Church of Saint Lawrence on a fiesta day (Mexico, Maya, Zinacantan)

The cosmological concepts that shaped the world view of the ancient Maya did not disappear entirely with the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. In remote areas of Maya territory, we are still encountering traditional patterns of life that vividly display the intimate relationship between man and nature in the sacred geography and in the concepts of time and space that were central to the cosmovision of the pre-Columbian Maya. We are also discovering how ancient Maya symbols and meanings …