Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path [Paperback]

David Freidel (Author), Linda Schele (Author), Joy Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 1995

A Masterful blend of archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, and lively personal reportage, Maya Comos tells a constellation of stories, from the historical to the mythological, and envokes the awesome power of one of the richest civilizations ever to grace the earth.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this highly original and politically provocative synthesis, archaeologist Freidel and epigrapher Linda Schele team up with Joy Parker, a popular writer, in an attempt to bridge history and prehistory in the Yucatan peninsula of Guatemala and Mexico. Their device is to apply shamanistic belief and practice among modern Maya to interpretations of hieroglyphics and other archaeological remains. In this captivating thesis, foreshadowed in Dennis Tedlock's Popol Vuh ( LJ 1/85) and their own A Forest of Kings (Morrow, 1990), they argue that the world view of the prehistoric Maya lives on in the language and beliefs of the survivors of the Spanish conquest. While at once compelling and controversial, this book will appeal to everyone interested in the Maya and non-Western religion.
- William S. Dancey, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This is pure pleasure to read--an extraordinary contribution to academic knowledge written like a well-paced novel. Linda Schele, whose Blood of Kings (1986) and earlier collaboration with Freidel, A Forest of Kings (1990), are both well-regarded books on the Maya, goes deeper into the Mayan gestalt in this second collaboration with him and first with new partner Joy Parker. The subject is Mayan cosmology, and interweaving archaeology and anthropology with personal experience, the three authors examine the major religious concepts of the Maya and how those concepts found expression in religious architecture and myth. The Maya, they reveal, were not destroyed by the Spanish invaders. Their religion continues, sometimes under the guise of Christianity, sometimes in folk custom, sometimes in ancient rituals still practiced among the descendants of one of America's premier civilizations--rites informed by the concepts the authors present. The creation myth, the ritual ball games, the pyramidal world-tree--these are examined and fleshed out so substantively that the reader feels truly immersed in Mayan reality. Pat Monaghan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (February 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688140696
• ISBN-13: 978-0688140694
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Book to Tell the Real Story About Maya Shamanism, June 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path (Paperback)

As a person who has traveled in places where the modern Maya live--Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico--and who has taken the trouble to get to know what the history and culture of these admirable people is really like, I have always been appalled at the number of books that claim to be about "Maya shamanism," but are really just New Age claptrap. While it is true that MAYA COSMOS does not read like a mass-market paperback, it is one of the most heartfelt, well-researched, and stunning books on the Maya that I have ever read. If you want the REAL story on who the Maya are and how their spiritual and cultural beliefs have evolved over the last 5,000 years, this is the book for you. Yes, there is some scientific data and research here, but I would rather a thousand times read that than the silly cultural misinformation written by dozens of New Age authors who project their own interpretations onto the art and the cities without even being able to read the very texts they are claiming to understand. The late Linda Schele was one of the five major figures who was responsible for cracking the code of the Maya language. As an art historian, she was well versed in the complex and fascinating symbolism of Maya culture. David Freidel has been a brilliant Maya archaeologist for over 25 years, and first became involved with the culture because of his interest in shamanism. Joy Parker, who, by the way, was the ghost-co-author of A FOREST OF KINGS (check out the Acknowledgements and the Forward where her work is credited) has spent over a dozen years working with the modern Maya (most recently, as an editor of Maya shaman Martin Prechtel's SECRETS OF THE TALKING JAGUAR and LONG LIFE, HONEY IN THE HEART) and with other indigenous cultures such as the North Native Americans (check out her book WOMAN WHO GLOWS IN THE DARK) and African cultures, so she brings a special personal interest and flair to this project. The first-person stories told in this book are priceless. I spent as many pleasurable hours reading it as I did the authors' first effort A FOREST OF KINGS. If you truly want to learn about the history of the Maya, the tragedy of the Spanish conquest, and how the modern Maya find the strength to endure, this is the book for you.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Archeoastronomy of the Maya, July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path (Paperback)

The authors present Mayan archeoastronomy in a very readable and absorbable form. Compare the astronomy/astrology/ myths and stories of the Maya to other cultures of which you are aware, and you will see that this book presents a valuable contribution to world archeoastonomy.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maya Cosmos is essential to archeo-astronomy, March 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path (Paperback)

The foundation of Maya Cosmos is the re-discovery of the Mayan creation myth in hieroglyphs, art, and modern Mayan daily ceremonial ritual. The creation myth centers around First Father, the Maize god and father of the Twins, famous in the Popul Vuh creation story. First Father is identified with Orion where he is resurrected from the dead from the cleft carapace of a turtle, which are the three stars in Orion's belt. Recent studies in Egyptian archeo-astronomy has identified the constellation Orion with Osiris, the god of resurrection. The lower left star in Orion's belt, Alnitak, has been identified with the Great Pyramid of Giza. First Father emerges out of a cleft mountain and a cleft turtle carapace, the mountain here possibly related to the idea of the pyramid. Maya Cosmos has gathered a creation story that can be placed now in the archeo-astronomical tradition of the world. In like manner, ancient India has the god Vishnu sitting upon Mt. Meru. A serpent is entwined around this mountain and under the mountain is a great turtle. This identifies Vishnu and Osiris with First Father; Mt. Meru and the great pyramid with the Cleft Mountain; the Vishnu turtle with the Mayan constellation of the turtle, the belt of Orion; and the serpent entwined around Mt. Meru with the Mayan double-headed serpent of the Ecliptic. Maya Cosmos is the first book I have read that has looked at the archeo-astronomy of the Maya and the Olmec and has given archeo-astronomers a valuable resource.