NAVIGATION

River-Styx.net
River-Styx Sitemap
Hades: Greek /Roman Gods and Death
Egypt: Aset & Asar
Egyptian Gods
Aztec: Mictlan
Aztec Gods
Aztec Codices
Maya: Xibalba
Mayan Gods
Mayan Codices
Death Gods
The Black Death
Dance of Death
Dante's Hell and More
Native American Mythology
Astrology 8th House of Death
Spirituality

more offsite...
Angel Sweepstakes
NativeUSA.org
Balko Photo
Genealogy Zeitler
Gryffn Musings
ClassicFilmStars

Our knowledge of the Mayans, their life, rituals, beliefs, and gods comes from picture books called codices and the Popol Vuh. Maya writing takes the form of glyphs which translate into certain syllable sounds, and excellent links explaining this are below. As far as I know, only 4 of these books (Dresden, Paris, Madrid, Grolier) have survived the centuries and the destruction of the Spanish priests of the 1500s.

So, what do we know? The most important gods were the Sun God, the Rain God, the Wind God, the Maize God, the Death God, and the Suicide Goddess. There were human sacrifices, and the custom of "bloodletting" was a common practice, the tongue or genitals being the usual area.

The Maya did not regard life or death in the same way as we do today - the fact that they had a Suicide Goddess makes that clear. She is Ixtab, and is depicted with a rope around her neck. Since the Mayans believed that "heaven" lay beyond a suicide, it is believed that this practice may have been quite common. Death was closely intertwined with life, for they believed one was first dead, before one was born, i.e. had life. Death was a doorway to Life, and Life was a doorway to Death, thus death and death rituals were quite important in this society.

The name Xibalba roughly translates to "Place of Fear" or "Place of Phantoms". The entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. To some of the Quiché descendants of the Maya people still living in the vicinity, the area is still associated with death. In the heavens, the Road to Xibalba was represented by the dark rift visible in the Milky Way.

As best as I am able to piece this together, there is an Underworld, a Middleworld (where we reside) and an Upperworld. The World Tree (Tzuk te') is at the center of The World, and grows through the 9 Underworld levels, this Middle Level and the 13 Upperworld regions. Each level or subregion had its own ruler, with the lowest level (Mitnal) being ruled by the Death God, Yum Cimil (aka Ah Puch, the god of the Underworld). He is shown as a skeletal frame or in various stages of decomposition.

Metnal is the lowest and most horrible of the nine hells of the underworld. It is ruled by Ah Puch. Ritual healers would intone healing prayers banishing diseases to Metnal.
Xibalba (Xibalbá or Xibalbay) is a dangerous underworld ruled by the demons Vucub Caquix and Hun Came. Xibalba was described in the Popol Vuh to be a city or a realm that existed below the surface of the Earth. It is unclear if the inhabitants of Xibalba, referred to simply as Xibalbans, are the souls of the deceased or a separate race of people worshipping death, but they are often depicted as being human-like in form. The place Xibalba was often associated with death and it was ruled by 12 gods or powerful rulers known as the Lords of Xibalba.

There are two Lords of Death, One Death and Seven Death, and under them, the Lords of Xibalba (place of fear, underworld). I found one reference naming these lords as: House Corner and Blood Gatherer, who draw blood from people; Pus Master and Jaundice Master, who cause people to swell, make pus come out of their legs, make their faces yellow (jaundice); Bone Scepter and Skull Scepter, who emaciate people or waste them away; Trash Master and Stab Master, who catch people who have trash on their door and puncture them until they die; Wing 4 and Packstrap, who cause sudden death on the road; and Bloody Teeth and Bloody Claws. Yet I read other texts saying there were only 9 lords of Xibalba, so I am not sure of this information.

Xibalba was a large place and a number of individual structures or locations within Xibalba are described or mentioned in the Popol Vuh. Chief among these was the council place of the Lords, the five or six houses that served as the first tests of Xibalba, and the Xibalban ball court. Also mentioned are the homes of the Lords, gardens, and other structures indicating that Xibalba was at least a great city.

Xibalba seemed to be rife with tests, trials and traps for anyone who came into the city. Even the Road to Xibalba was filled with obstacles: first a river filled with scorpions, a river filled with blood, and then a river filled with pus. Beyond these was a crossroads where travellers had to choose from between four roads that spoke in an attempt to confuse and beguile. Upon passing these obstacles one would come upon the Xibalban council place, where it was expected visitors would greet the seated Lords. Realistic mannequins were seated near the Lords to confuse and humiliate people who greeted them, and the confused would then be invited to sit upon a bench, which was actually a hot cooking surface. The Lords of Xibalba would entertain themselves by humiliating people in this fashion before sending them into one of Xibalba's deadly tests.

