Gods and deities - Earth before the flood: disappeared continents and civilizations. Central and southern Africa Images of Mayan gods

Each of the peoples of the Ancient World had their own deities, powerful and not so powerful. Many of them had unusual abilities and were the owners of wonderful artifacts that gave them additional strength, knowledge and, ultimately, power.

Amaterasu ("Great Goddess Who Illuminates the Heavens")

Country: Japan
Essence: Sun Goddess, ruler of the heavenly fields

Amaterasu is the eldest of three children of the progenitor god Izanaki. She was born from drops of water with which he washed his left eye. She took possession of the upper heavenly world, while her younger brothers got the night and the watery kingdom.

Amaterasu taught people how to cultivate rice and weave. The imperial house of Japan traces its ancestry from her. She is considered the great-grandmother of the first Emperor Jimmu. The rice ear, mirror, sword and carved beads given to her became sacred symbols of imperial power. According to tradition, one of the emperor's daughters becomes the High Priestess of Amaterasu.

Yu-Di (“Jade Sovereign”)

Country: China
Essence: Supreme Overlord, Emperor of the Universe

Yu-Di was born at the moment of the creation of Earth and Heaven. The Heavenly, Terrestrial, and Underground worlds are subject to him. All other deities and spirits are subordinate to him.
Yu-Di is absolutely emotionless. He sits on a throne in a robe embroidered with dragons and holding a jade tablet in his hands. Yu Di has an exact address: the god lives in a palace on Mount Yujingshan, which resembles the court of the Chinese emperors. Under it function heavenly councils responsible for various natural phenomena. They perform all sorts of actions that the Lord of Heaven himself does not condescend to do.

Quetzalcoatlus ("Feathered Serpent")

Country: Central America
Essence: Creator of the world, lord of the elements, creator and teacher of people

Quetzalcoatl not only created the world and people, but also taught them the most important skills: from agriculture to astronomical observations. Despite his high status, Quetzalcoatl sometimes acted in a very peculiar way. For example, in order to get maize grains for people, he entered an anthill, turning into an ant himself, and stole them.

Quetzalcoatl was depicted both as a feathered serpent (the body symbolizing the Earth, and the feathers representing vegetation) and as a bearded man wearing a mask.
According to one legend, Quetzalcoatl voluntarily went into overseas exile on a raft of snakes, promising to return. Because of this, the Aztecs initially mistook the conquistador leader Cortes for the returned Quetzalcoatl.

Baal (Balu, Baal, "Lord")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Thunderer, god of rain and elements. In some myths - the creator of the world

Baal, as a rule, was depicted either as a bull or as a warrior riding on a cloud with a lightning spear. During the festivities in his honor, mass orgies took place, often accompanied by self-mutilation. It is believed that human sacrifices were also made to Baal in some areas. From his name comes the name of the biblical demon Beelzebub (Ball-Zebula, “Lord of the Flies”).

Ishtar (Astarte, Inanna, "Lady of Heaven")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Goddess of fertility, sex and war

Ishtar, sister of the Sun and daughter of the Moon, was associated with the planet Venus. Associated with the legend of her journey to the underworld was the myth of nature dying and reborn every year. She often acted as an intercessor for people before the gods. At the same time, Ishtar was responsible for various feuds. The Sumerians even called wars “the dances of Inanna.” As a goddess of war, she was often depicted riding a lion, and was probably a prototype of the Whore of Babylon riding on a beast.
The passion of the loving Ishtar was destructive for both gods and mortals. For her many lovers, everything usually ended in big trouble or even death. The worship of Ishtar included temple prostitution and was accompanied by mass orgies.

Ashur ("Father of the Gods")

Country: Assyria
Essence: God of War
Ashur is the main god of the Assyrians, the god of war and hunting. His weapon was a bow and arrow. As a rule, Ashur was depicted together with bulls. Its other symbol is the solar disk above the tree of life. Over time, as the Assyrians expanded their possessions, he began to be considered the consort of Ishtar. The High Priest of Ashur was the Assyrian king himself, and his name often became part of the royal name, as, for example, the famous Ashurbanipal, and the capital of Assyria was called Ashur.

