Through a Jungian Lens

Above the entrance to the main temple near the top of the Magician’s Pyramid in Uxmal, the representation of Chaac, the rain god, includes this detail of two naked bodies with their backsides together.  One is obviously a male while the second figure, the one on the left is not in good enough shape to distinguish gender.  Since rain is about life, it would be my guess that the second figure was female.  The Chaac figure is found on almost every building at Uxmal.  Some of them with the pendulous nose pointed towards the heavens as though to catch the rain and some of them have the nose pointing downwards as though to feed the earth with the life-giving waters.  Nude figures in Mayan ruins are often depicting slaves and humans that are sacrificial.  The theme of sacrifice is strong in Mayan religion.

Mayans acted out the collective unconscious at a basic level believing that the gods could be reached only with knowledge, ritual and prayer that was beyond the normal conscious state.  Sacrifice was essential to make this mythological journey to the gods.  Today, we still must make the journey into the the collective unconscious through our own rituals, sacrificing skepticism and the dogmatic belief in only one rational world.  This kind of sacrifice is risky for most people, too risky.  In a way, one needs to become trustingly submissive and stripped of all artifice, the price for the journey through the underworld that is dark and moist and pregnant with life giving awareness.