Palenque in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala are two of the most important Mayan sacred sites. Here, Maya Master Teacher and wisdom keeper Miguel Angel Vergara explains the significance of each site, its importance for the Maya, and what we, as seekers, can experience there today. This is the first in a 2-part mini series about these sacred sites – next time Freddy Silva will explore the Mysteries of Palenque & Tikal! Miguel Angel, with best-selling author Freddy Silva, will be leading a transformative journey to Mexico and Guatemala in early 2017, travelling to both these sacred sites as well as other key power places. Will you join them?
Sacred Earth Journeys: Palenque is the home of many of the Classic Maya teachers. Can you give us some details and talk about the importance of two of these teachers: Kinich Hanab Pakal and Lady Zac Kuuk?
Miguel Angel: Palenque was connected at a high level with the Royal Art, and in my understanding this was because one of the great teachers was born there, Pakal Votan. At the same time, you find the Sacred Feminine there with Lady Zac Kuuk, bringing us the idea that at that time Palenque was a place that called to it the Ancient Teachers with the Wisdom of the Stars to apply the Royal Art. There were other teachers: there was a dynasty of kings that was discovered by the scholars and you can find that information in the book Forest of Kings written by Linda Schele and David Freidel. From a scholar’s point of view there were many of these Royal people who learned in Palenque how to transmit the Sacred Wisdom through Art, the Royal Art.
Nah Chan Kan, which is the original name of Palenque, means “The Place of the Stellar Serpent”. This symbol is the key to understanding that these people received their initiation in the Cosmic Wisdom. So, it is my understanding that Palenque was connected with this Royalty of Priests and Priestesses, in this case, Pakal Votan as an avatar, a messenger who brought wisdom to the Maya and, on the other hand, Lady Zac Kuuk who brought through the Priestesses the connection with Mother Nature.
SEJ: What are some of the other reasons that Palenque is such an important Maya site?
Miguel Angel: One reason Palenque was so important is because it was ruled by Pakal Votan and Lady Zac Kuuk, in partnership, bringing balance. This attracted many people to Palenque.
Palenque was an important centre for many other Maya sites. We have one of them on our upcoming journey, one of the most beautiful, Yaxchilan. Yaxchilan was the place where the Maya women, the Priestesses, became Prophets. The Maya women were the ones who travelled into Space to bring back the Maya Prophecies. There are many other sites in the area that looked to Palenque as the Cosmic University of the Royal Art. Today hundreds of them are being found in the area. Remember there were big universities, like Palenque, that were supported by many surrounding schools.
SEJ: Can you explain Tikal’s role in capturing telluric energy, and how this process works?
MA: Tikal is a place that has important characteristics in its pyramids. You can see the 9 levels in these pyramids, symbolically representing the Mother. The structure of the pyramids in Tikal looks like acupuncture needles that are receiving the Cosmic energy from the headdress in stone and then grounding it in the Earth. Especially in that area of Guatemala we see still today the Elders and Shamans practicing their ceremonies, connecting the two energies, burning the copal in the ground. This is a very important symbol showing us that they considered the Heart of the Earth to be connected to grounding the energies that came from the Cosmos. It is telling us that we receive from the Cosmos and we ground it here in Tikal.
Tikal means “The Place of the Hidden Voices”. Another of the terms of Tikal, connected with a spiritual meaning, is “This is the Place of the Twenty” which means this is the place of the Halach Uinik, the place of the truly-true man or woman who came here to ground the Cosmic energy into Mother Nature.
SEJ: What do we know about Tikal’s purpose, and what activities took place here?
MA: Many of these places have a connection to not only to ground the Cosmic energies but to ground in terms of sending it to the heart. It is a process: in the pyramids there are chambers that are dedicated to different levels of Priests or Priestesses where they received the messages before they ground them. It is like they are at the top of the pyramid, in meditation, and received the Cosmic energy, wrote the messages in their books, their codecies, interpreted it and shared it with the people, and then grounded it. It is like a sequence, you receive, keep, transmit, then send it to the Mother. It is like an interpretation of the Cosmic energies, transmuted or transformed into wisdom and released to fulfill the electromagnetic connection with the Mother. The Priests and Priestesses were trained to open their chakras to receive this wisdom. Remember Tikal has the tallest pyramid in the Maya world open to other dimension or levels in time and space. The highest pyramids of the Maya are connected with that Cosmic energy. At Tikal they were reaching to the Cosmos.
SEJ: What are you personally most looking forward to about visiting Tikal?
MA: For me, I have received a lot of connections in the Main Plaza of Tikal. I feel there are still secrets open there for the ones who want to listen, want to engage in that connection with the Ancient Ones. I feel the Spirit of the Ancient Ones in the Main Plaza between the pyramid of the Lord Cacao and the pyramid of the Sacred Feminine. For me this is the perfect balance in the Cosmos. So I think for me the main message would be that we are going to go to Tikal and hear the voices of the Ancient Ones who are giving us new messages for today.
To experience the power of Tikal and Palenque for yourself register now for our 2017 journey: “Maya Temples of Transformation with Freddy Silva & Miguel Angel Vergara: A Sacred Journey from Palenque to Tikal”. Read full itinerary details and more information about these 2 sacred sites on our website.
~Sacred Earth Journeys
