Mayan hieroglyphs, history, meaning and deciphering


If today many people have heard about the ancient Egyptian writing, the Mayan hieroglyphs are much less known to the average man of our time. Those who are familiar with the subject acknowledge that the writing of the ancient American tribes is in no way inferior to the ancient Egyptian and deserves no less attention. As we know from history, at first the scholars who studied the writing of the American ancients followed the same false path as the scholars who first studied the writing of the ancient Egyptians. But more about all of this.

General Information

As many people know, at first people could not understand the ancient Egyptian script because they tried to treat each symbol as a word or concept. The same mistake was made at first by the researchers of the symbols used to write the Maya. Ancient Egyptian secrets were able to reveal Champollion in the early nineteenth century. Secrets of Maya writing and today are not open all, and to read the characters used by this tribe, learned only a few decades ago.

Scientists have noted many similarities with the writing of ancient Egypt. Surprisingly, people were close to understanding the Mayan hieroglyphs in the sixteenth century, when de Landa compared the Spanish sounds and symbols of writing of the American tribes, corresponding to each other. Another four centuries later, scholars, closely concerned with the question, realized that the medieval monk had been entirely correct in his observations.

Comparatively recently, scientists have compared Egyptian writings and sources preserved since Maya times. They revealed similar principles. Hieroglyphs are logograms, which were created to encrypt words. The Maya also used phonograms, which denoted sounds. The tribes of the time used determinatives, which were written down and spelled out. Often the writing included phonetic compliments, and they used blocks in the form of a rectangle to write words, which fully corresponds to the rules adopted in Ancient Egypt. However, a distinctive feature of Mayan writing was the presence of a relatively large space between the blocks, designed to separate the words from each other.

sacred Mayan writings

Less bloodthirsty Mayan rituals

The Maya also had more peaceful ways to propitiate the gods. One of them was fasting, which could last about three years. During this time, a person was not supposed to eat spicy or spicy food, meat, and was forbidden to have intimate relations.

Most often, ordinary people did not adhere to such strict rules, and the observance of fasting was strictly required only from the priests. In order to purify the soul from vice, the Maya resorted to public confessions, telling about their sins to all gathered in the square or street. No less popular were the ritual dances, which helped the performer to unite with the essence of one of the Mayan gods.

Common and not only

Studying the Mayan hieroglyphs further, scientists have identified key differences between such writing and that adopted by the ancient Egyptians. For example, the American tribes read from left to right. Texts were written from top to bottom. There was no other direction. In addition, they used the "semantic indicator. Methods were invented to reflect the belonging of a word to logograms, phonograms were marked in a specific way. Separate methods of denotation developed for the determinative. To formulate abstract ideas, the American Indians used metaphors. If we compare Maya writing and ancient Egyptian writing, we can see that the significance of metaphor for the former is much more significant.

The nuances of linguistic practice

Scholars of Mayan hieroglyphics have identified the importance of careful handling of symbols. As practice has shown, one cannot take all words, all associations, literally. Sometimes the inherent metaphors of the language are completely abstract, sometimes they speak of real connections between objects. For example, the jaguar represented power, and there was also a real correspondence: the king had the right to wear the skin of this animal, and his throne was made in the shape of the body of the jaguar. This animal was a sacrificial animal for sacred rites dedicated to the ruler. But for the representation of man there were flowers, corn. Like these plants, mere humans existed to die, but at the same time had the seeds of rebirth within them. The creation of the world was associated with the water lily, which appeared in the primitive era and appears in a body of water, as if it were a miracle.

In the works of linguists and philologists, special importance is attached to the fact that the Maya were not a single culture, as is typical of the Aztecs. Accordingly, there were several languages. Speaking one of the dialects, one could not understand another member of the tribe who used a different type of accent. All of the languages spoken in that environment were unusual. The thinking patterns of that time and place were very far removed from those of modern man. It is for this reason that Incan, Mayan, and Aztec symbols are so problematic to decipher. If one grew up outside of that culture, full understanding is almost unattainable.

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About time

It is known that all the Mayan tribes thought a lot about time. Since then, many written sources, books, created by representatives of the tribes survived to this day. They are written in different languages of the people. An impressive percentage of all materials tells about the calendar, devoted to genealogical features. Symbolism associated with the calendar and numbers spread throughout primitive American society. Scientists have identified a fairly narrow list of symbols that are characterized by frequent repetition.

