Barbara MacLeod on Maya Shamanism: The Transmutation of Sustenance, September 2018

Anomaly Archives Presents…

Maya Shamanism: The Transmutation of Sustenance
by Dr. Barbara MacLeod

Sunday, September 23rd – 3pm at The Anomaly Archives

The Anomaly Archives is proud to support the Mysterious Ancient Civilizations meetup group in presenting this lecture from Austin’s own Mayan language expert, Dr. Barbara MacLeod.


Maya Shamanism: The Transmutation of Sustenance

Dr. Barbara MacLeod takes us on a journey of the metaphysical ideology of the Classic Maya royal court through translations of hieroglyphs found on cups that were from the Maya royal dynasty.

“The ancient Maya practiced state shamanism, in which kings and their families engaged in conjuring deities and ancestors and made offerings of their own blood to feed the earth. War captives were common offerings as well. Mythological scenes on royal drinking-cups placed in tombs feature serpent-deities conjured amid altered states of consciousness, and it is now possible to speculate on the entheogenic plants used. Sometimes the conjurors themselves were deities.

This practice was fundamental to Maya kingship and became fossilized and codified in the form of the “ceremonial serpent bar” worn by kings at the accessions at major events in the calendar. Infants were also sacrificed, although likely not those of royalty; another mythic theme on these cups depicts the sacrifice of a human baby who becomes an infant jaguar as he transitions from one world to the next. All of this is orchestrated by k’awiil–the metaphysical manifestation of lightning.

This is an origin myth, archaic at the time these vases were painted. It functioned as a charter for the ongoing reciprocity between humans and gods required for the perpetuation of the royal dynasty, the fecundity of the earth, and the reliability of the rains.” Dr. Barbara MacLeod

If the cups could talk, oh the stories we would hear!

We hope you’ll join us on a journey of myths, ceremonies, royalty, and sacrifices of the ancient Maya civilization.

 


The FIRST Meetup for Mysterious Ancient Civilizations!

Our host for our Meetup is Anomaly Archives: The Library of the Scientific Anomaly Institute (501c3)  Anomalyarchives.org

Meeting to be held in second floor conference room. Access into building is limited, door person will be at the front door to allow guests to enter. Door may be locked 10 minutes after meeting starts, please try to arrive before 3PM.

Suggested donation $5 in support of Anomaly Archives.

 

Anomaly Archives version of the Meetup Event: AnomalyArchives/events/254585554/

PLEASE REGISTER at this Meetup Event URL:
https://www.meetup.com/Mysterious-Ancient-Civilizations/events/254050844/

 

 


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