In Central America, on the ancient Mayan lands, Jade is considered a sacred stone. Divine breath, stone of eternity, today she still accompanies shamans in their work as healers and spiritual guides.
In Central America, more than 3 million people are descendants of the Mayans. This same civilization, made up of several peoples, far from being extinguished, knew how to preserve its ancestral cultural knowledge, its languages and its spirituality. Nature has in common that it remains the supreme entity of the world and the Mayan peoples, who aspire to live in harmony with the earth, the fauna, the flora and together with human beings.
The Mayan shamans, mediums between the terrestrial world and the Divine world, are considered healers, medical men or women, spiritual guides who watch over the proper functioning of the earth, human beings and animals. These act between the physical and spiritual world, with great medicinal knowledge about plants.
The vision of illness for the Mayans is made on several planes, a physical plane but also a spiritual one. For that, healing implies a cleansing of the soul carried out during a ritual where jade plays an essential role with herbal remedies.
For the Mayans, everything that exists on this earth is alive. And among the elements of creation, jade occupies a rather particular position. It is the stone of the breath, of the soul and of the supreme spirit associated with life, death and nature. Extremely present, this stone is still invited today to shamanic ceremonies. Through it, wearing raw jade, shamans join the creative gods in order to seek their blessing.
The green varieties of jade are rather used to invoke Chaac, the god of corn and fertility, the god of rain, an essential god for crops, food and good harmony in society. The blue varieties, mainly appreciated by the Olmecas, are mostly used for rituals with water, they symbolize regeneration, renewal.
Altar, candles of the colors of the four cardinal points, raw jades, the shamans with this set, «connect» to the energies in order to receive and interpret them. This explains why jade is such a prized stone. Always in the spirit of the «breath» that is associated with it, jade drives away negative energies and has a protective function. He unites the Mayans with their ancestors remaining since ancient times, like the stone of eternity.
In other times, when a Maya died, a jade pearl was placed in his mouth. For dying people, he would lightly rub his face with a jade stone in order to present the breath of the soul. This association of jade with the breath goes back to the times of the Olmecs who, seeing the water vapor rise from this stone heated by the sun, thought that the stone breathed. It is the reason why very quickly jade was also associated with wind. Numerous sculptures found in the Mesoamerican vestiges still bear witness to this.
Jade has also been used for its physical characteristics, by Mayan medical men. The Mayans were qualified dentists, who used jade and turquoise prostheses, thus filling the teeth with iron pyrite. Source: Wikipedia
If the Chinese culture shares the love and respect for jade with Mesoamerican peoples, it also shares very true elements of the medicine of the Mayan healers. This is demonstrated by the excellent report by Bernard Fontenille on the Franco-German television network Arte, about a Mayan healer in Mexico, Don Feliciano Galo, an Ah Men. In the report, we can see him use acupuncture points and explain to the reporter the importance of the vital center around the navel, which is nothing more than remembering Qi in Asian medicine. Source: Art
The Mayans used sweat baths to purify themselves. The temazcals were true saunas. Stone walls and ceilings, small openings in the height of the room, the water was poured over hot stones in these steam rooms. Sweat baths were used to elicit sweat healing (perspiration), purify, and also regenerate
Archaeologists have discovered sweat baths at various sites, including Tikal, Aguateca and Nakbe, but the most impressive find to date belongs to Piedras Negras, a classic Mayan city in Guatemala. Sources: Wikipedia
The Mayan pharmacopoeia used and always uses fresh vegetation, often in the form of baths applied directly to the skin. Depending on the disease, the plants are boiled and used in herbal drinks and/or baths. In addition to plants, animal parts, such as the hooks of snakes, herbal infusions can be combined. Likewise, psychotropic substances can be used in shamanic rituals to reach a higher state of consciousness or trance. Sources: Wikipedia
Jade in China was considered a remedy against corruption, that is why, was continually given to the leaders. Taoist alchemists used jade to make drinks of immortality. With a procedure that they kept secret, they claimed to be able to make the jade liquid. This potion was used to make all kinds of filters for the emperors, including love filters that allowed them to satisfy all their concubines.
Just as for the Mayans, a jade cicada was placed in the mouth of the dead in China as a symbol of protection, so that the soul of the dead could take off, just like the butterfly from its chrysalis. The nine orifices of the body were also covered with amulets of gold and jade. This belief was considered to protect the bodies from putrefaction.