Who deciphered the Mayan scripts

Religion - at the head of everything

As I begin my story about the Maya, I want to note that at different stages their customs have undergone significant changes. For example, in the sixteenth century, after the frequent wars and conquest of the Maya lands by the conquistadors, the Mayan culture had little resemblance to its original version.

That is why it is worth highlighting those traditions that occurred during the heyday of civilization, and therefore were "pure", without the admixture of the beliefs of other tribes and nationalities.

As with other ancient peoples, Mayan life at all its stages was subordinate to religion. In a striking way, some of their rituals resemble familiar to us modern customs.

For example, a newborn infant was sprinkled with water, after which the child was given a name (reminiscent of the baptismal ceremony), and absolution was performed during the sharing of bread between the participants in the ritual. The Indians had special days when it was possible to gather herbs, or water acquired magical properties. There are similar beliefs in Christian traditions, but in my opinion, this is where the similarities end.

The historical context

In order to navigate in more detail in the symbols of the Mayans, we need to know the history of this people. Today we know that this style of writing is one of the most ancient, as well as one of the most progressive for its time. Knorozov, a prominent researcher of the question, called this system logographic-syllabic. The people who created this system of writing were the inhabitants of a confederation of settlements. The state was formed approximately in the seventh century before the beginning of the current era. It was located in Central America in what is now Guatemala.

It is known that in the seventh or eighth century, the Indians changed their habitat, and the reasons for this have not been ascertained. The American aborigines chose the Yucatan Peninsula as their new place of residence. Here the state actively developed from the tenth to the fifteenth century. Spanish citizens arrived in the Yucatan in 1527 and saw the weak natives, whose statehood had suffered greatly from numerous internal conflicts. As a consequence, the natives were soon conquered.

The oldest written records of this civilization are tentatively dated from the fourth century before the beginning of the current era. There are also a number of sources whose creation dates cannot be determined. Scientists concerned with Mayan symbols and their meaning suggest that such undated sources were created in the last centuries before the beginning of the current era. Most of the artifacts known to us are stone inscriptions on temple walls, altars and stelae.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Aborigines had a great variety of manuscripts, folded in harmony, written in variegated colors on dressed deer skin or bark. Visually, some of the materials were similar to the paper we are accustomed to. The Spanish conquerors burned them, considering them pagan. Especially many of the ancient sources were destroyed in 1561 in an autodafe initiated by da Landa. Three ancient manuscripts are now available to scholars. The names given to them indicate where the artifacts are stored: in Dresden, Madrid and Paris.

Mayan writings

Peculiarities of Mayan tattoos

1. it is from the Mayan tattoos originated a modern trend in the art of tattooing - tribal. The main symbol of the Tribl is a monochrome black or dark gray geometric pattern, signifying the Indians' union of the soul with the body. 2. The Mayan tattoos are characterized by graphic and fine detailing, so they are technically difficult. Only specially trained Indians could put them on their skin. 3. The Mayans made tattoos by cutting through the skin, which was already colored. After that, a special clay-based solution was rubbed into the wound to fix the pattern. 4. The significance of tattoos for the Mayan civilization was very great. In their religion, which numbered more than a hundred gods, stood out the god Acat, responsible for the drawings on the body. The Maya used tattoos to chronicle their own lives as well as record their military victories.

Secret and obvious

Modern scientists are trying to study the Mayan hieroglyphs and their significance, while ordinary people know very little about it - except the name of the tribe and the fact that those people have a written language. The situation was similar in the past. The Maya themselves knew how to write and read the priests, the officials who ruled the state. The common man had no such skills, the literacy of his own people was unknown to him, and the symbols were used more for aesthetics and had a magical meaning.

When the statehood of the tribes collapsed, the priesthood disappeared, they lost the ability to read and understand the ancient script. Visual inspection of monuments allows to notice the abundance of calendar symbols, numbers. Most of them are chronological records with dates. It is assumed that the basis of writing was the doctrine indicating the presence of certain time cycles. After one has passed, a new cycle begins in which events are repeated. As a consequence, knowing the past, the Maya believed that you can predict the future. One of the researchers of the culture of the ancient tribes - Thompson - says that the American aborigines were fascinated by the rhythm of time. He also described the writing of the time as a symphony of time.

