This is an intensive 10-day program scheduled in October or November each year.  Eight classes taught by Itza Maya Elder Hunbatz Men cover Maya philosophy, cosmology and mystical knowledge.  There are daily practices of yok’hah techniques and meditations, plus self-study assignments.  Pilgrimages to 2 or 3 Mayan archeological sites serve to expand comprehension of how the Maya coded cosmic knowledge, numerology, and sacred geometry into pyramids and other structures.  Rituals at the Maya Ceremonial, Cultural & Educational Center at Lol Be and other sites offer a direct experience of mystical traditions connecting with the Maya Three Worlds and the energies of the Sun, Moon, Planets and Elements.  The complete course of study includes over 60 hours.   

Upon completion of this program, graduates are awarded a Diploma in Yok’hah Maya Studies by the Cosmic Initiatic University. 

Graduates are encouraged to bring these profound ancient Mayan understandings and practices to their home cities, and share these with other sincere seekers of Maya wisdom.  Our graduates are the wisdom teachers of the future, in the lineage of the mystic Maya.

CLASSES IN MAYAN PHILOSOPHY, COSMOLOGY, MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE

CLASS 1:  Origin of the Mayan People

Scientific researchers still do not agree upon the origins of the Maya people.  They do agree that the Mayas demonstrated an advanced civilization during the first millennium BCE and produced the most spectacular cultural artifacts and structures in Mesoamerica.  The Maya Itza tradition suggests that the ancient Mayas came from the east, from a place where the ocean swallowed the stones of wisdom, bringing an already well-developed culture with very high architectural and astronomical knowledge.  Elders believe the Mayas had cosmogonic origin connected with the star system Pleiades.  Their knowledge includes evolution of humanoid life on Earth, the Sun as creative and educative force, and shared esoteric knowledge with Hindu and Tibetan cultures. 

CLASS 2:  Maya Philosophy and Mystic Language

 The ancient Maya had a well-developed and complex philosophy that encompasses epistemology (sources of knowledge), life cycles and purposes, social and structural organization, derivations and uses of multiple sciences, and mystic thought expressed in language.  They perceived a layered and integrated universe, with multiple dimensions of existence that interacted.  The spiritual and sacred permeated everything, without separation from the physical domain.  Models used include the World Tree reaching through three layers of existence, the quadripartite shaping of Earth, and the reflection of cosmic processes within planetary and social structures.  Mayan language contains mystic codes, and the sounds create vibrations with the power to affect the human body, the world and to manifest things (similar to bija or root sounds in Sanskrit).

CLASS 3:  Mayan Glyphic Writing

Despite decades of research into Mayan glyphic writing, the full meanings contained in their complex and richly ornate designs are not well understood.  Mayanists claim they have broken the Maya code, but Mayan elders and priests disagree.  They contend that the “western mind” cannot understand Maya writing because it is necessary to take a spiritual approach that honors the creative forces (gods).  Maya writing contains many layers of symbolism that relate to their cosmology and epistemology.  An isolated glyph expresses more concepts than a word in western writing.  Zuyua is a system of hidden codes within Mayan words, often with different meanings when read in reverse.  The working of the cosmos serves as a guide to Mayan writing.

CLASS 4:  Maya Social Organization

The social organization of the ancient Maya was a reflection of their cosmic origins and solar religion.  As sons and daughters of solar light, humans are integral with nature and governed by the same laws.  Human attributes are perfected through living one’s life.  The Maya attained perfect understanding of life; each individual had a place in society and was equally valued.  Governance was by those most affected by the decisions.  Councils were composed of representatives of 20 families who formed a village.  Numerology had an important role in social organization, structuring groups by age ranges and proper activities.  Leadership revolved among those most qualified within age ranges. One became an elder at age 52, no longer subject to physical laws but guided by spiritual laws.  Young men engaged in ritual struggles resulting in a period of service by losers to villages of winners.  Archeological evidence of destructive warfare reflects a later deterioration of Maya civilization.

CLASS 5:  Cosmic Mayan Calendars

Time was understood by the Mayas in a mathematical way.  Most people do not know how to measure time that emanates from the cosmos, according to the movements of planets, the sun, the moon, the earth and other celestial bodies.  To the Maya, cosmic consciousness, the forces of nature, all life forms and numbers were intimately bonded.  They had over 17 calendars, and the most mystical and sacred one, the Tzolk’in, synchronized them all.  The Tzolk’in calendar is purely numeric (13x20 permutation) and works with energies of earth, moon and the planets.  The Ha’ab calendar follows cycles of the sun (18x20 permutation) and belongs to earth.  The most sacred numbers are 13 (spirit), 20 (humans, life forms), and 9 (levels of the upperworld).  Calendars function through multiples of these numbers, and by a process of doubling.  Synchronizing calendars using least common multiples is key to understanding their deeper meanings and relationships.  Cycles are embedded within ever-larger ones, from the day (k’in) to the equinoctial cycle (26,000 years) and beyond.             

CLASS 6:  Sacred Mayan Geometry

To the Mayan elders and priests, the gods, humans, numbers and geometric shapes were only one being and nothing was out of this concept.  All structures on earth and in the cosmos were composed of sacred geometry, and all processes within and between them took place through geometric relations.  All that exists is in harmony through sacred proportions with numerological aspects.  The square is the geometry of all form that manifests physically, all that has measure.  The circle is the geometry of all energy, all movement, of spirit and consciousness that enliven forms.  The Maya supreme deity, Hunab K’u, is literally a square within a circle.  Pyramids and temples in Mayan cities were built according to sacred proportion and geometry, to hold, receive, transmute and emanate specific types of energies.  Sacred geometry provides deep understanding of the nature of reality.

CLASS 7:  Mayan Sexual Education

In the beginning of humankind, the body was androgynous.  After certain creative processes, the cosmic intelligence and universal creator Hunab K’u decided to separate these androgynous beings into two sexes, male and female.  They were closely connected with spirit and understood sex was sacred, and to be experienced according to high principles or laws.  To the Maya, sex and the sun were closely related, and regulated sex according to phases of the sun.  Mayan sexuality was governed by planetary knowledge and natural laws.  Education and rituals prepared people for conscious conception.  Sacred calendrical calculations were used to select characteristics of children who were intentionally conceived.  The Mayas had a tantric system that expressed the relationship between cosmic laws and human sexual energies.

CLASS 8:  Deities of the Mayan Cosmogony

Mayan deities exist in various dimensions.  They were the lords representing forces of nature, both earthly and cosmic.  All existing things in the world have their divinity, or spiritual duality.  Plants, trees, mountains, caves, animals, waters, humans have a dual physical and spiritual nature.  Some spirits cannot manifest physically, their essence exists beyond this third dimension of earth.  Others can manifest when conditions are right, such as a full moon.  Shaman-priests can move between dimensions and interact with deities.  The ancient Maya held monotheistic beliefs, having one supreme creator god, Hunab K’u, giver of movement and measure.  The deities of their cosmogony are reflections of this supreme being, as are the spirits of humans and all earth.  Spirit is pure consciousness and has an ethereal form.  The soul is spirit associated with the body or form.  Life on earth is the result of solar energy, and the life force it gives is called k’inan.