size and shape as a small adult’s head, yet it was almost totally transparent. It really was magnificent, the most exquisitely carved and beautiful object that either of us had ever seen. It was like gazing on perfection (see plates 1 and 2).
‘I’m only the caretaker,’ Anna began. ‘The skull really belongs to everyone. He has brought lots of happiness to people. I show him all over the world. I’m asked to go here, there and everywhere – Australia, New Zealand and even Japan. But I particularly like people to come here so that I can see their joy and happiness in my own home.’
As she was speaking, I found myself staring at the skull, captivated. The way the light seemed to be captured, channelled and played around deep in its interior and reflected back off its silky smooth surface was totally mesmerizing. There was some strange, almost indefinable quality about looking at the skull, but I couldn’t figure out quite what it was. It was as though the skull was holding me there, somehow communicating with my unconscious mind. It was as if some part of my mind was stirred in a subtle, almost incomprehensible way. I was totally absorbed.
Anna spoke to me, but I didn’t hear. She had to tap me on the shoulder before I realized that she was saying something. ‘I don’t normally allow people to do this, but you can pick him up if you like.’
‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t with you,’ I replied.
‘Oh, that’s perfectly normal,’ chuckled Anna. ‘The skull usually casts a spell over people when they meet him. They often seem to go into a trance for a few moments.’
I lifted up the crystal skull. I was surprised at how heavy it felt. ‘It weighs almost 12 lbs [5 kg],’ said Anna.
I handed the skull to Ceri, who commented that it was ‘deathly cold’ to the touch and quickly placed it back on the table.
‘There’s nothing to be frightened of,’ said Anna. ‘People are often frightened when they first see the skull,’ she added.
‘It’s not surprising, really,’ said Jimmy. ‘Just look at how the skull has become a symbol to be feared. It’s either in horror movies, Friday the Thirteenth and all that, or it’s a warning on a bottle of poison.’
It was true, the skull did always seem to be a fearful image in our culture. Its primary purpose always appeared to be to terrify people or warn them of danger.
Anna continued, ‘People usually come to see the skull in twos and threes and often one of them is nervous about seeing him. But the next thing you know they are sitting right near to the skull. They say, “It’s not what I thought it would be. It’s beautiful.” And the joy comes into their faces and they are happy.’
This struck me as rather curious. Here was an image of death that Anna claimed actually made people feel happy. At first I didn’t understand it. But I have to admit that, after a while, I started to feel sort of warm, almost cosy, in the skull’s presence. I began to think about it. Perhaps meeting the skull was a way of overcoming our fear of death, of meeting the very image of our future selves. We normally try to push all thoughts of death away. And yet here I was staring the very image of death in the face.
As I was sitting there looking at the beautiful, pristine, clear nature of the crystal, it occurred to me that perhaps the very reason why the skull had been carved out of a transparent material was so that it did not represent any one person. It could be anyone’s skull. Perhaps that was it – the skull was meant to represent each and every one of us. After all, each of us has a skull within us, buried under our skin, and one day that will be all that will be left of us. So, of all the symbols available to humanity, what could be more universal than a skull? For it is a symbol that speaks to every living person.
As I examined the skull, its smooth contours and hollow eye sockets, I thought about how I would one day die and that I too would be little more than an empty skull. Not only me, but everyone I knew and cared about would go the same sad way. I wondered if perhaps that was the purpose of the crystal skull, to remind each of us of our own mortality and of the very short time that each of us has as a living being on this Earth.
But there seemed to be more to it than that. In any case, who needs a reminder that they are going to die? Surely that couldn’t be the only reason for making the skull. If it was, then it was a bizarre and macabre one.
I held up the separate jaw-bone. It was beautifully crafted, with each tooth picked out in fine detail. Perhaps the skull only seemed macabre to me because of the attitude I had towards death, because it was something that I didn’t want to acknowledge. As I slotted the separate jaw-bone carefully back on to the skull, it suddenly struck me that that stark, cold image of death actually concealed a powerful message: it reminds us that we are alive! I remembered something I had heard somewhere – that it is often only when people are closest to death, when they are in a sense staring death right in the face, that they feel fully alive and able to truly appreciate life. Could it be that the crystal skull was also here to help us appreciate life?
I moved the skull around, watching the way in which it caught the light. Had it been designed so that as we look upon its cool chiselled contours we are reminded of the feel of the soft skin on our own faces and the warm pulse than runs through our veins?
But there was still something further, something about the skull’s transparent nature. For this was an image of death that you could almost see through, right to the other side. It was as if this death’s head was telling us that death is actually something that we can transcend, something we can go through and come out the other side.
I put the crystal skull back on its velvet cushion on the coffee table, next to a framed black-and-white photograph of Frederick Mitchell-Hedges. Anna was just beginning to tell Ceri that her own good health and longevity were all thanks to the crystal skull. I had to admit, she was a very spritely 88-year-old with unusual amounts of energy. ‘The skull gives you health, happiness and joy of life,’ she explained. ‘He is always in my room, even when I am sleeping. I know the skull protects me. All through my life he has protected me.’
Ceri drew my attention to the tiny bubbles she had noticed deep inside the crystal skull. They were laid out in softly curving planes, glittering within the body of the crystal like tiny stars within a distant solar system on a very clear starry night. It was amazing to think that these tiny bubbles must have been trapped in the crystal as it was being formed many millions of years ago.
As I gazed on, I couldn’t help getting the feeling that there was still far more to the crystal skull than I had so far been able to fathom. It was more than just a reminder of our own mortality. There was something else, something beyond that. But it seemed that the real significance of the crystal skull was as yet intangible to me.
Anna was discussing the visitors who came to see the skull. ‘The skull brings people together in many, many ways. It’s always a happiness for me to show it to people, to see the joy it brings them. So many people come, sometimes as many as 14 people, sometimes 18. I have a lot of Indian people. American Indians and Canadian Indians stay with the skull for hours and I can’t tell them, “Well, it’s time for you to go.” The skull is loved very much by everyone who comes to see it. I’ve even had the actress Shirley Maclaine come to work with the skull.
‘I welcome people because it’s a way of giving a little happiness and really, it’s the skull that does that. I call it “the Skull of Love,” just as the Mayans would think of it.’
‘The sun has come out,’ said Jimmy. We looked out through the windows to see pale wintry sunshine on the road outside. Jimmy
