Mayan Superstitions

by Linda McManus on July 9, 2013, no comments

The Mayans were a civilization filled with superstitious beliefs. The most notable of all, even today, is the link of the Mayans with extra-terrestrial beings.  If one reads books by Erich Von Daniken, especially “The Chariots of the Gods,” then she can clearly understand that there is an indirect link to Mayans and aliens from outer space, that is, Daniken’s hypothesis are true.  There are even some hieroglyphics on ancient Mayan scriptures and sculptures that depict a sort of a rocket ship and the man inside that ship looks like an astronaut of some sort.

Other findings have tried to conclude that Mayan superstitions included references to Atlantis.  Some of the Mayan beliefs in superstitions are that the Maya are closely connected to lost continents and lost civilizations.  This kind of notion was popularized by authors of the nineteenth century with the likes of Jules Verne, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and H. Rider Haggard.

In the 1970’s, interests in Mayan superstitions or even the whole Mayan culture were revived through the work of Frank Waters.  He is a writer on the subject of Hopi mythology.  In this decade, he was the recipient of Rockefeller Foundation grant to support his research regarding Mexico and Central America. This gave birth to his idea of writing a book called “Mexico Mystique:  The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness.” This book discusses the Mesoamerican culture of the Mayan civilization as well as their beliefs and superstitions were a part.

The Mayan beliefs are centered on a collection of many diverse “sub-beliefs”, to put it simply. There appears to be no central doctrine of any sort.  Beliefs include insights into cosmology and eschatology and even of advanced technology and ecology.  Mayans, as is the case with other ancient cultures, are found to be interested in searching for Utopia, a place of never-ending happiness and serenity.

The irony to all of these celestial beliefs, if one sees it that way, is that they shun all academic scholarship and emphasized on gaining knowledge through revelation and prophecy and to traditional knowledge.  The result is that Mayanism is characterized by a combination of syncretism and esotericism.

In plain language, the Maya used celestial beings in finding the truth and look for answers from heavenly bodies that float around them.  They also relied on one significant component of Mayanism which is Shamanism. One of the many themes in Mayanism is the use of entheogens to induce the altered states of consciousness so that they can gain deep insights and wisdom.  With this, in order to alter the states of consciousness, they use tobacco and was ingested through smoking it or drinking a concoction with tobacco.  Does this mean to say that, at one time or another, they used hemp to sort of “open up their minds”?

Today, Mayanism or the Mayan superstitious beliefs are also very popular in modern culture and have influenced a lot of people through arts like painting and music and the interest of other people in eccentrics and belief in extra-terrestrial beings.

The fact of the matter is, a lot of modern-day literature has tried to find some evidences of links between the Maya and the extra-terrestrial. Erich Von Daniken has written a lot of books about aliens that have visited the Earth long, long time ago and he even presented some evidences in hieroglyphics found in the temple walls of the Maya’s pyramid-like structure where one can find a sort of astronaut and a rocket ship beside it.

Does this really show that thousands of years ago, aliens have visited this planet and its main contact are the Maya race?  Can these theories be proven or shall they remain speculation?



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