Marduk ("Son of Clear Sky")

Country: Mesopotamia
Essence: Patron of Babylon, god of wisdom, ruler and judge of the gods
Marduk defeated the embodiment of chaos Tiamat, driving the “evil wind” into her mouth, and took possession of the book of destinies that belonged to her. After that, he cut Tiamat's body and created Heaven and Earth from them, and then created the entire modern, ordered world. The other gods, seeing the power of Marduk, recognized his supremacy.
Marduk's symbol is the dragon Mushkhush, a mixture of scorpion, snake, eagle and lion. Various plants and animals were identified with the body parts and entrails of Marduk. The main temple of Marduk - a huge ziggurat (step pyramid) - probably became the basis of the legend of the Tower of Babel.

Yahweh (Jehovah, "He Who Is")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Single tribal god of the Jews

Yahweh's main function was to help his chosen people. He gave the Jews laws and strictly monitored their implementation. In clashes with enemies, Yahweh provided the chosen people with assistance, sometimes the most direct. In one of the battles, for example, he threw huge stones at his enemies, in another case he abolished the law of nature, stopping the sun.
Unlike most other gods ancient world, Yahweh is extremely jealous, and forbids the worship of any deities other than himself. Severe punishments await those who disobey. The word “Yahweh” is a replacement for the secret name of God, which is forbidden to be spoken out loud. It was impossible to create his images either. In Christianity, Yahweh is sometimes identified with God the Father.

Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, “God the Wise”)

Country: Persia
Essence: Creator of the World and all that is good in it

Ahura Mazda created the laws by which the world exists. He endowed people with free will, and they can choose the path of good (then Ahura Mazda will favor them in every possible way) or the path of evil (serving Ahura Mazda's eternal enemy Angra Mainyu). Ahura Mazda's assistants are the good beings of Ahura created by him. He is surrounded by them in the fabulous Garodman, the house of chants.
The image of Ahura Mazda is the Sun. He is older than the whole world, but at the same time, eternally young. He knows both the past and the future. In the end, he will achieve the final victory over evil, and the world will become perfect.

Angra Mainyu (Ahriman, "Evil Spirit")

Country: Persia
Essence: The embodiment of evil among the ancient Persians
Angra Mainyu is the source of everything bad that happens in the world. He spoiled the perfect world created by Ahura Mazda, introducing lies and destruction into it. He sends diseases, crop failures, natural disasters, gives birth to predatory animals, poisonous plants and animals. Under the command of Angra Mainyu are the devas, evil spirits, who carry out his evil will. After Angra Mainyu and his minions are defeated, an era of eternal bliss should begin.

Brahma ("Priest")

Country: India
Essence: God is the creator of the world
Brahma was born from a lotus flower and then created this world. After 100 years of Brahma, 311,040,000,000,000 earthly years, he will die, and after the same period of time a new Brahma will spontaneously generate and create new world.
Brahma has four faces and four arms, which symbolizes the cardinal directions. Its indispensable attributes are a book, rosary, a vessel with water from the sacred Ganges, a crown and a lotus flower, symbols of knowledge and power. Brahma lives on the top of the sacred Mount Meru and rides on a white swan. The descriptions of the action of Brahma's weapon Brahmastra are reminiscent of the description of nuclear weapons.

Vishnu ("All-encompassing")

Country: India
Essence: God is the keeper of the world

The main functions of Vishnu are maintenance existing world and opposition to evil. Vishnu appears in the world and acts through his incarnations, avatars, the most famous of which are Krishna and Rama. Vishnu has blue skin and wears yellow clothes. He has four hands in which he holds a lotus flower, a mace, a conch shell and Sudarshana (a rotating disk of fire, his weapon). Vishnu reclines on the giant multi-headed snake Shesha, which swims in the world's Causal Ocean.

Shiva ("Merciful")

Country: India
Essence: God is the destroyer
Shiva's main task is to destroy the world at the end of each world cycle in order to make room for a new creation. This happens during the dance of Shiva - Tandava (therefore Shiva is sometimes called the dancing god). However, he also has more peaceful functions - a healer and a deliverer from death.
Shiva sits in lotus position on a tiger skin. There are snake bracelets on his neck and wrists. On Shiva's forehead there is a third eye (it appeared when Shiva's wife, Parvati, jokingly covered his eyes with her palms). Sometimes Shiva is depicted as a lingam (an erect penis). But sometimes he is also depicted as a hermaphrodite, symbolizing the unity of the male and female principles. According to popular beliefs, Shiva smokes marijuana, so some believers consider this activity a way to understand him.

