The Mayas built great cities and pyramids. Among those cities are Tikal in Guatemala, Copan in Honduras, Chichen Itza and Uxmal in Mexico and others.
TIKAL:
This Mayan city is in Peten, Guatemala. It was the biggest city of the Mayas; the size of Manhattan (NYC) and it had a complex structure with tow great pyramids: THE PYRAMID OF THE GREAT JAGUAR (Picture on the left) AND THE PYRAMID OF THE MASKS (Picture to the right). One is just in front of the other one.
It was not easy for me to walk up to the top of the Pyramid of the Jaguar; but when I got there I found a lady around 70 years old exercising right there!
It was not easy for me to walk up to the top of the Pyramid of the Jaguar; but when I got there I found a lady around 70 years old exercising right there!
TIKAL NAMES!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN? There are many theories. It is up to us, I guess, to believe which one is the right one. I tell you two meanings and why I like them:
1- PLACE OF THE TONGUE.
2- IN THE WELL OF WATER.
I like those two meanings. The first one comes from the Maya Itza (Remember CHICHET ITZA, in Yucatan). The latter comes from the Yucatan area too. It makes sense since CHICHEN ITZA means THE WELL OR MOUTH OF THE MAGICIAN.
The original name was YAX MUTAL or FIRST MUTAL. What does MUTAL mean? It is not know yet. There are many enigmas left by the Mayas. It is the most enigmatic culture in the planet. Archeologist, I am sure, will discover more pyramids and things from the Mayas. Remember the word “MAYA” is everywhere: Maya was the mother of Buddha; Maya was a Greek goddess; May (Mayo in Spanish) is the fifth moth; the RAMAYANA (Please take “RA” AND “NA” from that word and you will find “MAYA”) tells about people called “THE MAYAS”; the ‘MAHANVARATHA” , the great sacred book from India, tells about THE KING OF THE MAYAS”…
THE IMPORTANCE OF “THE WORD” FOR THE MAYAS:
Let’s go back to the names of TIKAL. Both “Place of the Tongues” and “In the well of the water” remind me CHICHEN ITZA: The Well or Mouth of the Magician. Actually the throat is a well where the tongue is and that place is where the “WORD” comes out! The sound, the “Word”, is one of the things that humans have (Actually humans do not understand what is the “word” for). For the Mayas the word was really important. A liar was worst than a robber because he was using the word in a very wrong way. The power to talk was giving to the gods to humans.
The Popol Vuh (The book of the congregation or the people’s book) is the sacred book of the Maya-Quiche, in Guatemala. That is the Bible of the Mayas. The gods, in that book, started the creation and they said they would not rest and would not be happy “until the formed man is created”! They created everything with THE POWER OF THE WORD. Let this to be created they said and it was created. Later they created the first men, but they were not able to talk. The gods destroyed them. Finally, the man able to talk was created and the creation was over. Now those men were able to understand the gods.
Modern people cannot talk. I am serious, I am not kidding. Arguing, insulting, talking trash is not talking. The word was giving to men not for that, but for understanding each other. Talking is to help each other and ask for help. Anyone can utter words, but not everyone can talk.
COPAN:
The Mayas left a city called COPAN (Honduras). It has several Stelas. They are priest and they usually have a serpent with two. The priests are holding those serpents and they are pointing upward with their fingers.
Those double-headed serpents represent the negative and positive forces of nature. We usually think positive as good and negative as bad. When we are talking about energy, which is the meaning of the serpent, we are not talking about good and evil. Rather we are talking about the forces of the universe and the double headed serpent represents, in this case, the balance of energies; in other words, the control of energies.
The universe is in harmony because of the balance of the energies. When someone is polarized into good or evil then the balance is broken and chaos is the outcome.
WE WILL POST MORE ABOUT COPAN!
UXMAL:
Uxmal is a great Mayan city located in Yucatan, about 60 miles from Merida. The latter is a very nice town.
There are tours going from Merida to Uxmal and you can spend the whole day in that great site!
There are other tours to take you to different sites near to Merida. Believe me if you go to Merida you have to go to UXMAL.
The pyramid of the magician (La Piramide del Adivino, which really means the Pyramid of the future teller) is a high rounded hollow pyramid.
Uxmal has several sites including a "PHALLUS" temple. That is very interesting because it is telling us about a different way to see sex. It is interesting that the Hindu temples have couples having sex and there is MIN the fertility god of the Egyptians, always with his phallus erected!
We will add the meaning of this later on this blog.
UXMAL HAS SOME EXOTIC TEMPLES!
