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Spiritual Travel to Mexico
Entering the Maya Mysteries

January 13-25, 2013
Trip information below.

Special Winter Solstice 2012 Program
Click the link for information.

The roots of all things are connected.   When a tree is cut in the forest,   a star falls in the sky. — Chan K'in Viejo Spirit holder of the Lacandones

An Immersion Experience in Maya Cosmology, Ritual, Medicine and Arts

SEE THE COMPLETE ITINERARY.

Photos from Previous Maya Trips
Travelers' Stories: Testimonials from Previous Trips

Few traditions have lived their spiritual mythologies in so graphic a manner and left behind such abundant clues of the great leap to life beyond this one, and the places in-between, in their magnificent temples and symbols just now being decoded.

How can we find meaning in the Ancient Maya world that we may translate into our own lives? What Maya rituals and stories survive — connecting the filaments from long ago? In a present-day Western culture bereft of such richness, how might we take a cue from this age-old culture and develop metaphoric pathways to enliven our own being? These are the questions that will frame our experiences and journey into timelessness.

Join us as we enter the Maya Mysteries through travel to temple ruins, some deep in the jungle, explored by few. Learn about Ancient Maya cosmology, or world view, and how it manifested at these locations. Experience the very rare opportunity of engaging in Lacandón Maya ceremonies and storytelling, that are all but extinct, through Don Antonio Martinez, the last elder faithfully practicing his indigenous rituals. He has graciously consented to share his traditions that they may be witnessed and live on.

Call on your ancestors through the fire ceremony and experience the temazcal, traditional sweat bath, lead by Maya Daykeeper Floridalma Pérez González. Learn of the shamanic initiation of Don Xun Calixto, spiritual leader and healer of San Juan Chamula, and participate in a curing ceremony of offerings and prayer. Undertake a clearing ritual with Doña Panchita, a curandera serving her people in Palenque. Meet Don Sergio Castro, known as the saint of San Cristóbal de las Casas, and learn of his humanitarian healing work.

We will begin against the dramatic backdrop of Palenque and move into the Lacandón Rainforest village of Najá where we will meet our Lacandón host and participate in the sacred balché ceremony and more. After a visit to Tonina, we arrive in the colonial town of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, surrounded by high mountains, with its stately architecture, narrow streets and markets replete with beautiful Maya weavings and handicrafts. We will participate in the colorful religious festivals of nearby Tzotzil and Tzeltal Maya villages San Juan Chamula and Zinacantán, and the fire ceremony of the Mam people of Guatemala. Along the way we experience curing rituals of the Indigenous peoples of these lands, learn about Living Maya medicine, arts and everyday social issues... and make room for what else may show up.

Throughout, we will be focused on the space between these moments where the intent of our travels takes shape...

In places like Palenque... life slows down. The humidity and the soft energy of these rainforest spaces won't allow you to move too fast. In that lessening and more languid movement, distracting internal voices gradually hush. When silence is given space, elements of living that you keep at bay are allowed to be freely present. Things we believe unreal or mystical begin to emerge. — Carla Woody Standing Stark

A Spirit Keepers Journey co-sponsored by Kenosis Spirit Keepers and Kenosis LLC.

Read an article on Chiapas and the Lacandón Maya.

GROUP SIZE LIMITED. RESERVE YOUR SPACE!

Contact us at 928-778-1058 or info@kenosisspiritkeepers.org for more information.

Carla Woody, MA, CHT... author of Standing Stark and Calling Our Spirits Home... is the founder of Kenosis LLC, an organization based in Prescott, Arizona, supporting human potential through workshops and spiritual travel opportunities. She leads retreats internationally sharing an integration of NLP, subtle energy work and world sacred traditions. Carla is the developer of "The Re-Membering Process", a model for spiritual growth, and works with individuals and groups in areas of transition, relationships, spirituality and whole health. She first journeyed to Palenque in 1995 and has been drawn back again and again by the resident mysteries of the region. In 2007, Carla founded Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a 501(c)3 organization, working to preserve indigenous wisdom traditions threatened with decimation.

Floridalma Pérez González is a traditional ajq'ij, a "carrier of time." Raised in a Mam village in the mountains of northern Guatemala, she learned traditional Maya medicine from her mother and father, both of whom are curers. After the family moved to Chiapas, Mexico, Flori eventually became an elementary school teacher, human rights worker, and associate of Colibri, an alternative health care center for indigenous women. At the age of 19, Flori began her formal training as a daykeeper under a Kaqchikel Maya elder from Guatemala. "My ceremonies help us to see the state of a person's energy... help people to cure themselves and to find answers to things that are troubling them, especially matters of health."

Carol Karasik is a poet, writer and editor who has worked on books and films in the fields of anthropology, art, ecology, and educational philosophy. For the last fifteen years she has lived in Chiapas in order to experience her passion on a day-to-day basis — Maya culture. That immersion has recently produced a novel set in nineteenth-century Chiapas, as well as the text for Corazon Abriendo, a multi-media dance piece based on Maya weaving which is now being performed in the US and Mexico. She received a National Endowment for the Humanities award for her script on Maya civilization. As editor she has been involved in many publications such as Maya Tales from Zinacantán, Living Maya, and available in July 2008, Every Woman Is a World: Interviews with Women of Chiapas. She is also conducting research on archaeoastronomy at Palenque. Carol is a quintessential storyteller who conveys the lives of the present-day Maya in a way that is mesmerizing.

