There is still so much to share about our last trip out to Kaua, the little village near Chichen Itza where we met with Francisco, our shaman/herbero friend. One thing that really stood out to me was the stone he used to "see" the energy each of us was carrying. It was shaped like an egg and was a beautiful turquoise-green color and although not totally clear at first glance, you could see through it. Sometimes the images on the other side were upside down. Sometimes right side up. He said the stone was handed down from his father and given to his father by his grandfather and so on. He also said no-one knows what kind of stone it is, which is very odd for the Maya since they live so close to the earth and very odd for a man who makes his living studying and working with plants, energy, and nature.
After doing a cleansing ritual with water, herbs, and blessings, he looked at each of us through the stone. The cool part was that he let us look at each other through the stone too. For each person, it was different. Some were very clear, some a little cloudy. Some had a dark area, some a brilliant white light. Some were even upside down. Each time he explained what the images meant and then came up with a solution for any problems that needed to be addressed. Between each person, he put the stone in a little cup of water he gathered from a pool deep in a nearby cave (which he took us to later...but that's another story)
The day after we saw Francisco, our shaman friend, we talked to a man in a neighboring village who knew a powerful shaman that just died a few years ago. He told us a very interesting story. When the shaman was a young man he was walking in the forest and found several beautiful clear green stones. He stooped down to pick them up and, when he stood back up, "The Man Who Walks" was standing in front of him. The Man Who Walks is a man who is very mysterious and very old. Some say he is hundreds of years old. No one knows his name, where he comes from, or where he lives. He just appears when he is needed. The day he appeared in the forest, he stayed long enough to teach the young shaman how to use the green stones and then he disappeared back into the wild.
Over the years that followed, the shaman used the stones to divine many things and when asked where the stones came from, he said they were not of this earth. Sometimes when he looked at a person through the stones, he would see a cross superimposed over the person he was looking at. If the cross stood upright, it meant that the person could be healed. But if the cross were lying on its side, it meant that nothing could be done and the person's time on earth was at and end. The man telling us the story told us of several people who received this sideways cross and subsequently died.
The shaman has since passed on and his elderly wife currently outlives him. I have no idea where the stones are now. Perhaps she has them, or perhaps they have been passed on to another, younger healer.
I think the mysterious stones could be aquamarine, which is found in parts of Mexico. But that is just a guess. The stone in the photo above doesn't really show the beautiful turquoise color that is really was. This stone below is very close, although perhaps a little more blue. I guess I we will never know the true answer to this mystery. But then again, perhaps we are not meant to.
