The following recounts the Mayan myth of the creation known as the Popol Vuh. It is the story of two hero twins who save their father and defeat the Lords of Death. To the Mayan, this is a story that not only depicts creation but also the defeat of death and provides them with a sense of resurrection. Reenactment of the ballgame is a means by which to reassure Mayan people that they too can conquer death itself.
 
 
The Mayan ballgame is integral to Mayan cosmology and creation. It is important to recognize the relationship of the ballgame to the ball court and to other aspects of the Maya world. The story of creation integrates the symbols of the real world within a mythological setting. The myth becomes real through those symbols. This is the significance to the ancient Maya.
 
 
 
The Hero Twins defeated death and resurrected their father and uncle. It is this that provides hope for rebirth for the Maya. It is the trickery and cunning of the Hero twins that enables this to occur. It is the ballgame where the Hero Twins battle with death, decay, disease, and evil. They win in the outcome of the Popol Vuh. They conquer each of the lords of the underworld. 
 
 
The Fourth Creation is in a sense the Fourth World of the Hopi or the Gittering World of the Navajo. It is the world the ancient Maya knew and lived within. The heart of the heavens was the North Star, Polaris, but in the Maya world they recognized this as a black void in the sky around which all of the stars and planets above them circulated. The Milky way was a turtle and a roadway upon which creation rested. The sky was a reflection of the turtle of rebirth and the place upon which the first hearth was laid. It is the source of the Maize tree and tree of life. 
 
 

 
The cosmic hearth is laid and the metaphor is complete. The maize god is the first father and the turtle of creation. Maize is the substance of the Maya body and soul as well as the food they rely upon. 
 
 RETURN