To the Curious Reader
This website is intended as a gift to members of the remembrance community of Vermont and Maine and the early 2000s, that sought to keep alive a lineage of initiation belonging to the Tz’utujil Maya of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, after it become clear in the 1980s that the community of its origins would no longer be able to continue doing so.
It is a community blog that anyone upon whom the initiation ceremonies had an impact is welcome to share their story in a blog post. No account is needed. Simply scroll down and fill out the blog post form.
Those of us who took part in them never had a chance to talk amongst ourselves about what it was we undertook and in what ways it impacted us.
Telling one’s story is commonly understood to be a pathway toward healing and it is for this possibility I have made this website available.
Some would say that a website is a poor replacement for in-person dialogue, and I wholeheartedly agree. However, and especially seeing as we are as geographically distant as we are this website approximates something like Leonard Cohen’s maxim,
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
In other words, this website values enacting something more than it values a perfect timing that may never come.
Therefore, if you took part in these rituals of remembrance, I invite you to please, please tell your story.
It is difficult for me to convey how deeply I want to hear what you have to say. I can’t imagine there are not others longing to hear it as well.
Sincerely,
Andrew