The Maya creation story is described in the Popol Vuh (a type of Maya bible). Scenes of creation are some of the most pictured in Mayan pottery and Codices. The Maya believed in a Holy Trinity as the sovereign creation being. Many of these creation scenes were enacted in religious ceremonies where shamans wore Mayan masks of the creation gods to re-live and honor those gods.
Maya Creation Story in the Popol Vuh
In Maya mythology, Tepeu and Kukulkan (the Plumed Serpent) are referred to as the Creators, the Makers, and the Forefathers. They were two of the first beings to exist. Collectively with a storm god named Huracan, are personified as a union or trinity of gods called the Maya called Heart-of-Sky.
Tepeu and Kukulkan hold a conference and decide to guide Huracan in the process of creating beings to worship them in order to preserve their legacy. Without this, they feel they would never be remembered and would therefore eventually die.
The gods begin by saying “Earth”, which appears immediately from the sea. The gods then speak the words, mountains and trees, and the trinity, Heart-of-Sky proclaims “our work is going well”.
Next for creation are the creatures of the forest: birds, deer, jaguars and snakes. They are told to multiply and scatter, and then to speak and “pray to us”. But the animals just squawk and howl and were thus banished forever to the forest.
So Heart-of-Sky tries to make more respectful creatures from mud. Thus, man is created first of mud. But the mud creatures just crumbled and dissolved away.
Other gods are summoned by Heart-of-Sky for advice. Man is next created of wood. But the wooden men had no soul, and they soon forgot their makers. They did not worship them. So Heart-of-Sky turned all of their possessions against them and brought a disastrous resinous rain down on their heads. The wooden people escape to the forests and were turned into monkeys.
Heart-of-Sky then makes yet another attempt at creating a suitably respectful race, and finally succeeds by fashioning humans out of maize-corn dough.
As such, the Maya believed that maize was not just the cornerstone of their diet, but they were also made of it. Finally modern man is formed and Heart-of-Sky’s work is accomplished.
Learn more on the stories in the Popol Vuh
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