Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Judi Lynn

(160,218 posts)
Fri Sep 16, 2022, 03:33 AM Sep 2022

From Mud to the Sun: The World Tree of the Maya

Cosmic trees, found around the globe and throughout history, may represent a primeval fount of creation or a vegetal axis mundi that connects life and death.

- image at link -

The lid of K'inich Janaab' Pakal's sarcophagus depicting the World Tree. The Mayan king of Palenque died in 683 C.E. via Wikimedia Commons

By: Matthew Wills September 15, 2022 3 minutes

Rooted in the Earth and reaching toward the Sun, cosmic “world trees” are found around the globe and throughout history, symbols that unite life itself with underworlds and sky gods of disparate peoples. This “vegetative motif,” writes scholar J. Andrew McDonald, represents the “metaphysical principles of cosmogenesis, natural creation, eternal recurrence, and/or human hopes for everlasting life in the hereafter.”

“Known variously as kalpa vrksa to Brahmins, haoma to Parsis, yggdrasil to the Norse, arbor vitae to Christians, or more generically as the world tree, sacral tree, cosmic tree, or tree of life to historians and mythologists,” outlines McDonald, “the motif generally represents a primeval fount of living creation or a vegetative prop (axis mundi) of universal laws that embodies the natural processes of life and death.”

These symbolic trees are sometimes identifiable as actual species. Yggdrasil, for instance, is an ash. The idea of elevating part of the local flora to cosmic significance, continues McDonald, seems “to spring spontaneously to life in the human imagination, as similar vegetative forms appear recurrently in the written and artistic records of distant and isolated cultures throughout the world.”

- image at link -

via Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes the origin species for these symbols are obvious. Sometimes it’s more of a question of interpretation. In Mesoamerica, attempts to interpret the imagery of the local world tree have “greater challenges than analogous iconic trees of Europe and Asia.” This is because Catholic clergy accompanying the Spanish conquers tried to destroy “all vestiges of Amerindian beliefs and religious practices.” As a result of this violent iconoclasm, there are only limited examples of “this once pervasive symbol in Mexico and Central America.” And, with what is left in the case of the Maya, “use of abstract figures and symbolic forms can be so extreme as to render many images unintelligible to even experienced specialists.”

More:
https://daily.jstor.org/from-mud-to-the-sun-the-world-tree-of-the-maya/

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Latin America»From Mud to the Sun: The ...