how to respond to others.

Not much has changed in this quintessentially human trait in thousands of years, except the way we engage with stories. Researchers at the University of Liverpool found that social topics make up two thirds of people’s conversation through public media, regardless of age or gender. We continue to be fascinated by other people’s stories, one reason why gossip columns and celebrity cults stay popular.  There’s no doubt a voyeur element here, but researchers believe the key value underlying this is empathy. A University of North Carolina psychologist reported that people with high empathy characteristics more easily engage in stories. However, this characteristic varies greatly among people. Some are easily touched emotionally while others seem unaffected by even the saddest or most miraculous stories.

 

Empathy is “the ability to identify oneself mentally with a person or thing and so understand the other’s feelings or meaning.”  Native Americans described this ability as being able to walk in another person’s moccasins; the proverbial “walk a mile in my shoes.”An interesting research finding is that people who read more have an 83% chance of forming excellent relationships, while those who seldom read have only a 14% chance.  It seems that when you can see the world through another’s eyes, you have more ability to form good relationships. Research suggests that this drive to seek understanding about the experiences and perspectives of other people is deeply ingrained, perhaps even instinctive.

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So keep on reading! 

Reading fiction is good for you. It opens a world onto other people and places, where you learn and have vicarious experiences. It goes beyond providing entertainment and diversion, and helps you develop social skills that enhance your relationships. Of course, I’ve got a few good books I can recommend:

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Mists of Palenque Series
Four Great Mayan Queens

The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik’nal of Palenque

The Controversial Mayan Queen: Sak K’uk of Palenque

The Mayan Red Queen: Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Writing Process: Inspiration for The Mayan Red Queen Story

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Leonide Martin engrossed in The Writing Process

Exploring The Writing Process With Leonide Martin.

In this new series of posts, I’ll be taking a look at The Writing Process. Whenever I’ve done an author interview, one question always asked is how I navigate the process of writing. Every author follows a personal writing process, so no single formula fits for all. There are common steps we all go through in conceptualizing, developing, planning, researching, writing routine, revising, editing, and publishing. This series will explore each step in the writing process, using my own experiences as examples.

The book I most recently completed is The Mayan Red Queen: Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque. This is the third book in the Mists of Palenque series [image error]about four remarkable ancient Mayan women. Released in 2017 as an ebook, it’s now in the process of getting into print with publication date March 1, 2018. The Mayan Red Queen is the example through which I’ll dissect my journey through The Writing Process.

 

 

Inspiration for The Mayan Red Queen Story

My husband and I bought a house in Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico in 2005 and lived there for five years. Our main purpose was for me to become immersed in Mayan culture and history to better write historical fiction about this great civilization. Yucatan was a perfect location, peppered with Maya ruins and infused with a vibrant modern Mayan culture. I had already written my first historical fiction about the Mayas before we moved to Mérida, and now had a new book in mind. The first book, Dreaming the Maya Fifth Sun: A Novel of Maya Wisdom and the 2012 Shift in Consciousness, is a story of two women separated by centuries yet connected by

[image error]a web of history, whose destinies intertwine as the end of the Maya Calendar on December 21, 2012 approaches. Of course, the Mayas never predicted the calendar—much less the world—would end in 2012. For them, one great cycle rolled over into the next. This perspective is dramatized in the story.

While visiting Mexico during the years before we moved there, I’d been captivated by the ancient city Palenque located in southern Chiapas. I’d already done considerable research to write the first book, but was spurred to delve more deeply into the archeology and history of Palenque. Several famous archeological things happened there:  John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood wrote their Incidents of Travel books that became international best-sellers in the mid-1800s and put Palenque on the map.  Alberto Ruz Lhuillier excavated the tomb of famous ruler K’inich Janaab Pakal in 1952; it compares in riches to King Tut’s of Egypt. The series of Mesa Redondas conducted by Linda Schele and Merle Green Robertson during the 1970s brought together Mayanists from several disciplines; their combined skills deciphered the “king list” of Palenque rulers. Excavations by Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz and Fanny Lopez Jimenez uncovered the tomb of a royal woman in 1994, her skeleton permeated with red cinnabar; it was the first queen’s burial ever found among the ancient Mayas.

Enter The Red Queen

Here is where the inspiration for my next book about the Mayas began. As I stood in the narrow passageway and peered into the chamber holding her empty sarcophagus, I wondered who this woman was. Her bones had been removed to Mexico City in a museum for preservation and study. Her burial adornments were in the Palenque museum; a jadeite mask, jade diadem, jade and stone jewelry, ceramics, tools, symbols of status. The partially restored pyramid housing her tomb (Temple XIII) adjoined the huge burial monument for Pakal (Temple of the Inscriptions); this made researchers think there was a relationship. By pure luck, I was browsing through Dante Books in Mérida and came upon a book about her:  La Reina Roja by Adriana Malvido.  I’d never have found this book unless I was in Mexico; I’d never been able to read it unless I had continued studying Spanish while there.

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Temple of the Inscriptions, Temple XIII, Temple XII at Palenque

 

La Reina Roja: El secreto de los mayas en Palenque was written in 2006 by a journalist from Mexico City, working in consultation with INAH, Mexico’s institute for preserving national culture and history. It read like a novel yet contained extensive factual information about the archeological excavation and historical background. I learned that the woman whose red bones were interred might be Pakal’s grandmother, mother, wife, or daughter-in-law. At that time, good techniques for analysis of teeth and bones were not available. It took over ten years for scientists to determine that the Red Queen’s skeleton and Pakal’s skeleton did not share DNA, and their teeth had different strontium isotope signatures. This eliminated his grandmother and mother; making his wife

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K’inich Janaab Pakal
Ruler of Palenque 615-683 CE
Portrait carved in limestone

most likely to receive such an honored and richly adorned burial.