Ra (Amon, "Sun")

Country: Egypt
Essence: Sun God
Ra, the main god of Ancient Egypt, was born from the primordial ocean of his own free will, and then created the world, including the gods. He is the personification of the Sun, and every day with a large retinue he travels across the sky in a magic boat, thanks to which life in Egypt becomes possible. At night, Ra's boat sails along the underground Nile through the afterlife. The Eye of Ra (sometimes considered an independent deity) had the ability to pacify and subjugate enemies. The Egyptian pharaohs traced their origins to Ra, and called themselves his sons.

Osiris (Usir, "The Mighty One")

Country: Egypt
Essence: God of rebirth, ruler and judge of the underworld.

Osiris taught people agriculture. His attributes are associated with plants: the crown and boat are made of papyrus, he holds bundles of reeds in his hands, and the throne is covered with greenery. Osiris was killed and cut into pieces by his brother, the evil god Set, but was resurrected with the help of his wife and sister Isis. However, having conceived the son Horus, Osiris did not remain in the world of the living, but became the ruler and judge of the kingdom of the dead. Because of this, he was often depicted as a swaddled mummy with free hands, in which he holds a scepter and flail. In Ancient Egypt, the tomb of Osiris was highly revered.

Isis ("The Throne")

Country: Egypt
Essence: Intercessor Goddess.
Isis is the embodiment of femininity and motherhood. All segments of the population turned to her with pleas for help, but, first of all, the oppressed. She especially patronized children. And sometimes she acted as a defender of the dead before the afterlife court.
Isis was able to magically resurrect her husband and brother Osiris and give birth to his son Horus. In popular mythology, the floods of the Nile were considered the tears of Isis, which she shed for Osiris, who remained in the world of the dead. The Egyptian pharaohs were called the children of Isis; sometimes she was even depicted as a mother feeding the pharaoh with milk from her breast.
The image of the “veil of Isis” is known, meaning the concealment of the secrets of nature. This image has long attracted mystics. No wonder Blavatsky’s famous book is called “Isis Unveiled.”

Odin (Wotan, "The Seer")

A country: Northern Europe
Essence: God of war and victory
Odin is the main god of the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. He travels on the eight-legged horse Sleipnir or on the ship Skidbladnir, the size of which can be changed at will. Odin's spear, Gugnir, always flies to the target and hits on the spot. He is accompanied by wise crows and predatory wolves. Odin lives in Valhalla with a squad of the best fallen warriors and warlike Valkyrie maidens.
In order to gain wisdom, Odin sacrificed one eye, and in order to understand the meaning of the runes, he hung on the sacred tree Yggdrasil for nine days, nailed to it with his own spear. Odin's future is predetermined: despite his power, on the day of Ragnarok (the battle preceding the end of the world) he will be killed by the giant wolf Fefnir.

Thor (Thunder)

Country: Northern Europe
Essence: Thunderer

Thor is the god of the elements and fertility among the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. This is a hero god who protects not only people, but also other gods from monsters. Thor was depicted as a giant with a red beard. His weapon is the magic hammer Mjolnir (“lightning”), which can only be held with iron gloves. Thor is girded with a magic belt that doubles his strength. He rides across the sky in a chariot drawn by goats. Sometimes he eats goats, but then resurrects them with his magic hammer. On the day of Ragnarok, the last battle, Thor will deal with the world serpent Jormungandr, but he himself will die from his poison.

“And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystical possession! Although I am the support of all living objects and although I am everywhere, I am not part of this cosmic manifestation, since I Myself am the very source of creation.” .

Materialists and even philosophical thinkers cannot understand how God is simultaneously everywhere and at the same time He is a Person. It doesn't fit in their head. They think - either this or that, thus limiting the Absolute. Those who work for the fruits of labor sometimes accept...

Many thousands of years ago, Egypt was not yet a magnificent paradise, shining in the beauty of the most luxurious vegetation and was not inhabited by millions of inhabitants; the soil for the most part was not yet cultivated, the people were ignorant and wild and lived on reeds, grass, fish, water animals and meat.