The city was home to at least six deadly houses filled with trials for visitors. The first was Dark House, a house that was completely dark inside. The second was Rattling House or Cold House, full of bone-chilling cold and rattling hail. The third was Jaguar House, filled with hungry jaguars. The fourth was Bat House, filled with dangerous shrieking bats, and the fifth was Razor House, filled with blades and razors that moved about of their own accord. In another part of the Popol Vuh, a sixth test, Hot House, filled with fires and heat, is identified. The purpose of these tests was to either kill or humiliate people placed into them if they could not outwit the test.

Sport was important among ancient Mesoamerican cultures, and the foul Lords of Xibalba were no exception to the rule. Xibalba was home of a famous ball court in which the heroes of the Popol Vuh either succumbed to the trickery of the Xibalbans in the form of a deadly, bladed ball, as well as the site in which the Maya Hero Twins outwitted the Xibalbans and brought about their downfall.

According to the Popol Vuh, the Xibalbans at one point enjoyed the worship of the people on the surface of the Earth, who offered human sacrifice to the gods of death. Over the span of time covered in the Popol Vuh, the Xibalbans are tricked into accepting counterfeit sacrifices, and then finally humiliated into accepting lesser offerings from above.

The role of Xibalba and the Xibalbans after their great defeat at the hands of Hunahpu and Xbalanque is unclear, although it seems to have continued its existence as a dark place of the underworld long after.

glyphs courtesy of Rabbit In The Moon

In one intricate Mayan story, two brothers, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu are playing ball, and annoy Death with their noisiness. The Lords of Death challenge them to a game, but first they must pass the six tests of Xibalba - passing through the 6 Houses: Dark House, Razor House, Rattling House, Jaguar House, Fire House, and Bat House (glyphs to the left). Failing any of the tests results in death. They do fail and are sacrificed in the morning - at "The Place of the Ball Game Sacrifice." One Hunahpu's head is placed on a tree, which later tree bears fruit, but Xibalbans forbid anyone to eat that fruit. Blood Gatherer, though, does and is banished. Later she has twins - the children of One Hunahpu, named Hunahpu and Xbalenque 6, who later become the Sun and Moon.

[Note the parallel to the Judeo-Christian "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" and also to the banishment of Adam and Eve.]

The Classic Maya lavished great attention on their royal dead, who almost surely were thought of as descended from the gods and partaking of their divine essence. Many reliefs and all of the pictorial pottery found in tombs deal with the underworld and the dangerous voyage of the soul through that land. Classic Maya funerary ceramics show that this dark land was ruled by a number of gods, including several sinister old men often embellished with jaguar emblems, the jaguar being associated with the night and the nether regions. The

Burial rituals for rulers were elaborate. In 1952 Mexican archeologist Alberto Ruíz Llhuilleur discovered the tomb of Lord Pakal inside the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. Similar to the Egyptian practices, he has a death mask (his being of jade), is surrounded by riches, and seven people were buried along with him. It is believed that the practice of using a death mask ensured the recognition of the deceased in the afterlife. The treasure he took with him, both material and "human", showed his importance in life, thus granting him a similar status in the Afterlife.

The Mayan Gods

return to TOP

In Maya mythology, Tepeu and Gucumatz (also known as Kukulkan, and as the Aztec's Quetzalcoatl) are referred to as the Creators, the Makers, and the Forefathers. They were two of the first beings to exist and were said to be as wise as sages. Huracan, or the Heart of Heaven, also existed and is given less personification. He acts more like a storm, of which he is the god.

Tepeu and Gucumatz hold a conference and decide that, in order to preserve their legacy, they must create a race of beings who can worship them. Huracan does the actual creating while Tepeu and Gucumatz guide the process. Earth is created, but the gods make several false starts in setting humanity upon the earth. Animals were created first; however, with all of their howling and squawking they did not worship their creators and were thus banished forever to the forest. Man is created first of mud, but they just dissolved and crumbled away. Other gods are summoned and man is next created of wood but has no soul, and they soon forgot their makers, so the gods turned all of their possessions against them and bring a black resinous rain down on their heads. Finally man is formed of masa or corn dough by even more gods and their work is complete. As such, the Maya believed that maize was not just the cornerstone of their diet, but they were also made out of it.

