shaman's stones
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Quincunz Itz Stones
A shaman would carry these five stones with him and use them as a part of his ceremonies. The five ceremonial stones are used by the Maya shaman to mark the four cardinal directions of east, west, north, and south. In the Maya home the fifth stone centers their world at the hearth and opens a portal to the Otherworld. The significance of the four cardinal direction stones is they match that area of the elliptic on the center stone. The images carved or painted on this center stone represent the Maya cosmos, a celestial sphere of the night sky and their constellations. The five stones form a cohesive earthly and cosmic structure in Maya everyday life. The stones oriented and centered their homes, altars, courts, yards, cultivated fields, graves, villages, towns, and public and ceremonial buildings in pyramid complexes.
What is Itz? For the Maya it is many things, a mother's milk, blood, sweat from a human body, tears, the sap of a tree (especially copal the resin used as incense), melted wax dripping down the side of a candle, the rust on metal, special stones, and crystals. They are all blessed substance of the sky that flow through the portal to the Otherworld to nourish and to sustain their gods. From the other side Itzamna opens the portal and sends Itz through to nourish and to sustain humanity in all its diversity.
moon & sun
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