The Crocodile in a Tree

Glyph of the sky


Last blog I mentioned that to the ancient Maya, the Milky Way represented a great ball court in the sky. It links back to the creation tales of the Hero Twins. But to the Maya, the Milky Way represented several other things.For example, it was also seen as a great Crocodile, ( or in some translation, a Jaguar/Toad animal).. And the Dark Rift in the Milky Way was called the "mouth of the crocodile". It is often referred to as Hunab Ku, the center of the galaxy.And it is also referred to as xibalba be, the road to the underworld. Passage through the mouth of the crocodile then, was passage to the underworld of the Maya.


(In other cultures, it is viewed as a great serpent eating it's own tail. the Ourobus. And the ancient Greeks looked upon the time cycle displayed by the Milky Way and the Dark Rift as indicating the end of an age, as the Maya did).


The K'iche called this portion of the Milky Way "The Crossroads". They believed that when a planet, or the sun or the moon lined up in the center of the Rift, (in Sagittarius), that it was possible to cross from our world to the Underworld. This spot in the sky happens to be th Galactic Equator, or the center of the Milky Way. And this is key in our Doomsday discussion, as when a planet, sun or moon lines up, a journeyer can pass from our would to another. According to popular theory, on 12/21/12, there is a Galactic Alignment. The Galactic Alignment is the alignment of the December solstice sun with the Galactic equator. This is a rare event occurring on 25,800 years.


Let us appreciate that the Mayan's could find the dead center of the Universe. Truly they were an ancient civilization with amazing comprehension of time and space.


But the key consideration of the Milky Way is the concept that it is the World Tree of the Maya. Indeed the Crocodile symbolism is often called the Crocodile Tree. This is very similar to the World Tree concept that also contains a "monster' in it's branches. So next post, we will look at what the cieba tree means to the Mayans, and then we will look at the World Tree as seen in the Milky Way.

J.T. Turner, Mayanist