Maya Pantheon: The Bacabs

The cardinal directions, and their symbols

The Maya believed that the Earth was flat and that it was carried by a great turtle, the Bacabs were four brothers said to be the offspring of the Moon goddess Ix Chel, and the creation/Sun god Itzamna, however there is some speculation that they are four different aspects of one single deity. They stood at the four corners of the Earth, keeping the thirteen layers of the sky from crashing into the Earth and the nine layers of the underworld. They represent the four cardinal directions and their associated colours:

A representation of the Ceiba Tree

Zac Cimi stands in the west and their related colour is black, Hozanek guards the south and is linked to the colour yellow, Hobnil takes the east and is associated with the colour of red, and Can Tzicnal looms in the north and connected with the colour white. In between them all, is the fifth cardinal direction drawing towards the centre of the world, and at the centre sits the Ceiba Tree (World Tree) which reaches through the Earth into both the sky and underworld.

Maya Pantheon: Ix Chel

The Lost History of Aztec & Maya, pg. 60

Ix Chel is the Mayan goddess of the Moon and is connected to fertility. It is speculated that there are two aspects to her character, typical of the duality running through much of the Maya belief system; the image of a sensuous young woman, and that of an aged hag. This extreme contrast drawn from many different inscriptions and artefacts, however, has lead archaeologists to believe that the young woman and elderly lady could possibly be two separate goddesses, referred to as Goddess I and Goddess O respectively.

Her connotations with the Moon means that her totem animal is the rabbit, a creature often seen on the face of the moon in many cultures. She is often depicted with a snake on her headdress, and some have speculated that her hair is actually made of snakes. While Ix Chel’s primary role is that of the Moon goddess, she also presides over Water, Weaving and Childbirth – protecting mothers through labour.

Ix Chel can be translated to ‘She of the Pale Face’, a denotion to the moon, or ‘Lady Rainbow’. Contrary to the usually positive connotations we know of today, the rainbow was a sign of bad omen to the Maya, heralding destruction and viewed as ‘“flatulence of the demons” which [arose] from dry wells.’

She is an integral part of the Maya creation myth, being the mother of all other gods (with the exception of Itzama) and also birthing the bacabs.

'Questing'

Last week, over on a different site, I compiled a list of things I would like to achieve over the rest of the summer.

The post:

'I would like to make this, essentially, to do list of things I'm interested in, or hobbies I'd like to get back into so that it's out there somewhere where people can see it, so it's a much more tangible goal, and so I don't waste my summer. But I'd also like to have fun in life so referring to everything as 'Quests' makes everything 10x better.

These are not in any particular order 

Main Quests

• Continue with uni summer project of sketchbook work

• Continue roughing out Almost Lawful comic (ironing out script as I go)

Side Quests

• Finish Yeehawgust

• Start UK garden bird zine (Research mostly done)

• Look back through Aztec/Maya book and research points of interest further - compile in a file?

• Get back into playing violin

• Design business cards.

Edit: 

• Plan a zine featuring all the random things my dad says'

This list of 'quests' has increased my productivity to no end and only a week in (not even a week, only a few days) I've done a lot more than I usually would while I'm twiddling my thumbs.

My favourite panel from the first section

My main achievement for this week: I finished roughing out the first section of Almost Lawful!! This project has been a blast so far, and I sincerely hope that it continues to be this much fun. I'm up to fourteen pages so far and the next section is estimated to be an additional twenty pages.

On a similar note, YeeHawgust (visible in my Insta highlights) has taken a slight nose dive. I'm not one for giving up, however, the remainder of the prompts aren't particularly compelling to me. I'm unsure what to do about that...

As well as beginning to compile sayings that my dad says (I will immortalise him in a zine), I’ve been working on a timeline of events in mesoamerica spanning from the archaic, to the post classical eras, and have started looking into deities.

And so, in order to continue this productive streak, I've made myself a 'quest list' for next week too!

Main Quest

• Do some idea generation and media experimentation in sketchbook (refer to watercolour book)

Side Quests

• Do some life drawing (this site is so cool, you can find photos of buildings, and plants too)

• Research Ix Chel

• Rough out some designs for business cards

• Play your darned violin

If you find it difficult to motivate yourself and would rather be playing games, I'd recommend making a quest list and blasting epic game music, it really helps.

Here's to another productive week!

Mort