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Finding Answers in Guatemala

By Betty Hahn Chancey, Art Workshops in Guatemala

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to visit one of the amazing pyramid - sites in Mexico for the first time. I was 18 years old, a foreign exchange student studying Spanish and living with a local family. As I sat atop the magnificent pyramid with the tropical sun blazing above me, I knew somehow that this trip was going to affect the rest of my life.

Since that time, I have felt compelled to return again and again to this part of the world, called Mesoamerica by archeologists and anthropologists--the regions inhabited by the Aztecs and Mayans--to study and learn whatever I could about the mysterious people who built these pyramids. I've been particularly drawn to study the Mayans, so for decades I have asked myself, just what IS it about the Mayan world?  My friends and family also have been asking this question, frustrated by what they have seen as my unreasonable compulsion to visit a place and a people that had nothing to do with my own heritage. Finally, after years of searching, I visited the place that solved the riddle for me. My answer came from Guatemala.

Many aspects of Guatemala might draw one to travel there more than once. To begin with, there is the sheer beauty of the country's topography. Thirty volcanic peaks loom over the Guatemalan highlands, creating spectacularly dramatic scenery at every turn. The shimmering blue Lake Atitlan, a collapsed volcanic cone more than 320 meters deep, is certainly one of the most breathtakingly beautiful lakes in the world. The lowland jungles in the north of Guatemala are equally remarkable. From atop ancient pyramids, you can look over miles of brilliant green rain forest at pyramid-shaped mounds with trees growing out of them, unexcavated ruins just waiting for discovery. Giant ceiba, mahogany and sapodilla trees contain a world of orchids, bromeliads, spider and howler monkeys, parrots, toucans and other exotic flora and fauna.

Antigua, the former capital of the country, offers visitors another reason to come time after time to the place known as "the land of eternal spring." It's easy to understand why UNESCO named Antigua, one of the oldest cities in the Americas, a World Heritage Site in 1979. Situated below three volcanoes, its cobblestone streets take visitors past colonial homes with terra cotta roofs, their gardens bursting in bloom with bougainvilleas and other tropical flowers. Antigua must be one of the most fascinating cities anywhere, full of color, history, and of course, Maya.

The magnificent ruins are evidence of the astounding achievements the Maya achieved in science, math, astronomy, physics, and architecture. They were able to calculate the speed of light, and to compute the length of the earth's rotation around the sun to within a thousandth of a decimal point of the calculations of modern science.

They maintained calendar records of lunar, planetary and eclipse cycles. On monuments, they recorded dates as long ago as 400 million years. And all this with a unique and incredibly simple numbering system that counted by 20's instead of 10's and used only three symbols.

One only has to visit the ruins at Tikal, in northern Guatemala, to witness the physical evidence of such achievements. Visiting Tikal, in its beautiful and lush jungle setting, is certainly one of the highlights of a visit to Guatemala. Imagining the city as it appeared in its heyday, gleaming white, with red roof combs trimmed in blue, with paved streets, reservoirs, and a huge market in the center, one has no doubt of the genius of the ancient Maya. For decades I have read books about the ancient Maya that ask, where did they go?  Why did they vanish?

But the fact is, they did not vanish at all. Certain factors caused them to abandon the cities and live a simpler existence, much as their ancestors do who are still here. Which brings me to how Guatemala answered my question about why I am so drawn to the world of the Maya. The answer lies with the living Mayan people who populate this amazing country. In these vibrant and resilient people, I have found what I have been searching for over the years, a remarkable life of the spirit that eludes many of the rest of us.

More than half of the population of Guatemala today is comprised of Mayan people, with at least 20 separate Mayan languages spoken in different parts of the country. The presence of a Mayan culture is nowhere more obvious than in the traditional clothing worn by Mayan women and some of the men, with each village represented by its own unique style and design. Many Mayans observe traditional ceremonies throughout the country. Even though Guatemala is predominately a Catholic country, Guatemalan Catholicism contains much Mayan ritual and belief buried within its usual forms. Mayan Catholicism mixes Christian tradition with shamanism and animism in a fascinating way.

A strong undercurrent of Pre-Columbian spirituality pervades much of the religious practice in Guatemala. Modern elders, or 'day-keepers' meticulously maintain calculations of the calendars of cycles and divination that we know their ancestors used, and see the purpose of their lives to be as keepers of the order of days. Catholic saints have become manifestations of older deities. Despite modern trappings, rituals here are rooted deeply in ancient ones. A foreign visitor may not have the opportunity to witness these rituals, as the modern Maya are understandably reticent after years of persecution, but these practices are here, alive and well. And some of the same ideas that informed the lives of the ancient Maya can be found in the spiritual life of traditional modern Maya.

In classes I teach on Mayan shamanism and culture, we begin with these basic concepts that form a link between the old Mayan world and the new. One of the most important of these is the idea that everything in the world of nature is animated by spiritual essence. Everything is alive, and all life is part of one mysterious unity that comes from its spiritual source. The only true reality is spirit. The universe is essentially magic, and not necessarily bound by what we think of as physical laws. Matter and spirit are separate but joined, and ritual actions can break the planes of reality. Everything is cyclical, and anything can be transformed.

If you are lucky enough to witness a modern Mayan ritual, you might see a shaman transfer an illness from a patient to an egg, which is then broken open, to read the illness. Or the illness might be shifted into a chicken, which is then sacrificed to kill the illness. A Mayan spiritual leader might burn copal incense, rue and candles; the smoke leaving the fire carries with it ones prayers and supplications. An altar a Mayan villager builds with saplings and gourds is a representation of the cosmos, in much the same way that the Mayan pyramid cities were constructed to represent the cosmos, and the ceremonies at this altar speak directly to the spirits within the cosmos. Woven into the fabric weavings of modern Maya are symbols and stories passed down from their people's histories. By observing modern Mayan practices, we can gain insights into the world of the ancient Maya. And in the remnants left behind by the Mayans of antiquity, we can see links to their ancestors today.

When I first sat on that pyramid so many years ago, I was 18 years old. Although I had no idea at the time that I was seeking anything, that simple visit to an archeological site led me directly to the Mayan world. I found it in Guatemala, still alive, still vibrant, full of color and spirit, full of answers to questions I hadn't even known I'd asked.