The Milky Way

A composite of an image from the CIA World Factbook
and an image by Lian Law from the Joshua Tree National Park's Flickr.

The Milky Way Galaxy or the Milky Way for short, is our galaxy -- a "barred spiral" galaxy to be specific. When the night sky is dark enough, you see part of the Milky Way as a band of light, which people also call the Milky Way. To the ancient Maya, what was this band of light? So far it looks like it was a variety of things, from a supernatural road, symbol of the World Tree, and a crocodile-deer creature, to an aspect of the god Itzamná. Let's learn more.

The Starry Deer Crocodile
One of the "composite" beings that the ancient Maya would carve and draw was a being that you may see called the Starry Deer Crocodile. Among its notable features, this being was a crocodile except for its feet, which were deer hooves, and its ear, which was a deer ear. (Another one of its notable features was that its eyes had Venus/star signs.)

This being has connections to different things, including the Milky Way. There are a few ideas out there on the Starry Deer Crocodile -- one is that it was an aspect of another being called (among other names) the Cosmic Monster and was the Milky Way at night. 

Connection to the World Tree

There was a belief among the ancient Maya that the "World Tree" -- the tree that was the center of everything -- was a ceiba. (It went through all three levels of reality. It grew out of the underworld, Xibalbá, and up into the upperworld.) But in the ancient Maya's minds, they connected the World Tree with the Milky Way and used it as a symbol of the tree. 

Supernatural Road

It's possible that the ancient Maya thought that the Milky Way was a path on which people who had died traveled. This same theory thinks that the ancient Maya may have even had a travel-related term for death: och bih, which means "entering the road." However, it's still not clear.

There's a theory that the south and north sky-eagles represent the sky at night -- maybe the Milky Way too or some kind of path at night. A tomb that might be evidence that this theory is right is Tomb 12 at the site of Rio Azul. The tomb has four walls, and on every wall there is one of the four direction glyphs (north, west, south, and east.) The "south" sky-eagle has a star sign (ek') as part of it. The "north" sky-eagle has the sign for moon as part of it. The two of them might be referencing a path in the sky at night.

On a related note, the Popol Vuh, a religious text of the Quiché (also spelled K'iche',) one of the various groups of Maya today, says that a dark part of the Milky Way is the road to the underworld, Xibalbá. 

As an Aspect of Itzamná (God D)
To the ancient Maya, Itzamná (God D) was a god of different things, including foretelling the future and scribes, and was also a creator god. One of his aspects of the Milky Way.

References:
Google Books: "Philosophy of the Ancient Maya: Lords of Time"; Alexus McLeod; 2018

Google Books: "Astronomy in the Ancient World: Early and Modern Views on Celestial Events"; Alexus McLeod, Butler Burton (series editor); 2016

Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015

Google Books: "Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica"; Anne S. Dowd, Susan Milbrath (editor); 2015

Google Books: "Astrology in Time and Place: Cross-Cultural Questions in the History of Astrology"; Nicholas Campion, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (editors); 2015

The University of Texas at Austin: Texas Scholar Works: University of Texas Libraries: "Sacrificing the Jaguar Baby : understanding a classic Maya myth on codex-style pottery"; Penny Steinbach; May 2015 (Click on the PDF icon for it to download.)

Google Books: "The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous"; Asa Simon Mittman, Peter J. Dendle (editors); 2013

Google Books: "Re-Creating Primordial Time; Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Postclassic Maya Codices"; Gabrielle Vail, Christine Hernandez"; 2013

The Free Dictionary: Bicephalic

The Free Dictionary: Milky Way

NASA: Imagine The Universe!: The Milky Way Galaxy

Image Credits:
CIA World Factbook: Mexico (image 12)

Flickr: Joshua Tree National Park: Night Sky InstaMeet 5.23.15; Lian Law

Ceiba: A Sacred Tree

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department
of Commerce. Taken by Maxfield Weiss, NOAA NMFS IA.

Two kinds of ceiba live where the Maya lived and live: Ceiba aesculifolia and Ceiba pentandra. Of the two, the species scientifically known as Ceiba pentandra is the one that it seems archaeologists think the ancient Maya held as a sacred tree. Let's look at the tree itself and what the ancient Maya may have believed about it.

Names
This tree has a lot of names. For example, it has two other scientific names: Bombax pentandrum, Ceiba pentandra, and Eriodendron anfractuosum. And as for common names, it is also known as the white silk-cotton tree, bonga, ceibo, kapoctree, kapok tree, bongo and silk cotton tree.

Then there's the ancient Mayan name for the ceiba. It may be yáaxche' or ya'axche -- the first means "first tree," while the second one is "green/blue-green/blue tree." The common opinion, from the sources thus far found, seems to prefer the second name. (You may also see sources give the name/spelling of yaxche' or yaxte' as the ancient Mayan name for this tree.)

