Death
The Lord of the Maya Underworld (Xibalbá), associated with death, war and sacrifice. Is portrayed totally or partially as a skeleton - often shown with black spots to represent the decay of flesh. Known for its darkness and disintegration. But also of childbirth and beginnings.
The ancient Maya believed in recurring cycles of creation and destruction. Heaven was believed to have 13 layers, and each layer had its own god. The Underworld had 9 layers, with 9 corresponding Lords of the Night.
To the Ancient Maya, Death was not to be feared but was merely a door from mortal life to immortality. As the Maya civilisation believe in an afterlife, they are ritualistic people, who pay great respect to the destructive nature of their gods.. They lived stoically and were fierce warriors for the most part.
Tattoos, piercings, and body scarring were commonplace with the Ancient Maya; then there was also the fascination with head-binding in order to develop an elongated skull until adulthood.
Many individuals being sacrificed did so willingly, as they thought that it would possibly ensure a good harvest for their people, many saw it as an honor to die and sacrifice their lives for the populace as a whole.
"Maya Blue" is a bright blue mineral concoction that the soon-to-be-sacrificed individual's bodies were painted with before the ritual sacrifice took place.
So when people died, not only the sacrificed ones, they entered the Underworld through a cave or a cenote. Therefore, the cenotes played a part in the unknown factor of passing through the water or from this visual world into the unknown next one.
Ancient culture meets the modern world where people celebrate the dead energy and keep dead ones alive in memory and spirit in a greatly massive collective feast called: Day of the Dead!
Maya people have a positive outlook on death...as it is only a journey from this world to the next. An opening door from mortal to eternal.
Part of the Rites of Sacrifice that the Ancient Maya enacted after the ritual sacrifice of slaves and willing participants, was to throw the bodies of the sacrificed people into a cenote. Anthropologists have found that the bottom of the cenotes in México and Guatemala have human remains and that there is a presence of 'Maya Blue' at the bottoms of the cenotes.