Palenque, 2005
Systematic annihilation of Maya history mimics our own By: Ken La Rive
I’m
not an archeologist, but sometimes think I should have been. I enjoy a good
mystery, and I have grown to believe that history, as it is now taught, is
biased, and probably just plain lies. A culture should be exceptionally careful
to record and teach history accurately, and for a lot of reasons. Reading
Orwell’s 1984 explained it to me... that history is written by the victor, and
in that process, truth is probably gone forever. There is no better way to appreciate the
bare bones of history than to travel with an open mind and adventure spirit. There,
truth will present itself, if you are looking... and know this, without a truthful history, a culture has no way of seeing the future, or find roots in the past. Without a truthful history, a culture soon dies, and is easily controlled. What happened here in the Americas is a testament to what is occurring today, as a top heavy and powerful government is rewriting history, and teaching our children.
In the Communication’s department at Loyola University, I was force-fed religious study and a dialogue (discussion) class every semester. At the time I was pulling my hair out, but later in life I realized just how relevant it was in my everyday life, and also just what it means to be a human being in a world of lies and deceit.
In the Communication’s department at Loyola University, I was force-fed religious study and a dialogue (discussion) class every semester. At the time I was pulling my hair out, but later in life I realized just how relevant it was in my everyday life, and also just what it means to be a human being in a world of lies and deceit.
I’m sure you will agree that it is difficult to see where you are going if you have forgotten, or are being lied too, about where you have come from. I think that some of the problems we are having in this society are directly the result of this... the destruction of our heritage. My father told me that I should try and learn from his mistakes, as in that way I would be a whole lot further along. I see that now. The comparative study of religion and civilization opened doors to my thinking, and first stimulated my interest in Archeology, and the Maya.
Speculation as
to who built the pyramids in Egypt has remained a mystery no matter how much we
dig and probe. Some things are just out
of the realm of memory. So too is the
Maya also wrapped in a shroud of mystery.
What stimulated these many civilizations around the globe? Within the
same approximate time period they produced amazing grand structures, and
complex societies that are strikingly similar, both then and now.
Did you know that the great flood found in the Christian bible is also found in some form or another in nearly every culture around the world? Monuments were built around the world that precisely aligned with the north and south poles, the equinox of the sun, the phase of the moon and planets, that took a great deal of accurate observation, with instruments mostly lost to time.
Surely you would think that we could duplicate it today! But how do you move giant blocks up a cliff face without leaving a scratch? How to you build pyramids in America without the use of a draft animal for hauling, a metal cutting tool, a compass, or the invention of the wheel? What has been found here in the Americas is just as astounding as what was going on in North Africa, Europe, China, and the Mediterranean at the same time. There was something astounding and complex manifesting itself here, and that something is still a mystery.
Did you know that the great flood found in the Christian bible is also found in some form or another in nearly every culture around the world? Monuments were built around the world that precisely aligned with the north and south poles, the equinox of the sun, the phase of the moon and planets, that took a great deal of accurate observation, with instruments mostly lost to time.
Surely you would think that we could duplicate it today! But how do you move giant blocks up a cliff face without leaving a scratch? How to you build pyramids in America without the use of a draft animal for hauling, a metal cutting tool, a compass, or the invention of the wheel? What has been found here in the Americas is just as astounding as what was going on in North Africa, Europe, China, and the Mediterranean at the same time. There was something astounding and complex manifesting itself here, and that something is still a mystery.
It is
interesting to note that the peak of the Maya culture, as found in Mexico’s
Yucatan, Tabasco, Campeche, Guatemala and Honduras, actually fell 600 years
before the Spanish Conquistadors and Catholic Priests showed up on the Mexican
shore. What remained, The Aztec, was
painfully absorbed, influenced, or completely destroyed by the Spanish greed for gold,
land, and the spread of it's moral dogma. Conquest was easy for two reasons.
One: Montezuma virtually opened the gates to Cortez because he thought he was
the incarnation of a man who had become a legend in Chitzen Itza hundreds of
years before. A man named Kulkukan, who had influenced the culture with new ideas and architecture... attempting to change the Mayan steadfast tradition of human
sacrifice.
Kulkukan was a
great leader, a Toltec who had come to this strange Mayan land from the sea. Initially, he volunteered to be thrown into the cenoti, where, if you survived, was pulled out to tell of your experiences talking to the gods as you plunged deep into the dark water. He was a sailor, and so a good swimmer... When he wall pulled out by ropes, he was quickly asked what he had seen, and he was recorded to have said: "Yes, I have spoken to the gods, and they told me I am to be your leader." And he surely was... a white man with a beard...
With time, the Smoking Mirror faction of priests had him expelled from the city, but as he and his followers left, he promised he would return, as was found in what was left of the written history of the Aztec.