Reading Malvido’s book, I learned about the other candidates for the burial and became fascinated by this lineage of royal women. Pakal’s grandmother Yohl Ik’nal was the first Mayan women to rule independently, causing a shift in dynastic succession. His mother assumed the throne after her brother was killed in Palenque’s worst defeat. She weathered opposition and chaos to keep the throne until her son Pakal came of age. His wife was from another city, lived many years in Palenque and bore him four sons. His daughter-in-law kept the dynasty going although she married his youngest son; the older sons had no surviving heirs.

 

The Nucleus of a Story Emerges

It was simply evident that I had to tell the stories of these four great Mayan queens. At first I conceptualized a single book in four parts, did lots more research and made an outline. While in Mérida I began writing about Yohl Ik’nal, but the writing process was difficult. Anyone who has lived the ex-pat life knows how many distractions abound. Eating out at fine restaurants was inexpensive;  there was abundant good wine; too many parties and musical performances; endless excursions to interesting sites around Yucatan; discussion groups and teas and local fiestas and carnivals. Serious writing had to wait until we returned to the States and then I discovered there was too much material for one book. The result: The Mists of Palenque series of four books, each dedicated to a queen.

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Leonide Martin doing research in The Writing Process

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gift to you:

Sign up for my blog and receive PDF of my white paper “Why the World Didn’t End in 2012.”[image error]

Already signed up? Email me and request the white paper at lenniem07@yahoo.com

 

 

 

Resources

Precolumbian Art Research Institute. PARI Online Publication. Palenque Round Tables 1-8. (Mesas Redondas). 1973-1993.  http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/round_table.html

Precolumbian Art Research Institute. PARI Online Publication. The First Mesa Redonda of Palenque. 1973. http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/RT01/RT01_00.html

Adriana Malvido.  La Reina Roja: El secreto de los mayas en Palenque. Conaculta/INAH, Mexico City, Mexico, 2006.

John L. Stephens. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. Volume I.  With illustrations by Frederick Catherwood. Dover Pub., Inc., New York, 1969. Originally published in 1841 by Harper & Brothers, New York.

David Stuart & George Stuart.  Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya. Thames & Hudson Ltd, London, 2008.

Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz.  The Red Queen. Mesoweb Online Publications, 1994 excavations of Temple XIII, Palenque.  http://www.mesoweb.com/palenque/features/red_queen/text.html

Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz.  La Reina Roja, una tumba real en Palenque, 2011. (Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Blogpost by J. Mitchel Baker

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It’s my pleasure to host a guest blogpost by J. Mitchel Baker as part of his blog tour. He is featuring his book A Journey Within, a lyrical mix of memoir, adventure, and philosophy as he follows his soul’s call to search for the higher design in his life. He embarks on a personal journey into the wilderness, encountering raw nature with its survival challenges and potential for spiritual revelation. This is the true story of a man whose career involves nature and animals, yet whose inner voice called him into the wilderness. After years of postponement, he embarked on his personal quest into the unknown. In raw nature, he encounters unexpected challenges and finds courage through his animals to forge onward. The book highlights “the duality between both the physical and the spiritual. It carries a message of courage and inspiration to connect with life and the inner self, taking the road less traveled, and living authentically.”

Below are Baker’s reflections on the mystical powers inherent in nature. My review of his book follows. — Leonide Martin 

 

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J. Mitchel Baker

The mystique of the wild

I rage over the discourtesies shown by other drivers on an overfilled urban stretch of road. I stress over the relentless looming of debt. I obsess with the needs of my children. My hypertension rises with the vagaries of office politics and oppressive timelines. This is an ordinary day, played over yet again and again. But is this the life we were truly meant to live? Oh how I wish I were back in the wilds. The wild is often in my dreams; memories acute with wisdom learned.

Find a place in nature: the ocean, the forest, a river, or a mountain top. Sit and simply listen.

It begins with absolute silence. An ear accustomed to too much input will resist the auditory vacuum. A body learned in the ways of constant motion and a full agenda will fight for purpose. But be utterly still. Do not speak. Breathe deeply. Allow the ego to quiet itself. And be mindful of all things internal and external. There you can find your true self. There you can hear your true inner voice. There, in that setting devoid of space and time, is where you find awareness.

The listless flapping of leaves and the slow sway of the trees in the breeze naturally aligns our rhythms to the earth. The colorful grandeur of a mountain range as the sun settles demands we feel small and insignificant, yet happy to be alive. The vastness and brilliance of the stars on a cloudless night remind us we are part of something greater than ourselves. Sacred moments such as these give us pause to reflect on what is truly important in our lives.

The mysticism of these singular moments is the self-realization that the separation between each of us and nature is an illusion. Everything in nature is connected. Her millions of component parts contribute to create a perfect whole. We are part of that whole. She guides us toward something larger than ourselves, forces us to exist in the moment. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Now.

