Ancient Mesoamerica, 27 (2016), 333359

Copyright Cambridge University Press, 2016

doi:10.1017/S0956536116000249

DECIPHERING THE SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLIC

MEANING OF THE MAYA WORLD TREE

J. Andrew McDonald
Department of Biology, The University of Texas Ro Grande Valley, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, Texas 78539

Abstract
Although cosmic tree symbolism among pre-Columbian societies of Mesoamerica traces from the Preclassic period, the underlying
meaning of the motif and its symbolic permutations are poorly understood. Attempts to identify the plant in a botanical context on ceramic
vessels, stucco reliefs, and stone stelae of lowland Maya attribution usually favor determinations as a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) or
maize plant (Zea mays). A botanical assessment of the morphic and ecological characteristics of these motifs suggests, however, a white-
flowered water lily of lowland swamps, Nymphaea ampla. Archeological remains at San Bartolo of the Petn indicate that these
iconographic practices were established and codified to a certain extent by the first century b.c. The frequent identification of various gods
and dynastic rulers as personifications of a water lily world tree underscores the crucial symbolic and ritualistic roles this plant once played
in the practice of religion and kingship among Mayan civilizations.

INTRODUCTION religious practices during the age of conquest and inquisitions elim-
inated all but a few examples of this once pervasive symbol of
Civilizations throughout human history have often invented or
Mexico and Central America. What now remain are disconnected
adopted from past traditions a vegetative motif that symbolizes the
remnants of an abstract motif that once played a focal role in the re-
metaphysical principles of cosmogenesis, natural creation, eternal
ligious views of Mesoamerican cultures, the more intact and com-
recurrence, and/or human hopes for everlasting life in the hereafter.
plete specimens of which are encountered on stucco reliefs, stone
Known variously as kalpa vrksa to Brahmins, haoma to Parsis, ygg-
stelae, ceramic paintings and codices of lowland Maya communities
drasil to the Norse, arbor vitae to Christians, or more generically as
from the Classic to Postclassic periods (sixth to thirteenth centuries).
the world tree, sacral tree, cosmic tree, or tree of life to historians and
Collectively, these images suggest an ancient and enduring concept
mythologists (Arnold 2001; Callaway 2006; Cook 1974; Danthine
of a cosmic plant since the birth of Maya civilization in the
1937; Evans 1901; James 1966; Jones 1986; McDonald 2002;
Preclassic and Early Classic periods (Freidel et al. 1993:135137;
Miller and Taube 1993; Parpola 1993), the motif generally repre-
Guernsey 2004:113; Hansen 2006:Figure 74). A more detailed un-
sents a primeval fount of living creation or a vegetative prop (axis
derstanding of this vegetative motif would facilitate ongoing at-
mundi) of universal laws that embodies the natural processes of
tempts to decipher glyphic and iconographic records of historical
life and death.
Maya communities.
Mythic and iconographic concepts of a cosmic tree seem to
Most Classic and Postclassic impressions of the Maya world tree
spring spontaneously to life in the human imagination, as similar
portray a plant whose basal stem is rooted in a watery substrate that
vegetative forms appear recurrently in the written and artistic
the Maya identified as the underworld of the gods, Xibalba (Figures
records of distant and isolated cultures throughout the world.
1a.1, 2a), or Place of Fear (Miller and Taube 1993:177). The trunk
Visual and literal expressions of the plant are often encountered in
of such trees conventionally ascends from the skull of an aquatic
temple sanctums and burial chambers of celebrated aristocrats and
god known as the Water Lily Monster (WLM) or Quadripartite
priests, with essentially equal frequency on bas-reliefs, mural paint-
God (Figures 2a, 3a, 4, 5a; Schele and Freidel 1990:Figure 6:12)
ings, grave stones, votive objects, jewelry, libation implements, and
and usually branches thrice at its summit in a cruciform manner,
personal seals (Goodyear 1891; McDonald 2002, 2004; Parpola
each of three equal stalks terminating in a polypetalous or treble
1993; Schele 1974). Artistic depictions of the world tree provide
floral motif (Figures 1a, 2a, 4, 5a). Typically, the lower two opposite
an endless source of fascination and historical perspective on past
branches emanate at perpendicular angles from the trunk and occa-
civilizations and their cosmological views.
sionally terminate in a stylized square nosed serpent motif
The interpretation of world tree imagery among Mesoamerican
(Figures 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a), while a stout, central branch extends
peoples (Miller and Taube 1993) presents greater challenges than
upward to provide a perch for a cosmic bird. Hence, both plant
analogous iconic trees of Europe and Asia (Cook 1974; James
and animal elements convey the concept of a vital linkage
1966; McDonald 2002, 2004; Parpola 1993), as the efforts of
between an aquatic underworld, the earth and its celestial realms.
Spanish clergy to destroy all vestiges of Amerindian beliefs and
In addition, a pliant, bicephalic, skeletal serpent with prominent
water lily ear flares conventionally entwines itself within the
E-mail correspondence to: andrew.mcdonald@utrgv.edu cosmic trees lateral branches (Figures 2a, 3a, 4a, 6a), implying

333

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 334 McDonald

Figure 1. (a) The ceramic cosmic plate focuses on a Classic Maya world tree. (1) the outer face (not shown) and inner rim are sur-
rounded by a red band, denoting a water line, while the lower register presents parallel red lines supporting 3-stacked bars,
another water symbol, suggesting an aquatic origin of the world tree. (2) Tridents that cradle two circlets symbolize water lilies on
the upper rim of the bowl, behind which water lily leaves (not shown) decorate the outer face of the bowl; the trefoil motifs are
usually interpreted erroneously as Venus symbols. (3) The Water Lily Monster is observed in the lower register with a sak nik
symbol for an ear flare (= water lily). Two personified water lily buds display the face of WLM, one with a bony mandible and one
without. (4) A bicephalic serpent with a crocodile head exhibits a polypetalous floral ear plug (= water lily) and a trident and
double circlet motif (= water lily) in its jaw. (5) The other end of the bicephalic serpent emerges on the opposite side of the bowl,
presenting a down-turned head of the WLM with a sun-platter, stylized water lily leaf and water lily insignia (sak nik) upon his head
(= the Quadripartite God). (6) An anthropomorphized water lily god, Chahk Xib Chahk, arises from the watery netherworld
with three flourishing branches, each of which produces water lily buds that match closely with the face of the WLM, below. (7)
Two branches sprout from the cranium of Chahk Xib Chahk, the right branch transforming into a water lily serpent, whose ear is
decorated symbolically as an open nik sign, and a personified water lily bud. (8) The central branch gives rise initially to a Water
Lily Jaguar, whose head and ear produces a water lily bud that bears a nen (mirror) sign. (9) Extending beyond the jaguar, a
WLM face with a water lily ear flare personifies a peduncle that terminates in two water lily buds, one of which is personified and
bears a crossbar on its forehead (compare with Figure 7a). (10) A mythic bird hovers over the canopy of the aquatic tree with a
sak nik (white flower) motif on his head. Ribbon-like motifs that dangle from his body match closely with water lily peduncles
and symbols of the underworld WLM. Ceramic, Nakbe, Guatemala, date unknown. (b) A god blows a conch while reclining upon a
water lily leaf. The WLM bears a bud with a nen symbol and a trefoil and double-orb water lily motif. Ceramic, northern Yucatan,
date unknown. (c) A small-faced WLM produces a series of water lily buds: three upon the cranium and one bearing feathers as an
ear flare. Ceramic, provenance, and date unknown. Drawing by author after photographs K1609, K7146, and K8728, Justin Kerr.

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 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning 335

Figure 2. (a) Bas relief frieze of Maya world tree from the Temple of the Cross, Palenque, Chiapas, seventh century. (12) The WLM/
Quadripartite God sustains a world tree by the quadripartite badge, a platter bearing a solar/floral insignia that contains a shell
scroll (water lily leaf bud?), stingray spine (water lily leaf?) and sak nik (trefoil with basal bar and cartouche with cross bands), a
water lily flower symbol. Atypically, WLMs at Palenque display bifid scrolls as water lily ear flares. (3) The skeleton of a bicephalic
water lily serpent with water lily ear flares is formed by alternating yax (green) and circular water symbols, presumably attributing
vegetative characteristics to the reptiles body (i.e., as a peduncle). (4) The meaning of highly stylized, square-nosed serpent motifs
that emerge from the lateral flowers is obscure, but they seem to complement the pliant serpent that dangles across the trees boughs
(compare Figure 6). (5) The triad of treble-campanulate floral motifs with a pair of infixed circlets are water lily symbols (compare
Figures 1bc, 2c2d, 3b3c, 7a). (6) A polypetalous flower motif, reading nik (flower), likely a water lily symbol (see Figure 7a),
floats between the trees crown and the cosmic bird. (7) A cosmic bird with a water lily ear flare (compare Figure 2b) perches upon
the terminal flower so as to associate its plumage with a corolla (compare Figures 2a, 8b). (b) Cosmic birds often display water lily
ear flares and water lily symbols for tail feathers. Note also the personified sun motif that dangles from his neck. Ceramic, provenance
and date unknown. (c) Water lilies are conventionally symbolized by a trident that cradles two circlets. These compare precisely with
those of the world tree. Ceramic, provenance and date unknown. (d) The standard trident and two circlet motif is often highly stylized.
Ceramic, provenance and date unknown. Drawing by author after photographs K5227, K7226, and K8928, Justin Kerr, and Maudslay
1974:vol. IV, Plates 73, 76.

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 336 McDonald

Figure 3. (a) House D, Pier C, Palenque, Chiapas, seventh century. A deified dynast assumes the garb of a god and dances across a water
lily grove with a world tree. (1) The WLM produces leaves and flowers that provide a substratum for this plant-god. A series of tetram-
erous flowers with cross bands and circular symbols observed previously as the water lily serpent (Figure 2a.3) emerge from the lotus
grove. (2) True to convention, the world tree has a WLM skull bearing a quadripartite badge on its cranium, including the white
flower (sak nik) glyph, a sign of the water lily. (3) The cosmic dancer wears a headdress comprised of a WLM with water lily eyes
(bar with three circlets and a down-turned corolla; compare Figure 5b) and a stylized water lily sign on his snout. (4) Three highly
derived square nosed serpent motifs extend from the three-branched vegetative motif (compare Figures 2a, 4) and sustain a kan
cross symbol (a portal motif) and half the image of the tetramerous water lily symbols emerging from the water lily patch below
the cosmic dancer. (b) Temple of the Cross, Palenque, Chiapas, seventh century. The Quadripartite God produces a stream of
water with an embedded mi glyph, conceivably a lateral perspective of floating, tetramerous flowers observed in Figure 3a1. (c)
Three trefoil water lily signs emanate from the ear of WLM, out of which emerges a stylized leaf and flourishing water lily stalk,
the peduncle bearing a prominent zeroglyph, mi (Montgomery 2002:169), half the image of the cross-bar tetramerous flowers
emerging from the water lily patch (Figure 3a.1). Ceramic, provenance and date unknown. Drawing by author after photograph
K3640, Justin Kerr, and Maudslay 1974:vol. IV, Plates 32, 35.

again a living connection between the creative forces of the earth
and sky.
The trunk of the Maya world tree often exhibits the face of a
deity that is normally identified as God C (Schellhas 1904) by
modern Mayanists (Callaway 2006:51; Looper 2003:8; Schele and
Miller 1986:77), whose image is believed to suggest a sacred
attribution to the vegetative motif (Schele and Freidel 1990:409).
Or otherwise, the arboreal face mirrors a living or skeletal image
of the WLM or Quadripartite God, usually observed at the base of
the tree (Figures 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a), and possibly implies this
creatures ascent into the living (mesocosmic) realms of the Maya
cosmos from the underworld. The trunk and branches are also