Montezuma, the Aztec ruler at the time of the Spanish invasion, interpreted these texts before Cortes had actually appeared, and when a runner came and told him of the white men with beards, who were riding animals, both as predicted, he was shaken to the core. Because of this revelation, he virtually opened the gates to Cortes and his hundred or so men. Secondly: Nine out of ten people were already dead from smallpox, influenza, and measles shortly after first contact. These Mayans were not immune to European diseases, and it was a horrible way to go. Try to put that into perspective here in the U.S.? How in the world could we fend off an aggressor with so much of the population gone? It is amazing that the Mayans were able to take a stand at all. Indeed, they did, but with the Spaniard’s more sophisticated weaponry they were able to impose their own “Spanish Order,” in a very short time, spreading this plague into South America, annihilating the Inca to the south, and the many tribes of Indians well up into Canada and Alaska, as well.
With time, the Smoking Mirror faction of priests had him expelled from the city, but as he and his followers left, he promised he would return, as was found in what was left of the written history of the Aztec.
Montezuma, the Aztec ruler at the time of the Spanish invasion, interpreted these texts before Cortes had actually appeared, and when a runner came and told him of the white men with beards, who were riding animals, both as predicted, he was shaken to the core. Because of this revelation, he virtually opened the gates to Cortes and his hundred or so men. Secondly: Nine out of ten people were already dead from smallpox, influenza, and measles shortly after first contact. These Mayans were not immune to European diseases, and it was a horrible way to go. Try to put that into perspective here in the U.S.? How in the world could we fend off an aggressor with so much of the population gone? It is amazing that the Mayans were able to take a stand at all. Indeed, they did, but with the Spaniard’s more sophisticated weaponry they were able to impose their own “Spanish Order,” in a very short time, spreading this plague into South America, annihilating the Inca to the south, and the many tribes of Indians well up into Canada and Alaska, as well.
Home of the Jaguar, Chapas
In the fervor
to change ideas, a Catholic Priest burned Mayan and Aztec books in great piles,
while the indigenous populations lamented and cried out in the streets. It was known that indeed, not only their
heritage, but also their very way of life was going up in those flames, as anyone
who opposed them were quickly put to death. One has to wonder what questions
could have been answered, from their medicinal revelations to historical records? There may have been something there that
could have cured the common cold, a cure for cancer, or possibly nothing at
all, but we will never know will we? Priceless golden artifacts were melted
down into ingots, just to save space on the great galleons that carried it back
to the church/state of Spain. I mention
this because six hundred years is indeed a long time, especially in a tropical
environment where it takes little time for something organic to decay. So the greatest majority of what was learned, Mayan knowledge, is probably lost forever.
Mayan priests kept libraries to safeguard this knowledge, but only four
authentic books have survived to this date.
Hopefully, more are yet to be discovered. There are a lot of caves in Yucatan, and
scientists speculate that there may be a cache hidden, like the Dead Sea
Scrolls. I’d like to think so.
Swimming the Mayan Aqueduct
Of course,
everything is usually justified in the minds of those doing the dealing. The
Aztec, one of the predecessors of the Maya, was thought by the Spaniards to be
primitive and barbaric heathens. The Mayas did indeed practiced human
sacrifice, but what comparison could be found between what was practiced in the
Inquisition of that time? Montezuma was bludgeoned to death, his city and
fields burned. The shedding of human blood is after all, just that.
There is so
much of interest that I couldn’t scratch the surface of what the Maya were, and
are today. If you want to further study
these fascinating people, read “The Maya” by Michael D. Coe, or just search
“Maya” or “Lancondon” on the Internet. For a controversial and speculative book,
but very stimulating, by Maurice Cotterell and Adrian Gilbert, read “The Mayan
Prophecies.” It gives a comparison of world cultures that is amazing in its
similarities. Interesting aspects I will
write about in the future is, The Olmec Heads, The Mayan Long Count Calendar,
The Crystal Skull, The Lid of Palenque, and Transatlantic Traditions. Also, I
have a poem published called “Lancondon” in a new book by Brett Axel called
“Will Work For Peace: New Political Poems.”
Author's note:
I was quite excited to find out that the Museum of the America was located just
a block from my hotel in Madrid, and I excitedly traveled there the first day
to see a Codex displayed. Unfortunately they were having a renovation on
that floor, and it was blocked from visitation. Amazing that they can now
charge money to Americans to view what they stole.
The following are two poems written while exploring Mexico.
Lancondon
You draw my heart to you with hooks, oh
Lancondon of selva. The last percent of humanity that
resists the Spanish fly of Chiapas under a thatched roof and
a barking dog. Where first there was laid that maggot
parasite of twisted Catholic processes, who still feed
on the wounds of their own creation. You were scourged and
mangled into oppression, but still remained resistant.
