Mayan CosmologyCycles of creation and destruction

Jimson weed

Vase of 7 gods (Guatemala) depicts important creation gods. According to inscriptions the gods are setting the stage for creation. “The sky is blackness” because the sky had not yet been raised above the primordial sea.

Inscriptions

The standing Stelae C at Quirigua (Guatemala) contains the longest glyph sequence about the Mayan creation Myth. This account provides a precise date for the most recent creation at 13.0.0.0.0. 4 Ahaw 8 Kumku (which may work out to August 13, 3144 B.C.)

The 5th Mayan world begins on this date.

The Quirigua inscription is the source of the erroneous prophesy of earthly destruction on Dec 21, 2012 (the date of the next Mayan world).

The early date does not mean the Maya were present. Mayan priests often worked backward in time to situate cyclical events, especially those conforming to myths.

The Maya were intrigued by cycles in nature and the heavens.

Time was conceived of as cyclical and mainly predictable. Explanations for phenomenon in the present were to be found in the past.

Supporting their cosmology was an elaborate astronomy/astrology carried out by priest-astronomers.

According creation myth, the last race of people were wiped out by a great flood. In order for a new race of man to emerge the rule of old god Seven Macaw had to end. One of the hero twins slays him while in a Seven Macaw is in a tree.

From the Popul Vuh. The Maya recorded cosmological beliefs in books.

According to the late Mayanist Linda Schele, every cosmological image is really a map of the heavens.

Kings timed their coronations with the Milky Way and commemorated twenty year cycles with standing stelae.

At the core of belief was the sacred tree. The central theme is cycles. The mechanism of creation is destruction

and rebirth/renewal.

The branches of the tree of life hold up the Earth and the many levels of heaven.

Roots descend into the underworld.

Note also the cross shape within a circle, which also conforms to the four directions of the Mayan world.

In this image we see the Tree of Life emerging from the sacrificed body of the maize god.

Glyphs identify the Milky Way/Tree of Life link to the sky as a route between heaven and Earth. The Milky Way is occasionally described as a cosmic canoe.

This carved bone from Tikal depicts a canoe being paddled through the Milky Way.

Maize god

Rain god Chac shares cocoa with Moon goddess IxChal

The Plumed (feathered) serpent

Kulkulcan (Mayan)Quetzalcoatl (Aztec)

Very little is actually known of its origins but it appears as architectural embellishments at Teotihuacan before 500 AD.

Comological complexity

Blood and chocolate often associated.

Images of sacrifice are painted on cocoa drinking vessels.

Tree of Life linked to Milky Way.

Milky Way a river between heaven and Earth.

Ball game linked to sun and moon.

In myth the hero twins are transformed into the duality of sun and moon.

Hero twins associated with cocoa.

Kulkulkan is sometimes god or war, sometimes god of earthquakes. Also accompanies Chac to predict weather.

From Teotihuacán

Across Mexico

Links between Teotihuacan and Mayan kingdoms is evident in shared cosmology, deities, and iconography, 200 AD-500 AD.

Strong examples at Tikal.

Evidence that embassies and diplomatic exchange occurred among these regions is evidenced by artifacts, sculptural elements, and glyphs. New forms of architecture arise.

Blood sacrifice

Kings were expected to give blood as an offering to the gods of prosperity and to supply a regular schedule of offerings to important deities.

Ritual warfare often was intended for the capture of prisoners for honored sacrifice ceremonies.

Extreme warfare did not occur until end of the classic period.

Choc Mool (Chichen Itza)

In this carving a Mayan noble woman (Lady Zoc) is knelling and drawing a cord studded with stingray barbs through his tongue to draw a blood offering. King Jaguar Shield holds a torch above her.

See also page 133 in Coe.

In the Fifth creation, humans are made from maize. Humans are therefore people of corn who must satisfy the hunger of the gods with the vital essence of life—blood. It is a offering of thanks and gratitude for the gift of life.

Shamans play as important a role in Mayan society as Priests.

Highly stratified society

Rigid class systemSlaves and peasants at the bottom,

Nobles and knights at the top

Merchants and priests in the middle

Shaman transcend the levels

Upward mobility possible, but rare.

Shaman visions

Use of psychoactive concoctions aided Shaman with vision quests and may account for the many stylized features of spirits, gods, and demons of the Mayan cosmological landscape.