Understanding nature and blend it with religion to cure illness.
Mayan cosmogony was ruled by nature, magic and religion. Within these context, every single maya citizen knew they had to live looking for a personal and social balance. Illness was considered a bad omen, a punishment for misbehaviour that will end up in the soul´s suffering and eventually lead to the destruction of the cosmos.
Health and balance was a responsabilty for the preservation of the one´s own life and the preservation of the universe.
Mayas were very in tune with nature, usually their names meant flower, rain, blue bird, tree, etc. And the music they made were a representation of the sounds of the nature, like sound of the sea, the sound of very specific animals, the sound of the wind, etc.
Healing supposed to be a very importan ritual, practiced only by Priests, who were able to enter to the spiritual world through psychotropics to bring health into the psychical world. There were also many specializations among the Priests, like doctors today.
Some of the traditional healing practices were treatments with herbs that were ingested, smoked or rubbed on the patient´s body. Since sickness is seen as an unclean house, cleansing was a very important practice. Some of these traditions are still in practice today, like egg cleansing, purging, sweating and drum healing.
I like doing egg cleansing during the Maya Massage as well as using percussions and feathers. But the thing I love the most is the feeling of being embraced by a very wise and deep spirit.
It is very interesting that all these ancient traditions are very similar. Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Maya Medicine, etc. For many of them, the Spiritual world, the Natural world and sometimes, the Death coexisted in one reality, as if we all were part of one single thing that is in constant movement. Almost as Werner Herzog points out in his film The cave of forgotten dreams: "There is no barrier between the world were we are and the world of the spirits."
Isn´t it interesting that today we are looking back to this principles? As if we were in an awakening stage?
There is so much to study about the Mayas and the prehispanic cultures in general, but here I wanted to explain some of the things I am able to see and understand thanks to the practice of massage. Massage opens us to knowledge and wisdom but in a very humble way.
The Mayas, thought that the Universe was composed by The Sky, the place of the gods, The Earth, the place of the humans and The Underworld. They thought that there is a connection between the supernatural world and the human world. They called this the tree of life or Yaxché.
Isn´t it interesting how not only the Mayan culture but many other ancient cultures were using trees to explain some kind of connection? And isn´t it interesting how even today modern psychology still uses the icon of a tree to exaplin the inner universe?
It makes sense then to look after our personal tree in order to help the universal tree to be in balance, right? :)
Mayan cosmogony was ruled by nature, magic and religion. Within these context, every single maya citizen knew they had to live looking for a personal and social balance. Illness was considered a bad omen, a punishment for misbehaviour that will end up in the soul´s suffering and eventually lead to the destruction of the cosmos.
Health and balance was a responsabilty for the preservation of the one´s own life and the preservation of the universe.
Mayas were very in tune with nature, usually their names meant flower, rain, blue bird, tree, etc. And the music they made were a representation of the sounds of the nature, like sound of the sea, the sound of very specific animals, the sound of the wind, etc.
Some of the traditional healing practices were treatments with herbs that were ingested, smoked or rubbed on the patient´s body. Since sickness is seen as an unclean house, cleansing was a very important practice. Some of these traditions are still in practice today, like egg cleansing, purging, sweating and drum healing.
I like doing egg cleansing during the Maya Massage as well as using percussions and feathers. But the thing I love the most is the feeling of being embraced by a very wise and deep spirit.
It is very interesting that all these ancient traditions are very similar. Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Maya Medicine, etc. For many of them, the Spiritual world, the Natural world and sometimes, the Death coexisted in one reality, as if we all were part of one single thing that is in constant movement. Almost as Werner Herzog points out in his film The cave of forgotten dreams: "There is no barrier between the world were we are and the world of the spirits."
Isn´t it interesting that today we are looking back to this principles? As if we were in an awakening stage?
There is so much to study about the Mayas and the prehispanic cultures in general, but here I wanted to explain some of the things I am able to see and understand thanks to the practice of massage. Massage opens us to knowledge and wisdom but in a very humble way.
The Mayan Universe
The Mayas, thought that the Universe was composed by The Sky, the place of the gods, The Earth, the place of the humans and The Underworld. They thought that there is a connection between the supernatural world and the human world. They called this the tree of life or Yaxché.
Isn´t it interesting how not only the Mayan culture but many other ancient cultures were using trees to explain some kind of connection? And isn´t it interesting how even today modern psychology still uses the icon of a tree to exaplin the inner universe?
It makes sense then to look after our personal tree in order to help the universal tree to be in balance, right? :)
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