Maya Moon Goddess - Lunar Mythology

Lunar Mythology

The sources for Maya lunar mythology are almost entirely contemporaneous, with the exception of the Popol Vuh. A division can be made according to the moon's kinship roles.

• Moon as a male sibling: celestial power.

In the Popol Vuh (16th century), the Maya Hero Twins are finally transformed into sun and moon, implying the recognition of a male moon, in a departure from the main Maya tradition. However, the Popol Vuh hardly belongs to lunar mythology, and becoming sun and moon may well be a metonym for acquiring dominance over the sky and thus, metaphorically, political predominance.

• Moon as a wife: origin of menstruation.

True lunar mythology is first and foremost represented by the Q'eqchi' myth of Sun and Moon first studied by Eric Thompson. It makes the Moon Goddess (Po) the daughter of the Earth God, or 'Mountain-Valley'. She is wooed and finally captured by Sun. They sleep together. When this is discovered and the couple flees, the angry father reacts by having his daughter destroyed. In all likelihood, this patriarchal punishment of a basic infraction of the rules of alliance represents the origin of menstruation, the 'evil blood' of a disobedient daughter colouring the water of sea and lake red, or sinking into the earth. The menstrual blood is stored in thirteen jars. In the jars, it is first transformed into creatures such as snakes and insects, a transformation leading up to the origin of poison and the diseases caused by it. However, some jars also hold medicinal plants. The thirteenth jar is the lunar jar: When it is opened, the Moon is reborn from it. The creation of her vagina on instigation of, or directly by, her husband represents the origin of human procreation. Subsequent episodes make the Moon Goddess cohabit with Sun's elder brother, Cloud, and with the devil in the shape of a king vulture, thus connecting her to rainfall and black sorcery.

• Moon as a (grand)mother: The rabbit in the moon.

Among the Mayas of Chiapas and the Northwestern Highlands of Guatemala, Moon is not Sun's wife, but his mother or grandmother, while Sun is a young boy harassed by his elder brethren. Only in this mythology do we find the origin of the lunar rabbit, either as one of the elder brethren transformed into wild animals and caught by his mother, or as a creature responsible for the resurgence of the wild vegetation on Sun's maize field. In the latter case, the rabbit is caught by Sun, passed on to his mother, and again taken into the sky. In Northwestern Guatemala, the rabbit in the moon is sometimes replaced by a deer in the moon.