The Lost Time in Tikal

The Jungles of Guatemala... Tikal
End of July Sometime, 2008.

It was the mysteries of Tikal and the magic of the Maya that intrigued me enough to initially come to Guatemala, but it wasn't until my final week in the country that I made it there. Tikal is one of the most impressive of the ancient Mayan ruins since it is still located in the tangles of the wild jungle. Tikal was made more public during the filming of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, where the pyramids provide the backdrop for the secret rebel base (think Ewoks).

The Maya were impressive in their knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, and especially time and the calendar. Over centuries, the ancient Maya had obtained enough data from observation of the night skies to conclude very accurately the precession of our solar system, which completes a full cycle every 26,625 years, coinciding with the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. The design and layout of the Mayan pyramids were highly integrated with nature and were aligned with the celestial bodies, which, on equinoxes and solstices highlighted their knowledge by casting interacting shadows throughout their structures.

My interest in Tikal was their concept of the dimension of 'time' and their sophisticated calendar system, versus our currently accepted calendar with deep roots in catholocism. The Mayan calendar incorporates regular cycles coinciding with those observed in nature, whereas our chaotic gregorian calendar observes no such regular cycles. Perhaps the calendar subconsciously influences a society's ability to live harmoniously with nature or live a programmed life always at odds with what is natural and human, such as our current culture.

The most magical time in the jungle is sunrise and sunset, which is why I woke up at 3am to witness two morning sunrises over the Tikal jungle. Sitting away from the crowd of people atop Temple 4, I sat quietly, letting my mind relax into the grasp of the jungle. Slowly, the howler monkeys screamed a majestic story from the still dark treetops and commanded the attention of every living being within earshot. The clouds high in the sky had slowly begun to change shades of pink over the jungle canopy that stretched out to the horizon, hinting that sunrise was near. The sun slowly spread out over the horizon as the light changed from minute to minute until a brief swath of fog washed over the jungle leaves and consumed the ancient temples. The birds were the next to wake up as their calls echoed each other's presence. Shortly after, the hum and whirr of insects began to consume the silence between the avian songs and eventually remained as the sole constant sound in the jungle only to be interrupted by the occasional flitter of a hummingbird or the rustling of leaves as a group of inquisitive howler monkeys danced through the canopy. Each in their order, each at their natural time, and exactly as the jungle has done since the beginning of time, the jungle awoke, and fell back asleep. This is a very different world from the mechanized and unnatural rat race our 'civilization' has become. My initial plan of staying in Guatemala for 5 weeks turned into just short of 5 months, reinforcing the elusiveness of time... always dynamic, always enigmatic.

Tikal Ruins, Guatemala. From the lookout at Temple 4, the sunrise had just begun.


Tikal Ruins, Guatemala. As the sunset rises, the mist is flowing gently over the tops of the trees.


Tikal Ruins, Guatemala. The main plaza between Temples 1 and 2.


Tikal Ruins, Guatemala. At precise times of the year one temple would lay down a shadow directly in line with this Temple, stacking a flat imitation on the ground below.


Flores, Guatemala. Unfortunately this was not taken with my camera, but this is the gorgeous sunset that I missed shooting for myself.



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Esoteric Questions of Time and The Calendar

There are a few simple questions in life that I am upset I had never asked myself growing up...

• Why are there 60 seconds in an hour?
• Why are there 12 months in the year?
• Why do the months of the year contain different number of days?

I simply accepted these things as stable, constant, and having been in existence forever... this is definitely not the case. Take time for instance... it is currently accepted that the solar day is divided into 24 hours, of which there are 60 minutes of 60 seconds. This may not seem like a big deal until you realize that everything in our life has become regulated by this simple division. Work meetings, school classes, doctors appointments, television programs, lunch hour, and even the time we wake up is usually based upon a multiple of the hour. What if our system had been based on a different number such as 10? How long would a school class be? How long would a television program be? It is quickly realized that the number 60 significantly and subconsciously influences the way we live our lives.

Similarly, our current calendar has divided a year into an arbitrary number of months with an unequal number of days, which is as illogical as using a ruler with uneven demarcations. If the arbitrary division of time has regulated our lives (at least with regular repeating divisions), how has our arbitrary and random calendar system influenced our society? Our currently accepted Gregorian calendar was not always in place, but was instituted into our mainstream (Western) culture by the powerful Catholic religion, and has undergone subsequent revisions, but still without reverting to a regular predictable division of time that mirrors natural cycles.

It is proposed by some that living our lives by a more regular calendar, aligned with natural cycles of nature and the universe, would result in a more harmonious way of living. We could shed ourselves of a culture subconsciously regulated by a particular religion and align ourselves with the natural world that everyone lives in. The curiosity of a more regular calendar and concepts of cyclic time led me to the ancient Mayans and their intricate calendar system. The Maya were obsessed with tracking cycles of time, and were even aware of that the universe rotates on its axis, with a cycle repeating every 25,625 years. The Mayan calendar mysteriously ends at the end of the 26,625 year cycle on the year 2012, coinciding with a rare planetary and galactic alignment. It is also interesting that some other important cultures such as the Tibetans, Egyptians, and the Hopi were similarly aware of a natural 26,000 year cycle. This information is ripe pickings for doomsdayers and other zealots, however, I do find it interesting that our culture, technology, political situations, and environmental destruction has been accelerating faster and faster. We as a society are becoming increasingly out of touch with nature and our own earth, and soon we will hit a definite breaking point. It is clear that some massive individual, environmental, political, and social changes have to happen very soon in order to live in a sustainable world. Perhaps these other ancient cultures were more advanced than we thought. Or forgot!

We can save the deeper discussion on 'Time' for another time...