Saga of The Secret of The Speaking Cross

There is a secret religion here on the Yucatan. It is, unquestionably, powerful.

I am guessing you probably want to know what it is and in what ways it is so powerful. The thing is, some of these powerful things can be a bit…shall we say, dangerous?

This is a story that has been unfolding for a few years now. And even though you will find a couple of past blog posts on it, I am going to start from the beginning because I now have more information and I want to you be able to get caught up so you can follow along with us as this mystery continues to unfold.

It all began in the spring of 2019. We had driven south of Tulum on a mission into the Zona Maya, an area that is one of the last strongholds of the Maya people here in Mexico. The area has its own government, its own laws, and even its own time zone. We were planning to do some extensive exploring into the Maya cosmovision, sacred places, and ruins, and we were looking for the blessing of a Maya priest before we began our journey.

But finding a Maya priest is not an easy thing. They don’t want to be found.

So, we set an intention. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could find a Maya priest.” Knowing full well that it would be about impossible to just run into a real, authentic Maya priest, we added a bit of detail to our intention, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could find his apprentice and that person could lead us to him and speak to him on our behalf.”

Now, let it be known that we did not know what religion this Maya priest might be. Catholicism is the most prevalent religion here in Mexico. It came with the Spanish back in the 1500’s. Much is known about the ancient gods who were worshipped before the invasion of the Spanish, but that was a very long time ago. I had seen some evidence that some of the ancient gods are still venerated today, so I thought there must be some type of organized community of followers. Perhaps they had a hierarchy of religious leaders? In all honesty, that was about as much as we even dreamed of knowing. So, we were looking for a Maya priest of an authentic Maya religion, but we were not even really sure if they existed!

Of course, there are shamans here. But that is a different story.

It was a warm spring morning. We left Puerto Morelos very early and headed south by route 307 down the coast. After you pass Playa del Carmen, the towns thin out and the jungles grow thick. We passed Tulum and things became quiet, wild, with an undercurrent of mystery.

Soon, we passed under a big green sign on the highway saying “Zona Maya” and we knew it was time to allow the magic to flow.

There was a sign suggesting a turn to the Route de Los Iglesias (The Route of The Churches). This seemed to hold promise, so we turned off the main road and began our journey down a road with nothing but palms, wild tamarinds, and moon flowers. We slowed the car since the overgrown greenery was encroaching on the road turning two lanes into one and a half.

After a while, a few small buildings dotted the landscape. They were rustic, cement buildings with grass roofs, some painted bright colors, some just bare cement. Chickens scattered across the road, looking for bugs in the grass on the other side of the road I imagine. We saw a middle-aged couple, small in stature, dressed in semi formal clothing (he in slacks and a button-down shirt and she in a skirt and top). We slowed a bit more as we drove past them.