Property Description
La Ceiba, a World Tree, was the conduit of communication between the supernatural world and the human world: The souls of the dead fell into Xibalbá along its path; the daily journeys of the sun, moon, planets, and stars followed its trunk. The Vision Serpent symbolizing communion with the world of the ancestors and the gods emerged into our world along it. The king was the axis and pivot made flesh. He was the Tree of Life. The king sustained his people, but he also required much from them in the way of service.
Location
For the Maya, the trees constituted the ambient living environment, the material from which they fashioned homes and tools, the source of many foods, medicines, dyes, and vital commodities such as chocolate and paper. They provided the fuel for cooking fires and the soil-enriching ash that came from the cutting and burning of the forest. Trees were the source of shade in the courtyards and public places of villages and cities, and the home of the teeming life of the forest. It was natural that the Maya would choose this central metaphor for human power. Like other trees, the king was at once the ambient source of life and the material from which humans constructed it. Together, the kings of the Maya realms comprised a forest of sustaining human World Trees within the natural forested landscape of the Maya world.
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Additional Information
Above: Representation of the Maya Universe, with the Sacred tree, Yaxché (Ceiba Tree), and the 4 Bacabs in the corners holding the earth, each of the 13 Caan (heaven) levels had its Oxlahuntikú or main god, with Hunab'Kú (father of the twins and the Maize god) at the top. The Earth (Cab) represented as a caiman, with is Tzultacah or gods (we don't know the number), and Xibalbá or underworld with nine levels and its gods or Bolon Ti Kún being Ah Puch, the God of the Death in the lower level. East (lak'in) is the direction of sunrise, associated with red (chak), the color of dawn. West (chik'in) is the direction of sunset; its color is black (ek'). North (xaman) is white (sak). The color of the south (nohol) is yellow (k'an). Green (yax) is the color of the center, of the green Ceiba tree (yax´che´), representing the great World Tree itself, raised in the centre of the cosmos.
For further info visit: http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_cosmology.htm
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