What Makes the Maya Temazcal More than Just a Sweat Lodge?
Where ancient healing meets sacred ritual
Hola Amigos! Mexico, especially Puerto Morelos, offers a fair share of alternative health remedies and mind-body-spirit regimens. Healers, Maya calendar devoteés, yoga aficionados and goddesses call the pueblo home. Maya massage is available on the beach and temezcals, either at home or communal, are quite normal. What’s a temezcal, you ask? Please read on!
I attended my first temazcal ceremony in the pueblo Centro Vallarta off a jungle road not far from Puerto Morelos a while ago. The woman who would lead the ceremony is a respected guide and has been actively helping the Maya locals and specifically Maya women in numerous ways for years. When she asked if I’d like to attend, I was happy to accept.
Ancient structures
Sweat lodges and saunas have been around for thousands of years and modern versions of these ancient structures vary with their place of origin. The temazcal comes from the native cultures of northern Mexico. The event I'd attend was to be an all women ceremony with ten in attendance. It took place next to a cenote—seemed like good Feng Shui—on one of her friend’s properties in Vallarta. A Maya local, he’d built the structure from long slender tree branches that he curved into an arch that became a dome, then covered with tightly woven palm fronds. The entrance was small, just below hip height, and the circular structure measured roughly 15 feet in width. Shapes and make-up of temazcals vary widely, ranging from natural structures to stucco or cement block, even tile surfaces.
On arrival that afternoon we swam in the cold waters of the sparkling cenote. It was a spring day and in southern Mexico that brings humidity and heat, especially inland. The water was refreshing and after our swim we sat on the side of the clear pool as we waited for the temazcal to begin.
When local women get together from our pueblo, it’s usually a time of laughter, joking, fun, and chisme, gossip, but we all sensed that our attendance here, at the temazcal, was a somber moment. We were undertaking an ancient ritual. For many of us it was the first time attending a temazcal ceremony and the overall tone was thoughtful and reflective.
Preparing the space
Sandra had placed copal, or pom, a Maya incense, on the lava rocks before we went inside. Then she’d returned back to the group, asking us to gather in a circle around her. With arms wide, she beckoned to the four directions and four elements just outside the domed temazcal. She blew into a conch shell, one long continuous blast, before we all crawled into the temezcal’s dark interior where the smoky fragrance of copal filled the dome. Once inside we were asked to say silent prayers for guidance and divine blessings, a process to cleanse and fortify.
She put volcanic rocks heated until glowing in the center of the ring. "These rocks are considered the grandmothers or abuelas," she explained, "so that our ancestors share the experience with us."
Fresh water in a bucket, fragrant from herbs, was brought to a boil, and then splashed on the rocks. The space filled with a musty perfumed odor. Everyone sat in silent contemplation and the process went on for a long while. It was stifling inside, a true sauna.
We were in complete darkness, all sweating profusely, in silent repose. I leaned back on my blanket, wondering what came next. There was only silence for a long while—us and our thoughts. Finally Sandra spoke.
Silence
“After your silent contemplation, we now begin our journey of rebirth. We’re in the womb here of Mother Earth. She asks our reasons for coming. While we sweat, it’s our job to look within for spiritual cleanliness while the sweat removes our physical toxins. We'll remain in silence."
For what seemed like forever, the dome was silent, the only interruption being the hissing of the volcanic rocks when Sandra dripped water onto them. At long last she spoke.
“Now we can go around the circle and speak out loud to our ancestors and our sisters here.”
The next part of the temezcal was charged and emotional. The ceremony, the silence, the profuse sweating out of toxins, the intensity evident in our soul-bearing to each other, had transformed us. After the last of us spoke, Sandra led a prayer and benediction—a display of gratitude to the goddess Ixchel, our ancestors, the four elements and spirits. I felt bonded to not only Sandra but all the other women along with renewed respect for Ixchel, the Maya mother goddess who had guided us to this satisfying finale.
I hear every temezcal is unique, though a certain amount of propriety remains intact. The ceremony I attended was a hybrid, conducted not by a Maya local but a woman from the community who had studied and trained in the ways of Maya shamanic life. I felt reborn as I crawled out of the dark dome, eyes downward, after my jolt of spiritual awareness.
One by one we made our way to the edge of that clear cenote, feeling the welcome fresh air and slipping into the cool water, submerging our entire bodies as we embraced our newborn selves. From darkness, we were now swimming in the light.
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MY BACKSTORY—Puerto Morelos sits 100 miles from four major pyramid sites: Chichen Itza, Coba, Tulum and Ek Balam. Living in close proximity to this Maya wonderland made it easy to pyramid hop on our days off from Alma Libre Libros, the bookstore we founded in 1997. Owning a bookstore made it easy to order every possible book I could find on the Maya and their culture, the pyramids and the archeologists who dug at these sites and the scholars who wrote about them. I became a self-taught Mayaphile and eventually website publishers, Mexican newspapers and magazines, even guidebooks asked me to write for them about the Maya and Mexico. I’m still enthralled by the culture and history and glad there’s always new news emerging for me to report on right here on Mexico Soul.
Thanks for restack @Daniel Catena
A compelling description of your experience. Thanks 🌿