Walter F. Morris, Jr. (Chip) was born in Boston. In 1972 he arrived in Chiapas as a lost tourist. He was fascinated by the Maya and decided to stay in order to learn Tsotzil as well as the Maya textile and their symbolic meanings. He is a founding member of the Sna Jolobil weaving collecive and compiled the Pellizzi Collection of Chiapas textiles. He was awarded a MacArthur Prize for his work in archaeology and anthropology, and he has published several books on folk art, including A Millenium of Weaving in Chiapas, Living Maya, and Hand Made Money: Latin American Artisans in the Marketplace.

Flordemayo was born in the highlands of Central America and grew up in a family of traditional healers. At an early age she was found to have the gift of Sight. When she was 4 years old Flordemayo began learning the art of curanderismo in the traditional way: taught from mother to daughter, generation to generation. Today she is recognized as a Curandera Espiritu — a healer of divine spirit. She is a member of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and recipient of the Martin de La Cruz Award for Alternative Healing, a prestigious honor given by the International Congress of Traditional Medicine. Flordemayo is also a founding director of the Institute for Natural and Traditional Knowledge and recently established the Sacred Seed Temple whose purpose is to protect organic Native seeds. Flordemayo will travel with us to foster spiritual understanding so that our journey unites in a circle of continual prayer. Note: Automatic donations from the tuition from this program go directly to support establishment of the Sacred Seed Temple to preserve Native seeds for traditional healing and agriculture. For more information on this project go here.

The Lacandón Maya live deep in the rainforest now known as the Lacandón Biosphere. Some anthropologists claim they are the direct descendants of the Ancient Maya who built Palenque, while others conjecture they came from the Yucatan to escape the conquistadors. Wherever their origins, the Lacandones have been rooted in the jungle for hundreds of years in relative isolation. Their appearance and native practices, which closely parallel the Classic Maya mythologies, set them apart from the Maya in other areas of Mexico. Their numbers are growing fewer, merely a few hundred, and since their t'o'ohil, or great one, Chan K'in Viejo passed in the late 1990s their spiritual traditions are nearly lost.

The Tzotzil and Tzeltal Maya of the Chiapas highlands hold a rich tradition of religious festivals, curing rituals, herbal remedies and women’s sacred medicine ways. Their healers are called through dreams and their everyday lives are infused with the esoteric metaphors that are documented in Classic Maya art. We will be fortunate to sample it all.

Maya fire ceremonies are offered to Mother Earth; to the four cardinal directions; to the first Grandmothers and Grandfathers and all our ancestors; to the rivers, lakes and seas; and to the powers of all animals and human beings in the universe. "The fire ceremony embraces the 20 day names in the sacred 260-day Maya calendar. But these are not simply day names; they are nahuales, living forces that are present in every element of the cosmos. People born on a particular day take the power of that day, and so, everyone possesses nahuales, which define our destiny on earth. When we make the sacred fire we speak with the 20 powers and they respond through the fire to what we ask of them. An ajq’ij ("counter of days"), has numerous responsibilities: spiritual and psychosocial guide, family counselor, and mediator as well as mathematician, astronomer, and keeper of the Maya calendars related to the cycles of the earth, moon, and human life." ...fire ceremonies emphasize the ancestral practices and principles of living together in harmony." (Source: http://lacasadelaguila.blogspot.com.)

Mexican photos ©2006 and 2010 Carla Woody. All rights reserved.

Cost:	Early registration discount $2750 by October 22. After October 22: $2850. Registration cost includes an automatic donation (tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers) of $250 toward Kenosis Spirit Keepers programs. Tuition includes all group work with Carla Woody, blessings with Flordemayo, instruction in Maya cosmology and discussion on present-day Maya with Carol Karasik and Chip Morris, Balché Ceremony with Lancandón elder Don Antonio Martinez, any included curing rituals with Don Xun Calixto and Doña Panchita, fire ceremony and temazcal with Doña Flori Pérez González, noted religious festivals, simple lodging in double rooms or other shared arrangements depending on location, all meals in Najá, and two dinners/all breakfasts in the Chiapas highlands; any entrance fees, and transport in Mexico during formal group time. Tuition does NOT include airfare to/from Mexico or transportation between the airport and the starting/ending points (Palenque/San Cristóbal). Also includes a pre- or post-trip Lifepath Design session — complimentary — with Carla Woody regarding intent or re-entry. Participants of spiritual travel programs are offered a special discount for the six-month mentoring program Navigating Your Lifepath. This deep discount is not available to others but offered as an add-on to further support integration of the spiritual travel journey. For complete details, contact us. Detailed logistics document sent upon registration. MC/Visa accepted via PayPal here. Important Note: Your participation in this journey supports preservation of Native traditions by helping to bring about Flordemayo's vision of the Sacred Seed Temple, a directive reinforced by the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and Quechua plant geneticist Emigdio Ballon. Donations are recognized as a charitable contribution by the State of Arizona, and by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(3).
Deposit:	Non-refundable deposit of $500 made out to Kenosis LLC to hold your place. Remainder due in full by November 15, 2012. Send final payment in two checks or money orders as follows: One check for $250 made out to Kenosis Spirit Keepers and the remaining registration amount to Kenosis LLC. Mail both to: Kenosis, PO Box 10441, Prescott, AZ 86304. To pay by credit card or PayPal go here.
Cancellation:	45 days or more prior to the start of the trip, full refund (less $500 deposit). From 44-30 days, full amount (less deposit and tax-deductible donation, if applicable) is transferable to any Kenosis offering within two years. From 29 days to trip start 15% of tuition is transferable within two years. This policy reflects our need to cover expenses in the case of cancellations. REGISTRATION DEADLINE: December 1, 2012.
For more information:	Contact Kenosis Spirit Keepers for more info. Call 928-778-1058 or send a message by email to info@kenosisspiritkeepers.org.

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Last updated 20 February 2013   |  © 2008-2013 Kenosis Spirit Keepers