Mayans believed that those who didn’t worship properly or didn’t sufficiently please the gods went to the underworld after their death.
The Mayan underworld was a place which was synonymous to the notion of hell in other religions. Based on this, Mayans firmly believed that their ancestors looked on their fates from the sky and were well informed about them. They also believed that gods lived in the heavens and that the ancestors which passed away also took up their position in the skies. Mayans believed that if they lived a life which pleased the gods and died a death which was agreeable to the deities, they were given a piece of the heaven after death. Initially, the gods wanted to destroy them for being too intelligent but one of the gods dimmed the intelligence of these humans and then they were spared by the gods. The third kind of human beings were created from maize and they turned out to be very wise. The second kind of humans were created from wood but they were immortal and didn’t honor the gods, so the gods destroyed them as well in hot water. These humans didn’t have a mind of their own, so the gods were displeased with them and destroyed them in a deluge.
The earliest version was created from mud by the gods. Mayans believed that the mankind on Earth was created a number of times. Mayans had extensive mythologies which informed their views on subjects such as cosmology, creation of mankind, beginning of the Earth and the natural phenomenon. Mayans also divided the cosmos along different realms, with Earth being the place which the gods created and populated with human beings. The analogy of a maize field was used to represent this view of the Earth.Īnother popular view in Mayan mythologies was that of Earth being circular which Mayans believed to be the back of a turtle floating on waters. In some Mayan traditions, earth was depicted as of square shape with four directions. Mayans had a number of beliefs regarding the nature and shape of the Earth. Mayans believed in a complex underworld called Xibalba and had many gods associated with it. Mayans offered human sacrifices quite often and they believed that their sacrifices supplanted the strength of the gods. Mayans also believed that the coming and going of seasons and major annual occasions were also the doing of the gods, so they had many gods related to their cosmic view.
Since the Mayans relied heavily on agriculture, gods pertaining to natural phenomenon affecting agriculture were considered very important. Mayans worshiped a large number of gods and goddesses.
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