From Philip's personal Journal... dated 06-05-2005
"We went to see Don Nicholas, a Maya Shaman in the pueblo of San Pablo, to meet and consult with Maximon (St. Simon), a powerful local deity. The walls of his foyer were covered with letters from a hundred and one recipients of Maximon's miracles, each with a photo of the sender in the corner. He was a surprisingly androgenous figure, with masculine hands but a feminine figure and voice. He served us some kind of juice as we waited for him to finish preparing Maximon's altar.


"The effigy of Maximon was a frightening, life-size wooden mannequin, with empty eye sockets, gagged at the mouth, dressed in the clothes of a traditional Mayan campesino. Candles, piles of pom (incense), and circles of sugar and maize surrounded it in an esoteric pattern. The largest pile of incense, sugar and corn at the center was lit into a huge blaze. Every so often the incense would catch fire in a certain way to create a tornado of smoke and flames. Nicholas served us all sips of Johnnie Walker Red, after first pouring a generous amount into the mouth of Maximon. Nicholas repeated some unintelligble prayer, over and over, as he continued to feed liquor to us and to the effigy. Between the blaze and the whiskey every part of me was on fire.

"One by one Nicholas led us to a chair facing the effigy. Maximon's cowboy hat was removed and placed on our heads. He asked me if i was married or had any children. He asked me if there was anything that I lived with that I was sorry for. He told me my father missed me.

"I felt like all the toxins in my body, chemical and psychological, were escaping through the sweat the fire brought. All the badness that had built up in my lifetime was leaving with the smoke and the steam. I took another sip of whiskey...

"The ceremony over, I felt the same way I felt the first time I jumped out of an airplane: I didn't want to leave. I wanted to be there, be involved with anyone else who was about to feel the great release and rebirth I had just felt. I wanted to share it. And Ididn't want mine to fade."

It hasn't.