Xibalba

Xibalba roughly translates to “place of fright.”

This is the K’iche’ (A Mayan language of the K’iche’ people of the central highlands of Guatemala & Mexico) named the Underworld in a Maya(n) mythology. The underworld is known as Mitnal in Yucatec, a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatan Peninsula.

In the 16th century, Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba, was traditionally held to be a cave in the area of Cabon, Guatemala. Cave systems in nearby Belize have also been referred to as the entrance to Xibalba. In some Mayan areas, the Milky Way is viewed as the road to Xibalba.

Xibalba is described in the Popol Vuh (A text recounting the mythology & history of the K’iche’ people of Guatemala. This is 1 of the Maya peoples who also inhabit Mexican states) as a court below the surface of the earth associated with death & with 12 gods, or powerful rulers, known as the Lords of Xibalba.

The 1st among the Mayan death gods ruling Xibalba were: Hun-Came (“One Death”) & Vucub-Came (“Seven Death”). Though Hun-Came is the elder of the 2.

The remaining 10 Lords are often referred to as demons & are given commission & domain over diverse forms of human suffering: to cause sickness, starvation, fear, destitution, pain, & ultimately death.

These Lords work in pairs: Xiquiripat (“Flying Scab”) & Cuchumaquix (“Gathered Blood”), who sickens people’s blood. Ahalpuh (“Pus Demon”) & Ahalgana (“Jaundice Demon”), who cause people’s bodies to swell up. Chamiabac (“Bone Staff”) & Ahalttcob (“Stabbing Demon”), who hide in the unswept areas of people’s homes & stab them to death. Xic (“Wing”) & Patan (“Pack strap”), who cause people to die coughing up blood while out walking on a road.

The remaining residents of Xibalba are thought to have fallen under the dominion of 1 of these Lords, going about the face of the Earth to carry out their listed duties.

Xibalba was a large palace, & several individual structures located within Xibalba are described or mentioned in the Popol Vuh. Chief among these was the council place of the Lords, the 5 or 6 houses that served as the 1st tests of Xibalba, & the Xibalba ball court. Also mentioned are the homes of the Lords, gardens, & other structures, indicating that Xibalba was at least a great city.

Xibalba seems to be rife with tests, trials, & traps for anyone who comes into the city. Even the roads to Xibalba were filled with obstacles: 1st, a river filled with scorpions, a river filled with blood, & then a river filled with pus.

Beyond these was a crossroads where travellers had to choose from among 4 roads that spoke in an attempt to confuse & beguile. Upon passing these obstacles, 1 would come upon the Xibalba council place where it was expected visitors would greet the seated Lords.

Realistic mannequins were seated near the Lords to confuse & humiliate people who greeted them, & the confused would then be invited to sit up on a bench, which was actually a hot cooking surface. The Lords of Xibalba would entertain themselves by humiliating people in this fashion before sending them into 1 of Xibalba’s deadly tests.

The city was home to at least 6 deadly houses filled with trials for visitors. The 1st was the Dark House, a house that was completely dark inside. The 2nd was the Rattling House/Cold House, full of bone-chilling cold & rattling hail. The 3rd was the Jaguar House, filled with hungry jaguars. Tht 4th was the Bat House, filled with dangerous shrieking bats. The 5th was the Razor House, filled with blades & razors that moved about of their own accord. In another part of the Popol Vuh, a 6th test, the Hot House, was filled with fires & heat, is identified. The purpose of these trials/tests was to either kill or humiliate people placed into them if they couldn’t outwit the test.

Xibalba was home of a famous ballcourt in which the heroes of the Popol Vuh succumbed to the trickery of the demons in the form of a deadly, bladed ball, as well as the site in which the Mayan Hero Twins outwitted the gods & brought about their downfall.

According to the Popol Vuh, the residents of Xibalba at 1 point enjoyed the worship of the people on the surface of the Earth who offered human sacrifice to the gods of death.

Over the span of time covered in the Popol Vuh, the gods of Xibalba are tricked & finally humiliated into accepting lesser offerings from above by the Maya Twins, who got superpowers after they were burnt & their ashes thrown into a magical river.

The role of Xibalba & its inhabitants after their great defeat at the hands of the Hero Twins is unclear. Although it seems to have continued its existence a dark place of the underworld long after.

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The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 7 North America

By the indigenous peoples of the Americas we can find also several myths of a great deluge. The K’iche’ and Maya peoples in Mesoamerica having the best well-known folk tales.

One of the Maya peoples, the K’iche’ (or in previous Spanish spelling: Quiché, associated with the ancient Maya civilization, reached the peak of their power and influence during the Postclassic period. El Quiché forms the heartland of the K’iche’ people. In pre-Columbian times, the K’iche’ settlements and influence reached beyond the highlands, including the valley of Antigua and coastal areas in Escuintla.

