MESOAMERICAN CONCEPTIONS OF THE COSMOS

Early Mesoamerican Concept of the Cosmos                         Ancient Mesopotamian Concept of a "World Tree"

(With World Tree and Crocodile Earth Monster)

THE AZTEC COSMOS

The Aztec and other ancient Nahua peoples of Mexico believed they lived in a vertically stratified cosmos with thirteen heavens and nine underworlds. Caught between heaven and hell, the Aztec earth was pictured as a mass of land immersed in a primordial oceanic stream. The world's center was known as its 'navel', and four cardinal directions divided the horizon and the land.
 

MAYA CONCEPT OF COSMOS

    The Maya saw a world axis in the ceiba tree. A gigantic ceiba is supposed to stand at the center of the world, where it connects heaven and the underworld with the earth. Souls of the dead ancestors
rise through the roots and ascend via its trunk and branches into the celestial realms. The sacred ceiba tree stands for the fifth world direction--up/down--and is the roost of Seven Macaw, the Big Dipper bird
in the Popol Vuh. This connection with the Big Dipper supports the idea that the Maya world tree was aligned with the north polar axis.