You draw my heart to you with hooks, oh
Lancondon of selva. The last percent of humanity that
resists the Spanish fly of Chiapas under a thatched roof and
a barking dog. Where first there was laid that maggot
parasite of twisted Catholic processes, who still feed
on the wounds of their own creation. You were scourged and
mangled into oppression, but still remained resistant.
That island of pure Mayan blood, the last five hundred, that is
the soul of Chiapus, still singing the jaguar song.
the soul of Chiapus, still singing the jaguar song.
They thought your back was broken. By the heat of
white fever virus, by the heat of countless deaths in
the name of gold, by the heat of your burned books,
codex's, and hopes, all for the exchange of dogmatic truths…
and what of the drug lord? Still you cling to what you find
was never lost inside.
What keeps you so?
Deep in la selva you drag your chains to be heard. Your
diamond patched frocks over eagle motifs still cling to the
great wheel of you ancestors. That long count calendar mark
the days by cycles of concentric spirals, repeating. You were connected with the past, a long past, and a future they say ends in 2006…
Do you ring in the new age by example? Where is your strength to survive?
The rain forest echoes of La Ruta: of DDT and AIDS,
of PEMEX trucks on mud rut roads, of coffee, banana, sorghum,cocoa and chicloros, tobacco, the filtered jewels of marijuana and coke plantations; of alcoholism and tuberculosis, malnutrition and cattle carrying parasites...
Hachakyum, help you! “Tengo mi pistola, me mota, y mis
huevos. Entiendes mendez?
of PEMEX trucks on mud rut roads, of coffee, banana, sorghum,cocoa and chicloros, tobacco, the filtered jewels of marijuana and coke plantations; of alcoholism and tuberculosis, malnutrition and cattle carrying parasites...
Hachakyum, help you! “Tengo mi pistola, me mota, y mis
huevos. Entiendes mendez?
Trucha! Yo estoy hecha de otro arbol! Your hooks are deep in my swelling heart… Hide, oh Lancondon. Hide in la silva! Survive Zapatistas, and the Mexican Army. Hide from absorption, hide from genocide!
Flower King
08109519:00
Remember Toltec, “Feathered Serpent”,
From the setting sun his armies rent.
Taste victory cries in Nahua tongue,
From Tula to Chechen Itza won.
Kulkulkan’s flower, a jaded throne,
With feathers, of science, and of stone,
He swept his art upon the land,
And created with a civil hand.
Caracol followed Venus’ path,
And turned away god’s bloody wrath.
The cenote cleared of jaguar red,
Starved for the sacrifice it fed.
But the rift of “Smoking Mirror” blood,
Made more empty gods of sand and mud.
In offering precious lives of men,
A codex of terra-cotta ken.
He tried to quench the bonds of fear,
With sweetened flowers, of virgin tears.
Image, given by children of corn,
From Tula, where gentle gods were born.
Reflecting a “Smoking Mirror” core,
Obsidian demanded blood once more.
Hearts were rent from captive cries,
And again held beating to the skies.
Tezcatlipoca wrest his flower king,
And Quetzalcoatl fled on eastern wing.
His ideal lived long on legend’s bard,
And returned by steel of Cortes sword.
Pure Maya blood, on stucco glyphs,
Formed by constellation shifts.
Yucatan ruins in jungle jade,
For furious gods of blood well paid.
08109519:00
Remember Toltec, “Feathered Serpent”,
From the setting sun his armies rent.
Taste victory cries in Nahua tongue,
From Tula to Chechen Itza won.
Kulkulkan’s flower, a jaded throne,
With feathers, of science, and of stone,
He swept his art upon the land,
And created with a civil hand.
Caracol followed Venus’ path,
And turned away god’s bloody wrath.
The cenote cleared of jaguar red,
Starved for the sacrifice it fed.
But the rift of “Smoking Mirror” blood,
Made more empty gods of sand and mud.
In offering precious lives of men,
A codex of terra-cotta ken.
He tried to quench the bonds of fear,
With sweetened flowers, of virgin tears.
Image, given by children of corn,
From Tula, where gentle gods were born.
Reflecting a “Smoking Mirror” core,
Obsidian demanded blood once more.
Hearts were rent from captive cries,
And again held beating to the skies.
Tezcatlipoca wrest his flower king,
And Quetzalcoatl fled on eastern wing.
His ideal lived long on legend’s bard,
And returned by steel of Cortes sword.
Pure Maya blood, on stucco glyphs,
Formed by constellation shifts.
Yucatan ruins in jungle jade,
For furious gods of blood well paid.
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