http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== * Maya Astronomy Home * * * *RAISING THE SKY: THE MAYA CREATION MYTH* *AND THE MILKY WAY * *"How should it be sown, how should it dawn?" . . . And then the Earth arose because of them, it was simply their word that brought it forth. For the forming of the Earth they said "Earth." It arose suddenly, just like a cloud, like a mist, now forming, unfolding. . . . Such was the formation of the Earth when it was brought forth by the Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth, as they are called. . . The Sky was set apart, and the Earth was set apart in the midst of the waters. (/Popol Vuh /)* Creation of the Earth-Sky is the central motif of Maya myth and religion. The creation of the present world, the world of humankind, was only one act in an eternal cycle of birth, death, and renewal. The cycles of the seasons and the stars in their courses are reflections of this cosmic dance. The events of Creation are writ in the sky. *Madrid Codex (75-76). The 4 quarters /8 partitions of * *the cosmos about the World Tree* *The World Tree and the Milky Way..* . *[When the world was created] a pillar of the sky was set up . . . that was the white tree of abundance in the north. Then the black tree of abundance was set up [in the west]. . . . Then the yellow tree of abundance was set up [in the south]. Then the [great] green [ceiba] tree of abundance was set up in the center [of the world]. _(__/Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel /)_* *I realized that every major image from Maya cosmic symbolism was probably a map of the sky. . . . [The] patterns in the Milky Way and the constellations were directly related to the Maya vision of Creation. (Linda Schele in Freidel, Schele and Parker, /Maya Cosmos <#Maya>/)* *Temple of the Cross (Palenque) more about World Tree symbols at Palenque * x x *Night of Aug 13 near dawn looking south. The Milky Way is "raised up", running through the zenith (directly over head)* The World Tree is the most pervasive Mesoamerican symbol of the creation and ordering of the world. It is the axis of the Earth-Sky. Its roots lie in /Xibalba, /the Underworld; Its top reaches into the heavens. In the /Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, /it is the /Yax Imix Che, /(first/green ceiba tree), "raised in the middle of the world." In the Temple of the Cross at Palenque, it is the /Wakah Chan, /the "raised up sky." Through the centre of the "cross" runs a serpent bar, representing the ecliptic. At its top is a great bird, /Itzam-Yeh, /high in the heavens. At its foot is a water monster, his mouth the entrance to the Underworld. Linda Schele discovered that the World Tree is a literal depiction of the heavens as well as an abstract symbol. Her investigations, vividly recounted in /Maya Cosmos, /led her to the conclusion that the Milky Way is the World Tree. The Maya long count was initiated on or about August 13 in 3114 BC, the date of Creation. At dawn in mid-August, the Milky Way stands erect, running through the zenith from north to south. It becomes the axis of the heavens, the raised up sky. But the connection between Creation and the Milky Way does not end here. Schele discovered that the changing aspect of the Milky Way on the night of August 13 every year reflects the events recorded in Maya accounts of Creation. * To view the changing aspects of the sky in order, click here or on any Milky Way image * *Maya Creation mythology: The sources. The fullest surviving account of Creation is found in the post-Conquest /Popol Vuh /of the Quiche people of Guatemala. The oldest evidence is from monuments at Izapa and other pre-Classical sites (400 BC- 200 AD). Many of the incidents recounted in the /Popol Vuh/ parallel scenes on painted ceramics of the Classical period (200-900 AD). The Temple of the Cross at Palenque and other Classical inscriptions report the events of Creation, though in a condensed, sometimes cryptic manner.* *These sources do not always agree in detail. Nevertheless, they show a remarkable continuity in the Maya conception of the cosmos over two millennia of history. * *Right: Izapa World Tree (Stela 25). The crocodile represents the Earth, its hills symbolized by the rough skin of the reptile, a characteristic shared with the bark of the ceiba tree.