Maya Religion, Art, and the Terminal Classic Collapse

The Maya envisioned a universe of three levels — a thirteen-layered sky, the earth, and a nine-level underworld called Xibalbá — united by the cosmic tree, or Wakah Chan, symbolized by the sacred ceiba. The Popol Vuh, a K'iche' text transcribed in the sixteenth century, narrates how the Hero Twins Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué descended into Xibalbá and defeated its lords in the ballgame, a myth tied directly to the ritual ballgame played across Mesoamerica. The maize god represented death and cyclical resurrection bound to the agricultural cycle, while Itzamná presided as supreme creator and Chaac governed rain and fertility. Rulers practiced autosacrifice, piercing the tongue, ears, or genitals to induce visions and summon ancestors — a practice depicted on the lintels of Yaxchilán, where a "vision serpent" emerges from a serpent's mouth following the ritual.