“There came to me a delicate, but at the same time a deep, strong and sensuous enjoyment of the beautiful green earth, the beautiful sky and sun; I felt them, they gave me inexpressible delight, as if they embraced and poured out their love upon me.  It was I who loved them, for my heart was broader than the earth; it is broader now than even then, more thirsty and desirous. After the sensuous enjoyment always come the thought, the desire: That I might be like this; that I might have the inner meaning of the sun, the light, the earth, the trees and grass, translated into some growth of excellence in myself, both of the body and of mind; greater perfection of physique, greater perfection of mind and soul; that I might be higher in myself.”

–   Richard Jefferies, The Story of My Heart 

The mystique of nature is neither measurable nor empirical but rather a deep experience that heals and inspires; an understanding all indigenous people across the globe have acknowledged for thousands of years; each embracing the earth as their mother. The emotional connection is there if you sit and simply listen. But perhaps we have travelled too far into our urban sprawls.

 

[image error] A Journey Within by J. Mitchel Baker

Review by Leonide Martin

This first person account of the author’s quest for his destiny and personal truth is both lyrical and intensely vivid.  Driven by an inner vision to seek the fullness of who he is, Baker plans an adventure on horseback into the wild country of New Mexico. With his dog and three companions, he braves uncharted mountain terrain along the Continental Divide, taking few supplies and depending on nature to provide most needs. The congenial group of men, horses and dog faces unforeseen obstacles and must use wits and instinct to surmount flooded rivers, steep craggy paths, and disappearing trails.

Weaving through scary accounts of close calls with disaster are Baker’s inner reflections, revealing a profound philosophy and dedication to following his spiritual path. These deeply felt considerations are infused with an appreciation and honoring of nature that borders on the mystical. His love for animals and the natural world shines through. He is a man capable of enduring heart rending loss and yet remaining open to the richness of life’s experiences. Quotes at the beginning of each chapter frame the issues he grapples with, or provide inspirations drawn from a surprising range of teachers, from Jung and Freud to Mark Twain and Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Yogi Bera and modern mystic Caroline Myss.

Baker must make choices toward the journey’s end about following his own goals or keeping solidarity with his companions and ensuring safety. His selfless decision truncates the quest and he ponders what more might have been forthcoming had he continued. Feeling that the journey is incomplete and spiritual revelations remain, Baker ends the story setting off on another nature encounter with his horse, dog and one friend. The journey continues as he seeks to discover a greater design for his life.

Preconceptions commonly held about “cowboys” and outdoorsmen in the southwest are dismantled by this sensitive, eloquent memoir.

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Continental Divide

 

Changes for Leonide Martin Blog

[image error] Broadening Perspectives: Historical Fiction, the Process of Writing, and the Author Community

“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.”

—R.L. Stine, Interview with Writers’ Digest 2011)

Leonide Martin Blog has focused on ancient Maya civilization since I started it over 5 years ago. The astonishing Mayan culture is still the focus of my writing, as I press forward to finish the final book in the Mists of Palenque series about four great Mayan queens. The first three books are published as ebooks, and the first two as print books. Book 3 is set for print publication in

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Mists of Palenque Series
Four Great Mayan Queens

March, 2018 and if I can keep on schedule Book 4 will come out in both print and ebook formats in November, 2018. After that, who knows? There is yet another Mayan queen in the ruling family of Pakal in Palenque, though little is known about her. Many fascinating stories remain to be told about the Mayas whose civilization lasted over two millennia and extended over a huge territory stretching from southern Mexico to Honduras. Yet, other historical subjects are starting to whisper their alluring promise. I might be tempted to write fiction drawing from my own family history:  French Catholics of south Louisiana, with branches coming from central France to New Orleans, and others migrating to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to become Acadians. The Acadian story is dramatic, heroic, and tragic; a long tale of persecution and diaspora, until many arrived in south Louisiana bayou country to become today’s Cajuns.

 

 

 

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Deportation of Acadians
The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Process of Writing 

I’m also planning to include more content about the process of writing, including background into the characters and story lines of the Mayan queens series. This will begin with exploring the

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Tz’aakb’u Ahau
The Red Queen

historic and fictional characters in The Mayan Red Queen: Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque. Readers will get insight into these famous and not-so-famous Mayas, and how I shaped their characters from what is known and what I could imagine within context of the reasonable and the inferential. With the print book being published in six months, having background will enhance readers’ ability to put the people, places and story in context.

Author Community

Another new direction for Leonide Martin Blog is hosting guest blog posts and selected book reviews. Engaging with the author community is stimulating and informative; we learn so much from each other. I’ve done guest blog posts over the past few years, and always enjoyed the connections. I’m interested in author blog tours, a less grueling process than actual bookstore tours. So, I will be hosting an author in early November as part of his blog tour. Presently I’m reading his book and finding it heartfelt, lyrical, and gripping. Animal and nature lovers take note: this is a book about the deep spiritual connections we have with our environment and non-human companions. I will post my review here on my blog, and at online websites. In case you’re interested in reading the book here is the link:

J. Mitchel Baker, A Journey Within

“Animals hold great meaning in my soul. . . Shamans consider the swan totem to be a reminder: we are souls having a human a human experience. Their message is intended to awaken[image error] our spiritual evolution, to develop and honor our intuition, to trust our instincts, to find our own inner strength.” – J. Mitchel Baker

“Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – Anatole France (Ch. 11, A Journey Within)

 

 

 

I hope this expanded approach that Leonide Martin Blog is taking will create engagement with a wider range of readers and authors. You can connect with me through several platforms – I invite you to explore further and would greatly appreciate a closer relationship with you. Each platform has a “Follow” or “Friend” or “Like” button for you to click.

