Tattoo Ritual

Tattoo Ritual Tattoo Ritual

[9.gif] [sotz.gif]

Introduction:

I had been interested in receiving a tattoo for several years. After my wife attended a workshop on ritual tattooing given by Crow Swimsaway and Bekki Shining Bearheart at Between the Worlds 1996, and participated in a tattoo ritual at the same conference, she enthusiastically convinced me to get a tattoo in a ritual setting.

The first question, of course, was the design. I wanted something deeply personal and unique. I am drawn to Maya religion and art, and I have a powerful connection to bats (as my "underworld helper"). As Maya art has many powerful representations of bats(1) , I only had to make a choice. I settled on a simple combination: the glyph for zotz ("bat") (2) , along with the "bar-and-dot" number nine(3) (nine is a significant number for me).

I then had to choose a date and time. I knew that Crow and Bekki would be present at the 1997 Free Spirit Festival (June 11-15, 1997), I decided to see if I could have it done there. Using a Maya calendar program(4), I found that an ideal date occurred during the festival (see below). I picked a time around dusk as being appropriate to bats.

The Ritual

1. Create sacred space- offering copal(5) incense to the chacs (rain gods) of the four directions. (6)

We invite you, we thank you, Chac Chac(7), of the East, of the sunrise. You are bringing blessings, you are bringing clarity.

We invite you, we thank you, Kan Chac, of the South, of the noontime. You are bringing blessings, you are bringing power.

We invite you, we thank you, Ek Chac, of the West, of the sunset. You are bringing blessings, you are bringing purity.

We invite you, we thank you, Sac Chac, of the North, of the nighttime. You are bringing blessings, you are bringing firmness.

2. Invoke Bat as Ahau Zotz (8) ("Lord Bat")-

It was in the last sun.
It was 12.18.04.14.00; was ruling the First God of the Night.
It was 12 Ahau 18 Zotz.
Then was seated Ahau Zotz, then he put on the white headband.(9)

Now it is a new sun.
Now it is 12.19.04.05.00; Now is ruling the First God of the Night.
Now it is 12 Ahau 18 Zotz.
The day has returned.(10)

I invite you, I thank you, Ahau Zotz.
You are bringing blessings, you are here!

3. Statement of intent-

I am being marked, I am being tattooed, Ahau Zotz.
To you the blood, to you the pain.
To the defenders of bats in this sun, in this world I will give gifts.(11)

You are bringing me blessings with this marking, with this tattoo.
You are bringing me wisdom of the night.
You are bringing me quickness of action.
You are bringing me versatility.

4. Tattooing with drumming, etc. by friends. "Blood print" on paper. (12)

5. Thank Ahau Zotz, and burn paper with blood.(13)

You have blessed me, Ahau Zotz
I am thanking you, I am praising you, I am giving you this blood.

6. Thank chacs and open sacred space.

I am praising you, chacs of the directions, of the times of day.
You have brought blessings.
I am praising you, I am thanking you.

7. Go look for bats.

NOTES:

1. The Maya looked on the bat as being both a servant of the underworld and a powerful patron of great cunning (Tedlock, p 143, pp 174-5 and pp 326-7). Some of these attitudes carried over to the modern Maya (Blaffer, pp 55-73).

2. There exist many variants for each glyph, and zotz is no exception. I ended up using the one used by Macnelly in her "stela-maker" program.

3. For a discussion of the number system, see Coe 1993, pp 184-5.

4. All date calculations were done using the "Maya3" program by Harris and Harris.

5. Copal is sacred in Maya and other Mesoamerican religious traditions (Coe 1993, p168).

6. For a discussion of the chacs in current Maya ritual, see Freidel, Schele and Parker, pp 29-33. This invocation (and all others in the ritual) are written by me; however, considerable stylistic influence comes from Tedlock.

7. The designators of the chacs indicate the color associated with that direction: E=red, S=yellow, W=Black, N=White; Coe 1992, p 97. All directional attributes are my own personal choices, and more in line with modern NeoPagan practice than anything else...

8. Current orthography would spell it "ahaw sotz' ", but I think this is more elegant.

9. There is an enormous amount of published material on the Maya calendar system. I started with Coe 1993, pp 48-52 - the bibliography to this work has a great deal of further reading. This date corresponds to December 20th, 3148 BCE- a date in "mythic time", before the beginning of the current Great Cycle. It was chosen because it had a similar Long Count number to the date of the ritual. All date calculations were done using the "Maya3" program. Maya religious inscriptions used relevant events in the mythic past to underline the importance of commemorated events in the current period which happened on the same date (Freidel and Schele, p84). "Seating" is used both to indicate the beginning of a month (Coe 1993, p 49) and the accession of a ruler or a god (Freidel and Schele p 206]); the phrase "put on the white headband" is equivalent (Macnelly).

10. This date corresponds to June 12th, 1997, a date during the Free Spirit Festival. As this date translates out to 12 "Lord" 18 "Bat", it was an appropriate time to invoke Lord Bat. Synchronicity was with us...

11. I am planning on giving a contribution to Bat Conservation International (BCI) to commemorate my tattoo. BCI is a non-profit organization which is dedicated to the preservation and study of the world's many bat species; they also strive to educate the public about bats. BCI: PO Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716.

12. I used the Macnelly "stela-maker" and "date-maker" programs to print the appropriate designs on a piece of parchment.

13. The ancient Maya viewed blood as sacred; many of their rites involved self-inflicted bloodletting, and sacrifice of the blood via burning (Schele and Miller pp 175-208)

SOURCES

Blaffer, Sarah C. The Black-Man of Zinacatan: A Central American Legend U. of Texas Press, 1972

Coe, Michael Breaking the Maya Code Thames and Hudson, 1992

___________ The Maya (5th ed.) Thames and Hudson, 1993

Freidel, David and Linda Schele A Forest of Kings: the Untold Story of the Ancient Maya William Morrow, 1990

__________________________ and Joy Parker Maya Cosmos: 3000 Years on the Shaman's Path William Morrow, 1993

Harris, Michael S. and John F. Maya3 (computer program) http://www.angelfire.com/zine/meso/meso/maya3.zip; 1993

Macnelly, Nancy Rabbit in the Moon; (web page) http://www.halfmoon.org/, 1997

Schele, Linda and Mary Ellen Miller The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art George Braziller/Kimball Art Museum, 1986

Tedlock, Dennis Popol Vuh Simon and Schuster, 1985

The Coe books and A Forest of Kings are especially well-written, and recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in the ancient Maya. Maya Cosmos thoroughly amazed me when I read it. Tedlock's translation of the Popol Vuh is both marvelously poetic and meticulously researched. And Nancy Macnelly's web-page is a delight.

TATTOOING RITUAL - Hugh Eckert - Free Spirit Festival 1997

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