∞∞ Pakal’s ∞ Telepathic ∞ Transmission ∞

[dropcap]The[/dropcap] first minutes of a cloudless sunrise found me in a packed combi making its way towards the centre of Palenque through a wide motorway, hedged on either side by the Lacandonian jungle. I had just left the old coach from Cancún after a twelve-hour journey, and was trying to remember the name of the place where I would be spending the next few days. I searched through my notebook among scribblings and barely legible numbers until I found, jotted in my own nervous handwriting: “Camping El Pachán (near the entrance to the ruins)”. The combi left me in the centre of one of the most visited towns in state of Chiapas, due its natural and archaeological treasures.

I spent a couple of hours watching combis – like the one that had just delivered me – come and go, awaiting the bus that would take me to the El Pachán camping area. El Pachaán is notorious not only for its location in the middle of the jungle but, for its closeness to Palenque’s archaeological ruins, home of the intriguing Temple of the Inscriptions built during the reign of the ancient Mayan ruler Pakal.

CC Image: Palenque By Dennis Jarvis @ flickr.com/photos/archer10/

I spent a very short time in Palenque. You could call it a sort of four-day jungle internship, during which I wandered between the jungle and the campsite, walking, sipping mate, cooking, reading and chatting with the members of the makeshift little group that had gathered round the area where I pitched my tent: Natalia and Natalia Emilia from Chile; René the Mexican; Chaco Furque from Argentina; Eric Fitt from the USA and myself. All six of us had been travelling for quite a while, and we all seemed to enjoy just being there; lying on a threadbare hammock or resting on our backpacks, out in the open, lost among all the greenery, surrounded by an atmosphere so pure and so humid that at times it felt spongey. We awaited moments of silence in the hope of spotting some bird calling nearby or being startled by the howling monkeys’ screaming debates, all this for hours on end.

Within this environment you feel completely immersed in nature, and this was the reason for my journey to Palenque: the ruins, and the road that led to them. I had become too used to the paved streets and the neat, even greenery of Cancún’s resort district. Now, I was yearning for earth. I longed to wander through the jungle, to walk and weary myself following paths, old or new, but paths, not streets.

transEl Chaco was my travelling companion one bright, hot, sunny afternoon. We left through the back of the campsite and when we reached one of the many stone paths that lead into the jungle, we turned into a very stony, uphill road apparently used for cars. We hadn’t been gone long and were still chatting and feeling no signs of weariness when we came across a couple of locals with a wild pig or jabalí tied to a rope. The animal seemed to have tired of struggling against his tether and was resting in the shade.

As if the environment had required it, we grew more silent and our steps became slower as we advanced. I’m not sure for how long we walked, probably 40 minutes, perhaps longer than that, when we reached a point, without any previous agreement, in which we just stopped talking. Quite apart from our own footsteps we could hear the birds singing, some distant thumps, branches waving as a result of a furtive swing or shaken by the wind, which blew in hot gusts between the leaves. It feels pointless to add more words in an attempt to describe it. Better just to say: the Earth was talking.

At sunset, we turned back.
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As I write on this rainy San Cristóbal evening, I cannot remember if that was that very night when Eric told us the story, or if it was another – certainly it was not long after then that this gringo traveller started to tell us about what he called “Pakal’s Transmission”.

That night, the narrative was short, almost a mere passing comment as we drank some beers after dinner. But, I was hooked and I told Eric that I would like to talk further about this so-called transmission on a future occasion.

What follows is very slightly modified summary of a recording made by Eric in San Cristóbal. A description of the sheer magnificence of the ruins of Palenque and of the paths that lead to this great city, of the days when the Mayan civilisation was as alive as we are today, will have to wait. 