BookBub

Goodreads

Amazon

Facebook

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Ernest Hemingway

“As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.” ― Ernest Hemingway

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Robert Frost

 

 

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

– Robert Frost

Mayan Queens Kept Worlds in Balance

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Mayan Queen Holding Effigies of Two Deities

Mayan Queens and Kings were Shaman-Rulers charged to Maintain Balance between the Three Worlds of the Maya Cosmos.

Mayan Queens were powerful leaders in ancient Maya culture. Women rulers are well-documented during the mid to late Classic Period, 300-900 CE. Called K’uhul Ixik, Holy Lady in classic Mayan language, their role included entering shamanic states to access spirit domains and drawn upon the powers of deities and ancestors. The rituals rulers performed, and the sacred architecture of pyramids and temples in which rituals took place, were symbols of creation in the cosmos.

 

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Temple of Inscriptions – Temple XIII – Temple of Skull (c.700)

 

 

“They are all instruments for accessing spiritual power from the creative act . . . they are signposts on the Maya road to reality stretching across the landscape of history.”  ̶  Maya Cosmos

 

 

 

 

 

Mayan queens and kings did rituals of sacrifice and sympathetic magic.

Accessing powers of Otherworld Gods and Ancestors was not easily achieved. Mayan queens or kings had to make appropriate offerings and know how to call the deities’ names properly. The most common sacrifice was self-bloodletting, because blood was ultimately sacred as itz, sticky fluid that was ch’ulul, the life force energy, life-essence and creative substance. The shaman-ruler let blood from tongue, earlobes or genitals to concentrate and channel this life force from the Otherworld.

“In a sense, the shamans were like modern engineers. But instead of nuclear power plants and electrical grids they used pyramids and Vision Serpent portals. Instead of electron flows they used itz. The spilling of blood, like the throwing of a giant breaker switch, brought life giving energy pouring into the universe from the underlying force fields of the Otherworld.”  ̶  The Shaman’s Secret

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Mayan Shaman-Priests

 

Rituals for accessing spiritual powers propelled the shaman-ruler into altered states of consciousness, both by the act of self-bloodletting and use of mind-altering substances. The objective was to receive a tangible vision and an overwhelming experience of the deities; essentially a state of Divine Union or Communion. It is sympathetic magic through conjuring Divine beings, often intentional calling of a certain deity. Since all things mirror each other, in Mayan cosmology, when rituals re-enacted events from Creation Mythology, or conjured a warrior ancestor to guide a king through battle, these supernatural events were reactivated and manifested on earth.

 

Lady Kab’al Xoc Conjures an Ancestor Warrior

Lady Kab’al Xoc, first wife of Itzamnaaj Bahlam of Yaxchilan, was a famous Mayan queen. She is shown on carved lintels doing a bloodletting ritual, drawing a rope embedded with thorns through her tongue. As her blood fell on bark paper in a censer, it was set on fire and the rising smoke turned into the Vision Serpent. An ancestor warrior emerges from the snake’s open jaws, brandishing a shield and spear with Teotihuacan imagery (Tlaloc face mask, mosaic war helmet, double pointed spear). The ancestor brought important messages to guide the king during the upcoming battle.

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Lady Kab’al Xoc Performing Self-Bloodletting

 

 

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Lady Kab’al Xoc Invoking Warrior Ancestor

Equinox Rituals Brought the Worlds Into Balance

An important responsibility of Mayan queens and kings was to perform rituals at key times according to their calendars. The Mayas had numerous calendars and many rituals were needed. Solar calendar events were especially potent: equinoxes, solstices, zenith, and eclipses. Each mid-fall and mid-spring, the sun reaches a point in its ecliptic when day and night come into balance. The concept of balance was critical to the Mayas; rulers were charged to keep the three worlds—Underworld, Middleworld, and Upperworld—in harmonious relationship. Only when the needs of deities of each realm were satisfied, and communion with deities was performed correctly, would humans enjoy lives of peace and abundance on earth.

Mayan solar priests, K’inob, used techniques to track the sun’s movement and predict accurately when the day of perfect balance arrived.  On the equinoxes, rulers would undertake the prescribed rituals, making offerings to the Gods of the calendar periods and drawing their blessings into the world. Rulers conjured the Vision Serpent and sought prophesy for the coming calendar period.

There were dire consequences if balance was not maintained between the worlds. When balance was lost, the natural world was in danger. If this world, the Middleworld of earth , remained out of balance with the other two worlds long enough, it could bring destruction to a city, a region, or perhaps the entire Maya lands. Many experts believe that losing balance in the natural world is what led to the collapse of Maya civilization. The “Maya Collapse” is a complex phenomenon, not readily explained by any single factor, following different courses and timelines in various parts of the Maya lands. Beyond doubt environmental changes played a major role.

