Sky People (30 page)

“None that I remember,” she said. “But I never felt the same after that. I felt that someone was always watching me.”

“I have the same feeling. I had an encounter when I was seventeen,” Elena, Pax’s mother-in-law, said. “I was alone at home. My parents had gone to a parade. It was the Day of the Dead. I was sick and decided to stay home. I was asleep when something woke me. I opened my eyes and saw two strangers standing over me. Before I could scream, I became paralyzed.” She paused and looked at the two other women in the room. “The next thing I remember, I was in a room with other people. Most were strangers, but I saw my cousin, Yax, and his cousin, Eduardo. They were sitting in the corner on a bench. I sat next to them, but they did not recognize me. I think they were under a spell.”

“Did you try to wake them?” I asked.

“I tried. I shook my cousin, and I reached over and pinched Eduardo, but neither of them responded. After that, I remember nothing.”

“Do you remember going into another room or being separated from the group?” I asked.

“Nothing. I have no memory. When my parents came home, I woke. I thought I was dreaming, but when I got up to greet them, I realized I was naked. I looked around and found my clothes in the corner next to my hammock. I quickly dressed but I never told anyone about that night. I don’t think I dreamed it.”

“Do you remember anything about the people who took you?” I asked.

“I don’t remember seeing them,” she said.

“I think they have been making us have their babies for a long time,” Camilla, Pax’s wife, said. I looked at the short, round woman with two missing front teeth. Her salt and pepper hair was wound into a bun at the base of her neck and made her round face appear even rounder. “I have no proof, but once when I was about thirteen, I thought I was pregnant, and yet I had never been with a boy. I had all the symptoms of pregnancy. I told myself it was like the Blessed Mother Mary. I was impregnated by God. It was at the same time I saw a spaceship. Then several weeks later, I saw another spacecraft. The next day, I did not feel pregnant and my time of the month had started.”

“Are you telling me that you believe you have had a half-human, half-alien baby?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, but it felt that way to me. When I realized I was not pregnant, I was very sad. For some reason, I convinced myself that I was pregnant and even if I did not know the father, I was going to keep and protect this baby. Afterward, I felt like part of me was gone. Even today, I think of that baby. I was sure I was pregnant and I still do not know how that happened.”

As the other women listened to Camilla, they all demonstrated empathy toward her. Each of them had lost a baby during their child-bearing years and they could relate to the emptiness of her feelings. After listening to them for about a
half hour, I asked them if they had any questions for me. Most of them were surprised to see me traveling alone. We talked about my culture and the matriarchal societies and agreed that Maya women once held greater prominence than modern Maya women. “It’s the machismo of the Spanish that ruined our men,” Elena said. They all agreed. I wondered how Pax could be regarded in such a fashion. He was outnumbered almost fifteen to one.

E
very time I returned to Palenque, I visited Pax and his family. While still surrounded by women, he was hopeful that his pregnant daughter would bring him a grandson in the spring. He told me if the child is a boy, he wanted me to give him a name. True to his word, a grandson was born, and I named the boy: Geronimo after the great Apache warrior
.

W
hen Stephens and Catherwood visited Palenque, the Maya refused to spend the night in Palenque with them. They believed the place to be haunted by the ancestors. It was in Palenque that I first heard of the invisible Star People
.

In this chapter you will read about this phenomenon from a Lacandon Indian who chose to straddle two cultures to support his family
.

There are Lacandon Indians who work at the entrance to the Palenque Archeological Park selling handmade bows and arrows to tourists. They attract attention from the tourists because of their unusual dress: a simple white, homespun-cotton gown that falls between their knees and ankles. The dress is the same for the Lacandon Indian men, women, and children. I had the good fortune to be accompanied by Hernando, who was friends with one of the Lacandon vendors. When I was introduced to Alom, he told me the Star People still walked on their land.

“When I was a boy, my grandfather told me about the Star People. He said if we could go to our place of birth, where our ancestors live, we would see the Maya culture and language is the same there as it was once in our great cities. That is the reason the Maya can communicate freely with the People from the Stars. They speak our language.”

“Have you heard about the Star People who come to Earth and take people or animals to their spacecraft and conduct experiments?” I asked.

“Intrusos
. They are the—how you say, interlop…?”

“Interlopers?”

“Yes. Interlopers. They are not the Star People who guided us here. These Star People are from other stars. They are not friends. They are
intrusos
. Invaders.”

“What can you tell me about the Star People?” I asked.

“The Star People are invisible to most people on Earth. They do not see them. People have forgotten to look beyond what the eyes can see. At one time every human had this ability. But they got lazy and lost the power. They are not aware the Star People walk among us. They are invisible to their eyes.”

“Are they with us now?” I asked.

“They always come to Palenque. The elders say Palenque was a star base in the ancient days. They come here to cry for the Earth. They knew it when it was untouched.”

“Do the Star People participate in your ceremonies?” I asked. “Or maybe I should ask, do they ever give you messages in your ceremonies?”

“We still practice the old ceremonies. In my village, there is a ceremony that is performed for all things visible and all things not visible. Sometimes they appear at our ceremonies.”

“How do they show themselves?” I asked.

“Many people have seen the balls of light but not all have seen the humanoid appearance of the invisibles. The trouble with the people today is that they do not see the invisible. To see the invisible, you have to look inside yourself. The modern-day people are ruled by law, not by heart.”

“Does this apply to the Maya as well as others?”

“The Maya are the guiltiest. They were the first to receive the gift, but now that they have been influenced by the
Ladinos
. Many have lost the gift. We are the
Hach Winik
, the real people. When our children forget that, there will be no one who will be able to see the Star People.”

“Are any of your children able to see the Star People?”

