Stonehenge. Image Anna Sofaer

Dear Friends,

Celebrated around the traditional world and at key sites of monumental structures – from Stonehenge to Palenque in Mexico and the Hopewell people’s magnificent Serpent Mound, as well as Chaco Canyon – this time of year brings strong growth and productive fields.

It is also a moment when communities have long gathered to honor their relationship with the sun, mark the turning of the seasons, and reaffirm their connection to the rhythms of the natural world.

For our new film, From the Mind’s Eye, guided by my colleagues in archaeoastronomy, we have been privileged to film solar and lunar cycles at each of these sites.

Anna Sofaer and Alonso Mendez take in the complex history of the temples of Palenque. Photo credit Christopher Beaver

In December of 2025, guided by researcher Alonso Mendez, we filmed, as he predicted, the moon as it set in its extreme northern alignment at the Temple of the Sun, as though illustrating the events portrayed in the interior tablet of the temple: the accession to the throne of the king Kam Balam on the dates of this same lunar event more than 1200 years ago.

Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Photo by Anna Sofaer

But perhaps the most emotional and moving was our time this last February at full moon in Guatemala. We had the great fortune to spend a week with Dolores Ratzán, a Maya elder and healer in her village of Santiago, on the edge of the sacred Lake Atitlán in Guatemala.

Dolores generously shared on film how her people of Santiago Atitlán had preserved their ancient knowledge of the Sun and Moon, calling on their powers in their daily lives and handing this reverent attention down for generations. When the Spanish conquistadors built their cathedral atop an ancient Maya temple and destroyed imagery of their sacred beliefs, the Maya ingeniously preserved this knowledge in their weavings.

On a small, intimate cloth, Dolores showed us that the whole of the landscape and the sun and moon are conveyed as the powerful makers of the universe — and the moon that gave birth to the sun is today the guiding deity for women in fertility and birthing. This cloth, the Santiago people’s map of their cosmology, is carried and worn in ceremony — and for some elders every day — suggesting the same envisioning that inspired the ancient sites we are recording for our new film From the Mind’s Eye.

We approach an intense period of editing this complex material as one flowing hour. I hope you can help support us in the coming months.

We are immensely grateful for your continuing support for the protection of Chaco and the work of the Solstice Project — as our new film brings Chaco onto the stage with world-renowned sites of great scientific achievement and compelling beauty.

Thank you,

Anna Sofaer
Executive Director
Solstice Project Inc
www.solsticeproject.org

The group of experts that you assembled to educate us was phenomenal. I feel as if I had a college seminar in 2 days! —Pat Stanley, Santa Fe, 2024

Experiencing Chaco through your 40-plus years of discoveries, contemplation, and collaboration was beyond amazing, and a true honor to be part of. It was a big wow. —Kris Lajeskie, Santa Fe, 2024

If you are interested in joining us, contact Mary Langdon at [email protected]

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Solstice Project 222 East Marcy Street #19 Santa Fe, NM 87501

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