Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2019

The Maya Nonordinary Realms
Locating Lost Soul Pieces: Navigating the Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld

Like the Mexica, the Maya divided the nonordinary realms into an Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld, in which skilled shamans could intentionally journey and navigate.³⁵ Above the Earth was the Upperworld, where ancestors and other supernatural beings resided. By some accounts, below the Earth was the dreaded Underworld known as Xibalba, inhabited by the treacherous Xibalban lords. The Middleworld was believed to be a square with sacred spaces that supernatural beings could also occupy.³⁶

Upperworld

The Upperworld was divided into 13 ascending levels. The documentation of the specific levels is not yet known. But we do know that the ecliptic, which traces out the apparent annual motion of the sun across the sky, was believed to lie along this line. The path of this celestial movement was often depicted as a double-headed serpent and referred to as kan, meaning both “sky” and “serpent” in Yucatec Mayan. The activities of the deities and ancestors could be understood through the astrological movements of the planets and stars of the Upperworld.³⁷

Diego de Landa, a sixteenth-century missionary and ethnographer, mentions that the Yucatec Maya conceived of two distinct afterlife regions, the dark Underworld known as Metnal and a paradisal garden. They believed that after death there was another life better than this, but where a person ended up depended on whether they were good or evil. The evil would go to Metnal, where they were tormented by demons, great pains of cold and hunger, weariness, and sadness. If they had lived a life of virtuous conduct, they would enter a paradisal realm free of pain, where there was an abundance of food, delicious drinks, and a refreshing and shady tree called the yaxché (ceiba) tree, under which they could rest and be in peace forever.³⁸ (De Landa’s account may have been his own understanding, as it seems likely from Maya art that this paradisal realm was reserved for brave warriors and nobles.)

De Landa does not say whether this paradisal realm was in the Upperworld. Taube points out, however, that this paradisal realm is likely the Flower World or Flower Mountain. Flower World was ubiquitous in Maya art: it was both the dwelling place of ancestors and the mode by which ancestors and celestial gods ascended into the sky.³⁹ In architecture, Flower World was portrayed as a pyramid with stairways often flanked with plumed serpents, which likely served as a symbolic passage into this paradisal Upperworld. (The significance of stairways on these pyramids was also likely related to the path of the sun, especially the idea that the plumed serpent was a floral road and conduit for supernatural beings.) Flower World was also associated with the East, the place of the dawning sun; it was closely linked to the rebirth of the dawning sun and to the resurrection of the maize and sun deities.⁴⁰ Hence, Flower World was not necessarily stationary in the sky: it followed the path of the sun and perhaps at different intersections or points became more accessible to the living.

The Upperworld was also associated with the space of the North. This was expressed in the architectural layout of cities of the Classic period, many of which had a strongly marked north-south axis. The northern part of the acropolis of Classic Period Tikal, for example, represented the supernatural celestial sphere of ancestors and celestial beings. The royal tombs and stelae in the northern part was a space where a ruler could become a supernatural being and ascend into the Upperworld to join his esteemed ancestors.⁴¹ The conflation of meanings of the Upperworld and the North will be discussed in greater detail in chapter 7.

Middleworld

Ancestors, spirits, and deities resided not only in the Upperworld and the Underworld but also in the Middleworld of the Earth. Here supernatural beings occupied sacred geological features of the landscape, such as mountains, caves, water springs, and cenotes, as their special precincts.⁴² They also dwelled in buildings and architectural spaces that mirrored sacred natural spaces.⁴³ These spaces, natural and constructed, acted as portals and residences for their supernatural beings. Through divination, shamans could also access parallel spaces of the Middleworld at different times and places.

Underworld

The ancient Maya organized the Underworld into 9 descending levels. Some accounts locate the Underworld deep within the interior of the Earth. The Underworld was a watery place through which two rivers flowed. It could be entered through caves or bodies of standing water. It harbored regenerative powers, but at the same time it was a dreaded place of decay and disease.⁴⁴ When Venus disappeared into the sky, it was believed that it had descended into Xilbalba, the Underworld, from which it would later arise and be resurrected.⁴⁵

In the K’iché’ Popol Vuh, the Underworld is identified as a watery realm or an actual body of water, and as a source of transformation and resurrection. The mythic Hero Twins must pass through many tests as they go through the levels of Xilbalba, including the House of Bats, House of Gloom, House of Cold, House of Knives, and House of Fire. They must also face the creatures of the Underworld, who are given their duties and dominion by One and Seven Death. These creatures include Flying Scab and Sickening Blood, responsible for blood poisoning; Pus Demon and Jaundice Demon, who swell and discolor flesh; Bone Staff and Skull Staff, who turn bodies into bones and skulls; Sweeping Demons and Stabbing Demons, who stab and kill people who fail to sweep their homes and properly dispose of trash; Lord Wing and Packstrap, who cause sudden death on roadways; and Bloody Teeth and Bloody Claws, whose specific roles are not explained.⁴⁶

The Hero Twins go through a series of struggles that appear to be metaphors for overcoming illness and death.⁴⁷ As a ploy to trick the Underworld lords, the bones of the twins are ground up on a grinding stone like cornmeal. They are then thrown into a river. After passing their tests, the Hero Twins utilize the regenerative power of rivers and are resurrected as handsome boys.⁴⁸

The Underworld was also characterized as a fearful place of destruction, uncontrolled malevolent forces, and a horrible stench.⁴⁹ Nightmarish beings that harbor disease reside there. Such forces could also be accessed through direct experience by making pilgrimages into deep caves.⁵⁰ An example of a Middleworld entrance to the Underworld was a cavern in Alta Verepaz. From this hole came a stench of rotting corpses and clotted blood. The shamans had the responsibility to send back through it the diseases inflicted by the Underworld.⁵¹