In parsing the Maya hieroglyphs and their meaning, scholars have found that the lines are almost always horizontal, formed by stylized symbols. Such blocks are located symmetrically between each other. A total of about three hundred hieroglyphs have been counted. The text often comes complete with pictographs. These images explain the meaning of the recorded words.

The history of Mayan body art

Maya is an ancient civilization that existed between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. Historians believe that they were a very advanced race at that time of knowledge, understanding of various things.

They even invented their calendars and some people also think they could predict the future through some mysterious science. The art of tattooing has always been part of their culture, and men and women would have them.

Boys would wait until they got married to tattoo their bodies and girls would have it from an early age. However, the ladies had only upper body tattoos, not their breasts.

Tattoos were a way to please the gods because most of the images that the Maya would have symbolized would have been their gods. They were also a sign of courage and bravery because someone that would stand up to the pain and danger that came with these body markings would give you great respect.

Some types of tattoos would also be a symbol of social status because there were some for elders and other young warriors. There are certain types of tattoos that Maya wanted to show you the transition from one stage of life to another.

When the Maya captured their enemies after a battle, they would tattoo as a warning to others not to try to attack them. It was also a way to show their power and dominance over their enemies.

Thieves also get a permanent totem on their forehead so that everyone will know they are there. The modern Mayan tattoo concept is relatively new, and its popularity is the result of various discoveries about the Mayan civilization that have occurred over the years.

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Comparisons and History

Scientists have made numerous comparisons between Mayan and Aztec symbols. Aztec writing is similar in many ways to the pre-dynastic ancient Egyptian script. This similarity is especially pronounced in the aspect of the ratio of pictograms to hieroglyphs. At the same time, hieroglyphs were mainly used to record numbers and names. It is rather a supplement to pictography. On the other hand, the writing of the Maya is much more like that of the ancient Egyptian era of the Ancient Kingdom. Pictography here is an explanation of the hieroglyphs, while the text written by them is the center and essence of the document.

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About de Landa's work.

This man, who played an important role in the history of both the Maya tribes and the ability to preserve (as well as destroy) the cultural monuments of the American natives, completed a work on the Yucatan in 1566. In it he pointed out the use of alphabetic and syllabic signs by the natives. He also created an alphabet. He noted the cumbersomeness of symbols and pointed out the existence of several ways of writing.

In his work we can see a description of the writing of the word Le, which translates as "loop." Listening to the local speech, the Spanish monk distinguished two sounds, which in writing were indicated by three symbols. In addition to "l" and "e" the Maya wrote an additional "e", which was attached to a consonant. According to the medieval monk, the local people wrote chaotically, at random, and only by some miracle without getting mixed up in the text they were depicting.

Mayan hieroglyphs and their meaning

Public domain

Devoted to the deciphering of Mayan writings de Landa became known to the general public only in the nineteenth century, when they were officially published. From that moment the mass interest in the ancient writings began. A gigantic number of attempts were made to identify the rules and readings. Arithmetic calculations, attempts of comparison, comparison of pictograms, hieroglyphs - all these manipulations made it possible to identify digital symbols, as well as hieroglyphs, which denoted days, months.

Linguists and philologists, researchers began to understand how the cycles of history, sides of the world, planets, deities were displayed in the history of tribes. They identified the hieroglyphs used to code sacrificial animals. Some other pictorial hieroglyphs were discovered. Managed to determine the meaning of about a hundred of the known Mayan signs, that is, about a third of the entire volume. At the same time, scientists were able to determine the semantic load, but could not properly assess the phonetics. As an exception, a few words elaborated by Thomas, de Roni.

In the middle of the twentieth century, a new step in the work was made by Yuri Knorozov. The Maya writings, as formulated by this scholar, were incorrectly and slowly deciphered due to the assessment of the writing as logographic, without the application of the alphabet developed by de Landa. Knorozov proposed to regard the writing as phonetic, ideographic logograms, composed with syllabic symbols. Accordingly, as Knorozov defined, we must first decipher the phonetic content of the signs.