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 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
Figure 4. (a) The sarcophagus lid of the famous dynast, Kinich Janaab
Pakal, conserves the most famous image of the Maya world tree. (1)
The WLM, fixed within his own jawbone, sustains Pakal and the
world tree upon the quadripartite badge. (2) The conventional sun-
platter contains a conspicuous white flower (sak nik) motif, on
which the king reclines. (3) The bicephalic water lily serpent with
water lily ear flares undulates through the branches with bodily
segments comprised of partial nen and jade signs. (4) Water lily and
mirror motifs move up the world tree trunk toward the branch tips.
(5) Three branches terminate with a lateral perspective on a polypetal-
ous flower bearing mirror signs (= water lily). These symbols are
homologous to the two-orbed, trefoil motifs on the tree on the
Tablet of the Cross (Figure 2a). (6) A pair of itz (nectar) glyphs
floats above the cosmic trees canopy, each presenting a facial infix
that relates dually to a flower and sun glyph that is often
symbolic of water lilies, with three beaded pegs that represent an
emission of nectar. (7) The cosmic bird with the face of the WLM
and a water lily ear flare assumes his standard position on the trees
summit. Temple of Inscriptions, Palenque, Chiapas, seventh century.
(b) Itzamnaaj wears a headdress with a square-nose serpent emerging
from a stylized water lily on the forefront and a derived white
flower (sak nik) on the backside. (c) A square-nosed WLM
produces a water lily stalk from his head. Note the double-circlet te
sign on the peduncle. Drawing by author after photograph K1218,
Justin Kerr.
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337
infixed with a variety of glyphs and symbolic signs that denote a
tree, wood, or vegetative entity (te; Callaway 2006:92; Looper
2003:167; Montgomery 2002:229; Thompson 1971:56), a water
lily (naab, T501, Montgomery 2002:97), mirror, brilliance or
shining (nen as the li or il glyphs, T24; Montgomery 2002:161;
Schele and Miller 1983; Stuart 2010:291), the sun (kin, T574;
Montgomery 2002:151), and jewels (uh; Callaway 2006:67, 71),
ostensibly describing physical aspects of the plant on a literal basis.
The Maya world tree is usually portrayed as the focal feature of a
mythic or historical narrative scene and is often flanked by a pair of
gods or dynastic personages disguised as gods that pay tribute to the
plant (Maudslay 1974:vol. IV, Plates 76, 81). This iconographic
pattern suggests a mythical dimension to the plant and implicates
the motif in religious practices of palace life and the role of kingship
(Figure 3a). An aristocrat or sacrificial human figure is occasionally
placed at the base of the tree (Figures 4a, 5a; Arnold 2001; Freidel
et al. 1993:Figures 4:25a, 4:29b), in which case the plant is involved
in the birth or death of this individual and his or her subsequent
passage into, or emergence from, the aquatic Netherworld of the
Maya.
Most modern discussions on the Maya world tree begin and end
with references to stucco reliefs on the walls of Palenques principal
structures from the seventh to eighth centuries. Modern interpreta-
tions of these images have varied considerably since their discovery
by Europeans during the nineteenth century (Callaway 2006:1,
2223), with Stephens (1841:346347) initially recognizing the
motif as the central feature of Palenques mysterious artwork and
likening the image to a Christian cross with a strange bird atop.
Brinton (1969:97102, 124) equated the motif with a cross but
also recognized arborescent features that share close relationships
with a symbolic bird and serpent. Seler (19011902:1619) later
hypothesized the cruciform plant symbolized the cardinal points
of the Maya cosmos while also emphasizing the motifs close
association with the Maya sun god, Kinich Ajaw. Maudslay
(1974:vol I, p. 51; vol. IV, p. 37) acknowledged that the basal skull
feature of Palenques iconic trees shared standard features of dynastic
headdresses depicted on murals among distant ruins at Copan and
Yaxchilan.
Since these early observations and commentaries, advances in
the decipherment of Maya glyphs have revealed two possible
names for the world tree. One of the earlier glyphic readings
(Freidel et al. 1993:53; Schele and Freidel 1990:426, n.8) inter-
prets Palenques Tablet of the Cross as wakah-chan, meaning
raised-up sky, based on the combined Maya glyphic number
six with a postfixed phonetic sign of ah (wakah) and the glyph
for sky (chan). Callaway (2006:7880, 8486) questions this
translation, however, noting that this expression relates to the
edifice itself (as noted earlier by Schele and Freidel 1990:426,
note 8), preferring instead glyphic references to the plant as uh
te, the jade-tree or jewel-tree (Callaway 2006:67, 713).
Whatever the original name of the plant, archeologists have inter-
preted the Maya world tree in various ways: as a symbol for
eternal recurrence (i.e., cyclic birth and death; Callaway 2006:
16; Kubler 1969:27), a celestial map of the Milky Way (Freidel
et al. 1993:8787), or a vegetative bridge between the natural, ce-
lestial, and netherworld, through which kings ascend and descend
as personifications of the cosmic plant (Callaway 2006:75; Freidel
et al. 1993:69100; Schele and Freidel 1990:242244, 255). A
recent thesis on the subject suggests, however, that all of these
 338 McDonald

Figure 5. (a) Temple of the Foliated Cross, Palenque, Chiapas, seventh century. A long-leaved permutation on the Maya world tree. (1)
A kan cross, representing an ol portal to Xibalba, replaces the standard sun-plate on the head of the WLM and presents an opening for
the burgeoning world tree. (2) Lord Sun-Face (Kinich Ajaw), a possible symbol of the water lily, hangs at the heart of the personified
world tree. (3) The face of God E emerges from the lateral branches; these motifs are often identified as corn cob motifs due to the
long foliate scrolls and hair tassels (compare, however, Figures 5b5c). 4. The world trees canopy sustains a living image of the basal
Water Lily Monster skull, whose ears and cranium present water lilies, the former of which present bifid vegetative motifs the latter a
large trefoil with a nen sign. (5) A cosmic bird with water lily ear flares perches upon the mirrored flower motif. (b) Stele 1, Bonampak,
Chiapas, eighth century. A WLM with water lily eyes and water lily ear flares serves as a conduit for God E through the ears and
cranium. (c) The WLM with water lily trefoils and a flower emerging from his head provides a portal for the upturned face of God
E. Note that the forehead of God E displays a polypetalous flower and water lily trefoil instead of a corn cob. Ceramic, provenance
and date unknown. Drawing by author after photograph K7669, Justin Kerr, and Maudslay 1974:vol. IV, Plates 80, 81.

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 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning 339

Table 1. Sources of corroborative ceramic images from the Justin Kerr Vase
Data Base, available at www.famsi.org/research/kerr/.

Iconographic Motif(s) Kerr Vessel Numbers

1. Cujete tree K1226, K1247, K1288, K4546, an

exception being K2706, which seems to
associate the mythic tree with an aquatic
setting
2. Jaguar child K1815, K4013
3. Cacao trees K5615, K7784
4. Red waterline K1609
5. Water lily and ek glyph K2210, K3034, K4375, K4485, K5033,
K5034
6. Water lily jaguar and ek K1230, K1652, K2284, K5632
7. Water lily buds K1941, K5436, K5628, K8278, K8621,
K8649, K8653
8. Tetramerous flowers K5436, K8252
9. Water lily feathers K496, K1184, K1834, K1837, K4957,
K8649, K8685
Figure 6. This world tree lacks the standard basal WLM skull, a well- 10. Floral club of Chahk K1201, K1250, K2213, K3431, K4486
developed cruciform structure or water signs. (1) Nevertheless, the 11. Floral sun sign K496, K4114
coiling, serpentoid water lily peduncle bearing nen signs sustains the tree 12. Water lily and sun-plate K1270
motif from an aquatic underworld and produces buds and treble motifs 13. Quincunx and water lily K3366, K5056, K6180
as buds. (2) The WLS exhibits its standard floral ear flares. (3) The WLS dis- 14. Floral serpent ear flares K661, K719, K3202, K6616, K7146,
gorges a fruiting water lily stalk with four prominent sepals from its lower K8252
jaw. The serpents coiling body appears to mirror the image of its vegeta- 15. Three circlets K5072, K6616, K6619, K8621
tive co-essence in the underworld. (4) Treble water lily floral motifs termi- 16. Water lily and serpent snouts 1250, K1270, K5359, K8015
nate the aerial branches of the water lily world tree. Ceramic, provenance 17. Water lily jaguar headdress K1250, K3230
and date unknown. Drawing by author after photograph K8540, Justin 18. Trefoil water lily buds K623, K760, K5452, K8653
Kerr. 19. Te glyph on water lily stems K5452, K6620, K7146, K7979, K8252,
K8653
20. Te glyph on serpent bodies K531, K1006, K1270, K1834, K5230,
interpretations are now dated and in need of revision (Callaway K8685
2006:1). 21. Floral ear flare on bird K1437, K7821
22. Sak-nik and time glyphs K1782, K2978, K4683, K5056, K5072,
K5077, K6023, K6116, K6119, K8928
BOTANICAL IDENTIFICATIONS OF THE MAYA 23. Water lily and kan glyph K623, K3034, K5007, K6616, K6619
WORLD TREE 24. Cranial water lily stem K3151, K4957
25. Kawil and water lily K1081, K1198, K1604, K1834, K3716,
Attempts to determine the botanical identity of the world tree or at K4926, K5071
least delineate the more salient botanical aspects of the plant have 26. Cosmic fish and water lily K1392, K4116, K4562, K6395, K7287
given rise to divergent views among anthropologists, with little or 27. Water lily quartets K5007, K395, K8928, K9271
no input from plant biologists. Two prevailing opinions identify the 28. Akbal and water lily K5056, K8928
plant as either an emergent tree of tropical lowland forests, the 29. Water lily bird tails K1387, K2704, K3638, K4989, K5042
kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra Gaertn.) (Callaway 2006:36, 89; De
la Fuente 1965:135139; Miller and Taube 1993:186; Ruz
Lhuillier 1963:116) or maize plant (Zea mays L.) (Callaway 2006: this plant seems to relate to mythic themes that are peripheral to
7779; Miller and Taube 1993:48; Schele 1974:43; Taube 2001: the cruciform world trees at Palenque and on ceramic paintings
218220; Stuart 1988:198). Both of these plants are well-known that highlight the plants origin in the Maya aquatic netherworld.
among contemporary Maya communities, but for different reasons: Thompson (1971:10, 71) noted that various modern Maya
the former on account of its large stature and the latter for its role communities of Chiapas attribute cosmic roles to ceiba trees in
as a staple food crop. These distinctive plants share very little in their forests and zcalosas either the root of creation or ladder
common, however, with respect to their physical appearance and to the heavensyet the kapok tree is never identified with baby
characteristics, ecological associations, and mythic functions, and jaguars and cosmic birds in contemporary mythology. The occasion-
therefore seem mismatched in terms of a dualistic botanical entity. al depiction of acacao tree in association with a decapitated human head
Maya ceramic paintings involve a number of mythical tree is also known from antiquity (Table 1.3), suggesting a mythic role for
themes and provide ample evidence that the calabash tree (or this utilitarian tree species; but, again, this particular plant and its
cujete, Crescentia spp.) played an occasional role in Maya mythol- ribbed, cauliflorous fruits bear little resemblance to conventional por-
ogy (Table 1.1). In this case, a hunter figure with a blowgun snipes a trayals of an aquatic world tree (i.e., one that emerges from water lines or
cosmic bird from a tree with large, rotund, cauliflorous fruits. the cranium of the WLM or Quadripartite God, see below).
Although Callaway (2006:Figure 2.8) interprets this plant as a An equal number of commentators (De la Fuente 1965:136; Ruz
kapok tree, ceibas never exhibit cauliflory. A similar tree is occa- Lhuillier 1963:116; Kubler 1969:27; Schele and Miller 1986:195,
sionally observed on ceramic paintings that involves the birth or ap- Plate 75) have identified specific renderings of the world tree as a
pearance of a baby jaguar in the Maya underworld (Table 1.2), but corn plant, usually citing a highly stylized execution of the plant

