Crazy Wisdom
Norland Téllez: Civilization of Maya, Wisdom, and Psychology
- Consciousness & Philosophy
- mayan mythology
- jungian psychology
- crazy wisdom
- popol vuh
- creative psychology
- unconscious drives
- indigenous philosophy
About this episode
Norland Téllez is an Artist, teacher, and mythologist with a background in film animation. Grounding himself in classical painting and drawing, his core artistic and intellectual life centers around the study of the Popol-Vuh, a classic of Mayan mythology.
In this episode, Norland shares what it means to be a visual artist whose work centers around the Popol-Vuh, the Mayan epic of creation and perennial wisdom. Having this cultural masterpiece as our guiding thread, we explore different facets of life such as:
- Language and other artistic forms of human expression
- The intersection between psychology and mythology
- Happiness, Pleasure, and Hedonism
- Creativity and self-destruction
- The quest for the unknown
- The meaning of dreams
- Non-linearity of time
- (un)Consciousness
- The Hero's journey
Find out more about Norland and his work at norlandtellez.com
Timeline
(00:04:01) What is the Popol-Vuh?
(00:04:57) What contribution did the Mayans make to the world?
(00:10:35) How does Mayan wisdom approach our biases?
(00:17:14) Jumping into the unknown, spirituality and psychology
(00:20:14) Language, artistic expression, and the layers of human experience
(00:28:27) How can we bridge the gap between the conscious and the unconscious?
(00:32:52) In what way has the study of Mayan wisdom influenced Norland's life?
(00:40:46) Myth or Ideology: what is the line that separates them?
(00:45:59) What's the Mayan story of human creation?
(00:52:26) Jouissance, Creativity & Death-drive
(01:07:00) The Hero's Journey: from selfhood to self-divestment
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Episode transcript
The uncanny thing about the drive is that it's a will of its own, you know, and the truth of the matter is that the drive is also dangerous. You know, I mean, we can see this. You study the life of any creative artist, you know, like we just had the Elton John movie just came out and so on, you know, and you see that in every great creative life, there's just any amount of self destruction that goes along with that, and it's really fear of that. And as I said, I emphasize, is not misplaced fear. It is correctly assessed fear that really keeps people from finding their greatest potential.
Welcome to the Crazy Wisdom Podcast. Today was a very special interview I did with Norlin Tez, who is an artist, a mythologist, an educator, a teacher. He studies the popol vu, which are a Mayan people who had a lot of interest in philosophy that maps well with the concept of crazy wisdom. I don't want to say it's a concept because it kind of exists in reality. You know, it's like when you get access to this wisdom that is beyond the intellectual mind. So definitely, we covered a lot of topics. And I love how I found Norland. It was through another guest of mine, Howard Teich, who I interviewed several months ago. And Howard was like, you have to interview this guy. He's got some really interesting insights into the popol Vuh and Mayan mythology and how that intertwines with Freud and Jung. So it's really interesting because I love it because, like, one of the most interesting things about this work is that it does not matter what race you are. It does not matter your socioeconomic status. This stuff that we're talking to is available to anybody at any time. Right here, right now, in this moment, it is up to you whether you turn towards that or whether you turn towards falseness. Lies. The truth of this moment is ever present. It's never gone away. It's been with you since you were born. It's been with you with quotation marks
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