* ... *The destruction of the old order* . *There was just a trace of early dawn on the face of the Earth. There was no sun. [But] there was one who magnified himself: Seven Macaw is his name. . . . It is said that his light provided a sign for the people who were flooded. . . . [There were] two boys, the first named Hunahpu and the second named Xbalanque. Being gods, the two of them saw evil in his attempt at self-magnification . . . "It is no good without life, without people here on the face of the Earth.". . . . "Well then, let's take a shot. . . . . So be it, " said the boys, each one with a blowgun on his shoulder. (/Popol Vuh/)* *Quirigua Stela C* *13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahaw 8 Kumk'u .. * *Dresden Codex (p. 74)* *The universal deluge ....... * *2 hrs after **sunset Aug 13* * .. * Fall of 7 Maaw (Izapa) The beginning of the long count in 3114 BC, long before the rise of Maya civilization, marks the date of Creation. But on the handful of Classical monuments that memorialize events of the mythic age, Creation is written 13.0.0.0.0, the completion of 13 /baktuns , /a period of about 5125 years. This suggests that the present age followed an earlier world that endured 13 / baktuns./ An inscription at Coba records even earlier epochs, counting back for some 13 x 20^21 years. The /Popol Vuh /preserved this tradition of successive creations or world orders. According to the /Popol Vuh,/ the gods created humans to honour them: There would be "no high days and no bright praise for our work, our design, until the rise of the human work, the human design". But their first three efforts were failures. The third failed race, people fashioned from wood, were destroyed in a universal flood. / /The antediluvian world was lorded over by /Vukub-Cakix, /"Seven Macaw," who took the place of the sun. To prepare for the creation of the true humans, the rule of Seven Macaw had to be ended. This was achieved by the Hero Twins of the /Popol Vuh, /who shot Seven Macaw from his tree. The Quiche still identify the seven stars of the Big Dipper with Seven Macaw. At sunset on August 13, the Milky Way is nearly erect, and the Dipper is visible in the the northern sky in the Maya area. But as the heavens rotate, the Milky Way turns away from its upright position, and the Dipper dives toward the horizon. About two hours after sunset, the Dipper sets: Seven Macaw is knocked from his perch atop the World Tree. Dennis Tedlock reports that among the Quiche, the mid-summer descent of the Dipper just after sunset marks the beginning of the hurricane season, the time of flooding. ***The Hero Twins. In the Classic age, /Hunaphu/ and /Xbalanque/, the Hero Twins of the /Popol Vuh,/ were known as /Hun Ahaw/ and /Yax Balam/**.** They frequently figure in mythic scenes on Classical ceramics**. But the tales told of the Twins in the /Popol Vuh / are only hinted at on paintings and inscriptions. The Twins may also correspond to GI and GIII, two of the gods of the "Palenque triad" named in the temples of the Cross Group at Palenque. * *Right: /Hun Ahaw/ shoots 7 Macaw from the World Tree (After Classical pot K1226)* ** * * * * *The creation myths of most Mesoamerican peoples included the idea of successive "ages" or "creations." According to the Aztec Legend of the Five Suns in the /Codex Chimalpopoca/ , the world will pass through five "suns" ruled by different solar deities. The 4th sun ended when "it rained so hard the sky fell down." Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca changed themselves into trees. As the trees grew, "the sky was pushed up." Then these gods travelled the "White Road," the Milky Way, to meet in the heavens.* Aztec Sun Stone *In the centre of the famous Aztec sun stone is Tonatiuh, Lord of the fifth sun. The pictographs about his face represent the four previous suns, and the way each ended: By wild animals, wind, fire, and flood. ** The glyph above the face, 4 Olin, "earth quake", names the current sun, which will end by earth quake. According to some scholars, each "sun" lasts 100 calendar rounds (5196 years), nearly equivalent to a great cycle (13 baktuns = 5125 years) of the Maya long count.* *Due to **precession of the equinoxes ,** the equinox points slowly slip along the ecliptic, taking about 26,000 years to complete circuit. Five** suns will last nearly 26,000 years.** This may be evidence of knowledge of precession, but many scholars are doubtful.