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 340
inside Palenques Temple of the Foliated Cross (Figure 5a), primarily
on the basis of this trees long and strappy leaves. Freidel et al. (1993),
among many others, interpret the image of a human face that emerges
between the leaves of this trees lateral branches (Figure 5a.3) as an
anthropomorphic representation of a corn ear, while suggesting that
glyphic references to the world tree at Palenque and Copn (eighth
century) as Na-TeKan, First Tree Precious Yellow or as yax te,
meaning green tree (Freidel et al. 1993:53, 96) refer to a corn
plants yellow infructescence. Nevertheless, discernible images of
corn ears or kernels are never observed in association with these
flower-bearing world trees of the Maya, and therefore call this partic-
ular interpretation into question as well.
Anthropological discussions on the botanical aspects of the
world tree are often sketchy and inconsistent with critical morphic
attributes of the abstract motif but arguments in favor or against spe-
cific perspectives and interpretations of the motif are rarely, if ever,
supported or contested by botanical specialists, as the fields of ico-
nography and mythology are generally ignored by natural scientists.
This is unfortunate, given that animal and plant symbolism of early
civilizations is based primarily and directly on human reflections on
their natural environments.
In this study, world tree images on two ceramics, four Classic
stucco reliefs, and two stone stelae are examined with respect to
their morphic, symbolic and mythic characteristics, with an aim to
better elucidate the botanical identity and meaning of the motif.
Preclassic murals at San Bartolo, Guatemala, are examined subse-
quently to explore the origins of Classic iconographic practices.
The Maya conventionally portrayed their cosmological and religious
views by means of highly stylized, abstract images, these deriving
fundamentally from their unique perceptions of the natural world
and particularly aquatic habitats, which they recognized as the ulti-
mate source and domain of their pantheon. Indeed, the most popular
plant motif in Maya arts was a white-flowered water lily, Nymphaea
ampla (Salisb.) DC., which was widely employed as a symbol of the
Maya Netherworld and its aquatic inhabitants, the plants physical
and behavioral aspects often reflecting many of the signatory attri-
butes and behaviors of their gods and goddesses (Hellmuth 1987;
McDonald and Stross 2012; Rands 1953).
The Maya use of abstract figures and symbolic forms can be so
extreme as to render many images unintelligible to even experienced
specialists in the arts of Mesoamerica: hence a variety of divergent
opinions on the origin and meaning of these symbols and the sym-
bolic significance of the tree itself. Efforts to decipher and interpret
Maya iconography are best served, therefore, by first examining ar-
tistic works that are realistic in their execution, after which more
stylized specimens and their complex symbolic associations are
more effectively analyzed. When interpretations of symbols are hy-
pothetical and/or arguable, or even when not, they are supported by
similar patterns of symbolism observed at different sites, from dif-
ferent time periods and in different artistic media.
THE WORLD TREE ON CERAMICS
One of the more unique and revealing portrayals of the world tree is
observed on the famous Maya ceramic painting from the Peten of
Guatemala (Figure 1a), the so-called cosmic plate, which inte-
grates several typical elements of the Maya world tree in a mythic
scene that involves interactive images of the WLM, Water Lily
Serpent (WLS; i.e., a snake with prominent water lily ear flares)
(McDonald and Stross 2012), Water Lily Jaguar, a crocodile,
cosmic bird, and principally, a personified, three-branched
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McDonald
vegetative motif in the guise of an anthropomorphic, underworld
god known as Chahk-Xib-Chahk (Figure 1a). The panorama
emerges from a pool of water that represents an aquatic portal to
Xibalba, the Maya Netherworld, about which a host of gods inter-
mingle between the lower, middle, and heavenly realms of the
natural world. The rim of the plate is outlined by a continuous red
band, a standard symbol for water surfaces in Maya iconography
(Hellmuth 1987:vol. I, p.102; Coe 1975:19), just as a centralized
band of red, three-stacked bars (a standard symbol for water) estab-
lishes a water line that traverses the lower register of the plate
(Figure 1a.1), through which arises the focal image of the cosmo-
gram: an anthropomorphized image of the world tree
(Figure 1a.1). The outer side of the plate is similarly marked by
several red lines and a series of water lily leaf motifs (Table 1.4).
On both sides of the flying bird on the upper rim of the bowl we
observe two stylized motifs upon the netherworlds watery surface
(Figure 1a.2), each portrayed as a trident/trefoil that cradles a pair
of orbs between three teeth. These symbols are normally interpreted
as a Venus sign or more generically as a star glyph (ek, T510af;
Montgomery 2002:89) by epigraphers and iconographers
(Mazariegos 2006), as first suggested in 1913 by Spinden (1975:
92, 93, Figures 132c, 132 g, 132j, 132k). In this and many other in-
stances, however, when floating on a water surface or in association
with underwater gods, these symbols (including T510) can be rea-
sonably identified as stylized or symbolic water lilies (compare
Figures 2a.4, 2a.c2a.d, 3c, 7a, Table 1.5; McDonald and Stross
2012:101, Figures 5a5c; Milbrath 1999:187, Figures 5.7c,
5.7f5.7 g). That the symbol is associated with water surfaces cer-
tainly points to a flower symbol rather than a stellar feature of the
sky, as does the symbols close associations with the Water Lily
Jaguar on ceramic paintings (Table 1.6), whose body and vegetative
head piece is often covered with this symbol. This interpretation
does not discount, of course, the possibility that the glyph for
star is symbolized as a water lily sign (or vice versa), since both
of these natural features of the Maya cosmos are white and resplen-
dent, aerial features that occur in constellations: the former in deep
space, the latter on the surface of standing bodies of water.
In close proximity to the water lily motifs on the outer edges of the
plate is observed a floating, bicephalic cosmic serpent with a croco-
dilian head at one end (Figure 1a.4) and an inverted head on the tail
(Figure 1a.5). Stuart (2005:6872) nominates this creature as Starry
Deer Crocodile based, in part, on peculiar physical features that he
identifies as starry eyes (Looper 2012:202) and cervid ears and feet.
Nevertheless, the images of cosmic crocodiles that Stuart (2005:
Figures 43b, 45a, 136) cites from Copan and Yaxchilan suggest
instead a flowery reptile, as the three-toed, clawed feet are clearly
saurian, while the long-lashed eyes with crossbars may just as well
be interpreted as a naab sign, the ears as a water lily motifs. Indeed,
the crocodilian head on the cosmic plate presents a trident with
two orbs for an eye and a polypetalous floral ear plug, both of which
can be interpreted as water lily symbols (McDonald and Stross
2012), just as many similar crocodiles and WLMs from the Maya neth-
erworld bear water lilies on their snouts, ears eyes and legs (Freidel
et al. 1993:218, 278, Figure 6:17; Looper 2003: Figures 3.6, 4.8,
5.17; Maudslay 1974:vol. I, Plates 59a59b, 85, 95c; vol. III, Plates
35a35b, 51c; vol. IV, Plates 18, 36; Schele and Mathews 1998:114).
The inverted WLM/Quadripartite God head (McDonald and
Stross 2012:94, Figures 5b5f, 9a9c) on the reptiles tail
(Figure 1a.5) also displays a water lily ear flare and sak nik or
white flower sign; i.e., a trident, bar and cartouche (Freidel
et al. 1993:183, Figure 4.2) , sometimes including a ajaw sign
 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
(stylized human face) or cross bands, which likewise symbolize the
white-flowered Nymphaea ampla (McDonald and Stross 2012).
This upturned, jawless head on the left side of the crocodile exhibits
all the standard features of WLM (Figure 1a.5; McDonald and
Stross 2012: 8486, Figures 6ac), just as it shares identical facial
features with a WLM observed in the depths of this scene
(Figure 1a.1). A symbolic relationship, if not equivalency, of the
WLM and Quadripartite God was recognized by Thompson
(1971:7273), who likewise identifies the WLM (and, by associa-
tion, water lilies) as a symbol of the crocodile itself, while assuming
that both symbolic forms embody the concept of an abundant earth
in fertile, watery terrain.
The vertical alignment of iconic elements arising from Xibalba
on the cosmic plate defines the essential dimensions of the Maya
worldview, these being an aquatic underworld, a middle world (mes-
ocosm) on the surface of the watery medium, and a celestial realm,
across which a divine bird has taken flight (Figure 1a). The vegeta-
tive skull on the lowermost register of the plate, in the depths of the
Maya underworld, is the WLM, an aquatic denizen that convention-
ally wears water lily ear flares and sak nik (white flower) ear plugs
while producing water lily buds, flowers, and/or fruits from his
cranium (Figures 1a.3, 1b1c, 2.1, 3a.1, 3b3c, 4.1, 5a.1, 5b5c).
In this case, however, paired stalks that emerge from the WLMs
cranium terminate in personified water lily buds instead of full-
blown flowers, each face seeming to mirror the face of the WLM
at the base of the plate and possibly the face of the emergent
human form, Chahk-Xib-Chahk (Figures 1a.3, 1a.6, 1a.8). Bud
motifs with a pointed apex that extend from the WLM are clearly ho-
mologous with water lily bud motifs on other ceramic paintings
(Figures 1b1c, 6.2, 7a; McDonald and Stross 2012:Table 1.7),
not unlike the emergent, personified buds that flourish above the
waters surface, having emerged from three offshoots emanating
from the waist-deep image of Chahk (Figure 1a.6).
Chahk, whose facial features are usually the same as those of the
WLM, except for a pug-nose and topknot of hair (McDonald and
Stross 2012), is fully personified in this instance and produces a
pair of supple stems from his head (as does the WLM below) in ad-
dition to a third branch from his left arm. While each supple arm ex-
tension produces variations on water lily bud motifs at their tips, the
stalk that slips underneath Chahks right arm transforms into the
head of a WLS at its apex (Figure 1a.7; McDonald and Stross
2012:Figure 7), whose personified water lily bud ear flare is sub-
tended by a polypetalous ear plug with a face sign (ajaw) in its
center, both of which features are often associated with water lily
flowers (Figure 7a) and glyphs (see below). This branch compares
closely with a central stalk that emerges from Chahks head,
which produces a series of four water lily buds. The first of these
buds emerges from the ear of a roaring Water Lily Jaguar, whose
tridentate bud bears a nen sign, an elliptical cartouche with two
cross hatches (sometimes a pair of curved, eccentric arcs; Schele
and Miller 1983), which appears frequently within water lily
buds and flowers (Figure 1a.5, 1a.81a.9, 1b1c, 4.4, 6, 7a;
McDonald and Stross 2012). Distal from the Water Lily Jaguar is
observed another personified water lily motif with a water lily ear
flare, seeming to suggest the skyward migration of the underworld
face via the water lily peduncle. Moving up the same branch is
another personified water lily bud by the image of Chahks face
in the middle of the stalk (Figure 1a.8), and then another whose
forehead bears a rounded cartouche with crossbands, a symbol
that is often associated with water lily buds and flowers (Figures
3a.1, 3a.4, 4.3,7a), and the aforementioned sak nik insignia.
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341
Above this personified bud we observe another bud that matches
closely with buds of the WLM below (Figures 1b1c, 7a).
Directly above Chahks thick and supple appendages a bird is
observed in flight. Various epigraphers identify this bird as Muut
Itzamnaaj (Taube et al. 2010:30; although Stone and Zender
2011:47 express doubt in present readings) and most Mayanists
identify this avian form as the co-essence of the Maya underworld
god of creation, Itzamnaaj. Generically known as the Principal
Bird Deity, the creature normally perches upon the central bough
of the world tree (Figures 2a, 4a, 5a) or the medial coil of WLS
(McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures 6a6b) and is therefore be-
lieved to symbolize the celestial domain of the cosmogram
(Freidel et al. 1993: 71, 420). However, this heavenly bird is also
associated with the underworld, insofar as the creature wears
water lily symbols on various areas of his body as well as aquatic
serpent features on his wings. In this instance, a sak nik sign
(circlet-bar-trident motif = water lily flower; McDonald and
Stross 2012) is attached to the birds head. Hellmuths (1987:vol.
I, p. 195) recognition that the bird inhabits the Mayas watery
Netherworld complements the creatures close relationship with
the world trees aquatic source. In summary, Guatemalas cosmic
plate portrays a Maya world tree that reflects all the basic attributes
of a water lily plant: a series of thick and supple, budding peduncles
that extend skyward from a watery source. No trace of a corn plant,
kapok stems or flowers is observed.
A similar but simplified image of the water lily world tree is ob-
served on a ceramic vessel of unknown provenance (Figure 6) that
distinctively lacks a WLM at its roots and a conventional cruciform
canopy. Only two discernible branches that terminate in trident
motifs (= water lilies; Figure 6.4) are observed, yet true to type, a
coiling serpent entwines the trees branches while displaying a
prominent water lily ear flare (Figure 6.3) and a water lily fruit
with four calyx segments below the jaw (Figure 6.2; compare
Figure 7d, Table 1.8). The coils of this WLS are supported by
budding water lily stalks at the base of the tree (Figure 6.1), a stan-
dard symbol of the aquatic Maya Netherworld; and interestingly, the
convoluted water lily stalks exhibit loosely knotted coils that match
closely with the body of the canopys WLS. A bird (not shown here)
flies over the aerial stems of the WLS plant.
As noted by McDonald and Stross (2012:Figure 8G), Nymphaea
peduncles at Dzibilchaltun exhibit many standard attributes of the
Water Lily Serpent, as they are often depicted as thick and supple
coils with water drops and nen-signs. If these authors are correct
in identifying the water lily serpent as a symbol of the water lily
plant, then conceptually, the recurrent associations of a world tree,
water lily plant, water lily serpent, water lily monster, and Chahk
may well reflect some sort of metamorphic or causal relationship
between these disparate members of the Maya pantheon. Since
this particular world tree also lacks physical or symbolic references
to a corn plant or kapok tree, while exhibiting various aspects of a
water lily plant, we can reasonably assume that this tree is likewise
rooted in the Maya watery netherworld.
MORPHIC AND SYMBOLIC ASPECTS OF NYMPHAEA
AMPLA
A ceramic painting in the Kerr Vase Data Base (Figure 7a) that
employs a number of water lily motifs provides an unusually clear
and relatively complete frame of symbolic reference to aid in the
decipherment of world tree imagery. Twin mythic figures sit
within or beside natural and stylized depictions of water lilies, the
 342 McDonald

Figure 7. Correlative water lily symbols, motifs, and natural characteristics. (a) Water lily flowers are usually portrayed in profile, high-
lighting three of four sepals as a trident or trefoil motif that is suspended by thick and supple stalks. A radial perspective emphasizes a
polypetalous flower. Buds and flowers are often decorated with cross-bars or a face that is often associated with the Maya Sun God
(Kinich Ajaw). Both lateral and frontal perspectives of the flower are associated with sprays of long bird feathers, presumably to sym-
bolize large water lily petals. Water lily leaves emphasize the blades dentate margins and reticulate venations with prominent purple
punctae on the undersurface. Ceramic, provenance and date unknown. (b-e) Nymphaea ampla from northern Veracruz. (b) Young,
bulbous and smooth water lily stems that produce leaves and flowering stalks bear the general aspect of a human cranium (i.e., the
WLM skull). (c) The circular, yellow, syncarpous ovaries of water lilies with a radiate androecium suggest the image of radiant sun.
The ovary cup fills with water on the first day of anthesis and shimmers in sunlight: hence the habit of placing nen (mirror)
symbols within buds and perianths. (d) Water lily buds, flowers, and fruits produce four prominent sepals, lateral views of which
reveal three visible calyx segments (hence the use of trident or trefoil motifs in Maya symbolism). (e) Laminas exhibit prominent re-
ticulate venation and dark purple punctae. Developing leaf blades unroll from the midvein outward, suggesting the source of the
supposed stingray spine motif of the quadripartite badge (see Figures 2a.2, 4). Photographs and drawing by author. Drawing after
photograph K8498, Justin Kerr.

