Mayan astrology practice provokes introspection
By Claire Taylor,Journal Staff Writer

Coincidence. Luck. Intuition.

Have you ever wondered if there were concrete answers to why certain things happen? A form of astrology based on the Quiché and Kachikel Mayan calendars that began 104,000 years ago is still used today to do readings of a person’s talents and potential through the course of his or her life.

It is believed to bring the material and the spiritual worlds into harmony.

The actual calendar follows rotations of 13 days and 20 signs that are based on lunar cycles and energy. A person’s birthday is tracked back to the actual year in which he or she was born to figure out the forces that influence who he or she is.

The calendar is broken up into astrological cycles of 26,000 years. At the end of each cycle there is a rebirth or a renaissance, which has been interpreted to mean various things. The end of the current cycle will occur in 2012.

Natalie Lynn stumbled upon this information over five years ago when an adventure trip she planned with a friend veered off course due to a hand injury. She had to return to the town of Antigua, where she met Jose Coutino and Carla Cofino.

While saying goodbye one day, they left her with an obscure message “If you need help finding your way, come back and see us,” and a business card that read “sacerdotes Mayas:” Mayan priests.

Lynn left confused, but was drawn back to the couple due to intense curiosity. It was at that point that they offered to do a Mayan astrology reading for her.

“The experience was very powerful. I couldn’t put it into words,” Lynn said. “There was no money that could pay them for what they did for me.”

These priests, who were virtual strangers, were able to tell Lynn her dominant qualities, purpose in life. She said the reading helped her to realize that she was doing what she was meant to do in life.

“I thought she was psychic – she had this light coming out of her eye,” Lynn said. Not able to get the experience out of her mind, Lynn asked for more information. She spent six months translating a small book that Coutino and Cafino had published.

After sharing the translation with them, the couple that changed her life invited her to study with them. She started by learning purification rituals and herbal teas, but it was the astrology that captured her interest the most.

After many lessons, further translations, research and the completion of 100 free readings, Lynn received the title of Ajqiij, someone who makes prayers and ceremonies according to the Mayan calendar.

She has been practicing Mayan astrology readings for over five years but acknowleges that she is still in the learning process.

Lynn said that about 30 percent of her clients are in a decision making mode. “The majority are curious or want to find out more about a friend or relative,” she said.

A person’s life also follows cycles that, if identified, can help him or her to determine when energy is working with or against him or her. She uses the calendar to help her decide which nights are good for going out and being social, or at which point in her life she is learning the most when her goals and dreams are most easily manifested.

She uses a person’s birthday to determine his or her spirit guardian and performs a series of calculations from there that can show traits that a person acquires from both parents and the individual qualities that are formed at the moment of conception.

“I get 40 year-olds who are lost and they don’t know what to do … If you can find something that reminds them what they are good at it can make all of the difference in the world,” she said.

“Some people aren’t satisfied by anything you say,” Lynn said. “We focus on the positive and supporting and encouraging people. Some people aren’t used to admitting their good things.”

Responses she receives from people are varied. Sometimes a person will talk the entire time and leave just as satisfied because all they needed was to talk to someone, she said.

One of her favorite things about the system is that it is all about peace and people being equal. One Mayan saying goes: “No one in front, no one behind, like the fingers of a hand, we work together.”

There are at least 26 versions of the Mayan calendar.

“I haven’t met anyone who uses the system that I learned,” Lynn said. She mentioned a New Age version which uses a circular calendar that apparently was channeled to someone.

“There are many very different systems that exist,” she said. “The others are more commercialized than what I was taught.”

Lynn works out of her home and through a local hotel in Tamarindo doing astrology readings. She is also an artist and has taken up an interest in Mayan art. “The thing that is cool about it is that it was made to last 20,000 years.”

Whether or not there is truth, magic or a mystical connection to the spiritual world, one of Lynn’s clients says her practice is interesting and gives people hope.