CC Image: Urban Rainbow Tunnel By Chris Halderman @ flickr.com/photos/halderman/

CC Image: Urban Rainbow Tunnel By Chris Halderman @ flickr.com/photos/halderman/

Let’s allow Eric to tell the story:  “I was travelling through Palenque, stopping at El Panchán where I met Gabriel M. He had a place at Don Mucho´s restaurant, which is the main one over there and a good place to go out at night. His establishment had lots of interesting stuff, but I noticed an unusual pamphlet. When I saw this pamphlet, it caught my eye and I started to talk to Gabriel about its contents.   I had a question: What the hell was it? He said the booklet was his, that a European guy he had met had given it to him. He wasn’t sure what country the guy was from, perhaps Switzerland or maybe Sweden. In any case, I found the pamphlet very interesting.   It was covered in multidimensional mystic symbols and its cover read: “19:19 Matrix. Multidimensional Meditation”. The background said: “Awaken your crystal archetype”. So I asked Gabriel about this.”

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CC Image: Psychedelic Skittles by Chris Halderman @ flickr.com/photos/halderman/

“It contained more information which turned increasingly strange. When I asked Gabriel, he told me that the man he had met, the one who had given him this, had apparently received a telepathic message from Pakal himself. The point about Pakal is that Palenque, the famous location that has been receiving numerous visitors from around the world for many decades and has been the most studied of all the Mayan ruin sites, has a lot to do with this character, Pakal, who was the great king who greatly expanded the city during his lifetime. Before his death, he designed his own tomb infused with some apparent mystic significance and, on top of it, surrounding and covering it, is the Temple of the Inscriptions, a very vertical and very beautiful temple-pyramid which still stands today. So Pakal was the great king which is revered as a god today by modern Mayans, at least in this part of the Mayan world. This is Pakal in context. Sometimes he is referred to as Pakal Votan, a very controversial title for scholars as it suggests he is a god.”

  What’s wrong with Tony’s ‘Lifestyle choice’ comments.

“I asked Gabriel what he knew about all this as it was very mysterious and he told me that he didn’t know very much, that he really couldn’t tell me all that much. The pamphlet appears to be a guide with instructions for a meditation to be done over many days; a meditation for 361 days, during which: “by using the 19:19 Crystal Matrix you begin to connect to your Higher Self through the luminous threads aligning your own archetypical matrix with the cosmic tree, thus synchronising Time, Prophecy and Magic”.”

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CC Image: CakeMix by Chris Halderman @ flickr.com/photos/halderman/

“Apparently this meditation must be undertaken in the prescribed manner and order, which would take almost a year, to understand what’s going on there. Given that Gabriel had not done the meditation, he had nothing else to explain to me. But, I would say the 19:19 seems related to the way the Flower of Life is constructed [also in the pamphlet]. There are 19 steps in which this symbol appears which is one of those known as the Flower of Life worn as tattoos by so many and which is allegedly (I say this, as I have never seen it myself) a symbol that has been found in every continent in the world with the possible exception of Antarctica, dating to prehistory in every one of these places which suggests a prehistoric global civilisation.”

This is what I have learned. This is all that I know. It is a great mystery. I invite you [if you feel that way inclined] to check it out for yourself. There is a website: 19Matrix.org. You will find more information there.”

This narrative –an eight minute recording he produced in one sitting– seemed so clear to me that I decided to relay it more or less verbatim.

Before I go, I would like to leave you with some observations. For example, it is worth noting that construction works on the Temple of the Inscriptions commenced around the year 675 AD, during the rule of Pakal and that its creation was clearly intended to glorify the life and honour the death of this very interesting ruler of the the ancient kingdom of B’aakal.

Similar destinations would see me continuing my journey with Eric as we coincided in San Cristóbal. Different directions would have led to a different outcome, but the continuity of our relationship made it possible for the transmission to be repeated once again.


Juan Francisco Uriarte is an Argentinian journalist. Since 2009 he has been in charge of the Foreign Policy section of Hoy Día Córdoba newspaper. As a columnist, Uriarte published several texts in critical gazette Deodoro; Dada Mini art magazine; chilean 60Watts online site, and the Cono Sur Le Monde Diplomatique edition, among others. After collaborating with different publishers, in 2012 Uriarte launched White Nights Books, where he was editorial director. In November 2014, after taking annual leave, he began to develop the journalistic project “Winged Words. Chronicles throughout Latin America”, check it here: www.palabrasaladas1.blogspot.com

Check out Juan on ello:  ello.co/juanfuriarte