Mayas
Roots of Mayan civilization can be traced in the Pre-Classic period and traces of initial phases of their culture can be seen on Yucatan and Belize. The full bloom of the Maya civilization occurred about 300 AD, and it was concentrated around the ceremonial centers. The region inhabited by Mayas can be divided into three parts: southern (volcanic hills and steep slopes of the Pacific shore), northern (the Northern Yucatan plateau), and central (basins of the Usumakinta, Belize and Hondo rivers). Each important center was preserving its political identity. Mayas were united by religion rather than politics and economy. Mayan civilization reached its peak around the year 600. Although the causes for their disappearing are still not known, (there are theories of earthquakes, diseases, social unrest, invasion of tribes coming from the mountains), we are sure that this happened in 900. Although there was a collapse of a social-cultural system of Mayas, a part of the Mayan elite continued with their blossoming in the Northern Yucatan.
Toltecs
When Toltecs invaded Yucatan, they established the capital of their region in the Mayan town of Chichen-Itza. They replaced benign Mayan gods with their own, and they most probably forced the Mayan craftsmen to rebuild the town after their taste. They built temples glorifying Tezcatlipoc, a Toltec god of war. During the following century, the cultures of Mayas and Toltecs gradually integrated, but the new cruel features were kept. Big monuments gradually deteriorated under the pressure of constant wars between Chichen-Itza and neighboring towns. The influence of Toltecs started to decrease when their town of Tula was destroyed, and the second period of chaos in the Mexican valley started when barbarian tribes from the north of Chichemetza.
Uxmal
Uxmal is situated about 80 kilometers from Merida, on Yucatan and is famous for its carved facades, large terraces and palaces. It is the only Mayan site with the pyramid that has an oval basis. The area of the town was probably first inhabited about the year 600. Besides the pyramid there is a so called ‘House of Turtles’, and the Ruler’s Pallace. Uxmal is one of the biggest towns in Yucatan. Some motifs that can be seen, reflect the peaceful Mayan life, but there are those that point to the influence of the war-like Toltecs, who entered Yucatan in the 10th century.
In the morning of January 3rd we flew from Miami to Merida, Mexico. Merida is the biggest town on the Yucatan peninsula. Most of places of power we were to visit were situated on this peninsula. At the airport we rented a car so that we could make most of our seven-day program. Unfortunately, we managed to see only the main avenue in Merida, on our way to our excellent hotel “El Conquistador”. We managed only to drink up a complimentary cocktail, take our bags to our rooms and jump back into the car. We started for the place of power Uxmal.
We traveled for about an hour on a beautiful sunny day. As most of Mexican archaeological findings this one was also well organized and prepared for tourists coming from all over the world in surprisingly large numbers, even though they are usually away from the big cities, and often deep in the jungle. There was a large hall in Usmal that made a wonderful shade. You could find everything a modern tourist needed: a very clean restaurant and cake shop, you could buy juice and ice-cream, a shop well equipped with souvenirs, prospects and books about this and other findings, you could buy postcards and write them, for they had provided sufficient space for this. Often you could see a large model of what the site looked in its best days. You could find your way easily around the excavations because the maps were provided for with names of certain buildings and short texts explaining when and why it was built, its purpose and importance for the time.
Crossings of ours with mature luminous bodies started as soon as we entered the hall. It proceeded in the usual way: while my first luminous body was still, because it did what it was supposed to do in 1991, the second one was imbuing with the mature luminous bodies that approached it one by one from their flock. Right after that, they went aside creating a new group that was formed for the imbuement with Miroslav’s, then the third group for the imbuement with Nebojsa’s, and then the fourth one for the imbuement with my wife’s luminous body, while the remaining bodies grouped themselves apart from the main flock. Our luminous bodies were lined and there was considerable space between them. As soon as one of them finished with the crossing, it left this line. At the places of power where my first luminous bodies had never been, it does not stand still, but goes to the beginning of the line where the other were, and is the first one to start the crossing. In Uxmal there was a total of 100 mature luminous
bodies. My second one imbued with all of them, Miroslav’s with 46, Nebojsa’s with 41 and Nedeljka’s with 8.
Usmal consists of a couple of well-preserved buildings, the pyramid, of course, being the most important. It was build of stone blocks that were simply laid one upon the other with no cement. Its height and beauty, due to its particular shape and many reliefs left no one unmoved. Narrow, worn out stairs led almost to the top. The pyramid ends in a special cupola, completely covered in relief. The pyramid is very steep, so there is a chain going up all the way to the cupola. Without this chain very few visitors could go up. We climbed slowly and carefully, making breaks, because the stairs were narrow and worn out. Climbing onto the cupola was an additional difficulty. There was a wonderful rewarding view though: all around us was covered in green rain forest. However, the view from the top of the pyramid down to its base caused dizziness with many people. I recalled that the weather was very bad in 1991. When we were on the top of the cupola, it started raining and there were horrible thunders a-coming. We were on the highest spot in the entire region, with no lightning rod to protect us. We sped downstairs, but our feet kept slipping down the stairs, and had it not been for the chain we held onto for our dear lives, the climbing down would have been impossible.
Low buildings of exquisite beauty and an almost modern look, that were probably inhabited by priests, were set around a large terrace that was presumably used for rituals.
On a large terrace surrounded by walls, which was used for sport games there was still one vertically positioned stone circle that had possibly been used for some sort of basketball.
Exhausted with climbing, heat and sun, we could hardly wait for the crossing to be finished, for we wanted to go to the shade of the entrance hall.
PLACE OF POWER DZIBILCHALTUN