{"id":1690,"date":"2017-03-23T15:17:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacredearthjourneys.ca\/blog\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2017-04-26T15:37:21","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T15:37:21","slug":"the-splendor-of-tikal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sacredearthjourneys.ca\/blog\/the-splendor-of-tikal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Splendor of Tikal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read the final instalment\u00a0by Lori Erickson about her journey to Mexico & Guatemala with Sacred Earth Journeys. Next time \u2013 a guest feature by Lori\u2019s husband Bob<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a Star Wars fan, this image might look familiar. That\u2019s because in\u00a0Star Wars: Episode IV \u2013 A New Hope<\/em>, the\u00a0Guatemalan archaeological site of Tikal stood in for\u00a0Yavin 4, a jungle-covered moon used by the Rebel Alliance.<\/p>\n

\"Tikal
The Mayan site of Tikal rises out of the Guatemalan jungle. (Bob Sessions photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But before it was used by the Rebel Alliance, it was used by the Mayans \u2013 and today Tikal is one of\u00a0the largest and most impressive of all the pre-Columbian\u00a0sites in Central America.<\/p>\n

Tikal marked the end of our Maya Temples of Transformation Tour<\/em> with Sacred Earth Journeys <\/a>(see also Exploring Sacred Mayan Sites<\/a>; Mayan Mysteries of Palenque<\/a>; A Ceremony Amid Mayan Ruins<\/a>; and Finding the Holy in a Tradition Not My Own<\/a>). In many ways, we saved the best for last.<\/p>\n

In Mayan, Tikal means \u201cin the lagoon,\u201d but its alternative name is far\u00a0more evocative: \u201cthe place of the spirit voices.\u201d This city, which was built between\u00a0700\u00a0BC and\u00a0900 AD, was once home to more than 60,000 people, making it one of the largest cities in the Americas. Today more than 3,000 structures built by this civilization remain, though many are still covered by jungle.<\/p>\n

The archaeological site is part of Tikal National Park, which protects 220 square miles of rainforest. More than 300 species of birds live here, along with jaguar, puma, several species of monkeys, tapirs, and more than 60 kinds\u00a0of bats.<\/p>\n

As I\u00a0wandered through\u00a0Tikal\u2019s\u00a0ceremonial plazas, temples, residences, and ruins, the sounds and smells of the jungle were ever present, from the deep grunting\u00a0of howler monkeys in the trees high above to coatis (a raccoon-like animal)\u00a0darting\u00a0across the trails. The\u00a0rich diversity of plant and animal life provided\u00a0a counterpoint to the serenity of the ruins.<\/p>\n

The heart of Tikal is its Grand Plaza, a ceremonial space bordered on the east and west by two extraordinary pyramid-temples. The Temple of the Great Jaguar (named after a carving above its main doorway)\u00a0towers more than 150 feet above the plaza, its sides rising steeply to the sky. Across from it is the\u00a0Temple of the Mask, a slightly smaller, but still impressive, structure. Its name is derived from a pair of masks carved into a wall on\u00a0its top platform.<\/p>\n

\"Jaguar
The Temple of the Great Jaguar is the most stunning of Tikal\u2019s many temple-pyramids. (Bob Sessions photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Standing between these two landmarks, I was reminded of the\u00a0Great Pyramids in\u00a0Egypt. Both the\u00a0ancient Mayans and the ancient Egyptians loved to build big, and their creations\u00a0still have\u00a0the capacity to evoke awe in us.<\/p>\n

I loved, too, walking the\u00a0winding paths between the ruins and temples. Because of Tikal\u2019s\u00a0sprawling expanse, it\u2019s easy to get away from other visitors. I spent an entire hour in a\u00a0set of ruins without seeing another person, a gift that\u00a0allowed me to soak up its sights, sounds, and atmosphere without interruption.<\/p>\n

That time gave me the chance to reflect on what I\u2019d learned on our Mayan tour. I thought back to a conversation I\u2019d had with\u00a0Helen Tomei, the owner of Sacred Earth Journeys. We were visiting\u00a0about the power of pilgrimage to change people\u2019s lives, and she told me that\u00a0when she was a young woman ready to start traveling on her own, she spent a lot of time looking at maps. She would spread them across a table and look at\u00a0one country after another, trying to decide where her heart was being pulled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of a mysterious thing, this going on pilgrimage,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole world is open to you, and yet you need to find the individual place that calls to you. For me, the first\u00a0place was India. I kept coming back to that country\u00a0on the map, especially to its\u00a0Himalayan region. And that\u2019s where I ended up traveling, which\u00a0in turn set in motion a lifetime of journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a believer in the power of pilgrimage,\u00a0you probably have a similar story, a time\u00a0when the door to the world, and to the\u00a0spirit, opened wide. In my own life, the Native American holy site of Bear Butte in South Dakota was\u00a0the entrance.<\/p>\n

\"Kapok
A huge kapok tree, a species sacred to the Mayans, stands near the entrance to Tikal. (Bob Sessions photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And I find it curious that\u00a0the world\u2019s sacred sites have\u00a0so many similarities \u2013 not in their particulars, but in their essence. I know I experienced\u00a0a similar\u00a0feeling standing in the Grand Plaza of Tikal as I\u2019ve felt in many holy places: it\u00a0felt like coming home.<\/p>\n

That said, the Mayan world still holds many mysteries for me. I was introduced to just a few Mayan sites\u00a0on my trip to Mexico and Guatemala. But I learned enough to know that I want to go back to these remote landmarks\u00a0filled with beauty and power. I want to hear the howler monkeys again, and to sit on the steps of a temple and imagine what it was like when it was a living place\u00a0of worship.<\/p>\n

Let me end with a story from our\u00a0friend Brian, who traveled with us on our Mayan journey. When he came back to the bus at the end of our second day in Tikal, he told us\u00a0about an experience he\u2019d had earlier that afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on top of one of the temples, not saying anything, just looking out over the scene,\u201d he told us. \u201cAnd there was a guy sitting a few yards away, saying nothing, just looking out at the landscape like I was. And\u00a0when he got up to leave, he turned to me and said, \u2018This is the best day of my entire life.’\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u00a0interchange crystalizes for me one\u00a0of the reasons why we go on pilgrimage, whether it\u2019s to Tikal or Egypt or Bear Butte: we go because of those\u00a0shining moments, the ones that we\u00a0store in our treasure house of memories, the ones that give depth and meaning to our entire lives.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a little video I took on top of the Temple of the Masks at Tikal (the sounds in the background are howler monkeys):<\/em><\/p>\n