* World Trees: Codex Fejervary-Mayer (Mixtec) ...... *The cosmic sacrifice* . *Then Oxlahun-ti-ku [god/gods of the heavens] was seized by Bolon-ti-ku [god/gods of the Underworld] . . . . his head was wounded, his face was buffeted, he was spit upon, and he was [thrown] on his back. . . . There would be a sudden rush of water when the theft of the insignia [of Oxlahun-ti-ku] occurred. Then the sky would fall, it would fall down upon the earth. _(/Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel /)_* *Night of Aug 13, midnight, looking north* *The cosmic crocodile* xx *Night of Aug 13, 3 hrs after midnight, * *looking south. The cosmic canoe* x *Dresden Codex (p. 3) depicts the world tree emerging from the sacrificed body of the maize god. The glyphs at the left name him* Sun God crosses heavens in canoe The sky of the old order fell when Seven Macaw was knocked from his perch and the deluge destroyed the wooden people. The sky of the new world could only be raised by an act of sacrifice. The gods created the new world through their sacrifice. Their blood nourished the World Tree. Ritual renews the world, recapitulating the ordering of the cosmos at Creation. The Maya, like other Mesoamerican peoples, believed that blood sacrifices offered by humans repay their debt to the gods. Although Maya creation accounts differ in detail, most tell of the defeat and sacrifice of one or more gods by the lords of the Underworld. In the /Books of Chilam Balam, /the gods of the thirteen heavens are captured and sacrificed by the nine gods of the Underworld. In the /Popol Vuh, /the maize god/, Hun Hunaphu, /the father of the hero twins, journeys to the Underworld, where he is defeated by its rulers in a ritual ball game and sacrificed. In the /Dresden Codex/, sacrifice of the maize god appears to be the very act that raises the sky of the new world. In the /Popol Vuh, /he is rescued by his sons, and it is his resurrection that renews of the world*. * The Milky Way/World Tree is the route between the heavens, earth, and Underworld. On the sarcophagus of Pakal at Palenque, the dead king is shown falling along the World Tree, named here sak be, "white road." The Quiche/ /still call the Milky Way / Xibalba be /"road to the Underworld;"/ /The Chorti Maya call it /Camino de Santiago. / By midnight on August 13, the Milky Way runs across the sky from east to west. It now represents the fallen sky. A great dark bite is visible in the Milky Way, which Schele sees as the maw of the crocodile at the foot of the Izapa World tree, a gateway to the Underworld. This is the "cross-roads" at which /Hun Hunaphu /disappeared when he took the "Black Road" to /Xibalba. // /These roads are sometimes imagined as canoe routes./ /About three hours after midnight, Schele identifies the visible portion of the Milky Way with the cosmic canoe, illustrated in Classic Maya art, that conveys the maize god through the Underworld to the place where he will be resurrected, the hearth of Creation in Orion. Here the sky of the new era will be raised. Later, as the Milky Way begins to turns upright again, the canoe appears to sink. *Carved bone from Tikal depicts the Maize God (or a dead ruler dressed as the God) conveyed through the Underworld in the cosmic canoe. The paddlers are s called, from the adornments they wear, "Jaguar paddler" and "Stingray Paddler." Another carving depicts he canoe as it sinks. * ...... *The hearth stones of Creation* . *Three stones were set. They planted [the first stone], Jaguar Paddler, Stingray Paddler. . . . He planted the [second] stone, First Black Chak(?) . . . . The [third] stone was set [by] Great Itzamna. . . . It happened at Lying Down Sky. * *(Quirigua Stela C) [full glyphic text ]* .... *Quirigua Stela C* x *Three stones of Creation* At the centre of every traditional Maya dwelling is household hearth, a triangle of three stones. The hearthstones have a sacred as well as utilitarian function. Maya rituals often begin with the centring of the four quarters of the world about the ritual precints. Household rituals are centred on the hearthstones. The Earth-Sky, the dwelling place of humans, is centred on a cosmic hearth, from which the World Tree first rose. The Popol Vuh hints at the importance of the hearth: When the wooden people were destroyed by flood, "their hearthstones were shooting out, coming right out of the fire . . . Such was the scattering of the human work, the human design." An essential step in the reordering of the world after the deluge was the setting of the hearth stones of the new world. Toward dawn on the night of Aug 13, the constellation Orion moves toward the zenith. The Quiche people still refer to a triad of three bright stars in Orion as "the hearth stones", and the hazy nebula below Orion's belt is called "the smoke from the hearth". Orion is also called the turtle stars (/ak' ek/), depicted in the /Madrid Codex /as a turtle with three /tun /("stone") glyphs on its back. Because the sky has not yet been raised, the hearth is a location in both earth and sky. The turtle shell is an earth symbol, like the back of the crocodile at the foot of the World Tree. Here is the place of Creation, where the sky will rise again. *Maya Constellations. Although Orion is clearly associated with the hearth and turtle, the Paris Codex Zodiac appears to equate the turtle stars with Gemini. Elsewhere, both Gemini and Orion appear to be identified with a pair of peccaries. Both the turtle and the peccary are earth symbols, and both are named ak in some Mayan languages. Schele assigns the turtle to Orion, and the peccaries to Gemini, but it may be that the Maya identified Orion and Gemini, which together straddle both the ecliptic and Milky Way, as a single region of the sky. * *Right: Turtle (ak) constellation and the three stones (ox tun) of creation hang from a skyband representing the ecliptic (Madrid Codex p. 71)* *To view the changing aspects of the sky in order, click here or on any Milky Way image* *.....