The Living Maya – Ancient Wisdom In The Era of 2012 | Robert Sitler PhD [1]

The Living Maya – Ancient Wisdom In The Era of 2012

As we approach the year 2012 and the end of the current 13^th Bak’tun of the Maya Long Count Calendar system (now made globally infamous) there is certainly no shortage of books on these subjects. Many of the related books I have already read, some I have even reviewed, and still others I keep meaning to fit into my busy schedule and ever growing reading list.

Though there are now perhaps hundreds of books with the year 2012 in the title, or mentioning the Maya Calendar, it is fair to say that the actual content and direction of these is extremely varied. Some writers are simply trying to boost sales of books by incorporating the popular year 2012 but with little actual reference to the core 2012 meme material. Some authors write wholly on the topic of 2012 but make little comprehensible addition to that already widely publicised, giving only seemingly baseless (made up) doomsday theories. As they say, ‘it takes all sorts’.

One of the books that certainly stands out from the 2012 crowd is Robert Sitler’s highly personal take on the Maya people and their modern culture, ancient wisdom and sacred calendar. Any serious 2012 researcher will have likely already encountered essays and comments online given by this well grounded Stetson University lecturer. Though not exactly a Maya Anthropologist or Mayanist he has spent a huge amount of time in various parts of the Maya world and combines this direct experience with his professional background when presenting opinions. This book is not presented as some kind of dry professional analysis of the Maya suited to academics, it is a highly accessible personal journey offering all comers something to enjoy. It does however come across as being written by a man of substantial intellect and familiarity with how to present difficult subject matter to eager students!

Despite my substantial interest in both the general subject of the 2012 meme and in the niche of the Maya Calendar, it is fair to say I do not know very much about the modern Maya peoples. Not being unkind, but my interest in them is not much greater than it is in numerous other indigenous peoples around the planet. My reason for saying this is that I make it clear that I am studying a large subject which incorporates evidence from myriad sources when I write on 2012 unlike numerous other researchers whom do indeed claim to wholly base their writings on substantial study of the Maya people and their calendar system. Obviously I do incorporate material from the ancient and modern Maya at times. That is to say I am interested in the Maya people but have not prioritised studying them specifically, perhaps to my shame?

Well thanks to Robert Sitler my life has been made much more easy. Rather than reading my many rather wordy and cumbersome books on the Maya (I have several on my shelf) I was finally able to get a summarised direct take on what it is to be a Maya person in the modern world. We are informed of the way in which adults and children are respected, the sense of spiritual connection to land and sky, ritual practices, supernormal visions, the current state of social degradation due to incursions, the role of shamans and midwives and so very much more. The information is all presented in an easy to follow format, well laid out, meaningful chapter headings that make sense of the material and a logical sequential progression. The style is warm, friendly and at times humorous, though he is very sensitive to the pain the Maya people have suffered and at times the subject matter makes emotional reading. There is time taken to explore the ongoing environmental destruction, racism, prejudice, cultural interference and myriad demanding issues faced by modern Maya people. For anyone new to the subject there is much eye opening discourse contained.

Robert takes us on a journey that began when he first visited the Maya people and ate a copious amount of magic mushrooms. In this altered state he befriended a number of (not high on mushrooms) Maya people who were in the same state of elevated consciousness as he himself was. This oddity stuck with him for years to come and was in many ways a driving force in his interest in the people. The more he quested to understand the Mayan mind, the more he came to learn about their cosmology, social structure, sense of community, robust psychological profiles and sense of temporal continuum. By learning some of the languages of the region and spending significant time with Maya friends he was able to get beneath the surface of what it is to be a Maya in the modern world, in a much more compelling way than we will find in any academic essay. The wealth of direct personal experiences and retold first hand accounts of Maya wisdom, really do transport us into the realm of ‘the Living Maya’ and share with us some of their ‘ancient wisdom in the era of 2012′. This is very much a mixture of travel story, personal adventure, spiritual discourse and idiots guide to Mayan anthropology. The book is an easy and enjoyable read that can’t fail to inform and inspire its readers.

I especially like his extrapolation of the Mayan Calendars permutations and the meanings of the Tzolkin day glyphs, in fact I now use this section of the book specifically for these in relation to readings done with my Mayan Tzolkin Tarot card set!

I do want to make the point once again that this is not an academic book, despite critical reviews on Amazon which treated it as such due to Robert Sitler being an academic, think more on the lines of Jeremy Narby’s ‘Cosmic Serpent’ or Patrice Malidoma Some’s ‘Of Water and the Spirit’, if you liked either of those then you will love this too. I offer my heartfelt thanks to Robert for doing some considerable effort to bring the actual Maya people into the 2012 subject as it exists in the modern world, its about time that somebody did just that.

The book is available direct from the authors website or alternatively from Amazon which also offers a look inside.

Articles by Bruce Fenton – Author of \’2012 Rising The Last Tzolkin\’ – http://2012rising.com