Native American Symbols - Nature and Peace

Navigating the article

Days and Nights

This is how North American Indians were able to keep score: denoting dawn (empty circle - the sun is up) and dusk (painted circle - no sun).

In contrast to the European counting by day, most Native American tribes kept track of time at night - the distance to the event was calculated by the number of "so many nights.

Spring and Summer

The meaning of these symbols in marking time is a simple way to record the time of the year, when people do not have a clock, but are able to use the environment to measure the cycles of time.

Most likely, the images symbolically represent the stems of plants - just beginning to sprout in the spring and already fully grown - in the summer.

Winter

The cold season is denoted by images of precipitation in the form of snow coming from the sky.

The Winter Solstice on December 21 symbolizes the beginning of Winter, which is celebrated by all tribes. Sacred ceremonies are held and special dances are performed: the Bear Dance, the Feather Dance, etc.

Circle symbols

The circle could be used as the basis for various symbols, including the solar symbol. And also denote different cycles (going in a circle): the seasons, the four elements, the cycles of life, etc.

The circle around the other symbols denoted the protection and preservation of what is in the circle, the inseparability of the denoted phenomena.

The cosmic cross (cross in a circle) - the symbol of the Sun and the solar cycles, also denotes the whole world.

Elements of the elements created by the Creator could also be designated with circular symbolism:

Circle of fire - Carries light and warmth.

The air . - Represents breathing, life.

The water circle represents the sustenance of life.

The circle representing the globe - The four circles inside the outer contour, divided by a cross, recall the four nations, the first four tribes of mankind that came into the world. This symbol resonates with the Celtic Cross, the similarity is not only graphic but also semantic.

Square

As an image of enclosed space, used to denote something stable, protected. A safe place.

Moon

In Native America, the moon was considered the protector and guardian of people.

Its symbol denoted various earthly and celestial phenomena, it was often added to various other symbols - to illustrate the time of year, calendar periods.

Solar Symbols

The sun - especially revered in Native American culture, it gives people light and warmth, provides growth and life. It was depicted in a variety of ways, such as:

The rays in solar symbolism denoted the four main directions of the flow of life energy: north, south, east, and west.

During the summer solstice in the plains Indians performed a ritual dance of the Sun in honor of this luminary.

Cross

This symbol reflected the worldview of the ancient Indians (Mississippi mound builders culture) about the division of the world into top and bottom, right and left. It is assumed that there is a center, an Axis, around which the world spins, where all worlds are connected.

Hence the symbol of the swastika.

The swastika

It is a broken cross, a type of solar cross, whose rays are bent at right angles, denoting a turning, whirling movement.

For Native American tribes it denotes the four directions of the flow of energy, the four seasons, etc.

Morning Star.

The symbol of Venus is the brightest morning star, associated with inspiration, hope and life guidance. She is associated with the spirits of the ancestors, with the resurrection of the heroes of past times in today's people. It gives a person courage and purity of spirit.

The symbol of the morning star was used in the rituals of the ghost dance, which was performed by shamans in order to return to their native land and culture at a time when there were no Europeans on American soil.

Fire Flower

This was one of the symbols of the Divine Spirit, which was used in almost all Native American rituals and celebrations.

Means purification and renewal, when from the ashes rise new thoughts and ideas, new growth.

Most often denoted also the symbol of earthly fire, the symbol of the hearth.

Lightning

Adds strength and speed to the warrior in battle, makes his blows irresistible - if you use this image as a combat coloring.

Can also symbolize punishment from above, to signify terrible events.

Rain

Water was perceived as an important element to sustain life, so the symbol of rain and raindrops denoted renewal, change for the better, fertility.

Rain clouds were a magical symbol of the beautiful prospects that awaited man in the future.

Change

The symbol is related to the weather, it combines clouds, rain and lightning, all important for change, renewal and fertility. The weather is constantly changing and therefore carries with it the ability and capacity to produce the conditions of life important for survival.

This symbol can be used in conjunction with the Thunderbird, enhancing the power and magical influence of lightning, because it is a supernatural being that produces lightning from its eyes and beak.

Feathers

Denoted a connection with the creator. Headdresses of bright feathers were worn only by the most important and significant members of the tribe.

