What Afterlife 

Part 17 and a bit - the Maya today

After the last entry in the W.A. canon, in which a rather baffled author failed to see any afterlife benefits available for the ordinary Mayan civilian in ancient times, much was today revealed concerning the fate of their modern counterparts, ie the larger part of the Guatemalan population.



Henry Crow and his crack team of psi-investigators (well, Linda anyway) found themselves at the hill village of Chichicastanega on market day - a bustling, chaotic bazaar of local goods and wares designed by thousands of colour-blind Mayans on acid.

While we recovered from temporary retinal damage, a helpful local guide took us to a hill-top shrine where the locals worship a deity known as Pascual Abaj -  a god of fertility, represented by a small black rock in a fireplace. A couple of the local shamans were out and about, building small bonfires of offerings and doing a bit of chanting.

It emerged that the modern Mayan has many dozens of gods, many varying between communities, with the main ones comprising a constant triumvirate of sun, moon and rain. 

However, all ceremonies, with the exception of a certain amount of ancestor worship, aim to improve matters for the mortal man or woman, and consist of prayers for crops, rain, health and suchlike. There is no concept of a soul, and no notion of rebirth, redemption, salvation or....gasp....afterlife, that are the stuff of most theologies.

Thus, What Afterlife has drawn a blank with this one. No afterlife. When your dead, your dead, and that´s it.  Not the faintest hint of a whiff of metaphysical ether.


So, nothing to see here, everyone back on the bus....