Hoopes wrote:
>>>I think the ancient Maya would be dismayed to find so little discussion of corn among New Age aficionados of their belief system. They would be puzzled at the lack of bloodletting. They would also be confused at why there is so little discussion about how to cure diseases, both personal and communal. They would wonder at the apparent absence of sorcery and black magic. Most of all, they'd be appalled that none of the New Age shamans are ballplayers. <<<

if my ego may be allowed some room here,

i'm not sure if i'm percieved as a new ager or wha?... although my status as an aficionado of sorts is inevitable...
i just find it interesting, i'm a farmer... we grow a lot of corn, when i was younger i used to cut myself, in learning to incorporate the mayan energies into my life i experienced a profound physical and psychological healing (no more cutting), and just today after working in the fields i played a game of basketball followed by a game of ... well 'calvin-ball' would be the best way i can explain it hehe....

i'm not into sorcery or black magic... i like science and jesus

it's weird... i'm white as they come, my parents are mostly aspiritual mainstreamers... somehow i'm mayan and i don't even understand how or why or when it happened... it's weird

sorry to interrrupt this thread, I just need someone to tell me i'm a new-age freak to snap me out of it

peace

Yo TreeFrog. Thanks so much to YOU for opening up on some personal stuff. Nothing beats honesty when it comes to pursuing deep discussions.

Y'all should know that I've been following this stuff for a long time now. I got interested in fantasy literature in a serious way when I was a kid, reading the Hobbit and LOTR for the first time about 1969 and 1970. I think that's when it started. My grandfather was a serious Freemason and my mother a Rosicrucian, so I heard a lot about mysticism and ancient Egypt around the house, which was one of the sources of my interest in archaeology. I think it was 1973 when I read Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods," which must have been what piqued my interest in the Maya. I first read one of Morley's early editions of "The Ancient Maya" for a paper I wrote in a 10th grade social studies class in 1974, around the same time that I first picked up Carlos Castaneda's "Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," which led to his other books. I got very goth right about then (though it wasn't called that in the 70s!), reading a lot about witchcraft and the occult. In my 11th grade social studies class I wrote a paper on Atlantis, for which I read a bunch of things ranging from Ignatius Donnelly to more recent stuff. It was around that time (1975) that I first picked up Helena Blavatsky's "Isis Unveiled" and other theosophical literature.

Sometime during my Senior year in high school I settled on becoming an archaeologist. My grandparents took me on a trip to visit ancient sites in Mexico during the summer of '76 and that just sealed the deal. To make a long story short, I had already decided to focus on the Mayas and other Mesoamerican cultures by the time I started college. My undergraduate advisor was Michael Coe and in the first course I took from him we used the first edition of his book "The Maya" (now in its 7th edition). I also took courses from George Kubler, a famous art historian who specialized in ancient Mesoamerica. I did my first Central American fieldwork in Costa Rica in 1978 and have specialized in that part of the Americas ever since. I also did a significant amount of dabbling in altered states during that period, in part as a followup to my long-term interest in mystical experiences.

I went on to get a doctoral degree in anthropology, having the great privilege of completing the last Ph.D. directed by the late Gordon Willey, a giant in Maya studies. My dissertation was on the oldest villages and pottery (about 2000 BC) in Central America. I've done a lot of fieldwork and travel in Central and South America, including visits to many ancient sites. I've done a little bit of travel in Nepal, where I developed a strong interest in Tibetan Buddhism. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore, so I've also had a lifelong interest in Judaism, which I still find to be more intellectually satisfying than any other traditions I've studied.

Anyway, that's just a *little* bit of where I'm coming from. I've been studying and teaching about the Maya on and off now for over thirty years. There is so much to learn that It still feels as if I've only just begun. I've read all of the books you mentioned. Most of the best stuff that I've found, however, is in scholarly articles.

As far as where I'm going next... Right now I'm working on several different papers on shamanism, sorcery, shape-shifting, healing, and violence in ancient Central America, with a focus on both Mayan and Chibchan peoples. I'm working hard at trying to interpret who made and used ancient art and to understand the origins of priesthoods, prophetic movements, and religious traditions. Two of the books that have influenced my thinking a lot this past year are these:

www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822329883

www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822333457