One way to draw what's thought to be the
ancient Maya name for ceiba. 

Botany
Ceibas rise around 65.6 and 131 feet to 164 feet tall -- some are even 200 feet tall! The tree has gray bark and has buttresses -- wedges around its base that help the tree keep from falling over. Its leaves are made up of stalks off of which smaller leaves grow -- the tree looses these leaves every year, starting in January and going until March.

Though not every year, when its loosing its leaves, the ceiba grows night-blooming flowers that are pollinated by creatures including bats and -- in the morning -- birds like hummingbirds. The flowers' color range includes beige, an extremely pale pink and white.

Another notable feature is inside the seed pods. There is a type of soft fiber in them -- which is called kapok silk -- in which are seeds. Kapok silk is like cotton, though not easy to spin, because it doesn't naturally stick to itself as well as cotton. For ceiba trees, the point of the silk is to have something that floats the seeds away from itself, so that ceibas may grow in other places. But for people -- possibly including the ancient Maya -- the silk is useful in other ways, such as for batting in cushions. (A little more on this substance in the next section.)

These trees also have a surprising feature -- spines shaped like cones can grow right out of their trunks. It's believed that these spines keep away animals that eat plants. More often, you'll find it easier to see these spines for yourself by looking for ceibas that aren't very old.

Possible Ancient Maya Uses
There are different ideas that talk about possible uses the ancient Maya may have had for  the ceiba. One idea is that the ancient Maya may have used ceiba wood to make canoes.

Other ideas, focus on kapok silk. One idea wonders if the Maya used the fiber to stuff cushions for thrones. Another wonders if they spun it along with cotton to help compensate its inability to stick to itself like other fibers used to make cloth.

Ancient Maya Cultural Connection
The ancient Maya thought this tree was the World Tree. They believed that there was a ceiba that touched all three of the worlds that they thought existed: the upper world, the world of humans and the underworld, where the tree's roots were. The ancient Maya also thought the ceiba kept these worlds as the separate levels. (However, it must be noted that there are images of the World Tree as a different being, such as a crocodile.)

Ceiba Trees in Art/Writing
Some examples of ancient Maya representations of the ceiba tree can be found at the site of Palenque, where they liked to draw it kind of like a cross. (Why a cross? An explanation is that when ceiba trees aren't very old, that's what they kind of look like.) You may have seen one of these already: it's part of the coffin of the famous ruler, Pakal. Very noticeable among the coffin top's carvings is an image thought to be a ceiba.

If you look through the Maya codices, you can find pictures and sentences involving the ceiba. Using the search engine in the site The Maya Hieroglyphic Codices, it looks like drawings of as well as references to ceibas can be found in the Dresden Codex and the Madrid Codex. (The Paris Codex has, at least now, only references to ceibas, and the Grolier Codex didn't show up in the results.)

And there are even more artifacts. Some ancient Maya incense burners or incensarios as well as funerary urns may also be connected to the ceiba. Why? Because the artists who made them used spikes as part of the design, which may have been meant to look like ceiba spines.

References:
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: Plants Databas: Plants Profile: Ceiba pentandra (kapoctree)

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: Bocas del Toro: Species Database: Ceiba pentandra

University of California, Santa Barbara: Institute of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research (ISBER): MesoAmerican Research Center: Trails of El Pilar: Plants of El Pilar: Ceiba

Integrated Taxonomic Information System: ITIS Report Page: Ceiba pentandra

USDA Forest Products Labratory: Center for Wood Anatomy Research: Technology Transfer Fact Sheet: Ceiba pentandra

"Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2008

"Animals & Plants of the Ancient Maya: A Guide"; Victoria Schlesinger; 2001

"Space and Sculpture in the Classic Maya City"; Alexander Parmington; 2011

Google Books: "The Origins of Maya States"; Loa P. Traxler, Robert J. Sharer (editors); 2016

The Maya Hieroglyphic Codices: Search Results  (for ceiba)

"Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies"; Rosemary A. Joyce, Susan D. Gillespie (editors); 2000

"Ancient Maya Commerce: Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil"; Scott R. Hutson (editor); 2017

Florida State University: DigiNole: "Highland Maya Effigy Funerary Urns: A Study of Genre, Iconography, and Function"; Kathleen Garrett McCampbell; 2010

University ofAlbany SUNY: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Occasional Publication No. 17"Postclassic Pottery Censers in the Lowlands: A Study of Form, Function and Symbolism"; Bradley W. Russell; 2017

Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing No. 54: "The Idol-Makers in the Madrid Codex"; Mary A. Ciaramella; 2004

FAMSI: Maya Codices: The Dresden Codex (pages 60 to 74)