The Burden Of Time, The Beauty Of Illumination


The knowledge and awareness of time was at the very epicenter of Mayan thought, religion and mathematics. Time for the Maya was the very reason for existence itself. Without the record of time there was no balance or meaning for any life form to live or die. Without humans, time could not be recorded and calculated nor would the gods have any reason to exist, since there would be no one to worship or acknowledge them. The gods created humans with the sacred pact of keeping the record of time so they themselves could have a reason to be. This pact between Earth and Heaven was referred to by the renown Mayanist Eric S. Thompson as Bearing The Burden Of Time. The gods exist because humans know of them by being the bearers of this great responsibility. Without humans to maintain this pact, everything would simply melt away and disappear. Thus, as humans are dependent upon the gods, so the gods are dependent on humans. Earth requires Heaven and vice versa. In the spiritual dimension where the gods dwell there are levels above in the sky and below, down under the Earth, while humans and living beings of all species live between these realms. Creatures are thus affected by the actions of the gods manifested as light and dark, good and evil. The Maya accepted this as reality while their very sophisticated cosmology and mathematics were created to study, understand and express the mysteries of the cosmos. So important was this task of recording time that the Maya believed when the last time keeper is no more, all the universe will disappear and existence return to nothingness. 


The beauty of the cosmos and the stars, the Sun and the Moon, the planets, galaxies, meteors and comets, all the heavenly bodies are defined in Mayan religion and cosmology as a work of artistic creation, an illumination of the mind and the soul of humanity representing the gods of the heavens who are the reason for every natural phenomenon. Knowledge, taught to humanity by the wise god Itzamna goes hand in hand with the decoration of the heavens. Enlightenment is a result of the willingness of a human being to open one’s heart to illumination and beauty, without which life would have little to no meaning at all. With so many gods with so many responsibilities, it is only natural they would want to be remembered and continue their existence. For without the recording of time, they too will disappear. 

~The Covenant of Heaven~ recounts the story of why and how the world and indeed the universe came into being, the result of a cosmic war between the heavenly forces of light and the army of  darkness known as the Xibalba. Out of war there is peace, from chaos order, and from the depths of darkness, illumination. And, we all will live on until the last time keeper among us is no more.