The Mayan Religion

For the Mayan people, the universe was essentially chaotic yet predictable; living creatures subject to predetermined positions in the world and its people were thought to exist within an alternating pattern of life and death, each cycle lasting 5,200 years. It is this model, this pattern, which comes to identity Mayan religion.

According to sources available, the realm of heaven in Mayan cosmology was one of permanence. To ensure its constancy, colossal cosmic trees secure heaven in its place. It was then divided into thirteen distinct levels, which were each overruled by a god. Mayan society believed that a person had to have met a violent end if they were to enter heaven in the next world. Each stratum was meant for a specific type of violent death. This meant that sacrificial victims occupied a different realm to that of people who had been struck by lightning or drowned, for example.

The destination of the majority of the Mayan people was Xibalba, the “Place of Fright”. It had nine levels and its own collection of gods, who, for the main part, represented or resembled particular characteristics of deities of the Earth and sky. In Mayan society, as with other Mesoamerican cultures, there was no concept of human morality. The underworld was the ultimate destination for all people who had not met a violent end, and not reserved for sinners. The Temple I at Tikal and the Castillo at Chechen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula are nine-layered pyramids, where kings, priests and elite men were interred, symbolising the nine layers of Xibalba.

We can see the notion of a stratified cosmos among the Mayan in the construction of temples and shrines. These were predominantly built on top of the pyramids or the peaks of mountains, so that rituals could be performed as close to the heavenly realms of the sky as close as possible.

A broad pantheon of deities was worshipped by the Mayan. Some of these deities are hard to differentiate due to the fact that some deities possessed both male and female characteristics. Some had the ability to be both young and old, and assume either spiritual or corporeal form. Some possessed animal characteristics, or had combined human and divine attributes. However, in considering the nature of Maya gods, we may first rid ourselves of certain misconceptions by noting that in our field the term pantheon should not be taken in its strictly Greek sense.

According to such scholars as Morley and Brainerd, during the Classic Period the Maya were not worshippers of images. Most scholars relying on ethno-historic sources and archaeological information from Yucatan agree that 'idolatry' was introduced into Yucatan by the Nahua speakers of the Post-Classic era (950-1520 CE), who brought with them the practice of making idols.

The Maya had a full-time priesthood with an internal hierarchy, who performed important ceremonies in enduring temples of various kinds. The community temple was known as ‘ku’ or ‘kuna’. According to scholars there were differences between temple structure from the domestic structures, although rites, offerings, and prayers were made in both; “we see evidence for public religion and private religion, and communal rites versus household ritual” (Marcus, p.181). Priests controlled calendrical knowledge (such as the timing of festivals of the 260 day ritual calendar) as well as various methods for divination and prophecy. The ordinary priests were known as ‘ah kin’, and below them were religious functionaries with more focused functions.

The religion of the Mayan is a complicated knot of mythology and symbolism, but the study allows great insight into one of the most fascinating cultures of the world.

Bibliography:

Coe, Michael D. (1956) The Funerary Temple Among the Classic Maya, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.

Marcus, Joyce (1978) Archaeology and Religion: A Comparison of the Zapotec and Maya, World archaeology, Taylor & Francis Ltd.