All about the ancient tribes
Fire symbolizes many things, including passion, desire, rebirth, resurrection, eternity, destruction, hope, hell and purification. These symbols have been used in literature, film and religious texts for millennia.
The fire ceremony could easily be considered to be the heart of Mayan spiritual practice. It is the physical practice which facilitates interaction with the energies of creation, the nawales. The fire is then lit and each of the energies of the days invoked and offerings made to each of them.
The Mayan numeral system was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization. It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. The numerals are made up of three symbols ; zero (shell shape, with the plastron uppermost), one (a dot) and five (a bar).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Hunab Ku (Mayan pronunciation: [huˈnaɓ ku ]) is a colonial period Yucatec Maya reducido term meaning “The One God”. It is used in colonial, and more particularly in doctrinal texts, to refer to the Christian God.
According to the five elements theory, everything in nature is made up of five elements: Earth, Water, Fire , Air, and Space. Each element is associated with different structures and functions in our body.
In Western thought, the four elements earth, water, air, and fire as proposed by Empedocles (5th century BC) frequently occur.
Maya is one of the most sacred herbs among indigenious North American peoples. The clean burning sage is used in the energy cleansing ritual known as smudging (or purification), which in theory means the smoke would attach itself to the negative energy of the area and cleanse it so that it becomes positive energy.
Religious ceremonies included dancing, games plays, prayer, and sacrifice. The gods required nourishment from human beings in order to work. While sacrifice often involved food, most sacrifice involved some form of human sacrifice.
Both Mayan men and women got tattoos , although men put off tattoos until they were married. Mayan women preferred delicate tattoos on their upper bodies although not on their breasts. Men got tattoos on their arms, legs, backs, hands and face. Getting a tattoo was painful.
In Mayan mythology, the jaguar was seen as the ruler of the Underworld, and as such, a symbol of the night sun and darkness. The jaguar is representative of power, ferocity, and valor; he is the embodiment of aggressiveness. For some, the jaguar represents the power to face one’s fears, or to confront one’s enemies.
The Maya counting system required only three symbols: a dot representing a value of one, a bar representing five, and a shell representing zero . That the Maya understood the value of zero is remarkable – most of the world’s civilizations had no concept of zero at that time.
Itzamná Itzamná , ( Mayan : “Iguana House”) principal pre-Columbian Mayan deity, ruler of heaven, day, and night. He frequently appeared as four gods called Itzamnás, who encased the world.
Tattoos were a way of pleasing the gods because most of the images that the Mayans would have would symbolize their gods. They were also a sign of courage and bravery because anyone that would withstand the pain and dangers that come with these body markings would get a lot of respect.
Here’s the list of the top five Mayan Gods of all time: Itzamn (or Zamn ) Itzamn , the big cheese overall and lord of the heavens as well as night and day, could be called upon in hard times or calamities. Chac . Ah Mun. Ah Puch . Ek Chuah. Acan. Ix- Chel . Xaman Ek.