Mayan Religion
The Mayans religion involved several aspects of nature, astronomy and rituals. Most Gods represented a form
in nature, for example, Sun God, Kinih Ahous, or Maize God, Yum Kaax. The Mayans were known for their
calendars and astronomical buildings. These were used during their religious rituals. Similar to the Egyptians,
the Mayans built Pyramid like temples for religious reasons. The main difference in shape being that the
Mayan pyramids have a flat top to build temples on top. The best known pyramid is El Castillo or Temple of
Kukulkan in the archaeological site Chichen Itza, in the Mexican state of Yucatan.
The Mayans built two types of pyramids, and one type was meant to be climbed. These pyramids were used
during human sacrifices, which would please the Gods. The other type was not to be climbed, or even touched.
These pyramids were sacred and often were built with too steep of steps to climb, or a false door. When these
pyramids were being used, a priest would use the dangerous steps and get closer to the Gods. Each pyramids
usually had two or four staircases, often including a platform between steps near the middle. This platform
was likely used during the priest-kings rituals as well.
The Mayan religion was Polytheist, and they worshiped more than 165 Gods. The Gods were human-like. The
Gods were born, grew up and died. Gods would do other human like activity that was deemed acceptable
behavior. This included: creating, planting and harvesting maize, performing divination, conducting business,
fighting wars, forming alliances and intermarrying. This behavior led to the Gods having interrelated jobs
within their hierarchy.
The Mayan religion believed that most people’s souls’ were vanquished to spend their afterlives in the
underworld. Even the rulers souls’ ended up there. Only those who died at childbirth or were sacrificed would
have escaped the underworld. Sacrifice was conducted using blood-letting (ritualized cutting) performed by
the community, but run by the priest. The underworld is filled with evil Gods, represented as jaguars, the
symbol of the night. The jaguar was also shown on the Kings helmets.
The Mayans believed that every person had an animal companion who shared their soul. They were called,
“Way’ ob”. The Mayan religion told that one could transform into their animal companion. Every King had a
jaguar as their animal companion spirit, and were often depicted with jaguar in Mayan art. Most Mayans had
one animal companion, but some every powerful Mayan priests could have more than one.
Human Sacrifice
Beheading and Disemboweling
Far to the north, the Aztecs would become famous for
holding their victims down on top of temples and
cutting out their hearts, offering the still-beating organs
to their gods. The Maya did cut the hearts out of their
victims, as can be seen in certain images surviving at the
Piedras Negras historical site. However, it was much
more common for them to decapitate or disembowel
their sacrificial victims, or else tie them up and push
them down the stone stairs of their temples. The
methods had much to do with who was being sacrificed
and for what purpose. Prisoners of war were usually disemboweled. When the sacrifice was religiously linked
to the ball game, the prisoners were more likely to be decapitated or pushed down the stairs.
Meaning of Human Sacrifice
To the Maya, death and sacrifice were spiritually linked to the concepts of creation and rebirth. In the Popol
Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya, the hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanque must journey to the underworld
(i.e. die) before they can be reborn into the world above. In another section of the same book, the god Tohil
asks for human sacrifice in exchange for fire. A series of glyphs deciphered at the Yaxchilán archaeological site
links the concept of beheading to the notion of creation or "awakening." Sacrifices often marked the beginning
of a new era: this could be the ascension of a new king or the beginning of a new calendar cycle. These
sacrifices, meant to aid in the rebirth and renewal of the harvest and life cycles, were often carried out by
priests and/or nobles, especially the king. Children were sometimes used as sacrificial victims at such times.
Sacrifice and the Ball Game
For the Maya, human sacrifices were associated with the ball game. The ball game, in which a hard rubber ball
was knocked around by players mostly using their hips, often had religious, symbolic or spiritual meaning.
Maya images show a clear connection between the ball and decapitated heads: the balls were even sometimes
made from skulls. Sometimes, a ballgame would be a sort of continuation of a victorious battle: captive
warriors from the vanquished tribe or city-state would be forced to play and then sacrificed afterwards. A
famous image carved in stone at Chichén Itzá shows a victorious ballplayer holding aloft the decapitated head
of the opposing team leader.
Politics and Human Sacrifice
Captive kings and rulers were often highly prized sacrifices. In another carving from Yaxchilán, a local ruler,
“Bird Jaguar IV,” plays the ball game in full gear while “Black Deer,” a captured rival chieftain, bounces down a
nearby stairway in the form of a ball. It is likely that the captive was sacrificed by being tied up and pushed
down the stairs of a temple as part of a ceremony involving the ball game. In 738 A.D., a war party from
Quiriguá captured the king of rival city-state Copán: the captive king was ritually sacrificed.
Ritual Bloodletting
Another aspect of Maya blood sacrifice involved ritual bloodletting. In the Popol Vuh, the first Maya pierced
their skin to offer blood to the gods Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz. Maya kings and lords would pierce their flesh –
generally genitals, lips, ears or tongues – with sharp objects such as stingray spines. Such spines are often
found in tombs of Maya royalty. Maya nobles were considered semi-divine, and the blood of kings was an
important part of certain Maya rituals, often those involving agriculture. Not only male nobles but females as
well took part in ritual bloodletting. Royal blood offerings were smeared on idols or dripped onto bark paper
which was then burned: the rising smoke could open a gateway of sorts between the worlds.
http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/Maya/p/The-Ancient-Maya-And-Human-Sacrifice.htm