Depending on the bird, the feathers could signify different things, but in general, such a symbol could signify that some important ritual using sacred feathers took place.

Cactus

A plant that is adapted to life in a dry and hot environment, capable of retaining water. Symbolizes warmth, protection and endurance. Can denote unconditional maternal love.

Lake

Used as a sign informing the presence of this type of body of water in the history of the tribe, in the events of which the story is told.

This image may have been left by scouts as a landmark - a message to their comrades about events in a particular place.

Water

This image was used to denote large water areas, such as rivers, seas, oceans, allowed to graphically describe the properties of certain areas.

The abstract meaning is the flow of life on Earth.

Mountains

The icon was used to denote an area that had a mountain range. In stories, it meant that the journey was made through mountains.

Depending on the area where they lived, certain tribes may have used their own special mountain designations. For example, the Navajo tribe, whose history goes back about 3,000 years - living among the four mountains in Colorado marked them visually by colors:

  • white - eastern mountains;
  • blue, the southern mountains;
  • yellow, the western mountains;
  • black for the northern mountains.

The movement of the sun, which the Navajo called the rise and fall of the mountains caused day and night to alternate:

When the white mountains rose, it was day. When the yellow mountains rose, it was dusk. The black mountains brought night, and the blue mountains brought dawn.

Lots of fish

The image literally means that there is a lot of fish - an important message for people who live near water and eat fish.

Can be used as a pictogram describing events related to fishing, the amount of sustenance given by water.

As an abstract symbol means life, its spiritual movement and continuity of change.

Harmony and balance

An important process for humans was to establish and maintain harmony and balance between humans and the natural world. This symbol was meant to remind people of this task at every moment of their ordinary lives.

Kokopelli

A fertility deity, a supernatural figure named Kokopelli, he was depicted as:

  • A hunchbacked dancing flutist;
  • a creature with a large phallus.

Leads:

  • In nature, farming and crops,
  • in humans - conception, pregnancy, and childbirth.

According to Hopi Indian legends, Kokopelli carries children in a shoulder bag and distributes them to women.

There was also a belief that when he visited a settlement, all the people danced and partied all night long. And in the morning, when the deity left the people, the harvest was plentiful and all the women pregnant.

Rainbow Kokopelli.

It was also believed that this deity, by playing his harmony flute, could control the rainbow and bring joy, beauty and harmony to all.

The Spirit of Yei

The name of this spirit comes from Yeibicheii (Holy People). This deity, according to the beliefs of the indigenous peoples of North America, controls the cycles of day and night, the weather, etc.

These spirits were usually depicted with pine branches, yucca strips, and rattles in their hands, all of which are involved in spiritual healing ceremonies.

Spirit Yei - helps people to live in harmony with nature, with all living beings on earth, calls to take from nature only as many of its gifts as necessary to survive, to maintain balance. Close to the symbol of the rainbow Kokopelli.

On topic - the rubric "Symbols of the Indians«.

Tags: Native American Symbols

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Basis of Understanding

In many ways, Knorozov is the one who deciphered the Mayan hieroglyphs. His work is based on ancient texts written in Latin, but in the Mayan language. For example, from the middle of the sixteenth century survives the work Chalam Balam. It was created at a time when the Spanish were conquering the American natives. Such texts made it possible to determine that the language was syllabic, with word roots consisting of a single syllable. Knorozov determined the correspondence of signs and their meanings by means of comparison with pictograms and alphabetic symbols. In doing so, Knorozov not only used the works of de Landa, but also checked his assumptions by the method of cross-reading. This comprehensive method made it possible to determine the phonetic meaning of various symbols. As a consequence, it was determined that the writing of those times was predominantly syllabic.

Knorozov was the one who deciphered the Mayan scripts and also formulated the meanings, drawing parallels with the Assyro-Babylonian script. He revealed that each syllabic hieroglyph could mean a vowel, a combination of a vowel and a consonant, a combination of a consonant and a vowel, and a combination of three sounds: two consonants with a vowel between them. Most often the character was a combination of a consonant and a vowel.

