Bloodletting ritual of Kings
Photo courtesy of University of Texas

The Mayan civilization is one of the most complex and best known civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.

The Mayan civilization was built on and around the philosophies and ideas of the pre-Columbian group called the Olmec. The Olmec were considered one of the first groups of people to cross the Bering Strait 20,000 years ago.

“The Mayan Universe was divided into three layers. The upper layer represented the celestial realm of the stars, which the Maya believed were the glorified ancestors. The middle layer was the Earth plane in which the living Maya resided. The lower level was the Underworld, also called the Otherworld. The Maya called it Xibalba (pronounced: Shee-bal-ba'). "Place of Awe," is how it translates into English. The modern Maya believe everything in Xibalba to be in reverse of how it is here. For instance, when you eat meat, there it is raw. It is cold & dark as opposed to the Earth plane which is warm and full of light. When it is day here, it is night there (Gutierrez, 2006).”

A culture with such strong beliefs and rituals, all ritual acts were dictated by the 260-day Sacred Round Calendar, and all performances had symbolic meaning. Sexual abstinence was rigidly observed before and during such events, and self-mutilation was encouraged in order to furnish blood with which to anoint religious articles. The elite were obsessed with blood - their own and that of their captives - and ritual bloodletting was a major part of any important calendar event (Canadian, 2006).

The Maya believed that the gift of blood to the gods, especially royal blood (from Kings), was crucial to their well-being, and that it validated their worthiness in the Mayan community (Wikipedia, 2006). Maya kingship was to serve as a mediating force between the living and the “Otherworld”.

These blood sacrifices were imperative and necessary for the survival of their people and for their gods. They were sending human energy skyward and receiving divine power in return. Only royal blood could make this offering.

To perform this blood letting ritual, the king would use an obsidian knife or the spine of a stingray to pierce/cut his penis, and then let the blood drip onto a piece of paper that was held in a bowl. The blood-stained paper was then burned with the smoke rising upward to directly communicate with the Sky World. It is believed by many Maya to this day, that the gods ingest offerings in the form of smoke. This act would then culminate in the opening of the portal to the “Otherworld” and would allow the person performing the ritual to have a vision and commune with the gods and ancestors.

The Mayans believed the gods had used their own blood to create mankind and that through human bloodletting the gods could be repaid for their gift of life. Indeed, every aspect of Mayan life seems to have been woven around what they thought had happened to the gods and what humans should do to mimic those happenings.

“Elite women also played a central role in bloodletting events. Women would often let blood before their husbands went into battle. In addition, women would participate in bloodletting rites associated with a king’s accession. They would do this to communicate, through a vision, with a warrior god who regularly took the form of an ancestor (Badinelli, 2003).”

Two women drawing thorn-ropes through their tongues
Courtesy of Mayan Main Page

The Mayan religion was a very complex system that linked astronomy, sacrifice, and vision quests that were incorporated into everyday life. They worshipped many gods, and their beliefs could be sometimes rather extreme. Their philosophy was that the more valuable the material, or the more painful to obtain, the more powerful it was in sacrificial rites.

References:

Badinelli, M. A Piercing Look at Maya Bloodletting Rituals. Retrieved March 17, 2006 from http://www.focusanthro.org/Archive2002-03/essays/badinelli--02-03.html.

Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. Mayan Civilization: Cosmology and Religion. Retrieved March 17, 2006 from http://www.civilization.ca/civil/maya/mmc03eng.html.

Gutierrez, Mary. Mayan Myths and Legends. Retrieved March 17, 2006 from http://www.create.org/myth/mayamyth.htm.

Wikipedia. Maya Bloodletting. Retrieved March 17, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_bloodletting.