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 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning 343

Figure 8. (a) Stela F, Quirigua, Guatemala, eighth century. A Guatemalan dynast commemorated as the personification of the world tree. (1)
Ankles of the world tree take the form of a WLM so as to symbolize its aquatic source. (2) A plaited rope motif terminates in two sak nik signs
around the knees of the world tree. (3) A pair of itz glyphs (water lily sun-flower signs with nectar falling) dangle on plaited rope motifs that
issue from serpent maws. (4) A simplified, bicephalic square-nose serpent motif envelops the facial image of God C. (5) A bicephalic, water lily
serpent skeleton, the ears of which present prominent water lily trefoils, drapes across the canopy and headdress of the personified world tree.
(6) A (damaged) pectoral bar terminates at both ends in polypetalous flower with an infixed ajaw sign, apparently symbolizing the lateral
branches of the trees cruciform canopy. (7) A plumose, polypetalous (bird?-) god with a trefoil as a headdress crowns the world tree. (b)
Rosalila Temple, Copan, Honduras, ca. seventh century. A dynast wears a Chahk headdress that presents two prominent trefoil water lily
ear flares, below which the king displays two stylized ears of Chahk (xikin Chahk), a name for the Maya water lily, depicted as a trefoil sus-
pended a plaited motif and sustaining clusters of feathers. (c) Machaquil, Guatemala, ninth century. The ankles of dynasts on commemorative
steles are often decorated with water lilies (trefoil in association with three orbs and WLM). Drawings by the author after on-site photographs.

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 344 McDonald

Figure 9. (a) Stela N, Copan, Honduras, eighth century. Variation on a personified Maya world tree. (1) Representing the lateral
branches of the world tree, the king holds a pectoral bar on his breast that terminates at its opposing tips in the open maw of
dragons, from which emerges anthropomorphic gods. The bar supports a centralized itz glyph: a water lily flower with three pegs
that drip nectar drops. The dragons ears lack the standard trefoil but present instead a bar with three circlets and a nen sign,
these being standard symbolic features of water lilies. (2) The paired faces of a god flank the dragon headdress and disgorge serpentine
stalks that terminate in the maw of a serpent and water lilies (see Figure 9b). (3) An asymmetrical water lily with three basal circles ties
off on the head of the kings dragon-face headdress. (4) A symbolic water lily serpent symbol (tube terminating in a sak nik sign)
extends in opposite directions of the water lily stalk. (b) A side panel of Stela N exhibits a ropy, vegetative dragon. (1) The coils of
a dragon extend from a gods maw (see Figure 9a.2) and terminate as a saurian head that matches closely with frontal view of the
face on the kings headdress on the front panel (see Figure 9b). (2) Asymmetrical water lily flowers that are consumed by a cosmic
fish terminate the opposite end of the serpent/peduncle. Drawings by the author after on-site photographs.

left plant bearing large, petiolate blades with prominent veins and
conspicuous dark-punctae on the leaf undersurface (Figures 7a,
7e); each of these features is a conspicuous characteristic of
Nymphaea ampla (Figure 7e; McDonald and Stross 2012). Water
lily flowers that emanate from the lap and backside of the left
twin are executed in profile as a trefoil/trident motif, an ancient
and ubiquitous symbol in Maya iconography that exhibits three out
of four calyx segments (Figures 1b1c, 2a.5, 2b, 2d, 3b3c, 5b5c,
7a, 7d) with a pair of darkened, semicircular orbs inside the perianth
(McDonald and Stross 2013; Rands 1953:Figures 5a, 5c5h).

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 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning 345

Figure 10. (a) West Wall, San Bartolo, Guatemala, first century B.C. An aerial flower motif above Tree Number 6 is portrayed as an akbal
sign surrounded by a polypetalous corolla and four naab/imix insignias. The same flower is worn as a floral attribute on the headdress
of a cosmic bird that soars above and perches upon Tree Number 8. A lateral perspective of the same flower discharges nectifarous
droplets and emanates red swirls that presumably symbolize a strong scent. (b) A highly stylized WLS with an akbal sign within its body,
a water lily bud for a tail and flower bearing a fascicle of feathers on its dorsal side is portrayed on a ceramic vessel of unknown age.
Drawing by author after photograph K5056, Justin Kerr. (c) West Wall, San Bartolo, Guatemala, first century B.C. A calabash tree
sustains a cosmic bird with a captured serpent in its beak. Note a series of similar floral motifs are shared by the bird and snake, stylized
features of which are standard characteristics of water lilies in the Classic period (i.e., trefoils, asymmetrical perspectives, triad of
circlets, mat motif, etc.). Wings of the bird also exhibit symbolic features that relate to water lily imagery. (d) West Wall, San
Bartolo, Guatemala, first century B.C. A water lily plant flourishes beneath a stream of water that carries an aquatic god and
serpent. (e) West Wall, San Bartolo, Guatemala, first century B.C. A sak nik sign with an infixed ik signthe glyph for day 2 in
the Tzolkin calendarassumes a position below the cosmic bird as he descends toward a calabash tree. Solid reddish circlets below
the floral sign probably symbolize scent and match the trefoil floral motifs associated with the birds headdress, tail feathers and
pectoral flower medallion. Drawings by the author after on-site photographs.

The twin figure on the right emerges from a frontal view of the
flower that presents a radial configuration of rounded water lily
petals with alternating feathers (Figure 7a). The rotate arrangement
of feathers is a rare perspective on the more typical, lateral perspec-
tive of a flower that conventionally produces a fascicle of feathers
(Figures 1c, 6a, 8b, Table 1.9; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures
7a, 9b). As hypothesized by McDonald and Stross (2012), recurrent
associations between feathers and petals in Maya iconography imply
a symbolic equivalency between floral and avian features of the Maya
pantheon (i.e., feathers = petals).

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 346 McDonald

Figure 11. (a) West Wall, San Bartolo, Guatemala, first century B.C. A kapok tree (?) sustains a cosmic bird that has sacrificed an iconic
serpent (note trefoil earflare and tail piece). Similar floral designs are associated with the birds tail, pectoral medallion and aromatic (or
air-moving?) wings. (b) North Wall, San Bartolo, Guatemala, first century B.C. A priestess or goddess with a triad of water lily motifs in
her headdress pays respect to anthropomorphic demiurge (compare with Figure 3a.1). The gourd surmounted upon the flowers is
involved with the creation of human children at the far-end of this narrative mural. Drawings by the author after on-site photographs.

We also note that both twin figures uphold a stylized water lily
stem/rod that is intersected by a horizontal, narrow, ellipsoid blade,
this being a signatory attribute of Chahk-Xib-Chahk that most
Mayanists identify as a lightning rod (Figure 1; Schele and
Miller 1986:46; Taube 1997:22). In this case, however, it appears
that the supposed lightning rod is actually a floral standard that pro-
duces a spray of feathers, as would be the case for other depictions
of this implement on stucco reliefs in House D at Palenque (Greene
Robertson 1974:Figures 11, 13) and on various ceramic paintings
(Table 1.10).
Lateral perspectives on stalked buds and/or berries that reach
around the frontal view of the flower contain cross-bands or prom-
inent faces known as ajaw insignias (Figure 7a), a facial motif that
can entail different readings, depending primarily on the context of
its presentation. In this case, the sign reads as nik, or flower
(T535, Montgomery 2002:183), but in other circumstances the
symbol reads as ajaw, or lord (T533; Montgomery 2002:27).
Both glyphs share direct and indirect, dual associations with a quad-
ripartite flower sign (nik and kin, Stone and Zender 2011:222223,
Figures 97.197.5) that usually relates to the concept of a day or
the sun, just as several alternative glyphs for the sun and days
employ variant elaborations on a tetramerous flower or quincunx
(T585), the latter likely representing a sun emerging from a quadri-
partite calyx (Thompson 1971:142; Stross 1986:8). This correlative
relationship between various solar and quadripartite floral signs is
likely based on the solar aspect of Nymphaea ampla corollas,
whose radiate configuration of yellow stamens around a bright,
golden ovarian disk open to the sun at daybreak and close before
dusk during the flowers three-day cycle (Figure 7c; McDonald
2002; McDonald and Stross 2012).
The most common glyph for the sun, kin (T544; Montgomery
2002:151), a cartouche infixed with a quatrefoil motif, is unani-
mously interpreted as a quadripartite flower. And since the kin
sign is occasionally associated with the WLM and WLS
(Table 1.11; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures 7d, 9b), this
symbol clearly relates in many cases to the large and tetramerous,
polypetalous features of Nymphaea, the only aquatic plant group
of Mesoamerica that exhibits this combination of characteristics.
When attached to the crocodile tail, or at times when detached,
the WLM skull often supports a large plate that displays a prominent

