Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The mythical narratives of the indigenous imaginary of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica depict an apotheosis of nature. Nature is a vessel of the sacred and the holy itself. The natural world is endowed with a vast fabric of symbols that weave the container for psychic experience, which I suggest are cultural vehicles of psychological integration. It is through a ritualized dependence of nature that these Indigenous cultures find meaning through the transitions of life. In these Mesoamerican cultures, the jaguar is portrayed as a psychopomp, a spiritual guide or transcendent force capable to traverse through the unconscious experience. This representation aims to enhance indigenous reverence that conveys the environment on a basis of awe, surrender, and respect. In these mythologies, the development of consciousness arises from the struggle and conciliation of opposite forces represented by a battle between cosmological solar and lunar deities. Symbolically, these opposites (daytime and nighttime, matter and spirit, the living and the dead) point to a system of holistic equilibrium. As these myths are lost to colonialism, globalization, and through climate change conditions, people lose the ability to dialogue with psychological forces, resulting in self, cultural and environmental destruction. I present initiatives that are working to counteract these devastating tendencies.