* * Raising the sky...* *.* *542 days after the lying down sky was manifested, Hun-Nal-Ye [Maize God], the First Father, entered the sky at the First Three Stone- Place. On 13 Ik, the last day of Mol, he made proper the /Wakah Chan/ [Raised up-Sky] place (Temple of the Cross) [glyphic text ] * .... *Night of Feb 5, 2 hrs after midnight looking south. Orion has set in the west. The Black Dream Place* x *Night of Feb 5, near dawn, looking south. The World Tree/Raised-up Sky* x *Temple of the Foliated Cross (Palenque) * *more about World Tree symbols at Palenque * At dawn on the night of August 13, the Milky Way is almost erect. The scribes who designed Quirigua Stela C appear to have been content to end their account of Creation here. The text ends with a brief reference to the "action" or "work" of /Wak-Chan-Ahaw, /the "Raised- up-Sky Lord". The Temple of the Cross at Palenque tells more about the final act of Creation, the raising of the World Tree. To set the scene, the Palenque scribes counted forward 542 days, to Febuary 5 a year and a half later. At sunset on Febuary 5, the sky has the same configuration as at dawn on the night of August 13. About 2 hours after sunset on Febuary 5, the hearth in Orion is very near the zenith. For the Palenque scribes, this may mark the setting of the three hearth stones at the foot of the World Tree. Just after midnight, Orion sets, and two hours later, the Milky Way lies prone along the south eastern horizon. At the zenith lies a particularly dark region of the sky that Schele identifies as the /Ek'-Way/, the "black dream place", a portal to the Underworld. This is literally the darkness before the dawn. As the night progresses, the Milky Way slowly turns erect once more. At dawn, the World Tree has been raised over the world inhabited by the true humans. It now occupies the same place in the sky as it did at sun set on Aug 13, before the destruction of the old world. This is likely the image of the sky the Palenque scribes had in mind when they carved the glyphs that tell us that /Hun- Nal-Ye/ "entered the sky" and "made proper the Raised-up-Sky Place" on Feb 5 in 3112 BC. The Temples of the Cross Group are an elaborate exercise in art, symbolism and politics. The Palenque dynasty is linked to the mythic past, justifying its right to rule. See The World Tree at Palenque The god who raises the sky in the Palenque Creation story is the Maize God, /Hun- Nal-Ye, /"one sprout revealed". In the /Popol Vuh, /the gods created true humans out of corn meal. It is the stuff of life. In one of its guises the World Tree is a corn plant. At Palenque, the cosmic World Tree is paired with another, the "Foliated Cross", with images of the Maize God's head in its branches, like cobs of corn. *Right: Classical offering plate (K1892). The Maize God, attended by the Twins, bursts from a turtle shell, like a sprout from a kernal of corn. He becomes the World Tree. Images of the resurrected maize god appear as early as the recently discovered pre-classical mural at San Bartolo (100 AD). * *The raising of the sky in the /Popol Vuh/ and the birth of the sun. In the /Popol Vuh, /the Hero Twins/ /descend into /Xibalba,/ following the same path as their father. But they defeat the Underworld deities in a ritual ball game . * *They attempt to resurrect their father, but he cannot be fully restored. He is left standing in the ritual precincts where they found him: "They went to the Court of Ball Sacrifices to put him together. . . "You will be prayed to here," his sons told him . . . "You will be the first resort, and you will be the first to have your day kept by those who will be born in the light, begotten in the light ". Although the authors of the /Popol Vuh/ may have lost part of the meaning of this episode, it likely a refers to the raising of the World Tree by the Maize God.