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 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
kin or kan sign, which usually contains three associated motifs that
collectively comprise the so-called quadripartite badge (i.e., a sak
nik motif, upright triangular object and shell-like item; Figures
2a.1, 3a.2; Freidel et al. 1993:94, 418; McDonald and Stross
2012:9495), whence the modern name for this creature: the
Quadripartite God. The sun-plate and its variant portrayals as a
quadripartite flower sign often marks the spot at which the WLS
(Table 1.12) or world tree emerges from the underworld into the
natural realm, and clearly relates to the same four-lobed floral
symbol known as the ol portal (discussed below), through which
water lily stalks are seen emerging in Figure 5d. Consequently, if
the birthplace the world trees is the watery surface of Xibalba,
then these floral signs must represent in this context a tetramerous
flower that floats on water, while connoting as well a solar aspect
and symbolic meaning (Looper 2012:201). This perspective is con-
sistent with the placement of trident floral motifs on the edge of the
cosmic plate (Figure 1a.2), whose profiles conceivably represent the
radial view of the kin quatrefoil (i.e., a tetramerous water lily).
The sun-and-flower relationship is similarly apparent in the
kinich glyph (T1010a.184.74, meaning sun-eyed or sun-faced),
which features the face of the Maya Sun God (God G, Taube 1997:
5056) with several quatrefoil kin signs on his forehead, cheek,
arms, and ear ornament, the latter of which is flanked above and
below by a pair of trefoils and water lily signs (Montgomery 2002:
152; Stone and Zender 2011:Figures 62.162.2; Taube 1997:
Figures 22b, 22d22e, 22g, 23a, 23c,). The Sun Gods detached
ear ornament is also an alternative glyph for kinich (T74.184;
Montgomery 2002:152), but with a pair of larger, more detailed tre-
foils with double circlets above and below the kin sign that suggest
the ik glyph (= breath or scent, T23; Montgomery 2002:94; Stone
and Zender 2011:223, Figure 97.1): a sign that is recurrently associ-
ated with water lilies, water lily serpents (Taube 1997:59), water lily
trefoils, itz and nik signs (Maudslay 1974:vol. I, Plate 59b; vol. II,
Plate 35; Stone and Zender 2011:175, Figures 73.273.5). When em-
ployed as a heraldic title, Stone and Zender (2011:152153) translate
the floral kinich glyph as great sun; in the context of a gods title,
Kinich Ajaw or Ajaw Kin, the rendering is Lord of the Sun.
Consequently, a floral motif is central to the Sun Gods glyphic iden-
tity: a sun who often rests upon a water surface instead of rising from
a terrestrial horizon (Hellmuth 1987:vol. I, pp.213216). Might not
these images refer, therefore, to an aquatic flower with solar qualities
rather than a solar orb? In this respect, it is likely relevant in Maya
epigraphy that the glyph for serpent, kan or chan (T764), also
means sky, four, and sun-Lord (T1010; Montgomery 2002:
57), agreeing conceptually with morphic characteristics of sun-like,
tetramerous water lily flowers.
A variant glyphic form of Sun Lord, kin-ni ajaw (T168:544:
116; Montgomery 2002:153), employs an alternative flower
glyph to represent the sun as either nik (T533v, T535;
Montgomery 2002:183) or nikte (T646v, T299:646v:87;
Montgomery 2002:184185), in which case the sign comprises a
quincunx formed by a central circlet within a cartouche that is sur-
rounded by four opposing pairs of dashes in the round, sometimes
bearing a single or quartet of paired volutes to signify breath or
scent (Stone and Zender 2011:223, Figure 97.1; Stuart and
Stuart 2008:Plate 18A). Nikte reads as flower literally but,
once again, the Maya conflated the concepts of flower and sun,
sometimes portraying the cartouche as either a floral kin sign
(sun) or ol portal (Stone and Zender 2011:Figure 97.5), the
central opening of which provides passage to the supernatural,
watery domain of the gods (Freidel et al. 1993:367, Figure 8:22),
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347
suggesting again common meanings for similar designs for a sun-
plate or flower plate. Since the quincunx symbol is frequently em-
bedded within water lily images on ceramics (Table 1.13), a direct
relationship between the water lily and sun is emphasized.
This common sun-and-flower association is also apparent in
another alternative sign for nik or nich (flower): an ajaw face
wearing a peculiar helmet that might represent an upturned, sacrifi-
cial sun-plate (T533v, T535; Montgomery 2002:183). As earlier
noted, the ajaw sign reads in this case as flower (Figures 2e,
7a), calling to mind the placement of this same face within the four-
lobed kin eyes of the Maya Sun God on a throne of Altar U at Copan
(Stone and Zender 2011:Figure 62.1). This same symbolic association,
as noted by Stuart (2005:167, Figure 134) and Hellmuth (1987:vol. II,
Figure 161), is observed on an early Classic cache vessel that juxta-
poses the faces of GI and Kinich Ajaw, as though they were reflec-
tive aspects of the same divinity, bearing the same kin bowl
observed upon the head of WLM to form the Quadripartite God.
This is the supposed sun-plate that creates an opening for the
Maya world trees entry into the mesocosm (Figures 2a.1, 3a.2).
An ajaw face that lacks an upturned plate can still be read as flower
(nik), as would be the case in the ubiquitous sign for white flower:
sak nik (T179; Montgomery 2002:213). In this case, however, the
nose, mouth and eyes of the lord-face is figured inside the cartouche
of a sak glyph, meaning white or pure (T58; Montgomery 2002:
213) (i.e., an empty cartouche with a horizontal bar and two or three
perianth segments to one side [McDonald and Stross 2012:81, 8889,
Figure 3.e, 9.b9.c], these presumably portraying the lateral view of
tetramerous flower). By placing the ajaw glyph within the cartouche,
the glyph is read as white flower, which routinely applies to the
white Maya water lily (McDonald and Stross 2012), in that this
sign often replaces stylized water lily flowers on the ear flares of
various aquatic gods (Maudslay 1974:vol. I, Plate 94) as well as the
tails and snouts of the WLS.
Montgomery (2002:27) suggests that the ajaw glyph, when used
to denote the last day sign in the Tzolkin calendar, designates the Sun
God specifically. This interpretation apparently follows Thompson
(1971:142), who notes that the equivalent day in the Aztec calendar
is denoted by a central Mexican flower sign for xochitl (flower) and
yet also represents the Aztec young Sun God, Xochipilli (Flower
Prince). These views are clearly consistent with the Maya practice
of placing ajaw faces within floral rosettes (Figures 2a.6, 4a.6,
5a.2, 8a.6) and floral ear flares of WLM (Figures 1b, 7b,
Table 1.14), the bicephalic serpent (Maudslay 1974:vol. I, Plate 85;
vol. II, Plate 62) and the Quadripartite God, a personification of the
sacrificial solar plate (Figures 2a.1, 4a.1, 5a.1; Freidel et al.
1993:414). In most uses of the floral sun symbol, as exemplified in
Figure 7a and cited throughout the synthesis of McDonald and
Stross (2012), the flower in question is a water lily.
The alternative reading of lord and/or flower for a glyph
that relates to a Sun God is clearly reflected in iconographic practic-
es of various Maya communities in the Early and Middle Classic
periods. We observe, for example, two very overt associations of
the young and nascent Sun God with water lilies at Palenque,
where the head of the god emerges into the living realm from a full-
blown water lily flower (Maudslay 1974:vol. IV, Plate 37). Given
the snake-like features of this flowers peduncle, the image seems
to mirror the recurrent image of Maya gods and ancestors emerging
from the maw of the WLS (McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures 6b,
7b7e, 9f). A variation on this symbolic theme is also evident on the
shield of the celebrated dynast from Palenque, Pakal (Shield),
which portrays the frontal view of GIs face fixed between a
 348
quartet of water lily flowers (Maudslay 1974:vol IV, Plate 88),
thereby suggesting a flower-and-sun quincunx. Foreshadowing
these sun-and-flower motifs at Palenque, related forms are observed
on early Classic ceramics from Tikal, where GIs face bears floral
kin glyphs (quatrefoils) on his cheeks and head and water lilies
or breathing floral signs on his head (Hellmuth 1987:vol. II,
Figures 160d160i). An ancestor of Pakal that appears on the side
of the dynasts sarcophagus, Kinich Ahkal Mo Nahb, assumes the
identity of GI on Temple XIXs platform by wearing this gods in-
signia on his headdress (Stuart 2005:Figures 87, 88a): a radiate,
polypetalous flower with an infixed ajaw face, reading nik, from
which emerges the coiled neck of a heron or cormorant with a
long bill and captured fish. That this bird is a waterfowl implies
that the Sun Gods floral insignia is a water lily and, indeed, this in-
terpretation is supported by the aforementioned Early Classic vessel
images from Tikal of the Sun God with water lilies and the same bird
(Stuart 2005:Figures 88b88c). Given these aquatic associations and
the mythic origins of GI from the mythic land of Matwil (Stuart
2005:167169), a place whose word-root, mat, means either cormo-
rant or merganser (Stuart 2005:169), it is no wonder that GI is
also clearly a deity of the water (Stuart 2005:168). GI seems to orig-
inate, therefore, from lakes and ponds instead of the sea, and likely
relates to a floral sun emerging from standing waters instead of a
heavenly orb arising from the sea.
In this same vein, it is noteworthy that solar orbs are almost non-
existent in Maya iconography, save only for a few specimens at
Chichen Itza which were probably inspired by iconographic influ-
ences from central Mexico. Yet the co-occurrence of sun signs and
water lily flowers and symbols pervade lowland Maya territories.
These symbolic associations seem to have early origins, as connec-
tions between GI and his water lily trefoil ear ornaments are observed
on Early Classic cache vessels and the Hauberg stela (Stuart 2005:
Figures 126, 133134). In fact, the floral motif that surmounts GI
on the Hauberg stela is almost indistinguishable from the floral
motif that surmounts the foliated world tree at Palenque (Figure 5a).
A number of serpent gods throughout the world that share close
symbolic associations with the sun are symbolized by both lotus
flowers and aquatic serpents (Goodyear 1891; McDonald 2002,
2004), and no less so those of the Maya (McDonald and Stross
2012), whose vegetative serpents are often associated with various
water signs to identify their aquatic source (i.e., a pyramidal stack
of three bars, shell scrolls and na signs) (Figure 6; Schele and
Miller 1986:47). Since the snake-like peduncles of budding water
lilies ascend into the air upon the initiation of anthesis and then
recoil underwater after three consecutive days of flowering, bearing
daily matinal flowers with solar qualities, it is plausible to relate
this flowering habit to the three-branched, three-flowered, Maya
world tree (Figures 1a, 2a, 3a, 4, 5a; McDonald 2002; McDonald
and Stross 2012). A similar but evidently analogous iconographic
practice is employed by both Nilotic and Indian cultures that histori-
cally portrayed lotus flowers in clusters of three or as three-branched,
lotus-trees of life (McDonald 2002, 2004). The frequent placement of
three dark circlets in a bar at the base of the water lily trefoil/trident in
Maya symbolism (Figures 2d, 5b, Table 1.15; McDonald and Stross
2012:Figures 4d, 7b) may also relate to the exposure of the plants
golden disk for three consecutive days.
BAS RELIEFS ON STUCCO WALLS
With a broader understanding of water lily symbolism and the
poorly appreciated, diverse roles of this aquatic plant in Maya
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McDonald
iconography, a reassessment of the characteristics and symbolic at-
tributes of world trees at Palenque and elsewhere provides new and
unexpected insights into Maya symbolism. The Late Classic period
Tablet of the Cross (Figure 2a), for example, commissioned and
commemorated by Kan Bahlam, son of the celebrated dynast
Kinich Janaab Pakal in 692 (Miller 1999:112), portrays a world
tree that shares many of the symbolic features observed on the
cosmic plate. In this rendering, however, the collection of four sym-
bolic elements that rest upon the cranium of WLM (Figure 2a.2),
forming the quadripartite badge (Greene Robertson 1974), in-
cludes a plate that bears a sun or floral sign and a prominent sak
nik emblem on its side (compare Figure 7). This glyphic symbol
was observed earlier on the tail end of a bicephalic crocodile
(Figure 1a.5) but assumes here a central, fixed position between
the WLM and world tree trunk. Per the usual, the WLM and skeletal
bicephalic serpent that drapes the branches of the panels tree exhibit
identical water lily ear flares, presumably drawing a symbolic con-
nection between these aerial and underworld zoomorphic gods,
even though artisans at Palenque consistently portray water lily
ear flares of serpents and WLM as two thickened volutes instead
of three (Figures 2a.1, 2a.3; Schele and Freidel 1990:Figure 6:12).
Interestingly, inscriptions associated with the world tree at
Palenque describe the jeweled tree (uh te) as an earth-born
plant that offers tribute to the sky in the form of jewels and ear
flares according to Callaway (2006:63); and since ear flares are
usually depicted as water lily trefoils (McDonald and Stross
2012), water lily production was evidently a significant role of the
Maya world tree.
The water lily serpent (note ear flares; Figure 2a.3) assumes a
conventional position in the boughs of the cosmic plant and is ob-
viously iconic. In this case, the segmented body of the water lily
serpent is formed by yax glyphs (T16; Montgomery 2002:286),
meaning green, so as to attribute a vegetative aspect to a zoomor-
phic motif. On a symbolic level, the water lily ear flares of the
serpent seem to complement the three campanulate, treble motifs
that terminate each of the world trees branches (Figure 2a.5),
which Freidel et al. (1993:183, Figures 4:2e, 4:2g) identify specifi-
cally as a white flower/serpent maw motif, noting that, [t]he
bell-shaped objects on the ends of its branches (with square-nosed
serpents emerging from them) are the iconic representation of
these white flowers. Given that the white flower motifs exhibit
the standard features of white water lilies (i.e., trefoils that cradle
a pair of prominent circlets) (McDonald and Stross 2012), as ob-
served in a simplified form (Figure 2c) or a highly stylized motif
(Figure 2d), we may reasonably assume that this world tree sustains
three flowering water lily stalks, much like Chac-Xib-Chac on the
aforementioned cosmic plate.
From the flowers of the horizontal lateral branches a peculiar,
linear series of studded beads emerges from the highly abstract de-
pictions of square-nosed serpents (Figure 2a.4), which many authors
have interpreted as stamens of a ceiba flower (Callaway 2006:36;
Freidel et al. 1993:394396; Stone and Zender 2011:227). A
closer inspection of these structures (Figures 2a.4, 3a.4, 4.6)
reveals, however, that they bear no particular resemblance to the
fused and fasciculate stamen filaments that form the exserted stami-
nal column of bombacaceous (i.e., Ceiba) flowers (Freidel et al.
1993:Figure 9:2), nor do the three, solitary campanulate floral fea-