CHICHEN ITZA, MEXICO YUCATAN.
Chichen Itza is a big site, you need the whole day to see it and you might want to return soon. You will see there the main attraction: THE PYRAMID OF KUKULCAN, called EL CASTILLO by the Spaniards. Why did they name it like that? Simple, they never so nothing similar, so they thought a castle (Castillo) was the most similar thing to it.
Another important attraction is: THE TEMPLE OF THE WARRIORS. Actually it was not a temple of the warriors for the Mayas. The idea came from two main things: 1> The columns by it represents prisoners of war and 2> They really did human sacrifices because they were not following the ancient wisdom any longer. They were in the Iron Age when the Spaniards came to Mexico. Huemac an Aztec priest told them to do human sacrifices, so they used to take the heart of the enemies out of the body right on top of this so called temple, right on the CHAK MOOL (Red claw).
For a better understanding of these two topics (The Iron Age or the four Yugas and the Meaning of Human Sacrifices) please check links on the bottom.
THE SACRED “CENOTE” (A huge well) was supposed to be used to through all the way down the sacrificed victim: Kids, virgins, etc. It is said it was done to make happy the gods, so the gods would give them back what they wanted: Rain, harvest, etc. This is a very childish way to see this symbol; but we have to admit the Aztecs used to do this and some Mayas left when the main Mayas left the cities. All the cultures which come down to the Iron Age end their days as savages. One day it will be our turn! Actually we are already in it, but the end is not yet to come: Year 2012 is not the end!
MORE FROM CULWISDOM:
CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN (MEXICO): A MAGICAL PLACE.
THE MEANING OF HUMAN SACRIFICES.
THE FOUR YUGAS OR STAGES OF HUMANITY.
UXMAL:
Uxmal is a great Mayan city located in Yucatan, about 60 miles from Merida. The latter is a very nice town.There are tours going from Merida to Uxmal and you can spend the whole day in that great site!
There are other tours to take you to different sites near to Merida. Believe me if you go to Merida you have to go to UXMAL.
The pyramid of the magician (La Piramide del Adivino, which really means the Pyramid of the future teller) is a high rounded hollow pyramid.Uxmal has several sites including a "PHALLUS" temple. That is very interesting because it is telling us about a different way to see sex. It is interesting that the Hindu temples have couples having sex and there is MIN the fertility god of the Egyptians, always with his phallus erected!
We will add the meaning of this later on this blog.
UXMAL HAS SOME EXOTIC TEMPLES!
CHICHEN ITZA, MEXICO YUCATAN.
The magical city of the Mayas. CHICHEN ITZA means the mouth of the well of the Itza; it is translated also as THE MOUTH OF THE WIZARD.
Chichen Itza is a big site, you need the whole day to see it and you might want to return soon. You will see there the main attraction: THE PYRAMID OF KUKULCAN, called EL CASTILLO by the Spaniards. Why did they name it like that? Simple, they never so nothing similar, so they thought a castle (Castillo) was the most similar thing to it.
Another important attraction is: THE TEMPLE OF THE WARRIORS. Actually it was not a temple of the warriors for the Mayas. The idea came from two main things: 1> The columns by it represents prisoners of war and 2> They really did human sacrifices because they were not following the ancient wisdom any longer. They were in the Iron Age when the Spaniards came to Mexico. Huemac an Aztec priest told them to do human sacrifices, so they used to take the heart of the enemies out of the body right on top of this so called temple, right on the CHAK MOOL (Red claw). For a better understanding of these two topics (The Iron Age or the four Yugas and the Meaning of Human Sacrifices) please check links on the bottom.
THE SACRED “CENOTE” (A huge well) was supposed to be used to through all the way down the sacrificed victim: Kids, virgins, etc. It is said it was done to make happy the gods, so the gods would give them back what they wanted: Rain, harvest, etc. This is a very childish way to see this symbol; but we have to admit the Aztecs used to do this and some Mayas left when the main Mayas left the cities. All the cultures which come down to the Iron Age end their days as savages. One day it will be our turn! Actually we are already in it, but the end is not yet to come: Year 2012 is not the end!
It is really important to learn to take the meaning of the symbols because the symbols alone are not good enough to understand the ancient wisdom. A person who lacks the main idea of the human sacrifices and the meaning of every single symbol could make a real huge mistake trying to understand the Mayas or Aztecs or any other culture.
MORE FROM CULWISDOM:
CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN (MEXICO): A MAGICAL PLACE.
THE MEANING OF HUMAN SACRIFICES.
THE FOUR YUGAS OR STAGES OF HUMANITY.
