Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

Later in the day, one of the crew, a beautiful Eurasian woman, came
over to say that Mr. Noble was grateful for the remedy, which had cured
him, enabling them to travel again.
I was relieved to know he had recovered and pleased that the tonic had
cured again. The woman left without offering to pay for the tonic, and a part
of me was annoyed. After a few seconds, my annoyance passed. I let it go,
telling myself: May God repay. I went back to my patients and didn’t give
the matter a second thought.
At dusk, Piers was back again. I’m always glad to see him and walked
outside the kitchen to greet him.
“Mr. Thomm sent me over to give this to you,” he said in his sweet,
baby boy voice.
He opened his chubby, pink palm and plopped a gorgeous, oblongshaped
crystal into my hands. It was the loveliest of the crystals I had seen
atop Temple IV glittering in the sun. Rainbow-colored areas of light
shimmered within. It was huge—four inches long and three inches wide,
coming to a graceful point at the top. Its size and weight felt perfect in my
hand.
I wanted to run over and thank Thomm, but Piers told me that the crew
had left and that Thomm had instructed him not to deliver the crystal until
after they had driven away.
The next time I went to San Antonio, I brought the crystal with me to
show Don Elijio. The moment he saw it, he jumped out of his seat, threw up
his hands, and shouted, “Sastun! Sastun! They’ve sent you a sastun. How
wonderful, my daughter, this is the sign I’ve been waiting for. Ix Chel sent
this to you. Now I can teach you everything, everything. You can work in
the spiritual as I do.”
“This is a sastun?” I sputtered. I flipped the heavy crystal over and over
in my hand, waiting for its mystic abilities to become obvious.
“Yes, girl. This is not just a simple gift. This came right from the Maya
Spirits. They used your friend as a carrier.”
He opened both his hands and gestured for me to place the crystal in his
palms. He pushed back his Pepsi cap and stared intently into the stone. “Uh
huh. See here.” He pointed to a corner of the crystal and showed me a
rainbow-colored cross.
I really couldn’t believe what Panti had said. The Maya Spirits—the
nine celestial beings at the core of the Maya culture—had sent me a sastun?