13Indigenous
Mesoamerican / Maya Traditions
Creation involves successive ordering or attempts.
Architecture
Stacked worlds on an axis
Successive creations. Layered heavens and underworlds around a world tree. Humans owe the cosmos. Astronomy sits with ritual as a way of knowing.
- 01
Successive ordering
Creation involves attempts. Previous worlds are part of the architecture.
- 02
World tree / cosmic axis
The joining structure of layered heavens and underworlds.
- 03
Gods and supernatural beings
A populated, obligated cosmos.
- 04
Human under obligation
Not a spectator. Participation is the slot.
- 05
Underworld and celestial journeys
Death has paths. Cyclic ideas of rebirth vary.
- Time
- Previous creations and transformations. Cyclic ideas vary; successive worlds are the record.
- Agents
- Gods and supernatural beings. Knowing: narrative, ritual, astronomy, divination together.
- Human slot
- A participant in cosmic obligations.
- Break
- Failed or previous creations. Not isolated here as a single dualism.
Recorded claims
An evidence label is shown only where the kind of source is already established. No label means unclassified. A label is not a judgment. Source Needed means no source is attached yet. It does not mean the claim is false, weak, or disproven.
Origin / Reality
Creation involves successive ordering or attempts.
Source NeededHuman Nature
Humanity participates in cosmic obligations.
Source NeededDeath / Afterlife
Underworld and celestial journeys.
Source NeededRebirth
Cyclic ideas vary.
Source NeededOther Beings
Gods and supernatural beings.
Source NeededOther Realms
Layered heavens and underworlds.
Source NeededWorld Structure / Axis
World tree / cosmic axis.
Source NeededDestruction / Reset
Previous creations and transformations.
Source NeededHow Truth Is Known
Sacred narrative, ritual, astronomy, divination.
Source Needed
Sources & EvidenceShowHideNo source is attached yet. Source Needed is a research gap, not a judgment.
The tradition or source
What that source says. Not a scholar’s retelling, and not a SCARC inference.
None attached.
A modern researcher
What a scholar or other modern writer says about the source. Not the source’s own words.
None attached.
SCARC
What this project infers or sets beside the records. Not what the source said.
None attached.
How we know
Where the evidence comes from, and how far it is from the people it describes. The labels are not a score. They do not rank traditions. A manuscript year, a tradition’s own claim, and a date from the ground are kept apart on the timeline.
Classic Maya inscriptions on stone, from about the 3rd to the 9th century CE, are contemporary texts of the cities that carved them. Three or four Postclassic books survive (the Dresden Codex and others). Most books were destroyed.
The Popol Vuh is not a Classic inscription. It is a K’iche’ text written in Latin letters in the 16th century, known through a later copy, of a tradition that may be older. Decipherment of the glyphs is 20th-century work. A translation of a stela is not the stela, and a colonial book is not a stela. Preclassic religion is mostly artifact without a readable myth.
Original evidence → transmission / copy → translation / documentation → modern interpretation
01
Original evidence
Contemporary primary text
Monument inscriptions are primary texts for Classic royal ritual, war, and calendar. They are not a single Maya bible.
02
Transmission / copy
Later copy of earlier text
The surviving codices are later books, and the screenfold we have may itself be a copy. The Popol Vuh is a colonial alphabetic manuscript of an older highland tradition.
03
Translation / documentation
Modern scholarly reconstruction
Glyphic readings are a modern documentation layer. They changed a great deal in the late 20th century. An older translation can be obsolete while the stone is unchanged.
04
Modern interpretation
Modern scholarly reconstruction
“Maya religion” as one system is a modern gathering of cities, centuries, and the K’iche’ book. The chart’s cell is that kind of gathering. It is not a Classic text.
The twenty-one questions
Asked of every system. Gaps are recorded as gaps. Nothing here is filled in to make a pattern prettier.
01
Where are we?
In a layered cosmos of heavens and underworlds, ordered around a world tree / cosmic axis after successive creations.
Read every system on this question02
What is reality made of?
Successive ordering of creation. Reality is made through divine work and cosmic obligation.
Read every system on this question03
What is a human being?
A participant in cosmic obligations, not a spectator of creation.
Read every system on this question04
What is consciousness?
Not isolated as a modern technical term. Humanity participates in cosmic obligations; inner and cosmic order are not treated as separate machines.
Read every system on this question05
Where did humanity come from?
Humanity appears through successive ordering or attempts at creation, with cosmic obligations.
Read every system on this question06
What happens at death?
Underworld and celestial journeys.
Read every system on this question07
Does consciousness return to embodiment?
Cyclic ideas vary.
Read every system on this question08
Where is consciousness between lives?
Underworld and celestial journeys. A single between-lives location is not isolated here.
Read every system on this question09
Are there nonhuman intelligent beings?
Yes. Gods and supernatural beings.
Read every system on this question10
Can those beings become human or appear human?
Gods and supernatural beings are recorded. Manifestation belongs to sacred narrative; a general conversion-into-human doctrine is not isolated here.
Read every system on this question11
Are there multiple realms or worlds?
Layered heavens and underworlds.
Read every system on this question12
Is there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
Yes. World tree / cosmic axis.
Read every system on this question13
Is the world itself alive?
A cosmos of obligations, layered realms, and a world tree. Aliveness of the world as one organism is not isolated as a single doctrine here.
Read every system on this question14
Has civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
Previous creations and transformations.
Read every system on this question15
Does history operate linearly or cyclically?
Previous creations and transformations. Cyclic ideas vary; successive worlds are part of the record.
Read every system on this question16
Is there an opposing positive/negative force?
Gods and supernatural beings in a cosmos of obligation and prior creations. A single dualism is not isolated here.
Read every system on this question17
What is humanity supposed to become?
To participate in cosmic obligations.
Read every system on this question18
Is reincarnation a destination, punishment, school, growth process, or something else?
Cyclic ideas vary. No single reincarnation role is isolated here.
Read every system on this question19
What lies beyond the visible world?
Layered heavens and underworlds; gods and supernatural beings.
Read every system on this question20
How does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?
Sacred narrative, ritual, astronomy, divination.
Read every system on this question21
Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
Yes, as part of knowing: sacred narrative, ritual, astronomy, and divination are recorded together. The heavens are not a separate decoration.
Read every system on this question22
Why did humanity forget?
Not recorded in this chart.
Read every system on this question
Structures where this record appears
- Axis, mountain, tree, heartIs there a central mountain, tree, pillar, axis, heart, or sacred center?
- Flood, judgment, cycle, endingHas civilization or the world been destroyed or reset before?
- Return, resurrection, renewalDoes consciousness return to embodiment?
- Nonhuman intelligencesAre there nonhuman intelligent beings?
- Realms and worldsAre there multiple realms or worlds?
- Is the world itself alive?Is the world itself alive?
- Line or wheelDoes history operate linearly or cyclically?
- Do the heavens correspond?Does the structure or motion of the heavens correspond to events, conditions, or consciousness within the human realm?
- How truth is claimedHow does this tradition claim humans can know any of this?