The Splendor of the Maya Volume 23

“Explore the collective unconscious from a different angle and perspective than we have seen in the European, Slavic, Celtic, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures,” says series editor Michael Escamilla in the foreword to Nancy Swift Furlotti’s The Splendor of the Maya: A Journey into the Shadows at the Dawn of Creation. This examination and amplification of K’iche’ Maya creation mythology from Mesoamerica fills a gap in Jungian literature by illustrating the contributions to the collective psyche of an important indigenous American culture with which readers may not be familiar. Furlotti’s work offers an interesting juxtaposition with the prevailing Western scientific-rationalistic views that have typified psychological inquiry for the past two-and-a-half centuries.

Contrasting with the mostly linear orientation of Western scientific and literary traditions, Maya mythology and culture are typified by a cyclical view of time, creation, and experience coupled with an understanding of humanity as in community with—rather than hierarchically superior to—the natural world. Turning to Popol Vuh, or “Dawn of Life,” the Maya creation myth that details the repeated creation and destruction of the world, Jungian analyst and scholar Furlotti seeks “to extract the psychological meaning of the myth that may be pertinent to both the collective understanding of myth as well as the individuals’ process of what Jung described as individuation.” 

Noting how a culture’s myths move hand in hand with its development, Furlotti forges connections with ancient wisdom to reconnect with the foundational metaphors that guide all human experience. The Splendor of the Maya brings fresh perspectives to the collective, often unconscious associations that link the human psyche across time and culture.

NANCY SWIFT FURLOTTI, a Jungian analyst and author in Aspen, Colorado, is a founding member and past president of the Philemon Foundation and was actively involved in the publication of Jung’s Red Book. She also served on the board of the Kairos Film Foundation, which contributed to the preservation of the movies, Matter of Heart, The World Within, and the Remembering Jung video series.