A day tripper in Wonderland
I had wandered already for a while along the ruins of Coba pyramids, the ancient Mayan ritual centre in Yucatan, Mexico. Having the full moon above us that night I figured that the site of La Iglesia (The Church) was just a perfect spot to sit down, and have a breather and a thought after a long walk. After all, this exact structure had been where the Mayas adored their Moon Goddess Po (among other central figures of their religion) in thousands of ceremonies in the passed centuries.
The Mayas, by the way, had several other goddesses too. In their belief system the feminine, the Underworld and the metaphysical (and the tangible) concept of darkness were fundamental and always something to embrace. These basic principles were there whether it was for Mayan architecture, armed conflict, political insitutions, religious pantheon or just daily rituals and division of power. Unlike later in this area, under the influence of catholic church, which in its’ (let me say) patriarchal doctrines has proved to be quite the opposite; categorically reaching “up”, to heaven, to masculine figures, to the light, to purity (defined by men), and so on.
Anyhow. I was at the pyramid and felt like sitting down for a brief meditation. I wanted to somehow soak in the energy of that place. Since there were people passing the site every now and then, I wasn’t too comfortable with crossing my legs or performing any mudras for meditation. So I just sat down very casually with hands on my lap and closed my eyes.
After some sitting I heard a light sound beside me. As in meditation practice you are trying not to react to distractions, I didn’t open my eyes. Maybe it was a tourist looking for a right angle to shoot his pic? I had heard no steps, so possibly this was the iguana I had seen earlier sunbathing on the top level of the ruins? I got even a bit excited when imagining the possibility of some of those vultures (which flied so iconically above the building when I arrived) had landed somewhere next to me.
But anyway, now I am still supposed to do my meditation.
The light sound was still occassionally there, so eventually I couldn’t resist anymore and had to peek.
It was so trippy.
This most adorable, teeny tiny girl in pink and glitter sunglasses, wearing an ideal "reggae artist goes rap" outfit and a cap of princess Frozen, was sitting 50 centimetres left of me, with closed eyes, lotus legs and her fingers in perfect gyan mudra.
It didn’t make any sense to me. After a good 15 seconds of complete amazement, I managed to ask the girl and the mother (who arrived there soon) how did she know that I was doing a meditation there, and how did she know to perform the mudras and so on - was the family practicing, had she see that in tv? The girl didn’t say anything and the mother told that meditation couldn´t be further from their family’s everyday life.
We didn’t have time to get deeper into that because now we noticed that the iguana which was earlier peeking down from the top level of the pyramid, 50 meters above us, was not still anymore. It was crawling down. Me, the girl, the mother and another guy behind us we all froze still when the lizard slithered its’ course perpendicular to us. It looked like a snake sliding down, step by step.
The iguana moved slowly closer, not looking aside but staring at us.
The linear but serpient-like movement it had, the pyramid, the full moon, the full sun, this hilarious image of a meditating bling reggae-rapper girl next to me, the vulture above, the Mayan soil beneath, this stagnation of movement and a total silence penetrating it all… Too surreal for the lizard NOT to talk to us soon.
Almost 5 minutes passed, without any of us moving or speaking.
Finally, she was there. She stopped on a stair about one meter above me, and we had a deep, straightforward eye-contact. It felt like a long time. Finally it was me who chickened out, I had to step back and somehow give in to that “what ever it was”. At that moment the scene vanished, we all started speaking, the magic got dispelled, and the iguana moved quickly somewhere to the side of the building.
But something had happened.
It was an encounter. Or a series of encounters. It was a thread and a quantum entanglement of girls, daughters, women, mothers, females, bitches, goddesses, the moon, the sun, the earth, the serpient-like fertility symbol and the perpendicular line drawn from up to bottom.
It was a short story of the Pachamama, the Mayas and a Mia.
It was a peculiar Mexican dream wide wake.
(In the pics: The Girl, La Iglesia, The Lizard, The Vulture, The Full Moon and The Sun.