But it had to be different, it was destined to be so.

Standing on the banks of the Nile Small town Tape. One day, so the legend tells, a voice was heard from on high, which loudly announced: “The Lord of the world will appear on...

The word god, in Egyptian, is neter, in ancient Egypt had a completely different meaning than it had for us or for the Greeks and Romans. Neter meant exalted, venerable; the sky, the sun, the earth, the Nile - there were Peters, in the same way - heroes of past times.

Founders and builders of the state; even every king was a peter, if he really was what he should have been - a defender and trustee of the country; and altars were erected to him, just as the good son prayed daily before the idol of his father and made sacrifices to...

"From multi-headed Nagas I am Ananta, among the inhabitants of the waters I am the demigod Varuna. Of the ancestors I am Aryama, and among the rulers of the law I am Yama, the lord of death."

Naga means snakes, among them Ananta, the expansion of God - the greatest.

Aryama rules the ancestral planet, Pete. Yama, the god of death is the most prominent of all who is called upon to punish evildoers. We can see that much in life is governed by punishment, or the fear of punishment, this principle extends to the entire universe.

HIGH GOD PERUN

More than 40,000 thousand years ago, God Perun visited Midgard-Earth for the third time from Urai-Earth in the Hall of the Eagle on the Svarozh Circle. Patron God of all wars and many Clans of the Great Race. God the Thunderer, ruler of Lightning, son of God Svarog and Lada the Mother of God.

After the first three Heavenly Battles between Light and Darkness, when the Light Forces won, God Perun descended to Midgard-Earth to tell people about the events that had taken place and what awaited the Earth in the future, about the onset of the Dark Ones...

The entire scientific, entire cultural world believes that Ra is the name of the God of the ancient Egyptians, who materialized in the form of the Sun. Ra - Sun God of the ancient Egyptians. And the fact that Ra is the God of the Sun of the ancient Aryan-Proto-Slavs, somehow they passed by this.

Let's try to restore the truth, albeit with a primitive, but irrefutable method. Let's try to figure it out by putting together puzzles of different worldviews and ideologies.

1. It's time. We say: “Rise according to Ra!”, that is, “Rise according to the Sun!”

2. Early. They wake us up, and we...

To a certain degree of deepening into oneself, a person recognizes something superhuman in himself.

God already exists because we exist. Call it God or whatever you want, but it is indisputable that there is life in us, not created by us, but given to us, and call its source God or whatever you want.

Imagination creates Ghosts and is afraid of them - this is excusable for it because it is imagination. But for the mind to submit and fear the reasoning that it generates is unforgivable for it...

Maharaj: Where did you come from? What are you looking for?
Question: I come from America, and my friend comes from Ireland. I arrived about six months ago and have been traveling from ashram to ashram. My friend came alone.

M: What did you see?
Q: I have been to Sri Ramanasramam and also to Rishikesh. May I know your opinion about Sri Ramana Maharshi?

M: We are both in the same ancient state. But what do you know about the Maharshi? You consider yourself a name and a body, and therefore you perceive only names and bodies.

Q: If you two met...

Religion and knowledge among the Mayan tribe were one, constituting an inseparable worldview, reflected in the art of the tribe. The idea of ​​the diversity of the surrounding world was formed in the images of a large number of deities. All Mayan gods were combined into a couple of main groups, responsible for different areas of human experience. These are gods: fertility, hunting, various elements, heavenly bodies, gods of death, gods of war and many others. IN different time in the history of the Mayan tribe, different deities had a certain significance for their fans. The Mayans believed that the universe was composed of thirteen heavens and nine underworlds. In the very center of the earth there was a tree that passed through all the celestial spheres. Also on each side of the earth, and there were four of them, there was one tree, symbolizing the cardinal directions - north corresponded white tree, west - black, south - yellow and east - mahogany. Each side of the world had several gods at once (the god of the wind, the god of the rain and the god of the holder of the heavens), each of which had its own color.

Images of Mayan gods

One of the most necessary and important Mayan gods of the classical period, the god of corn was considered to be represented by a young man wearing an elongated headdress. Before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, the other most important god was Itzamna, who was represented as an elderly man with a hump on his nose and a small beard. In most cases, the images of the Mayan gods contained a large amount of symbolism, which speaks of the complex thinking of both the performers and those who ordered the drawings, reliefs or sculptures. For example, the sun god had a mouth dotted with circles along the contour and had huge fangs. The mouth and eyes of the other god are shown as coiled snakes, etc.

