cosmos is permeated by sacred energy, and as the cosmos unfolds in countless permutations it constantly reveals the sacred—and thus determines everyday life. In the Mayan way of thinking, human beings are harmonized with divine energy, such that the divine manifests in the myriad forms and beings of the physical world, the world of nature, while the physical world and all its manifestations in nature are reflections of the divine. Being master astronomers, the Mayan sages naturally extended this conception throughout space, such that the whole universe—just like the individual human being—was perceived as a manifestation of divine energy, constantly moving and changing.

    Such knowledge was acquired by the ancient Maya through their meticulous observation of nature, which they regarded as their mother and guide. She was the goddess Ixmucane—Mother Earth—one of the thirteen Mayan gods who created the hombres de

maiz, people of corn, or human beings. She ground yellow, white, red, and black corn and prepared nine different drinks with this mixture. Strength and endurance came from this nourishment, creating the muscles and vigor of the human being, according to the Popol Vuh. Thus Mother Earth’s function as a creative force was recognized in the unfolding of the essential processes of life.

    Being an expression of the divine, nature (just like the human being) is subject to certain sacred laws, said the Maya of old. They developed an advanced mathematics in which numbers did not specifically relate to quantity, as is often assumed by the modern-day, materially obsessed world; all numbers were expressions of the different frequencies and tones of the divine. So, for example, in the Mayan language the Moon was called U, Uc, or Uh; it possessed the numerical value of 7. This number ruled women as well as the cycles of generation and