 

El Mirador in Guatemala
300 BCE – 150 CE

El Mirador Out of Balance

The collapse of El Mirador is reasonably well explained. It was a thriving Pre-Classic city of about 100,000, surrounded by satellite cities in northern Guatemala that flourished between 300 BCE and 150 CE. Perhaps the largest Maya city, its main pyramid sat on plazas covering 45 acres, on a platform 980×2000 feet, rising 230 feet tall. Toward the end of its occupation, extravagant building programs using inordinate amounts of plaster were carried out; some of the thickest plaster coatings ever found. To create lime plaster and cement, the Mayas burned massive amounts of wood, causing deforestation in surrounding areas. The swampy regions that supplied water and rich mud for agriculture were destroyed by clay runoff from damaged forest floors. With no close-by rivers, and perhaps a time of relative drought, the once great city faced declining water, food, and wood for fire. Between 100-200 CE, El Mirador and other cities of Mirador Basin were abandoned. Archeologist Richard Hanson, prime investigator of El Mirador, says the underlying reason for its decline was a loss of balance with the natural environment. The rulers and elite became immersed in “conspicuous consumption” through over-building using excessive resources, trying to sustain an image of wealth and progress. This lack of foresight and judgment—an imbalance between the worlds—led to the collapse of civilization in the region.

Mayan queens and kings were successful at keeping the worlds in balance for over a millennium. Thousands of large cities thrived in a difficult tropical jungle climate. The Mayas learned to adapt agriculture and conserve natural resources, and created the most brilliant, artistically and technologically advanced civilization in the Americas. While they upheld their expansive cosmology and properly honored the Gods and Ancestors, their culture succeeded. They lived an ongoing re-creation of their worlds by mutual Divine-human interaction; in essence, shaman-rulers became “mothers” of the Gods even as the Gods gave birth to humanity and the worlds.

Around 900-1000 CE that creative partnership dissolved. Not only environmental factors, but an internal spiritual dissonance led to abandonment of Maya cities. The Holy Lords and Ladies lost ability to fulfill their mandate, the deities were no longer satisfied, and the common people left for better livelihoods elsewhere. But this is yet another story.

 

Read about how Mayan queens kept worlds in balance in my book series about Mayan Queens in the ruling lineage of Palenque.
Click Links Below:
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Mists of Palenque
Series About Mayan Queens

 

The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik’nal of Palenque

The Controversial Mayan Queen: Sak K’uk of Palenque

The Mayan Red Queen: Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque

 

 

 

Resources

Chip Brown. El Mirador, the Lost City of the Maya. Smithsonian Magazine, May 2011.

John Clark and Richard Hansen.  The Architecture of Early Kingship. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya, Vol. 2 (Eds. Takeshi Inomata and Stephen Houston. Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2001.

David Freidel, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker.  Maya Cosmos. Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Morrow and Co., New York, 1995.

Douglas Gillette.  The Shaman’s Secret. Bantam Books, New York, 1997.

 

The omnipresent Mayan deity, that didn’t exist

The Complete MesoAmerica... and more

It’s an odd thing with gods: Many people say they exist, because they know and believe it. Many people say, that there probably isn’t any god. Scientists often refer to god as made by man. So in the end, you probably can’t know if a god exists or not. If however you come to speak of a god in question, that was the god of an ancient culture in an originally pantheistic religion, it gets a lot harder.

Right now however, I want to present such a case to you: the case of the god Hunab Ku. Hunab Ku is said to be an high, invisible god of the Maya. In a 16th century dictionary, he’s described as: “the only living and true god, also the greatest of the gods of the people of Yucatan. He had no form because they said that he could not be represented as…

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Solar Eclipse–Potent Time for the Mayas

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Solar Eclipse Was a Potent Time for the Mayas.
The ancient Mayas were the most advanced astronomers of their time. They calculated the solar year, lunar cycles, periodicity of the planets, solstices and equinoxes with amazing accuracy. They were able to readily predict lunar eclipses, and had calculated a pattern of dates for solar eclipses, including predicting the solar eclipse of 1991. (Bricker & Bricker)
Solar eclipses were known as chi’ ibal kin to ancient Mayas, translated as “to eat the sun.”
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Glyph for Solar Eclipse – Serpent Eating the Sun

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Dresden Codex
Solar Eclipse Tables with Serpent Eating the Sun

This phenomenon was depicted in the Dresden Codex as a serpent with huge open jaws about to devour the solar eclipse glyph. Although modern experts believe eclipses were a cause of distress for ancient peoples, terrifying because they did not understand the science behind such phenomena, this was not true for the Mayas. With their sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, the Mayas understood the movements of celestial bodies and how the moon moving between the sun and earth caused a brief blacking out of sunlight. To the Mayas, this held profound symbolic meaning, signaling a major shift of cosmic influences upon earth. Such potent occasions were prime time for ceremonies and invoking celestial powers into human actions.

In the story of K’inich Janaab Pakal, most famous Maya ruler who reigned in Palenque from 615-683 CE, the power of a solar eclipse was used to increase potency of a most important ritual. His prophesied mission was to restore the spiritual charter of his city, and resurrect the Jeweled Sky Tree that formed a portal to communicate with the Gods and ancestors. This version of a World Tree, called Wakah Chan Te by the Mayas, had its roots in the Underworld, its trunk rose through the Middleworld of earth, and its

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Wakah Chan Te
Jeweled Sky Tree from Cross Group, Palenque

branches soared into the Upperworld of the cosmos. In Palenque, Pakal built a new temple in which to raise the Jeweled Sky Tree, since the original shrine was destroyed and desecrated in an enemy attack by Kalakmul during his childhood.