tures of the branches call to mind the fasciculate inflorescence, pen-
tamerous corollas, or diagnostic exserted androecium of Ceiba
flowers. It is perhaps noteworthy that a series of three or four
studded beads of similar form that dangle from radial flower signs
 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
for nectar (itz; T152, Montgomery 2002;Figure 6.6) may be ho-
mologous motifs, in which case the supposed stamen motifs
might refer to a stream of nectar. Whether this is the case or not,
there is no clear explanation as to how a square-nosed serpent rep-
resents a kapok flower.
On the other hand, we know of occasional ceramic paintings in
which the square-nose serpent projects flowers from his snout
(Taube et al. 2010:41) or, more specifically, water lilies from his
snout, ears, and/or tails (Figure 4b), much like the WLM
(Figure 4c, Table 1.16). A modified sak nik with a water symbol
(large circlet flanked by two small circlets), signifying a white
water flower, is attached to this square-nose serpent on the head-
dress of Itzaamnaaj (Figure 4b), in the same manner that it occurs
in association with the water lily flower on the ears and head of
the Water Lily Jaguar (Table 1.17; Taube 1997:Figure 24e).
A series of related glyphs denoted by a line with two circlets or a
circlet next to an irregular ellipsis are observed on the outer surface
of the tree trunk and within the horizontal branches (Figure 2a).
These are recognized as te glyphs (T514v; Montgomery 2002:
229; Freidel et al. 1993:414) and are usually transcribed as tree,
wood, or forest. But the sign can also denote a vegetative
quality or herbaceous feature, since they relate at times to maize
plants (Thompson 1971:56, 291) or herbaceous plant features in a
linguistic context, such as flower (nikte). With respect to water
lilies, an herbaceous plant group, the sign is frequently placed
within or upon the plants stems and flowers (Figures 1a.6, 2a,
3a.1, 5a.1), just as they occupy peduncles that emanate from the
cranium and ears of WLM (Table 1.19) and tubular bodies of
WLS (Table 1.20), who also wears a polypetalous flower infixed
with ik (scent or breath) signs that pours forth nectar (itz glyph;
Stone and Zender 2011:54, Figure 2). Peduncles of budding water
lily stalks surrounding Pakals ancestors on the side of his sarcoph-
agus exhibit these same signs internally and externally (Schele and
Mathews 1998:Figure 3.26). Comparing similar bud motifs at
Palenque (Stuart 2005:Figures 4, 19d, 29a, Portrait H), Chichen
Itza (Maudslay 1974:vol. III, Plate 35a), and on various ceramics
(Table 1.18), a more general transcription for te as plant
(instead of tree or wood) seems in order.
The central, vertical branch of this world tree supports a celestial
bird that displays a spray of feathers upon its floral perch
(Figure 2a.5), thereby linking two zoomorphic symbols of the
earth and sky (i.e., serpent and bird) with a divine plant that per-
vades the upper realms of space, as was the case in the cosmic
plate (Figure 1a). Since the bird exhibits a water lily ear flare
(Figure 2a.5) and is associated with a polypetalous flower that
bears an ajaw face, a standard feature of water lily signs
(Figure 7a; compare Thompson 1971:Figure 2.2 with Figures
10.4810.63), it is not unreasonable to associate the birds feathers
with the nik signs petaloid features, as hypothesized by McDonald
and Stross (2012).
The celestial bird usually exhibits the facial features of the WLM
or Chahk and occasionally exhibits water lily ear flares (Figure 2a.7,
2b, Table 1.21), by which the bird relates indirectly to the base of the
tree and the water lily upon which serves as a perch. Indeed, the
widespread Mesoamerican concept of a feathered serpent is based
on the fusion of snake and avian symbolism that Mayanists have
called the Water Lily Bird Serpent (Bassie 2002:38; Hellmuth
1987:vol. I, pp. 184186). McDonald and Stross (2012) suggest
the constant symbolic associations between water lily motifs and
snake-bird symbolism is based on the morphology of Nymphaea,
whereby avian motifs symbolize the plants plumose (large-
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petalous) corollas and serpent motifs represent the plants
peduncles.
On a nearby stucco frieze on Pier C of House D at Palenque, a
dancing Lord that wears the jade skirt of a Maya god cradles a min-
iature, three-branched world tree in his right arm, complete with the
WLM skull and sun-plate (Figure 3a.2). While prancing across a
flourishing lotus grove beneath his feet (Figure 3a.1), the waters
surface denoted once again by a line of stacked-bar water signs,
the cosmic dancer dons a two-tiered headdress with superimposed
WLM masks, the lower of which exhibits water lily motifs for
eyes (Figures 3a.3, 7b; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figure 4i).
Tetramerous floral motifs that alternate with an elliptical symbol
are observed arising from the water lily patch along the border of
the scene (Figure 2a.4). These same motifs are frequently associated
with the world trees water lily serpent, and one may assume these
quadripartite flowers are stylized water lilies, given their close asso-
ciation with water lily plants, their four narrow sepals (Figure 7d),
and a corolla formed by four petals, with cross-bands in the
center of the motif, a common symbolic attribute of water lilies,
as observed on the cosmic plate (Figure 1a.8), the twin-figure
ceramic (Figure 7a), and the white blossom sign of the quadripar-
tite badge (Figure 2a.2). We observe this same motif upon the styl-
ized square-nose serpent motif on the uppermost branch the
dancers world tree, but here only half of the symbol is employed
as if it was embedded within the stalked beaded motif (the mi
glyph, connoting nothing, Montgomery 2002:170). In a related
context, the same mi glyph is attached to a serpentoid water lily pe-
duncle that grows from the sak nik ear plug of a WLM (Figure 3c),
suggesting homology between water lily stalks and the square-nose
serpent branch of a world tree. This symbol, along with tridentate
cartouches containing kan crosses, quadripartite badges, and
related insignias that are often identified as signs of soul frag-
ments (chulel) of the Maya (i.e., Freidel et al. 1993:201,
Figure 4.18; Schele and Miller 1986:Plate 111b) and are often at-
tached to water scrolls in ritual scenes (Figure 3b), share close asso-
ciations with water lily symbolism (McDonald and Stross 2012).
PAKALS SARCOPHAGUS AT PALENQUE
Since the discovery of the sarcophagus of Kinich Janaab Pakal, a
famous Late Classic (seventh century) dynast, in which the king is
portrayed as a jade-skirted deity fixed between the maw of the
WLM and a flourishing tree of life (Figure 4), the modern, typolog-
ical concept of a Classic Maya world tree has been set in stone.
Inscriptions on this temple describe this king as First Father (as-
sociated at Palenque with the underwater Sun God, GI), who, as a
boy of ten, is said to have established cosmic order a year and
half after the creation of the present world. He appears to emerge
from, or perhaps submerge himself into the source of the world
tree, the primordial sea of creation, or Lakamha (Vast Waters,
the Maya name for Palenque; Stuart and Stuart 2008:115117,
186), perhaps as a water lily, since his glyphic name, Janaab
Pakal, a crosshatched ellipsis with four empty orbs on corners and
quincunx of orbs in center (T624; Montgomery 2002:107), means
flower shield. As earlier noted, the title matches closely with
Pakals coat of arms at Palenque, which bears the face of an under-
world Sun God between four water lilies facing the quarters of space
(Maudslay 1974:vol. IV, Plate 88).
While some commentators (Schele and Miller 1986:268269;
Miller 1999:111) interpret the reclined position of Pakal as an act
of falling into the WLMs maws of death, resulting in the world
 350
trees ascent from his belly, the central position of the king seems
rather to reflect the image of a birth scene of a god from the
WLM (Figure 4.2), or perhaps the birth of a king or his divine
return to the world of the gods in the guise of, or perhaps by
means of, the Maya world tree. This latter interpretation is, of
course, one of several compelling possibilities, but the placement
of the tree on the lid of a sarcophagus clearly implies some sort
of resurrection experience involving the deceased kings journey
to the Maya netherworld. Pakal reclines directly upon the floral
sak nik sign of the quadripartite badge, which seems to complement
glyphic commentaries at Palenque that employ this sign for death
(T179) to describe a diminished white flowery soul, his white
flower having expired or diminished in the natural world (Freidel
et al. 1993:183, Figure 4:2). Likewise, the Maya glyph for death,
och ja (T361:501), tracing from as early as 378 c.e. at Tikal
(Coe 1999:90), and depicting a water lily glyph (naab) topped
by an unidentifiable sign (Montgomery 2002:194), translates literal-
ly as entered the water. This transformative turn of events may
well relate to Pakals death and/or rebirth on his sarcophagus lid
as a water lily world tree.
Pakals world tree bears all the marks of his sons tree on the
Tablet of the Cross (Figure 2a), including a basal WLM with
water lily ear flares (Figure 4.1), quadripartite badge (Figure 4.2),
the draping body of a water lily serpent (Figure 4.3), water lily
motifs on the tips of the cruciform branches (Figure 4.5), and a
heavenly bird with a water lily ear flare (Figure 4.7). Several varia-
tions on these themes underscore, once again, the crucial role of the
water lily. First, we observe nen signs and water lily flower glyphs (a
down-turned, hatched ellipsis, the naab or imix glyph) arising con-
secutively up the plants trunk (Figure 4.4), as though the insignias
are moving through the central stem toward the branch tips. This in-
terpretation is supported by the placement of polypetalous flower
profiles at the tips of the trees three branches in lieu of trefoils,
each of which encompasses a nen sign (Figure 4.5). Serpent
heads emerge from the flowers, as was observed in the Tablet of
the Cross tree (Figure 2a.4), with the same peculiar image of repeat-
ing beaded pegs.
The nen-sign, a glyph for mirror (il or li; Montgomery 2002:
95, 161), usually formed by an ellipsis with a pair of lines through
the center, is recurrently associated with the water lilies and flowers of
the water lily world tree (Figures 1b, 4.4, 6.1; Maudslay 1974:vol. I,
Plate 95c) and may also have a material explanation in iconographic
expression. Unlike other flowering plants of the world, water lilies
are unique in their habit of producing a thimbleful of nectar in the
flowers golden, cupular ovarian disk during the first day of anthesis
(Figure 7c). Often called a water bath, this copious exudate serves to
detain pollen vectors (bees and flies in diurnal water lilies) within
the flower so as to wash pollen grains off their bodies (Schneider
1982; Wiersema 1988). Flowers over-brim with liquid by
mid-day, thereby enhancing the reflection of light off the ovarys
yellow surface. A recent and revised rendering of the nen sign by
various epigraphers (Schele and Miller 1986:43; Stuart 2010:291)
as shining or shiner seems appropriate in the context of a
water lilys golden, shimmering hub.
In contrast, the symbolic relation between an aquatic cranium
and water lily stalks seems like an unlikely symbolic association
(Figure 1b), since large, sunken bones hardly suggest the natural
source of large and fragrant flowers. But once again, a closer exam-
ination of the source of fertile water lily stalks and leaves provides a
possible explanation; for young, submerged water lily rhizomes are
observably round, brown, and smooth before attaining sizes in
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McDonald
excess of 3 cm in diameter (Figure 7b), suggesting the image of a
human cranium in dimension and general aspect. As a means of
asexual propagation, several bulbous offshoots develop and disartic-
ulate from mature rhizomes on an annual basis and may, therefore,
explain their symbolic representation as a jawless skull (Figures
1a.3, 3a.1, 3c).
The placement of naab or imix insignias within the trunk of the
world tree either identifies the tree as a water lily motif or otherwise
endows the boughs of an archetypal tree with primordial, procreative
water lily flowers. That these signs arise from a sun/floral plate that
bears a sak nik object/symbol seems again to underscore the rele-
vance of the water lily in cosmic tree iconography, insofar as imix
glyphs are often conflated with sak nik signs (Thompson 1971:
Figures 2.12.2). Indeed, essentially all day signs of the Tzolkin cal-
endar are framed by a sak nik (white flower) glyph, with differing
infixes of the cartouche denoting particular days (Thompson 1971:
Figures 611), beginning with the first day of all 20-day cycles:
Imix (Water Lily). In this connection, it is also noteworthy that the
iconographic symbol of an annual time-cycle (tun) is a water lily
leaf and flowering shoot on a serpent head (McDonald and Stross
2012:87; Miller and Taube 1993:148, 184). Other days are distin-
guished, however, by distinctive infixes, such as the ik, akbal,
kan, lamat or quincunx signs (Thompson 1971:Figures 610), the
final day culminating with an ahau infix, which essentially reads as
sak nik, the same white flower that begins the twenty-day count
(imix). The ik glyph (T503; Montgomery 2002:94) is particularly rel-
evant in this context, in that this sign, usually read as wind or
breath, can be interpreted as a floral scent when it is associated
with flowers in Maya epigraphy and iconography (Saturno et al.
2005:11; Taube et al. 2010:2728, 43), notwithstanding Thompsons
(1971:73) suggestion that the symbol connotes the idea of germina-
tion or coming to life on the basis of its association with the word
for breath. Thompson (1971:Figure 12) also demonstrates, however,
that the aforementioned infixes associated with the twenty-day count
are incorporated into, or associated with water lily symbols and gods
in Maya iconography, a premise that is abundantly supported by
water lily symbolism on ceramics (Table 1.22).
Thompson (1971:72) also noted that Imix and kan (yellow or
precious) glyphs (T281 ms; Montgomery 2002:147) share close
symbolic associations, and explains this relationship by interpreting
the color of gold as an indicator of corn kernels and the water lily
symbol of as an indicator of abundance (Thompson 1971:10, 70).
Nevertheless, the sign is normally associated with the water lily
(Robicsek and Hales 1981:Tables 6a6e, 7a7e, 8c), and may there-
fore refer to the bright yellow color perceived within the shimmering
ovarian disk of this aquatic flower. This interpretation is also sup-
ported by the frequent placement of kan glyphs on the foreheads
of the WLM and Quadripartite God (Table 1.23; Stone and Zender
2011:127, Figure 49.3), possibly replacing water lilies that occupy
the same position of the WLM (Table 1.24), and by the critical ob-
servation that corn cobs are rarely portrayed in Maya iconography.
The placement of naab/imix signs in Pakals tree of transcen-
dence might relate directly to allusions to four world trees in the six-
teenth century Yucatec account of creation of the Chilam Balam of
Chumayel (31003120, and also 14391481; Edmonson 1986:
103105, 156157), which speaks of the simultaneous appearance
of four cosmic trees as mainstays to the sky (Knowlton 2010:65),