“A few. There are children from traditional families who are taught to see, but so many have chosen the modern ways. They are no longer interested.” He paused for a moment and looked at the tourist buses leaving Palenque. “If you go into Palenque today, find a place away from the crowds and sit quietly. You will feel the Star People trying to communicate with you.”

Before heading north to Merida and the ruins of Uxmal, Stephens tried to buy Palenque. The asking price for the 6,000 acres with a deduction for all the clutter of stone palaces and pyramids was $1,500. There was another obstacle, however, very unlike that he had encountered in Honduras: A foreigner in Mexico could not purchase property unless married to a Mexican. Stephens desperately wanted the ruins and briefly romanced the Bravo sisters, two local beauties who lived in Palenque. In the end he departed, still single.

I
didn’t try to buy Palenque, but I must admit the site held a spell over me. I have visited Palenque eight times, each time staying longer than before. I am convinced that Alom was right. You can feel the Star People in Palenque, but you must be open to the possibility. There is a spirituality in the ancient city that is difficult to dismiss, and at night it is not unusual to see the balls of light. As Alom counseled, you have to be able to see the invisible
.

O
n more than one occasion, I met elders who explained that the temples at each site were the dwelling places of the gods on Earth. The Lacandon Indians, who live in the jungles of the Chiapas, along the Mexican side of the Usumacinta River and its tributaries, believed that the gods once lived in the great pyramids, but a time came when the gods returned to the sky and built dwelling places on other planets
.

The Lacandon are the most isolated and culturally conservative of Mexico’s indigenous population, and have been the harbingers of the ancient spiritual practices, traditions, and the original stories of the Maya. Today, the Lacandon presence is visible at Bonampak, an ancient Maya city that borders Guatemala
.

Stephens and Catherwood never made it to Bonampak, and even today, although some tourists do make it to Bonampak, it is a rather difficult and distant journey
.

In this chapter, you will meet a Lacandon elder who added another dimension to the space-traveling Maya: a star map of the solar system
.

After meeting the Lacandon father and son at Casa Na Bolom, I decided to spend a day at Bonampak, where reportedly Lacandon Indians played a pivotal role in the maintenance of the ancient site. Hernando told me he knew a Lacandon elder named Canek who knew the old stories about the Maya and if he were at the site, he would encourage Canek to talk to me about the old ways.

We had not been at the site for more than a few minutes when Canek approached us. “I understand you are looking for me, old friend,” he said in perfect English, addressing my driver.

“I told the Doctora that I would ask you to tell her about the Maya connection with the Sky People.” The elder smiled and sat down between the two of us. He smelled of herbs that I was unable to identify. Dressed in the traditional gown of his people, he appeared much cooler than those of us dressed in Western clothing. When he noticed that the hot sun was making me uncomfortable, he suggested we moved to a log that was shaded by an ancient structure.

After we were settled, he began: “I do not usually give interviews about the Sky People. But Hernando is my friend, and if he says I should talk with you, it is good for me.” He paused and retrieved a cigarette stored in the crevice of his ear. Once he had taken a drag off the cigarette, he began. “We have stories that tell us that the Maya came to this land from the East. In the beginning we were the Sky People. Our people possessed a star map. We knew our way around the solar system.”

“Do I understand you correctly? Are you saying that the Sky People and the Maya people are the same?” I asked.

“Yes. We are the same. We also believe that when the time comes and the Earth is cleansed, the Sky People will come for us and take us away,” Canek said before stopping and briefly interacting with two children who threw themselves into his arms. They were smaller versions of him. Both were dressed in identical, simple, white cotton gowns, despite the fact that one was male and the other a female. Their long, loose, black hair fell halfway down their back. They looked at me and smiled shyly while listening to the words of the elder. After a few minutes, they ran off across the ancient plaza and joined several other children, all dressed alike.

“They are my son’s children. Twins. You will have to forgive their stares. They are fascinated by outsiders.”

“They are wonderful. You must be very proud,” I said.

“Proud, but worried. It is hard to keep them traditional when they see the ways of the world.” The worry on his face showed in his eyes and furrowed brow. I decided to change the subject.

“Can you tell me about your star map?” I asked.

“We had a star map that led us to this place. Our legends tell of the birth of the heavens. Much of our ancient knowledge is being confirmed by astronomers today,” he added.

“Can you tell me anything about the star map?”

“It is lost now. I can tell you that it mapped the stars. Planets that were inhabitable were marked. The Sky Gods chose this place for us.”

“Why did they choose this place?”

“Why not? It is one of the most beautiful of all planets. The jungles feed us. The soil is rich. We can feed our people.”

“Do your young people know these stories?” I asked.

“Yes. We attempt to keep our children away from the modern world. We school them in our traditional ways. Otherwise they would be lost in the ways of the world. For the Maya youth in the cities, they no longer want to be Maya.”

“You mentioned that the Sky People will come for you if something happens to the Earth. Could you elaborate on that?”

“The Sky People come to those who believe,” he said. “I know the role that the Sky People played in our lives. So they come to me and take me far into space, and they tell me things.”

“What kind of things do they tell you?” I asked.

“They tell us to practice our old knowledge and pass our knowledge to those who will listen. They tell us many sad things are about to happen to this Earth. They tell us to be ready with our prayers and the Sky People will remember us and come for us. We need to say our prayers and they will hear.”

“Can you tell me specifically any one thing that they tell you?” I asked.

“They say that one day the Maya will be taken by the Sky People to the sky. The Earth will be cleansed.”

“Do you believe that these things will happen?” I asked.

“It will happen very soon.”

“When you are taken to the stars, will you be returned to Earth, once the cleansing is over?” I asked.

“Some of us will return, but others will go to another star to begin a new world. This is what the Sky People tell us,” he said.

“Do the Sky People visit your village today?” I asked.