The Maya used such symbols to denote the last consonants for a particular word. The syllabic harmony inherent in the language allowed the use of a syllabic symbol whose vowel was not pronounced aloud. Thus, to write the word "dog," two syllabic hieroglyphs were used. The word itself in Latin can be written as tzul. To write it, the first character was tzu, the second - l (i).

Mayan characters

Mayan Gods Who Demand Gifts and Blood

The most famous and frightening rites of the Maya were the sacrifices. How much is told and written about it! But do not think that every time you go to the shrine of the deity, the Indians sought to bring a human sacrifice.

According to their beliefs, the gods were the source of everything necessary for life. In gratitude for this, people had to thank them. Food, flowers, valuables, jewelry, and pottery were the most common offerings.

Sometimes a person needed to communicate directly with the gods, and this required real sacrifices. Maya made punctures on their tongues, cheeks, and lips so that sacred divine energy could flow freely into their bodies. They sincerely believed that through the wounds a person entered into a certain connection with the deities.

Human sacrifices were made on special occasions when the help of the god was needed by the whole people. Often the victim was given an intoxicating drink, after which the person had little awareness of what was happening.

On a special stone altar, the priests would fasten his arms and legs, and then the chief attendant would open his chest, taking out a living heart. The blood from the pulsating organ was supposed to sprinkle the statue of the deity to whom the nightmarish gift was offered. Frankly speaking, I do not even want to imagine such things, since the sight was obviously not for the faint of heart.

The ancient Maya often committed bloodshed in the name of the gods
The ancient Maya often committed bloodshed in the name of the gods

More examples

Knorozov, that is, the one who deciphered the Maya writings, determined that the base of the syllabic system were the symbols that corresponded to the acrophonic principle. At the same time, there were originally some logograms, which became the basis for the subsequent development of the language. The symbol "Va", which visually resembles an axe, was formed on the basis of the logogram baat, which denotes an axe made of stone. In order for the sign "ro" to appear, first people created the logogram pot, which was used to denote the head. The basis for the sign el was the logogram that denoted fire - it read as el. The transformation of the logogram into syllabic writing, as Knorozov believed, was largely due to the fact that the roots in the language predominantly consisted of one syllable.

Is everything known?

Knorozov's works on the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphs were especially carefully studied and discussed internationally in 1956. It was then that an international event was organized in the Danish capital, bringing together Americanists from all over the world. It was already the 43rd such congress. All participants recognized that a great step forward in the study of Maya writing, but there is still a lot to discover in order to decipher the language completely.

In the sixties, the Siberian Block of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR took up this problem. The Mathematical Institute used the power of computers to work on the hieroglyphs. Almost immediately the media reported that about 40% of the texts of the American Indians were able to decipher quite accurately.

Mayan hieroglyphs deciphering

This is curious

In the early thirties of the last century, scientists engaged in the writings of the Maya established close contact with astronomers. This made it possible to determine the lunar sequence. To some extent, it was a triumph, though not comparable in scale to Knorozov's subsequent breakthrough, but still important enough for its time. True, it so happened that after the definition of the lunar sequence for some time the scientific sphere was in the doldrums, it was not possible to discover anything new. It was then that speculation first arose that American Indian texts contained only cultic incantations, calendar information, and astronomical magical observations.

Some scholars of Mayan writings have suggested that the hieroglyphic system is not related to the calendar. They determined that there was only a limited variety of options for writing and reading and understanding texts. The presence of pictograms was taken into account. In general, the simplest writing is the depiction of the objects to which the author refers, but this approach is sufficient only for very primitive writing, because it is impossible to depict with pictures everything that needs to be written down. As a consequence, any more or less progressive writing system is not just a combination of pictographs, but a phenomenon that develops semantically, phonetically simultaneously.

May - Characteristics.

The tension of touching time awaits us in May, for black is the color of of pure time.. And time is always change.

The most important thing now is not to waste time.Do not waste it on things that do not develop you, do not change. You can feel that for each event you have a specific time, try to make it exactly in time, not to be late and not to run ahead.

Say "no" to idle talk, unnecessary meetings. Remember that if you spend time on them, you won't have enough time for something really important. Learn value YOUR TIME., feel that it is the greatest value you have.

The main aspiration of the black string of May: to clean up, to clear out, to eliminate .. This applies to everything that is not used by you: both the bad or already unnecessary, which you are quite ready to say goodbye to, and the good, necessary.

