The Mayans, and by extension, many other people, emerged from a cave called Xibalba, a place of great suffering. We know that this cave is not just allegorical, due to the fact that the word Xibalba means, 'those men who are afraid of water' and that the Mayans fled eventually to islands, including Teopan and Teotipa in far western El Salvador. Teopan is located in Lago Coatepeque whose name in Chorti was Tammakchan, 'deep inside the rainbow', where rainbow means 'stopping up the rainstorm'. On the islands the Mayans perfected corn by hybridizing it with teosinte grass, which means 'plants in a row on an island'.
By looking up place names in the online Chorti' Maya dictionary, I have been able to locate a cave in eastern El Salvador called La Gruta del Espíritu Santo near the town of Corinto. Corinto means 'place of game sacrifice' in Chorti Maya. Before moving on to what the Popol Vuh says happened to the civilizing people once they left the cave of Xibalba, it will be helpful to describe the cave. All of the people who can trace some of their lineage back to the Mayans will share some of these specific cultural icons.
The Popol Vuh describes five sections in the cave, the first being the Dark 'House', which appears to be where the leaders stayed as well as guests. Next is the Razor House, perhaps in reference to pointed rocks or stalagmites. Then is the Cold or Whistling House, in obvious reference to a draft that whistles as it blows in. This area would have been several degrees colder then during the Ice Age period. The next room is the Jaguar House. As I mentioned in a previous post this might refer to those who will later be forced to fight for the entertainment of the cave leaders. Finally is the Bat House, which is probably a literal reference to an area where bats flew around.
The Popol Vuh tells us that three of the four original Mayan came out of the Jaguar House and I will demonstrate that one also came out of the Bat House. In some versions of the Popol Vuh description there is a sixth fire or smoke house, an obvious reference to a cooking space. The cave people would have kept a constant fire going since it was so difficult to start a fire. Consistent with the Popol Vuh, the Bradshaw Foundation documented that the cave consists of several galleries or sections.
The Bradshaw Foundation also says that there are five paint colors on the cave drawings in the cave. These are the same five colors mentioned throughout the Popol Vuh and to this day used by the Mayans in their ceremonies: white, black, yellow, red, and green. My guess is that the colors represented clans or groups of leaders.
When the Popol Vuh mentions the roads to Xibalba and calls them the white, black, yellow, and red roads, it may be the road for which a particular color clan is responsible for controlling. Later, probably after the Mayans left the cave, green paint was added in the cave. It is only in a later passage of the Popol Vuh that the green road is mentioned. The green road is the one of choice. This would seem to be a reference to going off-road, through the woods, to avoid the Xibalba marauders. Even today one can hear Central Americans make a joke about taking the green road when going off a beaten path.
Raphael Girard, who lived among the Chortis for a long time, documented a near-forgotten play called 'the History' performed at Christian feast days very close to the summer and winter solstice celebrations. In the play, the Mayans are opposed to a white giant and a black giant. And move around as if stars and planets. The Mayan 'king' has a gold crown with ten points, a yellow cloak, rose or red trousers, and a blue 'bonnet' with a long (30 cm) red veil hanging over his face. There are other solar and celestial symbols on his clothing. First the white and black giants battle each other, with the black giant winning. In the end the Mayan king is able to defeat the black giant.
While Girard considers this to be entirely metaphor, I believe it corresponds to glimmers of human history: that the white giant represents the leader(s) of the humans as they crossed over the Bering Strait. That as they progressed down toward Central America, there was a struggle for power and that the black giant represents the victor clan which established a legacy of control over the entire traffic of the isthmus between North and South America, the Central American isthmus. The black giant clan had their base out of the Gruta cave in Corinto, El Salvador.
The Bradshaw Foundation found that some of the drawings had feathered headdresses. Some had an elongated left wrist - perhaps a club reference. At the very deepest point in the cave is a large black and white hand, using the black rock with white paint stenciled around it. The symbol of those who controlled the cave.
This cultural reference also existed in El Salvador until recently. During the 1970s, prior to the armed conflict in El Salvador, the death squads used the drawing of either a black or white hand, 'El Mano', to identify the house of somebody that they intended to kill. When your house was selected it was said that you were fingered out.
It appears from the references in the Popol Vuh of lights, fireflies, and torches that the Mayans were able to demonstrate knowledge of the heavenly skies to the Xibalbans. The Xibalbans counter with their own somewhat simple knowledge of the skies, a white dagger, which I would guess is the sun. It would appear that although the Xibalbans may have been cruel, they were intelligent.
Ultimately it was a test of knowledge rather than a test of strength, that allowed the Mayans to free themselves of the cave. Each time that they visit the cave it is for several days and there are references to staying up all night. This would have been necessary to watch the night skies, in order for the Mayans to demonstrate their prowess of astronomical knowledge.
It would appear that the specific knowledge that the Mayans developed that allowed their freedom was the ability to track Mars and predict when it would turn retrograde in the sky.
One can imagine the conversation, "We don't need to do anything differently. The sun will come up tomorrow. That is our reality. Why sit there and count to 20 by painting on your fingers and toes. See our hand, this is our counting. If you think you have a better system than us, go back where you came from. If you think you're so hot, make the stars stand still."
In the razor room the razors are moving back and forth but the Mayans are able to make the razors stand still. This was done by developing the 260 day calendar and the Mars long-count calendar. It was not brute force but an astronomical calendar, pulled by the gravitational force of the center of the galaxy, the void in the Milky Way, the tree of life in the sky, that led to the liberation of one of the world's earliest people. This is the 'ball game equipment' of the Mayans. Game on!
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