Xmucane- Maya GodDeity"Divine Grandmother"

The Hands That Made Humanity

After mud dissolved and wooden people drowned, the gods still had no beings capable of worship. Animals led them to Paxil, where maize grew hidden in a mountain. Xmucane and her husband Xpiyacoc had earlier cast the divinatory lots, maize kernels and red coral seeds, that pointed to corn as the right substance for human flesh. Now Xmucane ground the white and yellow maize nine times on her metate, mixing the masa with water. From that dough the gods shaped the first four men.

Mother and Grandmother

Xmucane bore two sons, Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu. Both went to Xibalba and died there, killed by the death lords. When a young woman named Xquic arrived from the underworld claiming to carry Xmucane's grandsons, the old woman was skeptical. She tested Xquic by sending her to gather corn from a field with only one plant. Xquic returned with a full harvest, and Xmucane accepted her.

She raised the Hero Twins alongside her other grandsons, Hun Batz and Hun Chouen, whom she favored. The elder brothers bullied the twins, denying them food and forcing them to serve as laborers. When the Hero Twins turned their half-brothers into howler monkeys, Xmucane begged for their restoration. The twins agreed to try: if Xmucane could watch the monkey brothers dance without laughing, the spell would break. Four times the transformed brothers appeared with such comical grimacing that Xmucane could not contain herself. The transformation became permanent.

Divination and the Calendar

Xmucane is the first practitioner of chol q'ij, the "counting of the days." The Popol Vuh describes her casting lots with maize kernels and coral seeds alongside Xpiyacoc, reading the patterns that revealed which substance would give humanity its flesh. Contemporary K'iche' Maya daykeepers still invoke her name when they cast their own seeds and consult the sacred calendar.