 

Although the history of Palenque’s defeat by Kalakmul is well known (Stuart & Stuart), and Pakal’s mandate to restore the damaged portal to the Upperworld has been described (Aldana), the actual process of resurrecting the Tree is a mystery. My task as an author of historical fiction was to use informed imagination to envision this process. This I did through the character of Pakal’s wife, Tz’aakb’u Ahau (Lalak in my story, called The Red Queen), whose training in sexual alchemy brought the immense power of life creation to join with Pakal in “conceiving and birthing” a new Wakah Chan Te. (Martin) To further enhance the potency of this event, the ceremony was enacted during a solar eclipse.

Historical records show there was a solar eclipse that crossed over Guatemala and southern Chiapas on February 2, 650 CE. Palenque, located in Chiapas, would have experienced at least partial solar eclipse between 1:00-4:00 pm that day, which worked perfectly for the ceremony done by Pakal and Lalak and resulted in the climactic moment of their story.

Read the historical fiction story of Pakal, his wife Lalak–The Red Queen, and the solar eclipse ritual to resurrect the Wakah Chan Te:

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The Mayan Red Queen:  Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque  

 

 

 

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Mayan Priests Gathering at Chichen Itza Observatory

How the Mayas predicted solar eclipses.

Predicting lunar and solar eclipses is more complex than determining sunrise, sunset, solstice, and equinox. Movements of the earth, the sun, and the moon all must be taken in to account because this involves correlating the synodic lunations with the solar calendar. Because the orbital plane of the moon is inclined by 5 degrees to the plane of earth’s orbit, eclipses do not happen at every full and new moon. Rather, they take place only when the moon enters the ecliptic plane at the same time that it is in correct position between the sun and earth.

Maya astronomer priests were able to determine the nodes when the paths of moon and sun cross, which occurs every 173.31 days. In this time period, eclipses may occur within 18 days of the node. Most would result in lunar eclipses; the Dresden Codex contains eclipse tables made of columns and rows based on the numbers 177 (6 lunations), and 148 (5 lunations). The Codex is a

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Dresden Codex
Eclipse Tables

folding bark-paper book with pages coated in thin stucco, with glyphs painted in red and black and many symbolic figures. There are tables containing predictions of the phases of Venus over a 104-year interval, and predictions of lunar phases for 33 years. The Mayas used these to calculate solar eclipses.

The average interval between solar eclipses is 153.79 days. They had calculated a synodic lunar period as 29.533 days (modern value 29.530 days). Since the Mayas did not use decimals, they varied between 28 and 29 days for lunations. A grid of dates in the Codex linked Venus phenomena with lunar nodes to predict solar eclipses. Using the derived multipliers they were able to determine solar eclipse intervals that varied by +7 and +8 days. Combining an inferior conjunction of Venus with the predicted solar eclipse gave better accuracy.

The Dresden Codex is one of only four Mayan manuscripts that escaped destruction by the Spaniards when they invaded Mexico in the 16th century. The surviving codices are 11-12th century copies of older Mayan books. When researchers recently compared dates of Mayan calendars with our current one, then used modern data on planetary orbits and cycles, they found the Maya’s data was surprisingly accurate. The Maya astronomical calendar correctly predicted a solar eclipse to within one day in 1991, centuries after Classic ancient Mayan civilization ended. (Bricker & Bricker)

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Mural of Maya Astronomy
Mexicolore

 

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Solar Eclipse

 

Had the Classic Mayan civilization continued, undoubtedly they would have predicted our current eclipse occurring on August 21, 2017.

 

 

 

 

More about Leonide Martin’s Mayan Queen books: www.mistsofpalenque.com

References

Aldana, Gerardo.  The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal. University of Colorado Press, 2007.

Martin, Leonide.  The Mayan Red Queen: Tz’aakb’u Ahau of Palenque. Made for Success Pub., 2015.

Stuart, David & Stuart, George.  Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya. Thames & Hudson, 2008.

 

 

 

Poetry of Creation Myth Recited by Yohl Ik’nal

Palenque’s Creation Myth Recited by Yohl Ik’nal.

 

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Yohl Ik’nal
Side of Pakal’s Sarcophagus

 

In her transformation to adulthood ceremony, Yohl Ik’nal recited the creation myth of B’aakal, her people and land. She correctly recited from memory, and was acknowledged as “bearer of the sacred royal blood” by the ruler of Lakam Ha. She became the first woman ruler of Palenque, ruling successfully for 22 years.
From The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik’nal of Palenque. Book 1, Mists of Palenque Series.

 

 

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Glyph of Muwaan Mat

“It was before the Fourth Creation, in times long ago

Ix Muwaan Mat was born.

Of her birth it is said, she entered the sky

On the Day of Lord (Ahau), Month of Conjuring (Tzek),

For she was to bring the new creation.

Seven tuns after her birth came the new Creation,

When all counts of the long calendar returned to zero.

The Gods of the sky, of the earth, of the underworld

Knew what they must do.

They did three stone-bindings in the sky:

The Jaguar Throne Stone at the 5 Sky House;

The Water Lily Throne Stone at the Heart of the Sky;

The Serpent Throne Stone at the 13 Sky Earth-Cave.

These three stones formed the First Hearth Place,

Patterned the stars so homes on earth would have hearthstones.

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Itzamna Painted on Vase Performing Ritual

Then the Lords of the First Sky took their places:

9 Sky Yoch’ok’in, 16 Ch’ok’in, and 9 Tz’ak Ahau.

These were Lords of the Jeweled Tree

That reached from the Middleworld of earth

Into the Upperworld where the Gods lived.