Of the female gods, the wife of the rain god, the so-called “red goddess”, who was depicted with the paws of an unknown predator instead of her legs and with a snake in her hair, was very influential. Itzamna's wife was considered the moon goddess Ish-Chel, who helped with childbirth, medicine and weaving. Some deities were depicted as birds and animals, such as an eagle or a jaguar. During the Toltec period of Mayan history, deities who came from central Mexico were revered. One of the most revered deities was Kukulkan. In his image one can see obvious details depicted on the sculptures of the god Quetzalcoatl of the Nahua people.

The ancient vanished Mayan civilization left its descendants with a large number of mysteries and secrets. These tribes, who had extensive knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and cosmology, were among the most advanced on the entire South American continent. But at the same time, they actively practiced human sacrifice, and the Mayan gods still seem to scientists to be an extremely confusing system of beliefs and ideas about the universe. Unfortunately, many written sources of that time were mercilessly destroyed by the conquistadors. Therefore, the names of the Mayan gods reached researchers in an incomplete version; many of them underwent serious changes by Catholic priests over many decades. And others have sunk into oblivion without revealing their secret to scientists. Despite this, the gods of the Aztecs and Mayans, as well as the cults of their praise, continue to be carefully studied and surprise researchers with their versatility.

The world as perceived by South American Indians

Before moving on to consider the pantheon of these peoples, it is necessary to understand how their ideas about the world around them developed. After all, the gods of the Aztecs and Mayans were a direct consequence of the cosmology of the Indians.

A great difficulty for scientists who study the life of the Mayans is the huge number of gods and their relationship with their own kind and ordinary people. The Mayans endowed with divine power not only natural phenomena, but also the heavenly bodies, various crops and animals.

South American Indians imagined the world as a quadrangular plane, along the edges of which stood trees symbolizing the cardinal directions. Each of them had its own color, and in the center was the most important green tree. It penetrated into all worlds and connected them with each other. The Mayans claimed that the heavens were made up of thirteen different worlds, each of which is inhabited by its own deities and has supreme god. Underground spheres too, according to representatives ancient civilization, had several levels. In nine worlds there lived people who arranged the most terrible tests for the souls of the dead. Not all souls could pass them; in the saddest case, they remained forever in the kingdom of darkness and sadness.

It is interesting that the Mayans had several interpretations of the origin of the world, as well as its structure. For example, some peoples believed that in the corners of the world there were not trees, but bakabs - four deities holding the heavenly worlds on their shoulders. They also had different colors. For example, bakaba in the east was colored red, and in the south it was yellow. The color green has always corresponded to the center of the earth.

The Mayans had a very peculiar attitude towards death. It was considered a natural continuation of life and was examined in great detail in all its forms. Surprisingly, where a person ends up after finishing his earthly journey directly depends on how he dies. For example, women who died in childbirth and warriors always ended up in some kind of heaven. And here natural death from old age doomed the soul to wander in the kingdom of darkness. There, great trials awaited her, after which she could forever remain within the confines of the gloomy gods of death. Suicide was not considered a weakness or something forbidden among the South American Indians. Rather, on the contrary - the one who took it into his own hands went to the gods of the Sun, and eternally rejoiced at his new afterlife.

Features of the Mayan pantheon of gods

The Mayan gods amaze scientists with their numbers. According to some reports, there are more than two hundred of them. Moreover, each of them has several incarnations and can appear in at least four different forms. Many of them have a wife, who is also one of the incarnations. This dualism can also be seen among the gods of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is not known which of the religions was primary and influenced the other, but scientists know that the Mayans took part of their gods from an even more ancient culture, about which almost nothing is known today.

What is surprising when first meeting the pantheon of deities is the fact that most of them are mortals. This is evidenced by the stories and images of deities that have survived to this day. It was quite common to depict them at different periods of maturity, and old age symbolized not decrepitude and infirmity, but wisdom. It was necessary to feed the gods through sacrifices, because the blood of the victims gave them longevity and energy.

