Maya world was
made up of three layered domains: The Sky (Upperworld), the Earth (Middleworld)
and the Underworld (Xibalba); there three dimensions of existence were
interrelated, were alive and were imbued with sacred power.
The Upperworld
(Sky) was a thirteen-tiered domain, each one having its own deity, (Oxlahuntiku)
being the uppermost the muan bird.
The Sky was
represented by a great crocodilian monster, its body was marked with its own
sign, crosses bands and signs for the sun, the moon, Venus and other celestial
bodies. This cosmic monster made the rains when it shed its blood in
supernatural counterpoint to the human sacrifices on the earth below.
The Maya may have
seen the day sky as the Upperworld and the night sky as the Underworld passing
over their heads daily.
The milky way and
the fixed stars formed the canopy of the night sky. The moving planets, the
procession of constellations and the erratic dance of the moon were seen as the
manifestation of the normal activity of the Gods.
The surface of
the Middleworld (Earth) was conceived as a flat and four cornered platform
resting in a pool of water which set the border with the Underworld. It was
represented either as a turtle a crocodile or a peccary.
The corners of
this quadrangular universe were oriented according to the four cardinal points;
and on each one rested a mythical mountain. These mountains had caves that were
gates leading to the Underworld.
Each cardinal
point had a special tree, a bird, a color and Gods associated with its domain.
East was red and the most important direction since it was where the sun was
born representing the beginning of life. North was white and was the direction
of the north star around which the sky pivots. West was black and associated
with death and the Underworld since it was the direction of the dying sun.
South was yellow and was the great side of the sun.
These four
directions were seen in relationship to the center, which also had its color
(blue-green), its god and its tree which was considered to be the central axis,
most often represented as a great ceiba tree (known as the Wacah Chan),
with a supernatural bird at its crown. It coexisted in all three vertical
domains, its roots went down in the watery region of the Underworld, its trunk
through the Middleworld and its branches soared to the highest layer of the
heavenly region of the Upperworld. The souls of the dead and the supernaturals
of the Maya cosmos traveled level to level via this tree.
Maya believed that
the Underworld (Xibalba or Place of fright) was nine layered with nine
corresponding “Lords of the night” (Bolontiku). This cold and unhappy
place was the final destination of most Maya after death, and through it passed
the heavenly bodies such as the sun and the moon after they disappeared below
the horizon.
It was inhabited by the enemies of man an was an invisible, pervasive
presence. Texts and images suggest that it was a parallel world revealed in
trance. The ritual public spaces, where people congregated to witness
sacrifice, were explicitly designed to convey the idea that they were in the
Otherworld. It is possible that in the thrall of great public ceremonies, the
combination of exhaustion, bloodletting, intoxication and expectations of
trance yielded communal experiences of Xibalba.