Mayan Ceremonies -IV
The priests wear their uniform of office: white shirts and pants, red bandanas on their heads, sandals on their feet, seashell necklaces, and long red cloth belts. One, in his mid-forties, is a fat, jolly sort with a perpetual smile on his face. The head priest (Don Domingo Bolon in the Tikal photos) is a slender, wiry man of about fifty, relaxed and low-key but with a masterful presence. The priests begin to lay out the fire: first a circle is described in the pit with sugar, and the four quarters are delineated with a cross within the circle. On top of this 260 cylinders of incense are laid, and then a cross of many small candles, whose colors correspond to the four directions, is built in the center of the circle: red candles to the east, black to the west, white to the north, and yellow to the south. Chunks of copal pom incense are placed at the four corners, and more colored candles, dried herbs, cinnamon sticks, and cigars are arranged around the circle. Finally the circle is delimited by sprinkled dried romero herb around its circumference; and a tower of twenty candles bound around a cigar, symbolizing the Tree of Life, is placed in the center. The overall impression of the fireplace is quite decorative and colorful. After the fireplace is laid out the head priest and his assistants make offerings to the four cardinal directions in a sing-songy chant. The words sung-spoken by the Mayan priests aren’t as important as the rhyme and rhythm, the hypnotic patter of the litany. To the east the priests invoke Kawa Balam Kiche and his consort Kana Kaja Palumna (note that the term Kawa means Sir or god and Kana means Lady or goddess), together with Kawa Tojil and the year-bearer Kawa Ik.(1) To the west the priests invoke Kawa Balam Akab and his consort Kana Chomiha, together with Kawa Agulish and the year-bearer Kawa Be; to the south the priests invoke Kawa Mahukutah and his consort Kana Tzununniha, together with Kawa Acabitz and the year-bearer Kawa Noj; to the north the priests invoke Kawa Ik Balam and his consort Kana Kakishaha, together with Kawa Miktah and the year-bearer Kawa Kej. These deities are the guardians of the four directions (li kayib kashukut), and as such they are the foundation, they hold the world in place.(2) Next the priests invoke the nine gods of the lower world (that is to say, the earth; as opposed to the thirteen gods or constellations in the sky). These nine deities are also called the Creators – Formers: Kawa Tzakol and his consort Kana Bitol; Kawa Kukumatz and his consort Kana Kulkukan; Kawa Ukushkah and his consort Kana Ukushuleu; Kawa Kaktzuik and his consort Kana Ishkpiakok; and finally Kawa Ixmucanè.(3) They are called the Creators – Formers because they fashioned the first humans from maize. Previously the gods had experimented with and destroyed two human-like races – the first made of mud and the second of wood. These attempts were unsuccessful because they lacked the intelligence and spirit to worship the gods. When the Creators – Formers made the first four humans they were a little too successful: these creatures were so clear-sighted and proud that the gods had to blow mist in their eyes to dumb them down a bit and make them more respectful. The first humans fashioned by the Creators – Formers were made of nine drinks of ground maize. To this day special propitiatory ceremonies to invoke the nine Creators – Formers, called primicias, are still performed in Yucatan and Belize. At these rituals nine gourd cups of maize gruel are blessed on the altar and then drunk by the participants. These nine gods also correspond to the nine portals in the human body: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, genitals, and anus. They are also symbolized by the nine colors of the rainbow; i.e., rainbows are considered a manifestation of the Creators – Formers. In the Mayan worldview these gods are the creators and formers of human life and as such have dominion over all human activities. They have their own calendar count, i.e. every day is not only under the influence of one of the twenty naguals of the Chol Qij, but is also ruled by one of the nine Creators – Formers.
NOTES:
(1) Four of the twenty naguals – Ik, Be, Noj, and Kej – are called year-bearers since they are the only days on which the first day (0 Pop) of the 365-day Haab calendar count can fall. Every year is ruled by one of these four naguals in turn, and the year-bearer influences whether it will be a fortunate or unfortunate year. Note that Tedlock (and her teachers) calculate the correlation between Mayan and Gregorian calendars incorrectly; they have the Chol Qij day right but they are 40 days off on their reckoning of the 365-day Haab count; so that their year-bearers are correct, but the coefficient of the present year-bearer is one less than it should be. See the “What is a Mayan Horoscope?” section of my Mayan Horoscope software for a complete explanation.
(2) In the Popul Vuh legend the Lords of the four directions, Balam Quitzé, Balam Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui Balam, were the first four humans who were fashioned from maize by the nine Creators – Formers. Their wives, who were created after the men, are named: Cahá Paluna, Chomihá, Tzununihá, and Caquixahá. The gods they worshipped, who are the principal deities of the Kiché Mayans, are named Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. (3) In the Popul Vuh these deities are called Tzacol, the Builder and his consort, Bitol, the Former-Shaper; Gucumatz the Feathered (quetzal) Serpent and Tepeu the Conquerer or Sovereign (The head priest may have been in error about who is the consort of whom since in the Popul Vuh Kulkukan is another name for Gucumatz); Qaholom the father god and Alom the mother; Xmucané, the Midwife or Shelterer, is the consort of Xpiyacoc, the Patriarch or Protector. These last two are the grandparents of Hunajpu and Ishbalankej, the hero twins of the Popul Vuh story. The foregoing eight deities are joined by the Heart of Heaven and Earth (associated with the three lightning gods). However, Mayan deities are not as distinct as e.g. Greek gods and goddesses; Mayan deities shade into one another, and are usually dual male-female. Thus in some enumerations in the Popul Vuh (and in ceremonial prayers) there are more than nine Creators-Formers, such as Zaqui-Nim-Ac the wild boar god and his consort Zaqui-Nimá-Tziís the great white coatimundi; and u Qux cho, the spirit of the lake. Mayan priests chant in a sing-songy litany in which rhythm and poesy are more important than making literal sense; thus even their invocations may repeat or omit names of deities being invoked. (continued …)
