Maya civilization

:This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. See Maya people for a discussion of the modern Maya. For other meanings of the word Maya, see Maya (disambiguation)

Religion

Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with hundreds (possibly thousands) of celestial/terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as seperate calendars (all of infinite duration). The Maya shamen had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. If the interpretations of the shamen spelled bad times to come, sacrifices would be performed to make the gods happier.

Related Topics:
Aztec - Inca

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Rather than looking at the polytheism in the Mayan religion, it must be understood that the multiple "gods" represented nothing more than a mathematical explanation of what they observed. Each god was literally just a number or a explanation of the effects observed by a combination of numbers from multiple calendars. Some of the calendars the shamen kept track of were a 260 day tolkien, a 365 day celestial year and the orbits of all the visible planets, with special interest in Venus. The Maya knew long before Kepler that the planets have elliptical orbits and used their findings to support their view of the cyclical nature of time.

Related Topics:
Polytheism - Venus - Kepler

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Philosophically, the Maya belived that knowing the past means knowing the cyclical influences that create the present, and by knowing the influences of the present one can see the cyclical influences of the future.

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The Maya believed that the universe was flat and square, but infinite in area. They also worshiped the circle, which symbolised perfection or the balancing of forces. Among other religious symbols were the swastika and the perfect cross.

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Maya rulers figured prominently in many religious rituals and often were required to practice bloodletting, such as using sculpted bone or jade instruments to perforate their penises, or drawing thorn-studded ropes through their tongues.

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: Main article: Maya mythology

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