BIBLIOGRAFÍA
5. NUEVOS MATERIALISMOS: FEMINISMOS ANTIHUMANISTAS
In the Pop Wuj, the Lords of the Underworld become annoyed when they hear the first pair of Hero Twins playing a vigorous game of handball in the world above them. They imperiously demand the presence of these Twins, whom they challenge to a handball game, with their lives as the stakes. But first, the Twins must undergo a series of challenges placed upon them by the Gods of Death. They fail to pass the tests, and are killed as a result. In time, the second pair of Hero Twins, children of one of the first pair (see Ben and Kan), once again play handball and once again are summoned by the Death Gods. But these Hero Twins are clever;
they outwit their challengers and survive to play the game. But the Gods of Death don’t play fairly. They cheat at the game and the Hero Twins lose their lives as a result.
But once again they outwit the Lords of Xib’alb’a, the Underworld, for they are revived by a magic spell, and they return to trick the Lords of Death, sacrificing the sacrificers and thus conquering Death itself (see Ahau).
This day-sign is often referred to simply as “Death,” and with all these mythic associations – not to mention a symbolic connection with owls, cemeteries, and so on – it is no wonder that many Westerners cringe at the thought of being born upon such a day.
And yet the Maya themselves tend to see this day-sign as a positive force. Why?
85 To the Tz’utujil Maya of Lake Atitlan, the word camic means both “Death” and “the Eternal Now.” As Martin Prechtel writes, “….in Mayan, Now means Death.”19 The Eternal Now is like an axis mundi or world center. Both the Past, comprised of that which has been and gone, and the Future, yet to come, are anchored to the central tree of the Eternal Now. Living, as we do, in the Eternal Now, our eloquent poetic words and our beautiful lives feed the Past and thus create the blossoming of the Future. If the Gods become drunk with our beauty, we heal the Past and make it new. Thus is the Future created. In fact, the word for the grammatical “present tense” in some Mayan languages is kame or kamic as well.20 Death is the present moment, and death can only happen in the Eternal Now. It cannot happen at any other time. Death transforms the Present into the Past, giving birth to the Future. If we live a life of true beauty and eloquence, our death will feed the soil of the Present and thus allow us to participate fully in the creation of the Future. Therefore we are not fully “cooked” in the glorious oven of human life until we die;
death completes us.
This is the esoteric meaning of the day-sign called Death. This is why Death, much against our own Western expectations, is one of the most positive day-signs of all. Since this is a very positive sign, it has a deeper mythic relationship with the paradise side of the Underworld rather than fearsome Xib’alb’a. This is a day of communication with the ancestors and with unseen worlds.
In Mayan thinking, this “day of death” is one of the best days upon which to be married.
Why? When two people unite in marriage, the ancestors are always involved. One ancestral stream is linked in union with another. When we marry into another family, our ancestors become married as well. Because a marriage often produces children, the life of the community becomes weighted in the direction of life rather than death. The eternal balance of the two is disturbed. Thus the Maya, ever mindful of the Gods’ command that we live life with true poetic eloquence, appoint certain individuals as “marriage speakers.” They communicate between the two families, and they celebrate the union to the entire village by way of beautiful songs and poems. Because the Gods love to consume our eloquence, the Gods of the Underworld become
19 Much of the information in this and the next paragraph is based on Prechtel, Martin, Long Life, Honey in the Heart (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2004), pp. 91-3, 364-6.
20 Lem Batz, op. cit., p. 27-31, as well as personal conversation with my K’iche’ language teacher, Don Ricardo Zarate Guix, Momostenango, 2010-11.
86 so intoxicated with beautiful words that they surrender unto life, relinquishing the balance between this world and the Otherworld in a joyful acceptance of the blossoming of human existence.
Upon this day we pray that we and those dear to us have long life. If we are aware of someone who is mortally ill, we may ask for the rest and peace of the dying person. This day is also favorable for healing and for the protection of travelers. It is the day to remove negative facing adverse circumstances. They are charismatic but cautious. They are clever and sociable but may sometimes seem a bit emotionally fragile, and have dreams and aspirations which can never work out in reality. They often take the blame for things they didn’t do, and thus earn the dislike of others, usually undeservedly.
Natives of Cimi often have a psychic bent because of their Otherworldly symbolism.
They can be skilled forecasters or diviners, though they need to overcome a certain amount of self-absorption and learn to serve others in order to reach full manifestation of their talents. It is said that Cimi natives, more than any others, have a natural connection with the ancestors, and are able to receive powerful messages through the karmic stream of the past.
Much like natives of Akbal, they are verbally eloquent and make good writers. They tend to be very feminine as well. Women tend to like them, whether they themselves are male or female. This is one of the signs that has a very feminine or androgynous appearance regardless of gender.
In fact, it sometimes seems as if the Gods of the Otherworld have endowed these citizens of the “eternal now” with a kind of eternal youth. Cimi people can be truly ageless and give the appearance of being “forever young.”
Cimi natives often have a rather introverted nature; in a very real sense, their power place is their own home and they can be quite grumpy when they do not have a comfortable home
87 place to retreat to. Despite this “homebody” tendency, many are great travelers who are destined to wander the world. In addition to their own homes, they also draw power and energy from
“sacred sites” such as temples, pyramids, and ruins. While most people do their wandering in youth, Cimi natives are more likely to travel later in life.
These people are lucky in love. Their youthful beauty and feminine power of attraction serves them well when it comes to finding life partners. All the same, and somewhat by way of contradiction, Cimi people often choose to spend their later years alone.
They may sometimes be terribly self-absorbed and at worst they can be vindictive.
Sometimes they are impractical, full of illusions, and emotionally weak, scorned by others because of their laziness, and suffering thereby. Their lives are intense and full of many dramatic events because they bear the burden of much past-life karma. Though they are blessed with good health and longevity, many are likely to experience the power of the Death Gods all too forcefully in the form of losing many loved ones.
Despite their numerous ups and downs, Cimi people almost always land on their feet and seem to be under divine protection, although one of their life’s lessons is not to take their luck for granted and always to be thankful for their good fortune. In the final analysis, their road of life is blessed by the spirits of the ancestors, and they seldom fail to manifest what they really need in life.
Their totem animal, not surprisingly, is the owl.
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