Rituals The ancient Maya people performed daily rituals to ensure life, health, and sustenance. In times of need it was important to petition the gods for good fortune. Demonstrations were thus performed, but in this cyclical world of the Maya reciprocity was highly significant. With every plea came an offering. There are two types of rituals I will then focus on, they are Divination and Human Sacrifice.
DivinationRituals of divination allow humans to have direct communication with the supernatural world. The ancient Maya did this through a desire to achieve an altered state of consciousness. To achieve this state they used substances that induced this transformation. Substances such as alcohol, peyote, the morning glory, the poison gland of the tropical toad, and mushrooms were all available for divinatory rituals. One such example of ritual divination is found in structure 33 at the site of Yaxchilan. Inside this structure is Lintel 25 which shows a woman shaman burning papers of blood to receive a vision. The vision comes to speak in the form of a serpent, who represents her ancestor. Human SacrificeBlood Sacrifice was very important to the ancient Maya who viewed blood as the essence of life. It was a sacred substance that nourished and sustained gods as well as required for the continuation of agricultural cycles. Twice daily the Maya offered their gods blood drawn from the ears, nose, tongue, arms, penis, thighs, or legs.[2] The Maya had several methods of giving the human sacrifices. During the Postclassic period, priests would often cut the heart out of living victims and present it to the god. Evidence of this can be found in the scenes of human sacrifice at Piedras Negras Stela 11, and Chichen Itza Temple of the Warriors.The tool of choice was a sacrificial flint knife, plunged into the victim's ribs just below the left breast, to pull out a still-beating heart.
Piedras Negras Stela 11
Chicken Itza Temple of the Warriors
Another form of sacrifice took the form of decapitation. The sacrifice of captive kings, while uncommon, seems to have called for a special ritual decapitation. This is evident in the sacred book of the Popul Vuh. Within it makes an association between rulers and the maize god who had been decapitated by the gods of the underworld before being reborn as the first Maya king. [6]
Lastly there was a form of sacrifice through the use of a bow and arrow. If the victims was to be sacrificed by arrows they stripped him naked and anointed his body with a blue color, and put a pointed cap on his head. [6] The priest would then shoot at his heart, marked in white. Evidence of this is taken from the graffiti on the walls of Temple II at Tikal. For more information on Maya priests and sacrifice, take a look at Sarah Galicki's Wiki.
The ancient Maya people performed daily rituals to ensure life, health, and sustenance. In times of need it was important to petition the gods for good fortune. Demonstrations were thus performed, but in this cyclical world of the Maya reciprocity was highly significant. With every plea came an offering. There are two types of rituals I will then focus on, they are Divination and Human Sacrifice.
DivinationRituals of divination allow humans to have direct communication with the supernatural world. The ancient Maya did this through a desire to achieve an altered state of consciousness. To achieve this state they used substances that induced this transformation. Substances such as alcohol, peyote, the morning glory, the poison gland of the tropical toad, and mushrooms were all available for divinatory rituals. One such example of ritual divination is found in structure 33 at the site of Yaxchilan. Inside this structure is Lintel 25 which shows a woman shaman burning papers of blood to receive a vision. The vision comes to speak in the form of a serpent, who represents her ancestor.
Human SacrificeBlood Sacrifice was very important to the ancient Maya who viewed blood as the essence of life. It was a sacred substance that nourished and sustained gods as well as required for the continuation of agricultural cycles. Twice daily the Maya offered their gods blood drawn from the ears, nose, tongue, arms, penis, thighs, or legs.[2]
The Maya had several methods of giving the human sacrifices. During the Postclassic period, priests would often cut the heart out of living victims and present it to the god. Evidence of this can be found in the scenes of human sacrifice at Piedras Negras Stela 11, and Chichen Itza Temple of the Warriors.The tool of choice was a sacrificial flint knife, plunged into the victim's ribs just below the left breast, to pull out a still-beating heart.
Another form of sacrifice took the form of decapitation. The sacrifice of captive kings, while uncommon, seems to have called for a special ritual decapitation. This is evident in the sacred book of the Popul Vuh. Within it makes an association between rulers and the maize god who had been decapitated by the gods of the underworld before being reborn as the first Maya king. [6]
Lastly there was a form of sacrifice through the use of a bow and arrow. If the victims was to be sacrificed by arrows they stripped him naked and anointed his body with a blue color, and put a pointed cap on his head. [6] The priest would then shoot at his heart, marked in white. Evidence of this is taken from the graffiti on the walls of Temple II at Tikal. For more information on Maya priests and sacrifice, take a look at Sarah Galicki's Wiki.
Next Page: Contemporary Maya Religion