So, a piece of advice: if you really care about something that exists in your life, do not waste time, do not wait for a "pendel", actively useand activate this direction.

Otherwise, the "black hose" will suck you in, and then redistribute to someone else, more quick and ready to act here and now. And it won't be you.

To tune in for May - "Black String Rhythm"(performed by the ST-Effect band):

In May it will be easier for those who are used to live more by information than by energy.

About Linguistics and Languages

Ideographic pure writing in the history of mankind is practically not used, because every symbol becomes too laden with meaning, and therefore an unambiguous reading is not possible. It is known from history that both Mayan symbols, and all other variants of writing texts - these are developing systems, using which people sought to eliminate the ambiguity of the reading. Accordingly, ideography was substituted by the desire to bring phonetics and writing closer together. By the way, a typical example from our time are rebuses, charades, where ideography is a method of transmitting phonetics. As a child, any such riddles are a real joy for a person, but for ancient people, the above principles of composing texts were the only ones available.

As studies of Mayan symbols and other ancient variants of writing have shown, the use of techniques similar to modern charades still did not allow to completely exclude multiple meanings. The logogram is the maximum progress of the "charade" symbols. It is both a carrier of semantics, phonetics - a complex symbol. Any language tends to simplify. As a consequence, phonetic sound, written down correctly, becomes more and more significant. The alphabet of syllables appears. The variety of phonemes inherent in an adverb is strictly limited, so the number of alphabetic symbols is also limited. The peak of the development of writing is the appearance of the alphabet instead of the alphabet of syllables. This step of simplification of writing is the final one.

Mayan hieroglyphs drawing

Symbolism and unscientific approach

For many of our contemporaries, the sacred Mayan writings are nothing more than a set of beautiful symbols that can be used for magical purposes. Some resort to them to invoke good luck, others to appeal to higher powers. In recent years, it has become quite popular to have tattoos inscribed with beautiful symbols. As a rule, the meaning for such purposes is practically unimportant, and the choice is based more on the beauty of the writing than on the real meaning of this or that symbol.

A rather important place in Mayan symbolism is given to "Imox". It is a symbol that represents the dragon, a large crocodile. It signifies the underworld, in which reptiles appear, as well as desires, insecurities, and emotions. This symbol is associated with the occult, mystery. It also signifies abundance, the subconscious, the power of magic. "Imox" is associated with dreams, nightmarish dreams, obsession.

The Mayan symbol of good fortune is considered by some to be "Khat". It denotes a grain, a ripe ear, a bag filled with grains. It is a sign of fertility, fertility. It is associated with fecundity, the ability to produce offspring abundantly. This symbol associated with the ability to create something. It denotes the desire, but also reflects the inevitability of such an embodiment in reality.

No less interesting symbol "Ik", associated with the wind. It signifies something sinister, rage, anger. All these negative and dangerous forces are a symbol of underdeveloped energy, the inability to control potential. Accordingly, the sign is both negative and positive, indicating change. It ciphers the mystical breath, the ability to transform energy from one kind to another.

To drink cocoa and go to the soccer game.

We still observe some Mayan traditions today, though we are not at all aware of it. They believed that cocoa was a gift from above and that it gave people energy and vitality.

Only the best priests, who added spices and maize flour to the cocoa, were trusted with the process. In today's world, this drink is also popular in many different countries.

And now I want to surprise you. The tradition of playing soccer and basketball came from the ancient Mayans! Don't you believe it? It turns out that at Chichen Itza there is a vast field surrounded by a wall that housed the grandstands.

Many centuries ago, two teams of priests would go to the field, trying to throw a rubber ball into their own ring. It was forbidden to touch the "ball" with hands or feet, because it represented the sun, so they kicked it with shoulders, head and special sticks. Over time, as you know, the rules have changed slightly, but the basis remained the same.

Chichen Itza - the ancient Mayan city
Chichen Itza - the ancient Mayan city

These are just the basic traditions of the ancient Mayan people, which every year, thanks to the efforts of researchers, opens up a new side and asks new questions to all of us. Their customs may seem creepy, outrageous, ridiculous, but they are what help us better understand the cruel world of the past, the echoes of which can still be heard today.

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