Mayan Elder Hunbatz Men

Today, we had the honor and privilege of interviewing Mayan Elder Hunbatz Men on tape.

We met in his home and business location in Merida, Yucatan. He also has a ceremonial center in a rural area east of Merida.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much John enjoyed visiting with Hunbatz probably because Hunbatz’s approach to the ancient Mayan knowledge, with which he has been entrusted, is through a scientific mix with religion.

He told us about a new book he has written that will be available from Bear & Co. in about a month. The title is something like, The Eight Calendars.

We had an extensive discussion about
Eric J. Thompson, who discovered the Stela in Coba with the December 21, 2012 date on it and the errors Thompson made in deciphering the glyphs on the stela. After all, the glyphs have only recently been extensively translated. So, how could Eric Thompson have been so sure of his information when he visited Coba around 1925?

I thought this was a very good point and wished I had thought of it myself.

It was obvious that Hunbatz is a deep and original thinker. He said that Thompson only knew of three Mayan calendars: the Tszol’kin, the Haab, and the Long Count. However, Hunbatz, through his scientific study of Mayan tradition, has uncovered eight.

I am glad that our conversation was videotaped because, to tell you the truth, we talked about so many topics in the hour in which we met, that I would have to review the tape to recall it all.

Vaguely, a recollection surfaces about a discussion of the validity of John Major Jenkins’ observation about the galactic center line up of the sun and earth as well as my husband John talking about planetary exploration. I do not know how we went from the one topic to the other.

In any case, I knew you were curious to know how the meeting went so I wanted to get back to you tonight, even though we have a full evening ahead of us because of packing up for our flights out of the Yucatan tomorrow.

We ended up having our photos taken with Hunbatz. So often I am busily involved with videotaping the person we are interviewing and forget to get a “I was here with you” photo. I hope to post this photo on this blog sometime after I get home next week.

As we left, I felt happy because Hunbatz said that it was not “good-bye” but “until we meet again.”

Blessings,

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman