The Maya conception of time, however, was very different from our own. Our old adage “He who does not know history is doomed to repeat it” might have been expressed by the Maya as “He who does not know history cannot predict his own destiny.” The Maya believed in a past which always returned, in historical symmetries–endless cycles repeating patterns already set into the fabric of time and space. Freidel, David and Linda Schele, “A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya”, New York: Quill William Morrow, 1990, pg 18
The following verse takes on new meaning when read through the lens of Mesoamerican conceptions of time as repeating in cycles.
Mosiah 8:17: But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.
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