These Lords required gifts, these bundles were their tribute,

They were adorned with precious jewels, with necklaces and ear spools.

Ix Muwaan Mat adorned them,

She did tribute in the way required.

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Lords of Xibalba
Mayan Underworld Gods

And also for the new Creation, the underworld Gods were put in order.

The Underworld Ruler K’in Bahlam – Sun Jaguar

Received bundles from the six Lords of the Underworld.

They gave their gifts and all things were in order.

It was done.  The Fourth Creation came to pass.

The hearthstones were seated, the Jeweled Tree was raised,

The Lords of the Sky and of the Underworld took their places.

Eight tuns after her birth, Ix Muwaan Mat

Did the Deer Hoof Binding ceremony to designate herself as heir.

She carried the burden of creating the lineage.

The time was not yet, it was still to come, her travail for the lineage.

Two days after the Deer Hoof Binding ceremony,

First Father Hun Ahau entered the sky, sited the House of the North

In the 6 Sky Ahau place, creating the origin-lands of Matawiil.

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Mayan Sun God — K’inich Ahau

Now was the time of Ix Muwaan Mat’s travail.

It was time for the birth of the B’aakal lineage.

It happened, 750 tuns after House of the North was sited.

Hun Ahau the Son of First Father was born

Of the penance of Ix Muwaan Mat in the origin-lands of Matawiil.

He is the Lord of the Celestial Realm.

Great was the travail of Ix Muwaan Mat,

For next was born in 4 days a second son,

Mah K’inah Ahau the Lord of the Underworld,

Called K’in Bahlam, the Sun Jaguar, the underworld sun-full moon.

And soon thereafter, 14 days after the second son, was born the third son,

Ahau Unen K’awiil, Lord of the Earthly Realm

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Glyphs of Palenque Triad Gods

And keeper of the royal blood.

Thus were born at Matawiil, through the travail of Ix Muwaan Mat,

The three patron Gods of Lakam Ha, the B’aakal Triad.

Let the people of Lakam Ha always remember their Primal Mother,

For through her comes our life and our sustenance.

 

One final ceremony was required for creating the lineage of B’aakal.

There must be the sacred office of ahaulel – rulership.

There must be the first k’uhul ahau – ruling lord.

She, Ix Muwaan Mat the Primal Mother,

She first earned the right to tie on the White Headband of ruler.

It was done.  800 tuns after she was born,

Ix Muwaan Mat tied on the White Headband.

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Lady Cormorant
Ix Muwaan Mat

Her three sons, the B’aakal Triad

Thought to themselves, this place needs people

To know the Gods, to speak their names and keep their days.

These three decided to create the Halach Uinik-real people.

And then was created the first person, the modeling of the first mother-father,

With yellow and white corn for the flesh, for the bones and legs and arms.

This first person, U K’ix Kan, was simply made and modeled,

There was no mother and no father.

By sacrifice and their uayob (spirit companions) alone

The B’aakal Triad created the first human.

U K’ix Kan, mother-father of the B’aakal lineage,

Tied on the White Headband 1300 tuns after

Ix Muwaan Mat became the first ruler.

Then came the time of duality, the mother-father divided

Into female and male, so the Lords of B’aakal could live in the Middleworld.

This was done, the dividing, by nine maize drinks given by

Grandmother Xmucane, Heart of Earth, Goddess of Transformation.

More than 1200 tuns later,

K’uk Bahlam I was born, he of Toktan.

     [image error]It was accomplished, in the Fourth Creation,

The birth of a son from a man and a woman, Halach Uinik-real people,

The progenitors of the B’aakal lineage.

The son, the ruler, Holy B’aakal Lord, K’uk Bahlam I

Whose blood flows through all rulers of Lakam Ha.

And in this way the Triad Gods, the three sons of Ix Muwaan Mat,

Created the B’aakal lineage, the founders of Lakam Ha.”

Poetic rendition draws from translations by:

Dennis Tedlock. 2000 Years of Mayan Literature. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2010.

Gerardo Aldana. The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, 2007.

Palenque Creation Myth: Lady Cormorant and the Birth of the Triad

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Cormorant Goddess from Dresden Codex

The ancient Maya city Palenque (Lakam Ha) had a unique creation myth that linked the origins of their ruling dynasty to primordial goddesses and gods.

All the Maya regions in southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras shared a common creation myth about the Hero Twins and how they outsmarted the Death Lords of Xibalba and resurrected their father, securing life on earth for their people. This legend is recorded in the Popol Vuh, an 18th century copy of the original codex rendition that has been lost. Palenque’s unique myth incorporates deities widely known in their region, but nowhere else honored in the same way. The Triad deities were the patron gods of ancient Lakam Ha, bringing the blessings of abundance and prosperity when properly attended and worshiped. The ruling dynasty was believed to be descended from these gods and their mother, Lady Cormorant (Muwaan Mat in the Mayan language).

Palenque Creation Myth Summarized. 

The larger context of the Creation Myth reaches immeasurably far back in time, to the appearance of “First Father” who was ruler “in the heavens” in 3309 BCE, according to a Temple XIX text in Palenque. This god was set upon the throne by another deity called Yax Naah Itzamnaaj, a creator god who is considered by many the most supreme Maya god. First Father, also called Hun Ahau–One Lord, took part in sacrificing the Celestial Caiman and ritual fire-making that set the stage for creating and sustaining the cosmos. This god, also an early version of the Maize God, joined with the Primordial Mother Goddess, Muwaan Mat (Lady Cormorant) to give birth to the Triad Gods. Muwaan Mat, the

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Temple of the Cross

Triad Progenitor, was born in 3121 BCE as related in the opening passage of the Tablet of the Cross at Palenque. She brought forth the creation, the “birthing” of the Triad Gods, and established the mythical charter for rulers to interact with the gods they were entrusted to care for and honor.