The First Humans: The Men

B'alam Agab : Meaning "night jaguar," he was the second of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. He married Choimha.
B'alam Quitze : Meaning "jaguar with the sweet smile," was the first of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The gods created Caha-Paluma specifically for him to marry. Alternative names: Balam Quitze, Balam Quitzé
Iqi B'alam : Meaning "moon jaguar," he was the third of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The gods created Cakixia specifically to be his wife.
Mahucatah : Meaning "distinguished name," he was the fourth of the men created from maize after the Great Flood sent by Hurakan. The woman Tzununiha was created just for him.

Their Wives
Caha-Paluma : Meaning "falling water," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of Balam-Quitzé.
Cakixia : Meaning "water of parrots," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of Iqi-Balam.
Choimha : Meaning "beautiful water", she was a woman created by the gods specifically to marry B'alam Agab.
Tzununiha : Meaning "house of the water," she was a woman created specifically to be the wife of one of the first men, Mahucatah.

The cosmology of the Maya was a living, religious philosophy that permeated their lives to a degree that might seem excessive to modern people. They were astute observers, sensitive to the cyclical nature of the sun, moon and planets.

Of all the world's ancient calendar systems, the Maya and other Mesoamerican systems are the most complex, intricate and accurate. Calculations of the congruence of the 260-day and the 365-day Maya cycles is almost exactly equal to the actual solar year in the tropics, with only a 19-minute margin of error.

Maya astronomer-priests looked to the heavens for guidance. They used observatories, shadow-casting devices, and observations of the horizon to trace the complex motions of the sun, the stars and planets in order to observe, calculate and record this information in their chronicles, or "codices". From these observations, the Maya developed calendars to keep track of celestial movements and the passage of time. The Maya also kept detailed records of the moon, although these do not seem to constitute a formal lunar calendar.

At Palenque, an inscription notes that Pacal's son Chan-Bahlum dedicated the Cross Temple grouping on July 23, 690 - timed to coincide with the conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Moon. To the Maya, this event may have represented the primordial birth of the three ancestor gods of the Palenque dynasty with the First Mother (the Moon), and would have been an appropriate moment to consecrate an accession monument.

Maya murals and carvings show rulers wearing symbols of the heavens, including a belt or sky-band made of a chain of symbols relating to the Moon, the Sun, Venus, day, night and the sky. Rulers are also depicted carrying bars decorated as sky-bands to indicate that they had the mandate of heaven. Sometimes they are seated, surrounded by a sky-band which gives the ruler a halo of celestial authority. Rulers also liked to associate themselves with auspicious gods of the sky such as the Sun God, and Maya rulers and priests in real life often "clothed themselves with the heavens" by dressing in the pelt of the jaguar, whose spots were taken to represent the stars.

The Maya believed that the gods guided the Sun and Moon across the sky. Even in the darkness of night, the Maya believed that the Sun and Moon continued to journey through the Underworld, threatened all the way by evil gods who wanted to stop their progress. For this reason, the Maya believed that the heavenly bodies needed human help, which was provided through sacred rituals such as self-mutilation, torture, and human sacrifice. To the Maya, offering this help was simply the price to be paid for the continued survival of the universe. Death from such rituals was a privilege, and conferred immortality on those who died, or who offered themselves as victims.

The planet Venus was particularly significant to the Maya; the important god Quetzalcoatl, for example, is identified with Venus. The Dresden Codex, one of four surviving Maya chronicles, contains an extensive tabulation of the appearances of Venus, and was used to predict the future. The Maya also went to war by the sky, again triggered by the planet Venus. Venus war regalia is seen on stelae and other carvings, and raids and captures were timed by appearances of Venus, particularly as an evening "star". Warfare related to the movements of Venus was, in fact, well established throughout Mesoamerica.

The repeating cycles of creation and destruction as described in Maya mythology were a reminder of the consequences if humans neglected their obligations to the gods. Humans had an inherent responsibility to the gods who made humanity's continued existence possible. According to the Maya sacred calendar, each 52-year period signalled the renewed possibility of the destruction of the world. This was seen as a frightening time when the gods and other forces of creation and chaos would do battle in the world of mortals, determining the fate of all earthly creatures.