The gods of the heavenly bodies died more often than others, and before reappearing in the sky they had to wander through the kingdom of the dead in their new incarnation. Then they regained their former appearance and returned to their designated place.

The gods of the Mayan peoples, depicted on the bas-reliefs of temples and pyramids, at first glance frightened scientists with their appearance and complexity of perception. The fact is that symbolism was adopted in the culture of the South American Indians, and each image was given a special meaning. Often the gods looked like creatures with animal claws, coiled snakes instead of eyes, and elongated skulls. But their appearance did not frighten the Mayans, they saw a special meaning in this, and every object in the hands of the deity or on his costume was intended to consolidate his power over people.

Mayan calendar

Almost everyone to modern man The Mayan calendar is known to predict the end of the world in 2012. It caused a lot of scientific controversy and hypotheses, but in fact it was just another version of chronology, which the Mayans, as told in legends, learned from the gods. The gods of the Mayan tribe taught them to calculate eras as a time period equal to approximately five thousand two hundred years. Moreover, representatives of the mysterious civilization were sure that the world had already lived and died before. The Mayan gods told the priests that the world was now experiencing its fourth incarnation. It has already been created and died before. For the first time, human civilization perished from the sun, the second and third times - from wind and water. For the fourth time, destruction threatens the world from the god Jaguar, who will break out of the kingdom of the dead and destroy all life on the planet. But in place of what was destroyed, a new world will be reborn, rejecting everything evil and mercantile. The Mayans considered this order of things natural and did not even think about preventing the death of humanity.

Sacrifices in honor of the gods

The gods of the ancient Mayans demanded constant sacrifices, and quite often they were human. Historians believe that almost every service to the deity was accompanied by a sea of ​​blood. Depending on its quantity, the deities blessed or punished the people. Moreover, the rituals of sacrifice were practiced by the priests to the point of automatism; sometimes they were characterized by extreme cruelty and could amaze a European.

The most beautiful young girls were appointed every year as brides of the god of fertility - Yum-Kash. After a certain ritual, they were thrown alive into a deep stone well along with gold and jade, where they died for a long time and painfully.

According to another ritual, a person was tied to a sculpture of a deity, and the priest ripped open his stomach with a special knife. The entire idol was covered with blood, and then the victim’s body was painted bright blue. Whitewash was applied to the area of ​​the heart where members of the tribe shot with bows. No less bloody is the ritual of tearing out the heart from a still living person. At the top of the pyramid, the priest tied the victim to the altar and put him into a state of trance. With one deft movement, the priest ripped open the chest and with his hands tore the still beating heart out of the body. Then the body was thrown down to the crowd roaring in ecstasy.

Another way to honor the gods was the ritual ball game. At the end of the game, the Mayan gods always received their long-awaited sacrifice. Typically, the sites where two teams fought were located in a quadrangle closed on all sides. The walls were the sides of the temple pyramids. All members of the losing team had their heads cut off and impaled on spears in a special Skulls area.

To nourish their gods between major ritual sacrifices, the Mayan priests constantly bled themselves, sprinkling it on the altar. Several times a day they pierced their ears, tongues and other parts of the body. Such respect for the gods should have endeared them to the tribe and given them well-being.

The main god of the Maya, the creator of all living things

The god Itzamna was the most important deity in the Mayan pantheon. He was usually depicted as an old man with a large nose and one tooth in his mouth. He was associated with a lizard or iguana and was often depicted surrounded by these creatures.

The Itzamna cult is one of the most ancient; most likely, it appeared when the Mayans still revered totem animals. Lizards in the culture of South American Indians were considered sacred creatures that, even before the appearance of the gods, held the sky with their tails. The Mayans claimed that Itzamna created the earth, people, gods and all worlds. He taught the people to count, cultivate the land and showed important stars in the night sky. Almost everything that people knew how to do was brought to them by the main god of the Mayans. He was simultaneously the deity of rain, harvest and earth.

Itzamna's Companion

No less revered by the Mayans was Itzamna’s wife, the goddess Ish-Chel. She was simultaneously the goddess of the moon, the rainbow and the mother of all other deities of the Mayan pantheon. It is believed that all gods descended from this couple, so Ish-Chel simultaneously patronizes women, girls, children and expectant mothers. She can assist in childbirth, but sometimes takes newborn babies as sacrifices. The Mayans had a custom according to which, for the first time, pregnant girls went alone to the island of Cosmel. There they had to appease the goddess with various sacrifices so that the birth would go smoothly and the baby would be born healthy and strong.