each pertaining to the domain of four divine Fathers of the
Land (ba cab) at the four cardinal points of a flattened, flooded
terrain. Hence the Bacabs themselves were considered the sustain-
ers of the sky by the informants of Friar Diego De Landa (Garibay
 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
1966:62). Different color forms of these trees are called ymix che, a
term that is translated into English as merely ymix trees by
modern commentators without specifying the literal meaning of
imix. These four trees clearly relate to a similar reference to a quin-
cunx of cosmic trees in the Chilam Balam of Tizimin (925965;
Edmonson 1982:4849) that arise after the flattening of the Earth
in the guise of a red imix che in the east, a white variety in the
north, black in the west, yellow in the south, and then a green
imix che in the middle, presumably the first world tree ( yax cheil
cab) as axis mundi (Knowlton 2010:145). While Thomson refers
to these trees as the imix yaxche (Thompson 1971:71), or, more spe-
cifically, as the ceiba tree (Thompson 1971:10), known today as the
yaxch (Stone and Zender 2011:171), neither one of the Chilam
Balam texts conflates the yaxche plant with the Bacabs or four
Chahk trees, as they refer to these plants specifically and consistent-
ly as imix che. It seems possible that Imix refers to the first day of a
twenty day time cycle, and might therefore be read as first-day
tree, but the close association of this day name with the water
lily sign in epigraphy may be more than coincidental.
It is noteworthy that the word yax has two meanings in epigraphy
and common parlancegreen or first (T16, Montgomery 2002:
286; Stone and Zender 2011:171)the former of which is descrip-
tive in nature, the latter probably mythic with respect to iconograph-
ic and epigraphic practices. In all likelihood, the modern application
of the term to the ceiba tree in the modern age and by Diego de
Landas informants soon after the conquest, yaxch (Garibay
1966:60), is descriptive in terms of plant pigmentation, insofar as
the bark of most New World Bombaceae is conspicuously green
and photosynthetic on both young and middle-aged trunks, as
well as large lateral branches. Kapok trees are simply green trees,
often from top to bottom, but no more or less so than yax and
jade signs at Palenque that surround world trees or otherwise
denote water surfaces, water lily flowers and the body of WLS
(Figure 2a.5; Thompson 1971:Figures 45.3, 45.5, 45.1245.13).
In several passages of the Chilam Balam texts from Chumayel,
Tizimin and Man, the sun and moon share mythic associations
with a flower and cosmic tree. Priests from Tizimin speak
(15701594; Edmonson 1982:7172), for example, of the creation
of the sun and moon at a location known as Yaxche, where the
Sun Eye of a little tree that followed the track of four rain gods
(Chahks) was born and returned to heaven after bearing a flower
sun (sun-flower?). The specific location of this cosmic event,
Yaxche, clearly relates to a little sun-bearing tree and flower,
which hardly calls to mind a ceiba. This event likely relates to an
account of the birth of the Sun God (Ah Kin Xocbiltun) at Man
(Craine and Reindorp 1979:120) during the Flower Katun,
which states that the sun arose from the center of a quadripartite
floral plate (Thompson 1971:142). This mythic image matches
closely with the iconographic image of a water lily kin plate,
Palenques Sun God (GI) emerging from a flourishing water lily,
or Palenques supposed night-sun (GIII) arising from a round
shield with four water lilies demarcating the suns cardinal points
(Maudslay 1974:vol. IV, Plates 37, 88). By association, might
these images relate to Chumayels belief of sun priests as katun
cycle keepers, whose red, white, black and yellow, honey-filled
flowers are visited by honeybees of these same color (15451575;
Edmonson 1986:106107), each ostensibly servicing cosmic
flowers from the four world trees that exhibit these same colors at
the four corners of the world? Such interpretations are easy to chal-
lenge on many grounds, of course, but none of these scenarios ex-
plicitly call to mind a kapok tree.
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351
It is also notable that the sides of Pakals sarcophagus are deco-
rated with the images of ten relatives or close associates of the king,
each exhibiting a personal glyphic identification in their headdress
and a specific pictorial association with one or two vegetative
motifs, including numerous water lily buds in association with
fruits of the cacao, avocado, zapote, and other comestible plants.
There are no discernible images of maize plants or ceiba trees on
the lid or sides of Pakals sarcophagus, only recurrent water lilies
flowers and buds, the kings diminishing white flowery soul relating
directly to his resurrection as (or through) the water lily world tree.
According to inscriptions at this site, he followed the call of his an-
cestors and forbears, he walked the path into the underworld, which
his predecessors had walked before him (Eberl 2006:314), the un-
derworld being the swampy waters of Xibalba.
PALENQUES TEMPLE OF THE FOLIATED CROSS
In agreement with most historians (Coe 1999:134, Kubler 1969:27;
Schele and Miller 1986:195, Plate 75), Thompson (1970:208) en-
visaged the Panel of the Foliated Cross on a nearby structure at
Palenque as a corn plant, basing this interpretation on the lateral
branches of the tree and their distinctive strap-shaped leaves, as
well as the dangling ponytail of a god whose face emerges
between these leaves. For over a century historians have interpreted
this gods hair as corn silks, his head ostensibly representing a per-
sonified corn ear (God E) (Schellhas 1904:24; Taube 1997:4149).
However, on both botanical and iconographic grounds, this interpre-
tation is questionable, because flowering world trees never exhibit
vegetative or fruiting structures (ear and kernel) of Zea, including
those trees that were worshipped within and nearby Palenques
Temple of the Foliated Cross (Figures 2a, 3a, 4). The divine
owner of this temple, the sun/flower-faced Kinich Kan Bahlam,
God GII of the Palenque triad (Stuart 2005:19), is likely portrayed
on the tree gods floral pectoral. Moreover, the floral element that
supports the perching cosmic birdwith opposite calyx segments,
a rounded corolla, and infixed nen glyphassumes the position
and bears various characteristics of water lilies on the Tablet of
the Cross (Figure 2.a) and Pakals sarcophagus (Figure 4).
The conspicuous absence of a water lily serpent in the boughs of
this world tree is noteworthy, but true to its type, the familiar place-
ment of a WLM skull with prominent water lily ear flares and nik
signs (flower) as ear pendants at the root of the tree indicate a con-
ventional aquatic origin, which in no way reflects the characteristics
of domesticated Zea (Freidel et al. 1993:94, 418). To be sure, this
seems a most unlikely place for a corn plant to sprout. The WLM
of this particular tree lacks a quadripartite badge, but he does
support a kan cross portal hole of emergence (Stross 2006:25,
29) from which the trunk of a trifurcating tree arises (Figure 5a.1).
In keeping with symbolism of trees observed on ceramic and
stucco friezes (Figures 2.1, 4.44.5), nen signs decorate both the
base of the trunk and the canopys trefoil summit (Figure 5a.4), ap-
parently implying their generation from the skull at the base of the
tree. The cosmic locus of entry into the world of the gods, the un-
derworld sun glyph (kin) (T544; Montgomery 2002:151) on the
WLM forehead (Figure 2a.1), which is occasionally replaced with
a kan cross (Figure 5a.1), meaning yellow or precious
(T28ams; Montgomery 202:145), seems to relate to the golden
ovarian disk in the center of a sun-like water lily (McDonald and
Stross 2012) rather than a ripe corn ear (Freidel et al. 1993:55,
96). The resplendent, floral sun sign that dangles from the world
trees necklace lends credence to this interpretation (Figure 5a.2).
 352
Another consideration that questions the strict identification of
God E as a corn plant relates to the close associations between the
same long-haired, tonsured version of God E (Taube 1997:46)
and the WLM on widely distributed Maya ceramics and stelae, in-
cluding the famous Stela 1 at Bonampak (Figure 5b), where God
E emerges from both the cranium and water lily ear flares of the
WLM. In this instance, God E is clearly born from (or as?) an
aquatic flower instead of a terrestrial corn plant. A similar ceramic
painting (Figure 5c) employs this same god in a WLM representa-
tion, again without suggesting any relation to a tall, terrestrial
grass (Zea). Hence the three strappy leaves that subtend the emer-
gent face on the lateral boughs of the Foliated Cross might well rep-
resent stylized water lily sepals that are viewed in profile (Figure 5a),
as is the case in Figures 5b and 5c. This interpretation is also corrob-
orated by the placement of floral portals with four prominent peri-
anth segments on the craniums of WLM craniums at Tikal and
Ro Azul (Hellmuth 1987:vol. I, p. 213, Figure 172), and the inti-
mate association of te glyphs and water lily buds with four-lobed
floral ol (transcendental) portals on Pier A of Palenques Temple
of the Sun (Callaway 2006:56, Figure 2.47). A similar ol portal is
observed at the base of a world tree on a ceramic painting that
lacks a canopy but exhibits six ascendant water lily buds
(Figure 5d); inside this quatrefoil we observe the same crossed
bands that reside within tetramerous water lily flowers (Figures
1a.5, 1a.9, 2a.2, 3a.1, 3c, 7a) and a human figure that seems to be
entering the world tree via the WLM with a four-lobed, floral kin
sign on his sun-plate.
DYNASTIC WORLD TREE PERSONIFICATIONS ON
STELAE AT QUIRIGUA AND COPAN
The close iconic associations between dynasts and the world tree at
Palenque are expressed in a unique manner on stelae at Quirigua and
Copan, where the lives of kings were commemorated by the erection
of large, personified, stone pillars that represent dynasts as embodi-
ments of the Maya world tree. The largest of these monolithic mon-
uments, Stela F at Quirigua (Figure 8a), superimposes the image of
king Kak Tiliw on all the standard features of a world tree. Keeping
with convention, the personified tree stands upon a WLM and as his
ankles are adorned with images of this same god (Figure 8a.1), as is
the case for stelae throughout Guatemala, such as those at
Machaquil (Figure 8c), so as to imply an underworld origin and
destiny of the white flowery soul (Looper 2003:129). Although
Looper (2003:129) identifies the jewelry and decorative attributes
of Stela F with a ceiba tree, no specific features of this world tree
justify this interpretation. Rather, we observe two large itz
(nectar) signsi.e., ajaw faces within polypetalous corollas, a
symbol of the water lily (Figure 8a.3, compare to 7a)located
near the knees of the standing figure, which dangle from a
plaited, bejeweled rope that issues from mouths of flanking
serpent heads around the hip region. Another plaited bar motif is sit-
uated between these dangling floral motifs, the tips of which present
trefoils with a bar and cartouche (Figure 8a.3): the familiar water lily
sak nik emblem. As a matter of convention, the plaited rope, a
twisted or crossed-bands motif according to Proskouriakoff
(1950:Figures X.E1-E2, XI.GI-G6) or the mat sign according to
Schele and Miller (1986:44) and Robicsek (1975:184204), is
often placed just below a water lily flower, as observed on the head-
dress of a personage at Copan (Figure 8b), whose ears are decorated
with large water lily trefoils that are subtended by the motif, osten-
sibly associating the kings floral ear flares with those of his
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headdress: the xikin Chahk (ear of Chahk), a contemporary
Yucatecan name for water lilies with a presumably ancient origin
(McDonald and Stross 2012).
Just below the waist of Kak Tiliw we observe the standard
image of a gods face that normally appears on the trunk of the
world tree (Figure 8a.4). A pair of square-nosed serpent heads
flank the divine face, while another bicephalic, skeletal serpent
motif dangles from the plumose canopy of the personified tree,
each head producing a large, trefoil water lily ear flare
(Figure 8a.5). The supple body of the bony snake entwines a pecto-
ral bar just below the chin of the human face, the ends of which
produce polypetalous flower motifs and ajaw faces (Figure 8a.6;
Schele and Miller 1986:Figure 1.4e) that seem to mirror the
image of the plaited rope bar traversing the kings knees
(Figure 1a.2). This particular feature seems to borrow from the
lateral branches of the cruciform tree on Pakals sarcophagus
(Figure 4) and can therefore be identified as water lilies.
The summit of this personified world tree is correctly identified
by Looper (2003:132) as a highly stylized celestial bird, as is the
trefoil floral crown of the creature, which Looper associates with
nectar (itz). As earlier noted, the image of a trefoil with conspicuous
nectar exudates does not suggest the image of a ceiba flower nor a
corn ear, but more likely represents a dripping water lily during
the first day of anthesis (Figure 7c), such as the human-faced, poly-
petalous flowers observed around the knees of the personified world
tree (Figures 8a.28a.3). Moreover, the reverse face of Stela F dis-
plays several variations on the aforementioned themes, which
Looper (2003:133) recognizes as a heavenly cord that extends
from the cosmic bird headdress in the form of a water band
flanked by full-figure water lily personifications. One can only
conclude, therefore, that the king himself is, once again, the person-
ification of a water lily world tree.
Lowland Maya communities at Copan produced another interest-
ing menagerie of personified world tree stelae that conserve the
basic symbolic elements of the iconic plant. We observe, for
example, the standard features of Quiriguas Stela F on Stela N at
Copan, where a human face emerges from the crown of the person-
ified tree (Figure 9a). In this case, king Kak Yipyaj Chan Kawil
(Smoke Shell), the penultimate ruler of this famous site, upholds a
pectoral bar that exhibits the familiar features of the arboreal bice-
phalic serpent, from which emerge two gods (Kawil and the
Jester god) that share the facial features of Chahk-Xib-Chahk
(Figure 9a.1). The former of these deities is associated organically
with water lilies (Table 1.25; Schele and Matthews 1998:
Figure 5.8), and no less so the latter god (Figure 1a; McDonald
and Stross 2012:9294, Figures 8a8h). Indeed, we observe the
same gods exiting the maws of a bicephalic WLS with prominent
water lily ear flares that stretches across the world tree of Pakal at
Palenque (Figures 2, 4a.3). Although these serpent heads lack a
water lily ear flare, it is notable that the ear region of the cosmic
dragon is marked instead with three symbols that normally occur
within or under water lily ear flares: i.e., the nen glyph, bar , and
three circlets (Figure 9a.1; McDonald and Stross 2012).
Furthermore, the bar supports a damaged radial view of a water
lily that exudes nectar, a familiar feature of personified word trees
(Figure 8a) and pectoral bars (Looper 2003:Figures 3.313.32,
4.31, 4.36, 6.9).
Additional characteristics of Stela N emphasize the role of water
