Grotto of Chicoy

The Grotto of Chicoy is located at kilometer 169 on the highway between Guatemala City and Coban, about 4 kilometers north of Purulha, B.V.   It is not only a Mayan ritual center, it is also a place of awesome beauty.  It’s not really a cave, but rather a sinkhole of perhaps a hundred meters diameter, so no flashlights are needed.    A natural cathedral, it has anticline and syncline walls, clusters of stalagmites stretching up to twenty meters in height, and a high, vaulted ceiling with what appear at first glance to be baroque intaglios.

Foreign visitors to the grotto of  Chicoy have various reactions to it.  Some say they have had religious experiences here; others liken it to taking a psychedelic drug.  One visitor claims that every wish he has made here has come true within six months. On the other hand, some people are stricken with terror upon entering the cave, and others refuse to set foot in it altogether. The general opinion is that this place is the doorway to another dimension:  it is not of this world.

The Mayans use the cave of Chicoy for healing and making wishes (if you want to do the same, bring candles to light at the main altar behind the stalagmites), and it is often the scene of important Mayan rituals, such as the ceremony marking the beginning of the 260-day sacred year.*   This day – Cuaxaquib (8) Batz (Monkey) – will occur next on: November 5th, 2000;  July 23, 2001;  April 9, 2002;  December 25th, 2002; September 11th, 2003; May 28th, 2004; February 12th, 2005; October 30th, 2005;  July 17th, 2006; April 3rd, 2007; December 19th, 2007.   

The celebration of Cuaxaquib Batz takes place in a circle around a large fire, and is led by Mayan priests wearing bandanas.  As the spirit moves the participants and the leaders, they throw things into the fire: candles, copal incense, fruit, bread, aguardiente and boj (the local liquors). The silhouettes of musicians playing the chirimiya (like a clarinet) and drums, in a monotone but plaintive rhythm, are visible through the veil of smoke against the sky at the cave entrance up above. The priests bless people with candles, touching them on the head, chest, thighs, and feet, and then throwing the candles into the fire.  Often people circle the fire, three times clockwise and then three times counter-clockwise.  Sometimes the priests pick up a child and wave him or her above the flames.  Sometimes the priests take a drink of aguardiente and spit / spray it in someone’s face and across their body, and the sprayed person then circles the fire. 

The ceremony is free-form, no special order or set ritual guides it. Every now and then the priests lead a countdown in Pokomchi Mayan to 13:  e.g. 1 dog, 2 dogs, 3 dogs, etc. up to 13 dogs; or 1 cow, 2 cows, 3 cows, etc. up to 13 cows.  Presumably this is an invocation of the 13 Mayan gods of the upper world.  Now and then the priests give a speech about intelligence, education, careers such as engineering, law, medicine, architecture (perhaps as a blessing upon Indian youths studying in the Ladino educational system). Now and then the priests call down blessings upon crops, businesses, livestock, as well as the local municipalities. 

The ceremony lasts about 5 hours.  As it winds down, the priests do a son (slow dance) around the fire, and everyone is invited to draw a cross in the embers with a stick. At the end, the priests explained that they are Mayans; that they are celebrating their sacred year of 260 days; that their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers had performed this ritual from time immemorial – and that their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren would perform it forevermore.

When it ends, tamales and soda pop are passed out to all participants. It is a hypnotizing, cleansing, and renewing experience for all concerned.