Bacabs- Maya GroupCollective"Sky Bearers"

Sky Bearers of the Four Directions

Four brothers stood at the four corners of the world and held up the sky. Diego de Landa identified them as sons of the supreme creator god Itzamna and the goddess Ix Chel, placed at the world's edges after creation. Each bore a color and a direction: red for east, white for north, black for west, yellow for south. At the center rose the Yax Che, the great ceiba world tree. Together they formed the five points that kept the heavens from collapsing onto the earth.

Previous world ages had ended when the structures holding the cosmos in place gave way. The Bacabs' shoulders were the guarantee that this age would endure.

The Ceremonies

During Yucatec new year ceremonies described by Landa, priests invoked the Bacabs at cenotes, casting offerings into the sacred waters. Each new year was governed by one of the four in rotation, so the calendar itself turned on the directional cycle the sky bearers embodied.

In rain ceremonies called cha-chaac, the Bacabs were invoked alongside the four directional Chaacs, the rain gods similarly stationed at the cardinal points. Priests addressed each world corner in turn: the sky bearer who held it up and the rain god who watered the fields below it.

The Madrid Codex reveals another role. Its bee almanacs depict the Bacabs alongside Ah Muzen Cab, the bee deity, in directional beekeeping rituals. The Maya practiced stingless beekeeping as a sacred activity, and the Bacabs' patronage extended to the hives at each cardinal direction. Sky bearers, rain bringers, guardians of bees: the four brothers worked.