Long Life, Honey in the Heart: A Story of Initiation and Eloquence From the Shores of a Mayan Lake [Hardcover]

Martin Prechtel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 1999

A stand-alone memoir that continues Martin Prechtel's story and explores the Tzutujil Mayan concept of initiation and its relevance to our contemporary world.

"The Mayan gods, who hold eloquence above all else, must surely be pleased with this soul, who in this lifetime is named Mart'n Prechtel."--Clarissa Pinkola Estes

In Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, Martin Prechtel told of his fourteen years as a shaman in the ancient Mayan village of Santiago Atitlan. Now he continues his story, describing his role as village chief and initiator and examining the complexity of the Mayan religious and social universe against a backdrop of political and social intrigue.

During the period in which this book is set (the 1970s), Guatemala was in the midst of a brutal civil war. Prechtel's coming-of-age memoir relates his personal experience of the war, describing how Guatemala's ruling government outlawed the thousand-year-old traditional rites of the Maya, leading to the dissolution of Santiago Atitlan and ultimately forcing Prechtel to flee the country in fear for his life.

It's an amazing tale--and Prechtel is a spellbinding storyteller. His writing has been acclaimed as "colorful and revelatory in its insights . . . leagues beyond any ethnography I've ever read" (Common Boundary). At once a page-turner and a profound work of cultural anthropology, Long Life, Honey in the Heart makes a lasting contribution to our understanding of one of humankind's most significant ancient civilizations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Prechtel, whose earlier memoir, Secrets of Talking Jaguar, described his initiation as a shaman among the Tzutujil Mayan of Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala, now takes his readers back to that village, this time focusing on initiation rites--which were meant to renew the culture and the earth itself. As a youth of Native American and European ancestry who grew up on a New Mexican reservation and was searching for a new home, Prechtel won the generous acceptance and trust of these people. He lived their everyday life, married a Tzutujil, and served as a respected Elder. He was, therefore, uniquely positioned to document their culture. His lyrical prose captures not only the intricate details of these complex rituals but also their spiritual meaning for the Tzutujil, whose traditions were on the verge of extinction, as well as the humor and wisdom they brought to their lives. During the 1980s, the violence and horror of Guatemala's political situation overcame the ancient traditions of the villagers, and Prechtel left after attempts on his life. But he keeps those traditions alive in this vivid and devoted memoir. Suitable for both anthropology and biography collections, this work should appeal to a wide audience.
-Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It's an encyclopedia of beauty...like some poem of Neruda's, it is a treasure house of language, in service to life."
—Robert Bly, author of The Night Abraham called to the Stars

"Friend, if you have picked up this book, hold it. Don't set it down. Let it call. Let it enter. Let it undo the latch of forgetfulness It is not an academic study, nor event the personal account it at first appears. It is a hymn from the living heart of the universe, echoing in our being with praise and remembrance of that we didn't know we remembered."
—Paul Weiss, Director, Whole Health Center, Bar Harbor, Maine --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; First Edition edition (October 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874779944
• ISBN-13: 978-0874779943
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > New Age
  • #16 in Books > History > Americas > Central America > Guatemala
  • #75 in Books > History > Ancient > Mayan

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wisdom of the ancients, January 14, 2001

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"[e-mail]" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Life, Honey in the Heart: A Story of Initiation and Eloquence From the Shores of a Mayan Lake (Hardcover)

Prechtel's book is incredibly beautiful, describing the life, loves and rituals of a small town in Guatemala, Santiage de Atitlan and the changes that have occurred there. As a companion piece to the Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, which is equally profound, this book leads us away from the Shamanistic and into the everyday life of these beautiful people. The book is full of the wisdom of the past regarding such things as marriage, teenage years, birth and death. My emotions and memories of the indiginous peoples of this land are brought vividly to mind in this book. I have lived and worked for many years with Pueblo people and am struck by the many similarities of belief and ritual.Prechtel is a fantastic writer who keeps one wanting more!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music, eloquent speech, and initiation, August 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Long Life, Honey in the Heart: A Story of Initiation and Eloquence From the Shores of a Mayan Lake (Hardcover)

This being third in the sequence of Martin Prechtel's books that I'd read this year, completion of the triptych brought my understanding to critical mass/tears in view of how much has been lost in Guatemala's entry to the 21st century. However, these writings make it highly probable that the loss is not complete, or unmourned. His books embody the very processes he tells of; for example, his mention of customs which are made to be broken: people's learning the significance of who breaks them, how, and when they are broken or allowed to be broken strengthens the culture.* His own experience of out of sequence initiation illustrates this, but beyond that, the fluidity with which he passes between poetic and humorous storytelling and epilogues in a more philosophical tone invites inner dialogue in the reader. He is well aware of the modern consumer mentality as a ghost layer mimicing an underlying spiritual void, when he taunts the readers at the outset that many will voraciously consume his books and move on, without fulfilment. *This realization is the most important one passed from mentor to initiate in any culture. My mentor at the same period (the 1970's)was a halfway-house worker who realized and taught others that we were not there to enforce a culture on the mentally ill, but rather light-heartedly yet seriously to help them draw the line as to what they could expect to get away with and more importantly, not get away with, in this life, and to plan accordingly. Indigenous music and language being preserved and used in their celebratory (if no longer ritual) uses may be all we have left to work/play with. Prechtel does well to begin his story with his introduction to Mayan music. The depths have not yet been plumbed as far as the role music plays in initiation, since the printed word is not the right medium to convey this. It struck me as wonderful that a Peruvian flute band were playing their hearts out last weekend in Portland, Maine, at the last visit of the Tall Ships- a proper "send-off" to the ghosts of Conquistador navies by a very much alive pre-columbian musical band.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Each on for the benefit of all, May 19, 2007

By 

Paul A. Todd "s-fox" (Sydney, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long Life, Honey in the Heart (Paperback)

Modern society has us born and abandonded. It does not take any interest in us unless we make lots of money or achieve some kind of fame. We have little purpose in it except to make money for others and that is pretty much the extent of it: nothing else is demanded of us.

Martin Prechtel's book describes a society where giving is more important than receiving, working together for a common cause of spiritual value rather than material value, opposed on both sides by the materialist communists and capitalists, neither of whom can see any value in their old ways of initiation.

Yet the initition creates a person of far greater value than those who sought to destroy it. Whether or not the reader can share the beliefs of the Tzutujil Maya, and for a modern reader it is of course difficult, the result of this system of society is the creation of real human beings, lives not devoid of meaning and afloat on a sea of worthlessness, but deeply intertwined with the living processes of the world, each one feeling that they contribute to the story of life, that they have value and love.

The difficult and dangerous passage of initiation that the adolescents of the village undergo to bring the goddess back to life gives them an inner power and wisdom that stays with them for the rest of their lives, meaning that they don't become disruptive, lost and alienated from the world but an integral part.

It is a shame to me that our modern societies, whatever their political system, cannot operate more in this way. Not to live exactly like they used to - before the modern societies imposed themselves - but to realise what they achieved and how it can benefit our cast-adrift generations.

I have given this book five stars because it offers a way out of the ever-tightening spiral of anguish that drives even the pleasures of modern life and it does so without preaching or spite. There are humourous passages throughout as well as more serious tracts. It is about the joy and beauty of life.