Hunab Ku () is a colonial period

Yucatec Maya Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic commu ...

''reducido'' term meaning "The One God". It is used in colonial, and more particularly in doctrinal texts, to refer to the Christian God. Since the word is found frequently in the

Chilam Balam of Chumayel The Books of Chilam Balam () are handwritten, chiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya civilization, Maya miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept, and preserving important traditional knowledge in which indige ...

, a

syncretistic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

document heavily influenced by Christianity, it refers specifically to the Christian god as a translation into Maya of the Christian concept of one God, used to enculturate the previously

polytheist Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the b ...

Maya to the new religion. References to Hunab Ku have figured prominently in

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

Mayanism Mayanism is a non-codified eclectic collection of New Age beliefs, influenced in part by Pre-Columbian Maya mythology and some folk beliefs of the modern Maya peoples. Contemporary Mayanism places less emphasis on contacts between the ancient ...

such as that of

José Argüelles José Argüelles (; born Joseph Anthony Argüelles; January 24, 1939 – March 23, 2011) was an American New Age author and artist. He was the co-founder, along with Lloydine Argüelles, of the Planet Art Network and the Foundation for the Law of ...

Hunab Ku as the Christian God

The earliest known publicly available written reference to the term "Hunab Ku" (which translates as "Sole God" or "Only God") appears in the 16th century ''Diccionario de Motul'', where "Hunab-ku" is identified as "the only living and true god, also the greatest of the gods of the people of Yucatan. He had no form because they said that he could not be represented as he was incorporeal". The term also appears in the ''Book of

Chilam Balam The Books of Chilam Balam () are handwritten, chiefly 17th and 18th-centuries Maya civilization, Maya miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept, and preserving important traditional knowledge in which indige ...

of Chumayel'', written after the

Spanish Conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

, but is unknown in any pre-Conquest inscriptions in

Maya writing Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which ...

. Hunab Ku was closely associated with an indigenous creator god,

Itzamna Itzamna () is, in Maya mythology, an upper god and creator deity thought to reside in the sky. Itzamna is one of the most important gods in the Classic and Postclassic Maya pantheon. Although little is known about him, scattered references are pre ...

, in an effort to make use of religious

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...

. An assertion that Hunab Ku was the high god of the Mayas can be found in

Sylvanus Morley Sylvanus Griswold Morley (June 7, 1883September 2, 1948) was an American archaeology, archaeologist and epigraphy, epigrapher who studied the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early 20th century. Morley led extensive excavations of the Ma ...

's classic book ''The Ancient Maya'' (1946). It is necessary to refer to Mayan authors to verify the Mayan origin and use of this. However, the interpretation of Hunab Ku as a pre-Hispanic deity is not widely accepted by

Mayanist A Mayanist ( es, mayista) is a scholar specialising in research and study of the Mesoamerican pre-Columbian Maya civilisation. This discipline should not be confused with Mayanism, a collection of New Age beliefs about the ancient Maya. Mayan ...

scholars today. Anthropological linguist

William Hanks William F. Hanks (born 1952) is an American linguist and anthropologist who has done influential work in linguistic anthropology describing the uses of deixis and indexicality in the Yucatec Maya language. He holds the Distinguished Chair in Lingui ...

, for example, identifies ''hunab ku'' as an expression created in the context of ''maya reducido,'' a form of Yucatec created in the context of missionization. He writes "The use of ''hunab ku'' one' + suffix + 'god'for the singularity of God is linguistically transparent to the oneness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and occurs widely in the missionary writings. He also notes, "the fact that close paraphrases make reference to ''Dios,'' ''halal ku'', and ''hunab ku'' allows us to securely identify ''hunab ku'' with the Christian God, even when surrounding text may be ambiguous."

Hunab Ku in New Age Belief

beliefs about Hunab Ku derive from the work of Me r Domingo Martínez Parédez (1904–1984) who first presented his interpretation of the concept in 1953 and expanded upon his ideas in a subsequent book, ''Hunab Kú: Síntesis del pensamiento filosófico maya'' (1964). Martínez interpreted Hunab Ku as evidence for Maya monotheism and suggested that it was represented by the symbols of a square within a circle or a circle within a square, the square representing measurement and the circle representing motion. Martínez related Hunab Ku to concepts and symbols in

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, particularly the idea of a Great Architect of the Universe and the Masonic square and compass. It was also Martínez who first associated Hunab Ku with the expression "''In Lak'ech''," which he translated as "Eres mi otro yo." (In English, this means "You are my other I.") Martínez' ideas were popularized by Hunbatz Men and

. The significance of the symbol has also been discussed by José Castillo Torre

Hunab Ku as symbol

After being introduced to the concept by Hunbatz Men, who discussed this concept in his 1986 book ''Religión ciencia maya'', Argüelles popularized Hunab Ku in his 1987 book ''The Mayan Factor''. However, instead of Martínez' symbol, what Argüelles asserted was the "Hunab Ku" symbol was originally a rectangular design used by the

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

for a ritual cloak, known as the Mantle of Lip Plugs (or, arguably, mantle of "spider water"). The design survives today as a rug design being sold in central

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, but was associated with the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

and the god Hunab Ku by Argüelles, who modified the symbol to look more like a circular motif evoking a

yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

symbol as well as a

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Quetzalcoatl took from

Ah Puch Cizin is a Mayan god of death and earthquakes. He is the most important Maya death god in the Mayan culture. Scholars call him God A. To the Yucatán Mayas he was Hun-Came and Vucub-Came. He also has similarities to Mictlāntēcutli. Name an ...

to create humanity. It has become associated with

. The earliest known appearance of the design is in the 16th century

Codex Magliabechiano The Codex Magliabechiano is a pictorial Aztec codex created during the mid-16th century, in the early Spanish colonial period. It is representative of a set of codices known collectively as the ''Magliabechiano Group (others in the group include t ...

