the sacred fire
The fire ceremony could easily be considered to be the heart of Mayan spiritual practice. It is the physical practice which facilitates interaction with the energies of creation, the nawales.
Smoke and flame are central to the ritual practice. Fire is perceived as a major force for transformation. In the Maya area we see this in mundane acts such as burning the milpa (field) at the start of the agriculture season. Fire is understood to have cleansing, restorative powers, burning away the old to make way for the new. Fire is also associated with war and destruction. Throughout Mesoamerica, the common sign for a defeat is a burning temple
However, ash and soot are emblematic of renewal from the old, dead and blur symbolically with bone and maize dough, substances from which new life was made. We see this in the Maya story, the Popol Vuh, which tells of the death and resurrection of the Hero Twins who, after being burned in a pit oven, have their bones ground like maize and tossed into a river. This story finds parallel across Mesoamerica where humanity is crafted from the mixing of divine of blood and maize dough (K'iche' and Kaqchikel Maya)
In ritual practice, fire is used to transfer offerings from the world of the living to the otherworldly domains of gods and ancestors. Smoke is the literal food upon which supernatural beings sustain themselves. In ancient times, humans were obligated to feed their ancestors and gods in exchange for the many gifts they received, including the much-needed rains to water their crops. The burning of offerings reflects the covenants that bound living humans to their ancestors and gods.
The burning of offerings is widely shown in precolonial art of Mesoamerica and censers are widely found in archaeological sites throughout the region.
Mayan fire ceremonies may be made for many reasons. Mostly, we make ceremonies to celebrate the energies of the days, depending on the issues to be addressed. The ceremonies usually last 2 – 3 hours and are usually held in the morning. There is then an invocation of the energies of the directions, of the ancestors ..the fire is then lit and each of the energies of the days invoked and offerings made to each of them. Several different types of incense are used: small nuggets of copal packaged and tied up in corn husks; rax-pon, a large round ball of pine sap, ocote, small bits of myrrh, frankincense, herbs and sesame seeds. Florida water, flower petals, cornmeal, sugar, cacao beans, home-brewed rum and puros (rolled cigars of pure tobacco)
Fire is linked to the Sun, which, for Mesoamericans, symbolised conciousness and a sense of integrity. The sun's movements are knowable and predictable and is used to track the passage of time and mark key calendrical events. It is the source of heat, light, and fundamentally life itself. Many of the most important supernatural beings in Mesoamerica is linked to the Sun. For the Classic Maya, that included not only the Sun as a radiant Lord (K’inich Ajaw) but also as a jaguar as he travelled overnight through the darkness of the inner Earth to reemerge again in the east at dawning.