The Popol Vuh is the Bible of the Mesoamerican Indians. According to the Popol Vuh, written hundreds of years after Kukulcan’s passing the world was divided into an Overworld (heaven) a Middleworld (Earth), and an Underworld, a haven of evil known as Xibalba (pronounced She-bal-ba). As the ancient Maya looked to the night sky, they saw the dark rift of the Milky Way and interpreted it as being a dark serpent or Black Road (Xibalba Be) which led to the Underworld. Appearing in close proximity to the dark rift were the three belt stars of Orion. To the Maya, these stars were said to be the three stones of creation.

As mentioned earlier, the Mayan calendar is divided into five Great Cycles, the first of which began some 25,800 years ago. This is no arbitrary period of time, but the actual length in years that it takes Earth to compete one cycle of precession, the slow wobble of our planet on its axis. (More on this later.)

The creation story retold in the Popol Vuh begins some 25,800 years ago when ice still covered much of the Earth. The hero of the tale is a primitive man known as Hun (One) Hunahpu, later revered by the Maya as “First-Father.” Hun Hunahpu’s great passion in life was to play the ancient ball game known as Tlachtli. One day, the Lords of the Underworld, speaking through Xibalba Be (the Black Road), challenged Hun Hunahpu and his brother to a game. Hun Hunahpu accepted and entered the portal to the Black Road, which was represented in Mayan legends as the mouth of a great serpent.

But the Underworld lords had no intention of playing the game. Using trickery and deceit, they defeated the brothers and decapitated them, hanging Hun Hunahpu’s head in the crook of a calabash tree. The Evil Lords then set the tree aside, forbidding anyone to visit it.

After a great many years, a brave young woman named Blood Moon ventured down the Black Road to see if the legend was true. Approaching the tree to pick some fruits, she was startled to find Hun Hunahpu’s head, which spit into her palm, magically impregnating her. The woman fled, the Under Lords unable to destroy her before she could escape.

Blood Moon (also known as First-Mother) would give birth to twin sons. As the years passed, the boys grew into strong capable warriors. Upon reaching adulthood, their genetic calling would push them to make the journey down the Black Road to Xibalba to challenge the evil ones and avenge their father’s death. Once more, the Lords of the Underworld would use deceit, but this time, the Hero Twins would triumph, banishing evil while resurrecting their long-lost father.