Secrets of the Talking Jaguar: Memoirs from the Living Heart of a Mayan Village

Twenty-five years ago, a young musician and painter named Martin Prechtel wandered through the brilliant landscapes of Mexico and Guatemala. Arriving at Santiago Atitlan, a Tzutujil Mayan village on the breathtaking shores of Lake Atitlan, Prechtel met Nicolas Chiviliu Tacaxoy--perhaps the most famous shaman in Tzutujil history--who believed Prechtel was the new student he had asked the gods to provide. For the next thirteen years, Prechtel studied the ancient Tzutujil culture and became a village chief and a famous shaman in his own right.In Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, Prechtel brings to vivid life the sights, sounds, scents, and colors of Santiago Atitlan: its magical personalities, its beauty, its material poverty and spiritual richness, its eight-hundred-year-old rituals juxtaposed with quintessential small-town gossip. The story of his education is a tale filled with enchantment, danger, passion, and hope.

Author: Martín Prechtel
Publisher: Tarcherperigee
Published: 08/30/1999
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.92h x 6.20w x 0.84d
ISBN13: 9780874779707
ISBN10: 0874779707
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Shamanism

About the Author
Martín Prechtel is a spiritual activist and the author of The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise and The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic. Prechtel is a prominent thinker, writer and educator of Indigenous history, language and soulfulness. He teaches at his international school, Bolad's Kitchen in his native New Mexico.