, an

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

(not Maya) document that is also known for graphic depictions of heart sacrifice drawn by indigenous artists. The design was first reproduced by

Zelia Nuttall Zelia Maria Magdalena Nuttall (6 September 1857 – 12 April 1933) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist specialised in pre-Aztec Mexican cultures and pre-Columbian manuscripts. She discovered two forgotten manuscripts of this type in ...

, who rediscovered the Codex Magliabecchiano in Florence, Italy in 1898, in her 1901 book ''The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological and Calendrical Systems.'' Facsimiles of the codex were published in 1903 and 1982. In 1976, the design was introduced to the weavers of Teotitlan, Oaxaca by epigrapher Gordon Whittaker, who commissioned a rug based on the design in the Codex Magliabbechiano. By 1978, it had been reproduced multiple times. Argüelles says he purchased two rugs from Teotitlan with the design, which he subsequently modified and popularized in his book ''The Mayan Factor'' (1987) and during the 1987 Harmonic Convergence. The design, rendered in black-and-white, appeared on the cover and on decorated pages of ''The House of the Dawn'' (1914), a romance novel by Marah Ellis Ryan set in

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...

territory during the

Pueblo Revolt The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, also known as Popé's Rebellion or Popay's Rebellion, was an uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, larger than present-day New Mex ...

of 1680. Decorative borders on pages in the book combine this design with the

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

, a motif that also appears frequently in other books by Ryan. It is likely that the illustrator for Ryan's book found the Aztec design in Nuttall's 1903 publication.

John Major Jenkins John Major Jenkins (4 March 1964 – 2 July 2017) was an American author and pseudoscientific researcher. He is best known for his works that theorize certain astronomical and esoteric connections of the calendar systems used by the Maya civiliza ...

, who first saw the symbol as used by Argüelles, subsequently encountered Ryan's novel in a used book store.Jenkins 1994 He appropriated the decorated borders for use in his

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...

''Jaloj Kexoj and PHI-64: The Dual Principle Core Paradigm of Mayan Time Philosophy and its Conceptual Parallel in Old World Thought'' (1994) and also a version republished with modifications as the zine ''Aztec Sacred Science'' (1994). Despite the assertions of Martínez, Argüelles, and Jenkins, there are no known representations of "Hunab Ku" that have been documented for the ancient Maya. It is an

motif (see the commentary on the

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

page for this article).

Notes

{{reflist

References

* Argüelles, José (1987) ''The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology''. Bear & Company, Santa Fe. * Castillo Torre, José (1955) ''Por la señal de Hunab Ku: Reflejos de la vida de los antiguos mayas.'' Libreria de Manuel Porrúa, S.A., Mexico City. * Boone, Elizabeth H. and Zelia Nuttall, eds. (1982) ''The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans, Containing an Account of Their Rites and Superstitions: An Anonymous Hispano-Mexican Manuscript Preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy.'' Reprint of 1903 edition with additional commentary. University of California Press, Berkeley. * Hanks, William F. (2010) ''Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross.'' University of California Press, Berkeley. * Jenkins, John Major (1994) ''Jaloj Kexoj and PHI-64: The Dual Principle Core Paradigm of Mayan Time Philosophy and its Conceptual Parallel in Old World Thought.'' Four Ahau Press, Boulder. * Martínez Parédez, Domingo (1953) "Hunab Kú: Síntesis del pensamiento filosófico maya." ''Filosofía y letras; revista de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras'' 51-52 (julio-diciembre): 265-275. * Martínez Parédez, Domingo (1964) ''Hunab Kú: Síntesis del pensamiento filosófico maya''. Editorial Orion, Mexico City. * Men, Hunbatz (1986) ''Religión ciencia maya''. Comunidad Indígena Maya de Estudios y Difusión Cultural, Mérida, Yucatán. * Men, Hunbatz (1989) ''Secrets of Maya Science/Religion''. Bear & Company, Santa Fe. * Morley, Sylvanus (1946) ''The Ancient Maya''. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto. * Motul, Diccionario de (1929) ''Diccionario de Motul, Maya Español atribuido a Fray Antonio de Ciudad Real y arte de lengua Maya por Fray Juan Coronel.'' Juan Martínez Hernández, Editor. Mérida. 16th century MS., missing. Copy, said to be 17th century, in John Carter Brown Library, Providence. Gates reproduction. * Nuttall, Zelia (1901)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological and Calendrical Systems
'. Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. II. Cambridge, Massachusetts. * Nuttall, Zelia, ed. (1903) ''The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans, Containing an Account of Their Rites and Superstitions: An Anonymous Hispano-Mexican Manuscript Preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy.'' University of California, Berkeley. * Roys, Ralph (1967) ''The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel''. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Fakelore New Age

Hunab Ku as the Christian God

Hunab Ku in New Age Belief

Hunab Ku as symbol

See also

Notes

References