* *Scenes on Classical ceramics show the Twins as attendents to the Maize God when he "raises the sky". But the Twins are not named as sky-raisers in the Quirigua and Palenque Creation texts. If these texts are keyed to the Milky Way symbolism discovered by Schele, this is perhaps not surprising. In the Classical age, /Hun Ahaw/ was associated with Venus, and /Yax Balam/ with the Sun. Dennis Tedlock interprets the Twins myth cycle as an account of the apparitions of Venus, which was regarded as the guide of the sun because it is always near it in the sky. The period when Venus is invisible between disappearance in the west at sunset and helical rise with the Sun in the east marks Venus' sojourn in the Underworld. The Twins may have originally belonged to a set of Creation symbols that focus on the birth of the Sun rather than the raising of the sky. * *Copan ball court marker. /Hun Ahaw/ and an Underworld deity, the "God of Zero" or "White Bone Snake" (Schele). * *In central Mexico, creation myths seem to be primarily concerned with the the birth of the sun. This tradition may be very ancient. Recently discovered pre-Classical Maya stucco masks from Cival , Guatemala (200-150 BC) depict the Sun God, but adorn him corn husks, suggesting that the Sun God/Maize God may have been the original sky-raiser, whose dual functions were only later assigned to different deities. Other features suggest the pre-classical Olmec "were-jaguar", perhaps the prototype of /Yax Balam /("great jaguar") as the sun in the underworld. A common theme in pre-Classical art is a ruler wearing a headdress depicting the principal bird deity, /Itzam-Ye. / The ruler may represent the sun that rose after the defeat of the false sun, 7 Macaw. Left: Bird deity headdress from Kaminaljuyú (400-100 BC). * * References and links* *This web page is based substantially on Schele's /Maya Cosmos, /except that: (1) I follow Bassie in avoiding identification of the celestial bird (Izam-Yeh) atop the World Tree with 7 Macaw/Big Dipper: On Izapa Stela 25 , these birds appear to be separate entities. (2) I follow Tedlock in clearly identifying all the events recorded on Quirigua Stela C as events occuring before the raising of the sky of the present world. (3) References to additional pre-Classical material, discovered since Schele's original work, have been included. * *....* See Linda Schele's account of her discovery of the Milky Way symbolism in Maya Creation mythology in Linda Schele, David Freidel, and Joy Parker, /*Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path*,/ William Morrow and Company, 1993. Many of Schele's drawings from the chapter on Creation in /Maya Cosmos /are on-line . Buy from Amazon.com See Dennis Tedlock's definitive translation of the /Popol Vuh, /including extensive notes explaining astronomical references in the text: Dennis Tedlock, /*Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life*,/ (Rev.), Simon and Schuster, 1996. An older translation, The Book of the People: Popol Vuh (English) by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Griswold Morley, is on-line at the Sacred Texts web site. See also Adrian Recinos, */El Popol Vuh /* (en Español) is also on-line. Buy from Amazon.com Schele's account of creation symbolism is summarized and discussed on-line at the Mesoweb site in a scholarly article: Linda Schele and Khristaan D. Villela, "Creation, Cosmos, and the Imagery of Palenque and Copan" (/Eighth Palenque Round Table, 1993/) The Creation symbolism discovered by Schele is also discussed in Khristaan D. Villela, *"Quirigua Zoomorph P and the Three Stones of Creation"*, on line at the Texas Notes Archive . A good description of the Creation symbolism in the monuments and architecture of Izapa on-line: Dr. Julia Kappelman, *"Izapa"* (University of Texas at Austin). See also her notes on the Quirigua creation text and monuments at Kaminaljuyú . Creation accounts are included in several of the Books of Chilam Balam. See Ralph L. Roys, The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Carnegie, 1933), on-line at the Sacred Texts web site. For a somewhat different discussion of Maya Creation mythology, see Karen Bassie, *"Maya Creator Gods"*, on-line at the /Mesoweb /web site. Related pages at this web site include *The Chinkultic Disk *(The Hero Twins and the ritual ball game) and *Maya Astronomical Glyphs and Symbols * */The star maps used on this page were generated using Cartes Du Ciel , an outstanding freeware planetarium and star chart program/* ....Karen Bassie ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices* Maya Links Maya Astronomy Home Astronomical Symbols Maya Calendar Calendar Correlation Calendar Download Sky watchers Lunar Glyphs Maya Glyph Books (Codices) Chinkultic Disk Maya Prophecy Myths about the Maya . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Click here to search this site * *Michael John Finley Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Feb 2003 (new material Nov 03/May 04/Jan 05) *