There are legends that young virgins and babies were often sacrificed on the island. Surprisingly, even the patroness of women, who was supposed to be reverent and gentle, accepted human sacrifice and fed on fresh blood, like all other Mayan deities.

Kukulkan, Mayan god

One of the most famous and revered Mayan gods was Kukulcan. His cult was widespread throughout Yucatan. The very name of God is translated as “feathered serpent” and he often appeared before his people in various incarnations. Most often he was depicted as a creature similar to a winged serpent with the head of a man. In other bas-reliefs he looked like a god with the head of a bird and the body of a snake. Kukulkan ruled the four elements and often symbolized fire.

In fact, the most important Mayan god was not associated with any of the elements, but he skillfully controlled them, using them as a special gift. The priests of the cult were considered the main exponents of Kukulkan's will; they could communicate directly with God and knew his will. Moreover, he defended the royal dynasties and always advocated their strengthening.

The most magnificent pyramid in Yucatan was built in honor of Kukulkan. It was performed so amazingly that on the day summer solstice the shadow of the structure takes the form of a winged serpent. This symbolizes the coming of God to his people. Many people note that the pyramid has very special acoustics - even in complete silence it seems that birds are screaming somewhere nearby.

The most terrible of the pantheon of Mayan gods

The Mayan death god, Ah-Puch, was the lord of the lowest tier underground kingdom. He invented monstrous bloody tests for lost souls and often loved to watch the ritual game of a match between the souls of the Indians and the gods of the kingdom of the dead. Most often he was depicted as a skeleton or a creature covered with corpse-like black spots.

In order to leave the kingdom of the dead, it was necessary to outwit the deity, but the Mayans claimed that during the entire existence of the worlds, only a few daredevils succeeded.

Light deity of the sky

The Mayans were excellent astronomers, they paid a lot of attention to the Sun and Moon. How fruitful the year would be depended on the daylight. But observations of the Moon and stars allowed the Indians to keep a calendar and mark the days of rituals, sacrifices and sowing. Therefore, it is not surprising that the gods of these heavenly bodies were among the most revered.

The Mayan Sun God was named Kinich Ahau. He was at the same time the patron of warriors, who, dying, fed God with their blood. The Mayans believed that Kinich Ahau should gain strength at night, so it was necessary to feed it with blood daily. IN otherwise he will not be able to rise from the darkness and light a new day.

Most often, God appeared in the form of a young man with red skin. He was depicted sitting with a solar disk in his hands. According to the Mayan calendar, it was his era that began after 2012. After all, the fifth era belongs entirely to Kinich Ahau.

Rain God Chuck

Since the Mayans were mainly engaged agriculture, it is not surprising that the gods of the sun and rain belonged to the supreme pantheon of deities. God Chuck was feared and revered. After all, he could grant good and timely watering to the crops, or he could punish them with drought. In such years, he received sacrifices amounting to hundreds of human lives. The altars did not have time to dry out from the sea of ​​spilled blood.

Most often, Chuck was depicted in a lazy reclining position with a large sacrificial bowl on his lap. Sometimes he looked like a formidable creature with an ax, which could cause rain and lightning, which were considered companions of a good harvest.

God of fertility

Yum-Kash was both the god of fertility and corn. Since this crop was the main one in the life of the Indians, the fate of the entire city depended on its productivity. God was always depicted as a young man with an elongated head, which turned into a cob. Sometimes his headdress resembled corn. According to legend, corn was given to the Mayan gods; they brought seeds from heaven and taught them to cultivate. Surprisingly, scientists have not yet found the wild ancestor of corn, from which modern cultivated varieties of this species, which is still popular today, were supposed to originate.

Be that as it may, the culture of the Mayan people and their religious beliefs have not yet been fully studied by modern scientists. They believe that the knowledge gained with great difficulty about the life of the South American Indians is just the tip of the iceberg, but the real achievements of this civilization, which will lead to an understanding of its way of life, were irrevocably destroyed by the conquistadors.