These creation deities set the stage for the Fourth Sun, the fourth creation of Maya people after the failure of the first three attempts, as told in the Popol Vuh. The gods of the sky (Lords of the First Sky) and underworld (Lords of Death) were set in their proper order. This key calendar date is cited throughout all the ancient Maya lands, the creation of the current era on August 13, 3114 BCE. In the Maya Long Count Calendar, this date is written 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ahau 8 Kumk’u. On this date, the “hearth was changed” and the three sacred stones were put in place in the heavens, serving as the model for all Maya household hearths. This implies the making of “new fire,” a ceremony that continues to be enacted in Mesoamerican cultures every 52 years at the Pleiades zenith. Over one year later, First Father descended from the sky and occupied the “Six Sky Ahau Place” dedicated to him in the north, indicating a station in the Maya zodiac. He was reincarnated as the first born of the Palenque Triad.

The time was right for birth of the Triad Gods.

Muwaan Mat, Primordial Mother, did “penance” to bring forth her three sons, separated by just a few days in 2360 BCE. They were born in this order, although early Mayanists labeled them out of order as GI, GII, and GIII:

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Glyph of the Sun God – Hun Ahau

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Mah Kinah Ahau – Underworld Sun, Waterlily Jaguar

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Glyph of Unen K’awiil – Baby Jaguar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hun Ahau—One Lord, first born son, “arrived at Matawiil” on Oct. 21, 2360 BCE. His domain is the celestial realm, the Upperworld. He is depicted as the Sun God. (GI)
Mah Kinah Ahau—Underworld Sun, also called K’in Bahlam—Sun Jaguar, second born son, “arrived at Matawiil” on Oct. 25, 2360 BCE. His domain is the Underworld, represented by the full moon or night sun. He is depicted as the Waterlily Jaguar swimming in the watery Underworld. (GIII)
Ahau K’in—Lord Sun, also called Unen K’awiil, third born son, “arrived at Matawiil” on Nov. 8, 2360 BCE. His domain is the earthly realm and agriculture, the Middleworld. He is the patron of the royal dynasty, often depicted as a baby jaguar with a snake leg. (GII)

Matawiil was a mythical place that lies at the heart of Palenque’s political and religious identity. Called “Place of Reeds,” it implies a swampy place associated with life emerging from fertile watery lands, a common Mesoamerican theme. Metaphorically, these births were described as journeys to some new worldly place, suggesting that a new order was being founded.

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Muwaan Mat Name Glyph

Now Muwaan Mat initiated the ruling lineage of Palenque.

By the Maya Long Count Calendar, 800 tuns (360-day years) after her birth, she became the initial “ruler” leading to the Palenque lineage, assuming the throne in 2325 BCE by “tying on the White Headband.” The Triad Gods then took over creating the dynasty, making the Halach Uinik or “real people” of the Fourth Creation. They used yellow and white corn, water and blood to make the first real person, U K’ix Kan. This mythical quasi-human ruler was not born, but simply made and modeled by the Triad Gods acting as mother-father. U K’ix Kan tied on the White Headband 1300 tuns after Muwaan Mat became ruler. After another 1200 tuns, he brought forth the “time of duality” by drinking nine maize drinks given to him by Grandmother Xmucane, Heart of Earth and Goddess of Transformation. He divided into female and male in order to give birth to the first historic ruler of Palenque, K’uk Bahlam I.

K’uk Bahlam I was born on March 31, 397 CE (8.18.0.13.6, 5 Kimi 14 Kayab in Maya Long Count Calendar). He acceded to the Palenque throne thirty-four years later, in 431 CE. From him descended

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Bust of Janaab Pakal, Ruler of Palenque

sixteen generations of rulers, the most famous being K’inich Janaab Pakal I, or Pakal the Great who lived from 603-683 CE. Kan Bahlam II, son of Pakal I, set this creation story in carved hieroglyphs on the panels of the Cross Group, a complex of three pyramid-temples arranged to mirror the three hearthstones of creation.

The next several articles will continue with the

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Kan Bahlam II – Temple XVII Tablet

poetic rendition of Palenque’s Creation Myth through translations of these panels, and descriptions of how the Cross Group mirrors these Fourth Creation events.

 

 

 

 

 

[image error]The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik’nal of Palenque tells the story of Pakal’s grandmother and her recitation of the poetic Creation Myth.

BUY NOW in print.

 

 

[image error]The Controversial Mayan Queen:  Sak K’uk of Palenque tells the story of Pakal’s mother and the conflicts leading to his designation as heir to the throne.

BUY NOW in print.

 

 

 

References

David Stuart & George Stuart.  Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya. Thames & Hudson, London, 2008.

Gerardo Aldana.  The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal: Science, History, and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 2007.

Dennis Tedlock.  Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, Revised Edition. Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996.

Hunbatz Men.  The 8 Calendars of the Maya: The Pleiadian Cycle and the Key to Destiny. Bear & Company, Rochester, VT, 2010.