Mayan Cosmos Mirrors Your Creation

 
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I dream of an older woman. She is holding a ball of clay in her hands, pressing and molding it with her fingers. She reveals that working clay helps her prepare for creativity.

Preparing for creativity arouses thoughts of the Creator. The Creator's gift was not a one-time blessing of that initial molding called Genesis, but is an ongoing, abundant outflowing at this and every moment. My personal awareness is one window through which the Creator experiences the world. My own actions, although molded by this force, are a local agent of this creation. When I pause to acknowledge the presence and companionship of the Creator, I feel grateful. The Creator's blessing perfectly balances the burden of individual responsibility I carry in that relationship. A shared burden can be carried lightly, with joy. Praise creation!

This meditation upon creativity and companionship with the Creator is but one of the blossoms sprouting on my sacred tree as I contemplate the book, Mayan Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path (William Morrow). The authors, David Freidel and Linda Schele, are respected Mayan archaeologists at competing univesities in Texas. Their previously acclaimed book A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya presented the many secrets of Mayan history that were revealed with the recent breakthroughs in deciphering the enigmatic glyphs. Mayan Cosmos continues the revelations, presenting the Mayan spiritual philosophy and lifestyle.

There are so many congruences between Mayan mythology and the Christian faith that these two spiritually inspired civilizations were destined to meet. The Mayan recognizes in the Christian cross, for example, the secret of death and rebirth. That cross is the Mayan world tree, uniting heaven and earth, and providing passage between them. The common image of Jesus' exposed heart simultaneously dripping with blood while blossoming in a bouquet of flowers mirrors the Mayan perception of the sacrifice mutually required and offered between God and humanity.

I dream that I have decaptitated myself. I am looking in the mirror, marveling at how I can see with no head.

Mayan iconography of headless heroes portrays the necessary sacrifice of the personality so that the larger Self may enter into consciousness. The Creator needs reflection in the consciousness of the creature. To provide that reflection, the creature must relenquish pride of self-ownership and become a more transparent mirror of a greater reality. The mirror is also an important symbol, reflecting the universal truth, "As above, so below."

Among the many ways in which the Mayan finds the divine realm mirrored in the earthly sphere is in the ongoing fact of creation. The Mayans regularly celebrate creation by ritual enactments. They believe, in fact, that the Mayan's continued existence is totally dependent upon their remembering the Creator's presence. By properly reenacting the creation process, the Mayans provide God a conscious place in the world, a place that God needs and uses. By making themselves useful to God, the Mayans create for themselves a place in the cosmos that gives their lives meaning.

God created the Mayan race from corn. Their ritual acts of communion with this sacred food, much like the Christian rite of the last supper, not only provide their bodies spiritual nourishment, but gives God material, human embodiment and a window of experience through the Mayan awareness. Corn is the one grain that requires human assistance to seed itself. Corn is thus an archaeo-botanical riddle. It also reflects the Mayan's spiritual responsibility to the ongoing creation process.

What creation story do you use to guide your life? When was the last time you thought about that story, or participated in a ritual that re-enacted your creation? If you are uncertain of your creation story, you are not alone. Experts proclaim we are between creation myths and are wandering lost, reacting with anger to our frustrated need for meaning.

We devolve into a creature of habit when we lose the Creator awareness. When we forget our companionship with the Creator, our very existence is threatened.

Having a moment of silence before a meal, eating more slowly and mindfully are simple acts that can serve as reminders of our participation in the ongoing creation. In a home-study project with A.R.E. members, participants discovered, in fact, that such ritualized eating added priceless seasoning to the meal and extra nourishment for the soul.

Remembering, upon encountering a frustration, that God is molding the moment to inspire a leap of creativity, can help us make an opportunity out of the circumstance. In seeking a material expression through human actions and an individualized experience through human awareness, the Creator sometimes pinches the clay. We all have hearts through which the Creator shares love, and hands through which the Creator seeks to shape the world into a better home for that love.

I dream that a woman is teaching me how to dance among the sprouting corn plants. I am learning to step lightly. Praise creation!

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This page was last updated 04/28/02