In the Popol Vuh (“Pop wuj” in proper K’iche – “the book of events”), one of the most significant surviving Mesoamerican literary documents and primary sources of knowledge about Maya societal traditions, beliefs and mythological accounts, a product of the 16th century K’iche’ people, we can find a compilation of mythological and ethno-historical narratives known to these people at that time, which were drawn from earlier pre-Columbian sources (now lost) and also oral traditional storytelling.

Like by other peoples we also can find a narrative trying to explain how everything began. They too give their version of the creation myth, they modelled from corn dough according to their genesis, relating how world and humans were created by the gods, the story of the divine brothers, and the history of the K’iche’ from their migration into their homeland up to the Spanish conquest.

The largest ethnic groups in Guatemala, ethnically Maya and living in the highlands to the north and the west of Lake Atitlán, primarily in the departments of Quetzaltenango, Totonicapan, and El Quiché, also have their story of sky without any obstruction, in which clouds were placed, gods being worried that their creations would “become as great as gods” and therefore limited the clarity with which their works saw. Thus were created the first fathers of the K’iche’. Next, the gods created the four women who would be the mothers of the K’iche’ people. Other lineage heads, whose descendants would form the other tribes, were also created in this time before the dawn. But when those people did not behave properly nest to each other, the land became undulated by the force of the gods. In the lore of the flood the world of the people is made in no place to live any more for animals and people, except for those who listened to the warning God gave and had taken their refuge in the huge canoe or ark.

By oral tradition children got warned to listen to their gods so that they would not bring judgement over them like they had done in the past by bringing water over mankind. It became considered the task within each tribe for elders to act as repositories of cultural and philosophical knowledge and to be the transmitters of such vital information, giving the next generation a warning of the importance to live properly respecting the work of the gods and making sure that people grew up with the “basic beliefs and teachings, encouraging…faith in the Great Spirit, the Creator“.

The Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa, one of seven federally recognized bands of Ojibwe people located in present-day Wisconsin,is a tribe of Native Americans in North America who have lived in a land which is almost entirely covered by a forest and several lakes. For them water has played a very important role. Following the Seven Fires Prophecy, that marks phases, or epochs, in the life of the people on Turtle Island, Anishinaabe leaders ordered their warriors to expand to the west after they learned that the people mentioned in the prophecy had invaded in the East.

The teachings of the ‘Seven Fires prophecy’ also state that when the world has been befouled and the waters turned bitter by disrespect, human beings will have two options to choose from, materialism or spirituality. If they chose spirituality, they will survive, but if they chose materialism, it will be the end of it. It also reminds the people of the Second Fire where the nation was camped by a large body of water. It was the time the direction of the Sacred Shell was lost and the Midewiwin was diminished in strength. Though it was also the time a boy would have been born to point the way back to the traditional ways (Could this be referring to the descendant of Noah and King David, who would be called the Messiah?). Of that saviour who comes after such deluge is being said he will show the direction to the stepping stones to the future of the Anishinabe people or people from the waters or Iyo-ḣaḣatoŋwaŋ (“cascading-waterfalls people”) later known by the French as Saulteurs (“cascaders”) and Saulteaux (“cascades”).

Funny to notice that one of their prophets wrote

“Beware if the light skinned race comes wearing the face of death. You must be careful because the face of brotherhood and the face of death look very much alike. If they come carrying a weapon … beware. If they come in suffering … They could fool you. Their hearts may be filled with greed for the riches of this land. If they are indeed your brothers, let them prove it. Do not accept them in total trust. You shall know that the face they wear is one of death if the rivers run with poison and fish become unfit to eat. You shall know them by these many things {Source: Benton-Banai, Edward, The Mishomis Book – The Voice of the Ojibway (St. Paul: Red School House Publishers, 1988).Chief Bone Necklace an Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (1899)

The Dakota Indians, a Native American tribe composing two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux /ˈsuː/ people, with the Santee (Isáŋyathi or Isáŋ-athi; “knife” + “encampment”, ″dwells at the place of knife flint″), Woodland people who thrived on hunting, fishing and farming, who reside in the eastern Dakotas, central Minnesota and northern Iowa, plus the Yankton, and the Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ and Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna; “Village-at-the-end” and “Little village-at-the-end”), who reside in the Missouri River area, also have oral stories about a great deluge, which still may go round.

Problem with those native people is that their stories are not yet fully recorded and by the contemporary evolution and non-interest in previous history lots of wisdom may get lost.

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Preceding:

The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 1 Flooding and Water-waves

The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 2 Mythic theme 1 God or gods warning

The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 3 Mythic theme 2 Hebrew story of the flood

The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 4 Mythic theme 3 Chinese mythology

The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 5 Indian region

The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 6 European myths

Next: The flood, floods and mythic flood stories 8 South America

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