Pilgrimage To Palenque

When the great warrior king of Palenque died, his son had Lord Pakal placed in a sarcophagus deep in an imposing pyramid. On the upper facade of the pyramid, visible after ascending multiple steps is inscribed an extraordinary event in the long reign of Lord Pakal: Teotihuacan’s victorious army, fresh from its conquest of Tikal, had marched from Tikal to Palenque to pay homage to Lord Pakal.

On multiple occasions, I went on pilgrimage to the tomb of Lord Pakal. On one occasion, I was alone with him deep in the dark, airless dampness. The guards had gone and the pyramid was closed that afternoon. I sat on the stone floor insisting I was not claustrophobic. Lord Pakal offered me a transmission, a gift whose dimensions would only become apparent years later. Some hours passed. I had become cold, weak with fatigue and in some odd way, full, as if I had eaten too large a lunch. I managed to get back up the interior stairs of the pyramid and stopped on the upper platform, disoriented, in the late afternoon heat and bright sunlight of lowland jungle.

An out of season storm flooded Palenque that evening and the next day local roads were flooded.