Reports by : LA Panchuk / Explorer / Author: The Devil's Magnet
Mayan Adventures and Old Folklore stories
From the past in Dec 2006 to Jan 2007 exploring the Maya ruins and sites I came up on this odd old Maya folklore story that was submitted to me during my travels in the local jungles near the borders of Mexico, Belize.
This is a drawing by a Maya of their story but I felt their description of the Hairy Large two leg man like beast was a Big Foot story inside the Central Americas ! Wow, what a find and what a great story.
The Maya said the old grandfather's stories which led to this basic drawing was that the beast might wander into your village at night and it was said if you saw him or ran into the beast is was considered bad luck and that you were going to have a bad day.
This beast seemed to have only night time spotting from Dusk to Dawn, notice in the drawing the sun is setting as the beast like man creature wanders the jungles of the old Mayan Empire.
ABOVE IS FROM MAYA OLD FOLKLORE STORIES
THE BIG ISSUE !
Mayan Calendar ends on Dec. 21 / 2012 , BUT....does the world end ?
I explored the calendar and its issues. My biggest problem was I found more information than I could deal with.
My basic feeling was that I could find a main stream story that would lead me to a conclusion in regards to its ending. However the stories seem to run from the end of the world to stories about lightening, star gods coming and a second age for the Maya empire.
All is possible I guess when you think about the math , art and building power of the Maya culture
Traveling from Mexico, Quatemala, and Belize I met with various Mayan elders, tour guides, and small village Maya to ask the all important question. What did your grandfather hand down to you for old folklore stories, and was there anything about the Calendar's date ending on Dec. 21 / 2012 that he passed on to you.
To sum up the stories would take hours, but the themes went from nothing will happen to the end of the world stories, inter laced with twist about star gods and the re starting of the Mayan calendar.
I spend some time with a Mayan Elder who regard me as a breathe of fresh air coming from North America to visit both his people and his village. I will protect his ID, because he passed on to me some of the secrets about his people and their interesting past.
His first issue was to show me a place deep in the Jungles of Central America, we stood before a buried temple of the Maya that have never been unearthed. In a statement he said, there are over 700 like this and they remain buried. His story went on to say that on the night in question, a temple, and only one such temple will be hit by a large lightening bolt. This will mark the very spot our gods will return to take power and begin the second age. Due to the secrets surrounding this story I will at this time only say that this was passed onto him but was to remain a secret, not to be shared with anyone. His description of the lightening bolt was more like a giant beam of light that would come down from the stars that night and hit the pre selected temple.
Well, strangely enough, I'd run into this story before, but not exactly the same. I traveled to a pre classic Mayan site name Cerros where I met up with a Francisco Puck of Mayan blood lines and found this man loves to chat about the culture and its deep past. Like the first story, Mr Puck relayed stories that his father had passed down to him, but with several changes in the story. Francisco explained that his grandfather told him that if the lightening did not touch the correct temple on that night, that nothing would happen again for a very long time. It seems Francisco was very calm about the issue in his speech, yet he told me his own personal feeling was that nothing should happen on this night. Only this he said, " it marks the end of the first age for the Mayan empire and its culture" Francisco however cautioned me that he had regarded the old stories with amusement but he himself had found in later life the old grandfather and his own father had been telling the truth about the ways of the Jungles and the planting of seeds, building huts and roof tops made from palm tree leaves. I guess at this point I felt that perhaps we need to at least take into account the past stories and like all cultures the young do not listen sometimes to the old and the wise until its perhaps too late.
Moving west from Belize into Quatemala we traveled to Tikal ! These are ruins in the Classic period that stand up above the dense forested area. The stones rise steeply from the jungle floor like a modern building. Here I was received a local Maya tour guide where we chatted about the temples construction and the Maya's ability to erect such large stone work. I was able to get a nice laugh, when I explained that the only reason for these temples to be so high was for the Maya people to find out if Mosquitoes could fly to this new height. The guide who only gave his first name Peter couldn't offer any reason for the steep stairs but that is was some form of defense from other tribes. I worked the stairwell and then gave my guide the truth in my opinion which was all in my normal humor. These stairs are steep so a Jaguar would have trouble chasing you in an emergency. The guide almost broke into tears and said, I've wondered that all my life about the steep stairs and never thought of it.
Our next offering for the end the Mayan Calendar comes from this area, which, by the way is where a great number of the " Kings" were buried. The story goes, that on the night in question that there will be a great earthquake, that lightening will hit all the temples and this will mark the end for all on earth.
In a more modern look and a side note, Tikal was used in the scene from the 4th Star War movie.
The Rebel base shot was filmed there by George Lucas, Cool uh ?
Maybe George knows more than he's saying ! mmmmm
LA Panchuk / Author : The Devil's Magnet
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