How I came to live with the Maya

Engaging with the Maya leadership invariably yields a spiritual and deeply human encounter. The interactions are filled with joy, as humor plays an indispensable role in their otherwise often rigid order of official duties. Beneath the surface, their world is marked by profound understanding of nature in a broad sense, permeating every aspect of their lives. Whether manifested in ceremonial rituals, conversations, intricate weaving of garments, agricultural practices, or the construction of homes, their worldview is intricately woven with meaning. As a cultural researcher and photographer, I relish the richness of their ancestral knowledge, and attune to the harmonies of nature that surround them. With each experience, I aspire to share this cultural tapestry with the broader global community.

I was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in Germany. There, and in Vienna, I studied Mayanism under Prof. Ferdinand Anders before living in Guatemala, experiencing Maya life for six years. Later, when I left Guatemala, I had a dream in which I learned that I would return in twelve years. And so, it happened. Twelve years later, living in Manhattan, I met the current Maya leader under miraculous circumstances. I was taking my morning coffee in my local coffee place on the Bowery when my eye was captured by another visitor reading a book about the Maya. I thought, "I should contact the Maya elders." Back at my computer a while later in the loft, I opened an email from New York University inviting me to an event with the Maya leader. They listed the whole schedule of his one-week first-time visit to the city. That not being enough, I returned home from a photography meeting later that day and met modern shaman Itzhak Beery on the narrow stairs of our townhouse. He has been living on the top floor, yet we never engaged much in the ten years I have lived there. On that day, in this inescapable situation on the stairs, I asked if he knew the Mayans were in town. He looked at me in disbelief and answered with his drum tied to his back: "That is where I am going. They are at the U.N." I went to one of the events in Central Park. The organizers could have been more forthcoming in introducing me. However, it was unnecessary since the Maya pulled me out of the crowd. We spoke, became acquainted, and they invited me to the following private events. Then, Hurricane Sandy struck New York, and reaching the uptown location of their stay was extremely difficult. The few buses running from midtown were packed like a train in India. They ran very slowly, and it took two hours to get there. Luckily, I had a friend on the Upper Westside, who I could stay with, so there was no limit to spending time with Don Tomas and his team. The leader was conducting healing sessions, and I assisted in translating. At night, I showed them Times Square, and we walked for hours around town talking about Maya values. 

A few weeks later, they sent an official invitation to the 2012 Maya New Year celebrations held in their administrative capital of Chichicastenango, Guatemala. Of course, I went. I met the organizers there again and with them, Itzhak Beery, with who from then on, we became friends. I stayed way beyond the 5-day celebrations. Again, I assisted in organizing the events, translating, and bearing a part in the history of this significant 20,000-year-cycle event. I stayed way beyond the 5-day celebrations. I also kept returning to study Maya life and wisdom and ultimately was initiated into Maya shamanism.

Many of the members of this Maya administration, including Don Tomas, did not survive their efforts to bring peace and well-being to their communities. Their memory and wisdom, however, will never seize. The 16th-century European conquerors could not eliminate it, nor will any other effort to do so. 

Beyond this, my mission continues as I share part of the Maya wisdom brought to me with Western communities, bridging the gap between two worlds.

Photo: with a Quichean elder at the Maya administration's official attendance of the ensayo de Baile del Torrito.