Journey to the Mayan Underworld - Softcover

Jenkins, John Major

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0998586811 ISBN 13: 9780998586816

Publisher: John Major Jenkins, 2017

Synopsis

At age 22 in 1986, the author journeyed to Mexico and Central America to explore ancient Maya temple sites. He also fell in love with the modern Maya people, visiting remote villages and learning about the Maya calendar. Along the way, traveling on a shoestring for almost four months, he made many friends and had unexpected realizations about his own identity. A ritual circuit around the four corners of the Maya world was completed, from Mexico City to Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Palenque and northward, back to the States. At the end of his journey, recently release from jail, he arrived home with 12 cents in his pocket, all his belongings stolen, reflecting on his first introduction to the Maya world. It was the beginning of a career as an independent scholar of Maya Studies which has spanned more than 30 years, reconstructing ancient Maya cosmology and the ancient Maya understanding of the enigmatic and much misunderstood 2012 date. This travelogue was initially written in 1988-89. It is now, finally, offered with a new preface and end notes, providing a glimpse into the origins of the author's work, delving deep into Maya thought, religion, and calendar science.

About this title

About the Author

John Major Jenkins is the author of a dozen books on Maya mythology, cosmology, and culture, published with Tarcher/Penguin, Inner Traditions, Bear & Company, Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, and his own limited edition imprint, Four Ahau Press. His travels in Mesoamerica since the 1980s, living and working with the Maya, provided intimate insights that are woven into his novel. He is the voice talent in several audio programs that feature his work (Sounds True, 2007, 2008), and has appeared in numerous documentaries. He has contributed introductions and chapters to popular and academic books and anthologies, and his work has been endorsed and cited by many leading writers. As an independent investigator, his work has been featured in dozens of documentaries including 2012: The Beginning, which was the best attended documentary film in the MipDoc section of Cannes in 2012. His work was also featured with a full-page author photo in the New York Times Sunday Magazine of July 1, 2007, and in the U.S. News and World Report. He has presented at academic and popular venues, was a featured speaker at press junkets for a Hollywood movie, co-founded the non-profit Maya Conservancy, and has lead tours to Maya sites and Peru. In the late 1990s he served as the literary executor for Finnish-American poet and translator, Eino Friberg, and edited books for the Finnish Ruusu-risti (Rosicrucians) that were published with Blue Dolphin. His poetry and stories can be found in his books, and a work of historical fiction (featuring Boulder, Colorado in the 1930s) was completed in 2003. His best known books have been translated into a dozen languages: Tzolkin (BSRF, 1992/94), Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (Bear & Company, 1998), Galactic Alignment (Inner Traditions, 2002), Pyramid of Fire (Inner Traditions, 2004), and The 2012 Story (Tarcher/Penguin, 2009). Previous travelogue books with characters, stories, and dialogue were self-published in 1989 and 1991. A seven-volume series of historical fiction with poetry is being completed.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Major Jenkins
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0998586811
• ISBN 13: 9780998586816
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 382