lily symbolism, such as the large, asymmetrical water lily with a
knotted peduncle upon the crown the kings headdress, the petals
of which are consumed by a fish (Figure 9a.3). The same ravenous
 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
fish is observed frequently on ceramics relating to the WLM
(Figures 2c2d; Table 1.26). We also observe a ropy extension op-
posite the water lily stalk (Figure 9a.4) that terminates in a damaged
sak nik sign, seen also on Stela H (Freidel et al. 1993:278,
Figure 6:17), which together symbolize the water lily serpent
(McDonald and Stross 2012). To support this interpretation, serpen-
toid stems that emerge from the mouths of the paired divine faces to
each side of the saurian headdress extend up and down the sides of
the stele in a fashion that some historians have likened to an inter-
twining umbilical cord (Figure 9b.1; Guernsey and Reilly 2001;
Looper and Guernsey 2001; Schele and Mathews 1998:4445).
The tips of these thick and supple stalks terminate in a lateral per-
spective of a saurian head whose gaping mouth is observed in a
frontal perspective on the Smoke Shells headdress (Figure 9a.3),
as well as asymmetrical water lily motifs that open before the
gaping mouth of the cosmic fish. Consequently, the ascent and
descent of the cosmic serpent-plant is accomplished by means of
seasonal and daily movements of water lily peduncles (McDonald
and Stross 2012), the supposed umbilicus of white flowery souls.
PRECLASSIC WORLD TREE PROTOTYPES AT SAN
BARTOLO
Recent discoveries of intact murals at San Bartolo in the Petn
provide a surprisingly clear window into early developments of
world tree imagery of Mesoamerica and decisive evidence that
many and various Classic Maya conventions in symbolism were es-
tablished by the first century b.c. (Saturno et al. 2005; Taube et al.
2010). San Bartolos murals reveal a rich panorama of imaginative
forms in a narrative context, within which are observed a variety of
symbolic images that relate directly and specifically to both Classic
and Postclassic iconography. Saturno et al. (2005) and Taube et al.
(2010) offer some initial and thorough interpretations of San
Bartolos mythic personas, zoomorphic and botanical figures in
terms of their possible relations to later modes of mythic and artistic
expression among Maya communities. The present discussion will
focus primarily on the symbolic attributes of two well-preserved
tree images and explore their obvious relationships with sacred
tree symbolism of Classic attribution.
From the outset, it is noteworthy that Nymphaea is one of several
identifiable plant elements that set the mythic stage at San Bartolo. At
the base of a descending stream motif whose currents contain a diving
serpent and anthropomorphic god we observe the distinctive leaves
and flowers of a plant that Taube et al. (2010:41, section P20 in
Figure 7) interpret as a water lily (Figure 10d). This botanical deter-
mination is justified, as the succulent and supple petiole that articu-
lates with the center of a leaf blade, and a lamina that exhibits
dentate margins and veins that emanate centrally, are clearly consis-
tent with water lily leaf morphology. The lateral view of an attached
flower exhibits an equally thick and supple peduncle that subtends
three acute calyx segments beneath a white, polypetalous corolla,
while a radial perspective of the corolla is colored with white and
yellow pigments: the natural coloration of N. ampla flowers.
To one side of the water lily leaf and flowers is observed a triad
of personified divinities within a quatrefoil, or ol portal, a wide-
spread Mesoamerican motif that historically signifies a point of spir-
itual transference between the natural and supernatural world of the
Maya, often in association with a watery environment, caves, the
kan cross, ik and yax signs, as well as flowery quatrefoils
(Guernsey 2010:80, 89; Hellmuth 1987:vol. I, p. 213; vol. II,
Figures 174178). The juxtaposition of a water lily and ol portal
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seem more than coincidental in light of the close association
between these two symbolic elements in Classic Maya iconography.
One of the divinities that occupies the ol portal is identified (P19 on
the West wall) by Taube et al. (2010:Figure 52) as an anthropomor-
phic aspect of the WLS, although this zoomorphic god is rarely per-
sonified to such an extent in Classic and Postclassic imagery. This
identification is based on a trefoil floral motif on the forehead, a
long snout and prominent ear flare, all three of which features are
shared by WLS and WLM (McDonald and Stross 2012:8392,
Figures 5a5f, 6a6d, 7a7f). Notwithstanding the identification
of the trefoil as a frangipani flower (Plumeria spp.) by Thompson
(1971:11, 147), a plant whose flowers are visibly pentamerous
and whose highly distinctive vegetative features (thick young
stems with large and prominent leaf scars) are unknown in icono-
graphic records, the association of quatrefoil portals, quatrefoil
flower motifs, tetramerous flowers and/or calyx segments, are
usually intended to represent a radial perspective on water lily
flowers (Figures 2a.1, 3a.1, 5d, 6.1, 6.3, 11b; Guernsey 2010;
McDonald and Stross 2012:8990, 9394; Taube et al. 2010:78).
Foremost among water lily symbols, the classic white flower
glyph (sak nik), comprised of a trefoil, bar and attached cartouche
(Schele and Mathews 1998:47, Figure 1.22; McDonald and Stross
2012:81, 8889, 97, Figures 3e, 8c, 8f, 9a9e), figures prominently
at San Bartolo (Figure 10e) and is associated there with three prom-
inent orbs, a standard feature of water lily signs and images
(McDonald and Stoss 2012:79, Figures 2b, 2e2f, 2i). Muralists
at San Bartolo added to this sign a prominent ik sign (or T
sign) within the cartouche to indicate wind, air, breath,
life or spirit (Stross 1986:3), as well as a series of circlets that
diminish in size, a common feature of floral motifs at San Bartolo
that various iconologists interpret specifically as breath or aromatic
exhalations (Saturno et al. 2005:11; Taube et al. 2010:2728, 43).
The infixed, upright treble motif with a cleft middle lobe can be
read as ik as well (T23; Montgomery 2002:94), but this form is
also suspiciously similar to a yax glyph (Montgomery 2002:286;
Stone and Zender 2011:123), connoting green, and might also
describe a vegetative aspect of the floral trefoil.
This insignia is clearly a prototype to glyphs that indicate
day-two (ik) and day-four (kan) of the Tzolkin calendar and
likely relates as well to the enduring Maya practice of placing the
ik insignias inside polypetalous, floral medallions, such as those
worn by an elite at Palenque (Hellmuth 1987:vol. II, Figure 74 h).
Since these same elites are also wearing water lily buds in their
hair, this symbol is likely a water lily insignia. We observe a
similar motif in association with personified Maya world tree
gods at Copan during the Classic period (Maudslay 1974:vol. I,
Plates 59a59b), but often with an ajaw glyph replacing the ik
(Figures 5a.2, 8a.2, 4, 9a.1). Likewise, the same sign at Palenque
is associated with water lily serpent/peduncle motifs (feathered pe-
duncles terminating in trefoils) and a Classic aquatic bird motif
the shell-wing serpent (Stone and Zender 2011:175, Figures
73.273.3)which is intimately associated with water lilies and
WLS (Hellmuth 1987: vol. I, pp. 147150, Figures 83a, 83c, 84,
85a). Indeed, in a discussion on the conventional use of le (water)
signs for water at San Bartolo and elsewhere, Taube et al. (2010:
Figure 56) illustrate a related water line motif on a tablet from
Temple XIV at Palenque that exhibits alternating le (water), naab
(water lily) and ik (T23; also naj, or first; Montgomery 2002:
94, 177) signs. In such a context, the breath symbol clearly relates
to the intensely sweet scent that emanates from water lily flowers
during all three days of anthesis.
 354
A number of divine human figures at San Bartolo interact with
each other on a substratum that has been identified as a polychrome
skyband by Taube et al. (2010:4), but without a clear explanation for
this interpretation. Since this basal platform stretches across the
lower register of the mural, an alternative interpretation might recog-
nize a water line, on the basis of the lines red coloration, a standard
feature of waterlines in Classic Maya symbolism (Hellmuth 1987:
vol. I, p. 102; Coe 1975:19), as well as aquatic animals and gods
observed just above the red band, some exhibiting le signs that
denote water (Taube et al. 2010:8), possible nen (shining)
signs, and half ol portal motifs. Nevertheless, San Bartolos
scenes do not appear to take place in an aquatic underworld, but
focus instead on the Maya mesocosm (domain of living creation)
with some emphasis on the descent of the Principal Bird Deity
from the sky realm.
A series of sacrificial scenes depicted on the West Wall of
Substructure1Aeach performed on various animals under the
canopy of distinctive tree motifs that Taube et al. (2010:11) identify
as world treesbetray an iconographic practice that is employed
throughout Maya history: the integration of ritualized practices by
Maya aristocrats with the mythic activities of divine plants,
animals and personages. At San Bartolo, each sacrificial scene in-
volves a distinctive animal and tree species.
A comparison of the trunks, branching patterns, foliage, flowers
and fruits of each tree reveals four distinct species of Mesoamerican
rainforests, two of which can be identified with some botanical con-
fidence. Tree Number 8 (Figure 10c; Taube et al. 2010:Figures
5768) exhibits a contoured and convoluted trunk, closely set, obel-
liptic leaves, solitary and zygomorphic flowers, and round, cauliflo-
rous fruits; this plant is comfortably determined as a calabash tree.
The other identifiable tree (Figure 11a; Taube et al. 2010:section 4
of Figure 7) exhibits a moderately buttressed root, swollen trunk and
palmately compound leaves, suggesting a kapok tree (Figure 10c),
even though the trunk lacks the conspicuous thorns of Ceiba
stems. The adjacent tree (Tree Number 2) is clearly supernatural
and less amenable to a species determination, as it ascends from
the head of a massive serpent and presents very common features:
i.e., a distinctly straight trunk, canopy of simple, lobate leaves,
and no fertile structures. The same can be said of Tree Number
11, owing mostly to extensive damage of the mural, allowing for
only a partial glimpse of the canopy and foliage.
While it is unclear whether these plants exemplify world trees
per se, or merely an eclectic assortment of charismatic arborescent
elements that set a natural stage for supernatural activities, the asso-
ciated, fantastical human and zoomorphic gods figures that surround
or surmount these trees clearly place the plants in a mythical
context. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that the sym-
bolic attributes of the attendant supernatural creatures complement
iconographic conventions of world trees in later historical periods.
While the associated zoomorphic forms are undoubtedly prototypes
of Maya iconic creatures in Classic and Postclassic world tree
imagery, the context in which they appear at San Bartolo is distinc-
tive in several respects.
As noted, Tree Number 8 bears the hallmark characteristics of a
calabash tree, whose highly distinctive characteristics as a species
are generally absent on Classic world trees at Palenque and
Copan. This tree does seem to relate, however, to one type of
world tree on a few aforementioned ceramics that involve the
sniping of a cosmic bird from the boughs of a calabash plant
(Table 1.1). San Bartolos calabash tree seems to lack any
obvious symbolic or supernatural attribution, save for two,
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uncharacteristic, upright fruits that support a divine bird with a
writhing serpent in its beak (Figure 10c): the central narrative
theme of San Bartolos West wall murals. These two animals,
each familiar to the Maya world tree in Classic Maya iconography,
occupy more space than the tree itself and thereby emphasize the
plants symbolic or mythic significance. Most of the physical and
symbolic characteristics of this bird and serpent are shared by
avian and ophidian associates of Classic cosmic trees but they
convene at San Bartolo under somewhat different mythic circum-
stances. The serpent does not cohabit the tree and entwine itself
comfortably across the canopy but, rather, dangles subordinately
from the beak of a victorious raptor that proudly displays his out-
stretched wings. This repeating motif characterizes all four trees at
San Bartolo, with each bird and serpent displaying prominent,
highly stylized floral motifs.
The floral features of San Bartolos zoomorphs share few if any
features of the pendant, cauliflorous, curved and tubular flowers on
the calabash tree trunk, but display instead floral features that exhibit
symbolic attributes that are associated with water lilies during the
Classic period. The writhing serpent, for example, whose body is
twisted tightly about the birds beak in a manner that is consistent
with the portrayal of serpentoid water lily stalks (Figures 1a, 2a,
6, 6a, 8a, 10c.2), is bicephalic, ostensibly identifying him as a pro-
totype to the Classic celestial or cosmic serpent/monster (Freidel
and Schele 1988:73; Schele and Miller 1986:47; Thompson 1970:
212214). He exhibits a trefoil and assymetrical floral motif on op-
posing heads (Figures 11c.2, 11c.4), each surrounded by red-
pigmented scrolls and a series of circlets that diminish in size, an ap-
parent symbol for fluxions of air or aromatic qualities (Figures 10a,
10c.2, 10c.4, 10e, 11a.5; Saturno et al. 2005:11; Taube et al. 2010:
2728, 43). Importantly, the serpents snout-flower on the right-
sided head is comprised of a trefoil that articulates with a circlet,
which together form the standard features of the sak nik sign, a
sign for Nymphaea in later periods. The opposing head of the de-
feated snake displays, however, a distinctive, highly stylized,
lobate leaf blade subtended by a bifurcate base (forming a quasi-
trefoil) of questionable botanical identity upon the snout, while
the ear flare of this head presents a white comb-like floral feature
with three prominent dots that are cradled by a curved calyx
segment, this floral design matching closely with assymetrical
water lily ornaments on the ears of WLS (Figures 3c, 5a.1, 5c,
8b, 9a.3, 9b.2; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures 4a, 4h, 5d5f,
7f, 9a9b). A minor, anthropomorphized waterfowl with a duck
bill and a finger pointed in the direction of the descending bird
(god number 10; Taube et al. 2010:Figure 32A) is observed at the
base of the calabash tree; this aquatic deity wears a serpent belt
around his waist with the same trefoil ear flare and floral-trefoil
tail feature. Taube et al. (2010:Figure 33B) match this duck-billed
god with a clearly identical figure on a Late Classic vessel, who ex-
hibits a water lily ear flare, ik symbols on his arms and back, and a
WLS motif as a headdress, comprising a knotted peduncle and water
lily leaf, water lily bud and sak nik glyph on the end of the stylized
serpents tail. If either of these ophidian motifs slithered into the
branches of the tree, they would fit the precise image of iconic
WLSs on world trees at Palenque and Copan (Figures 2a, 4a, 6, 8a).
Floral features of the perching Principal Bird Deity are variable
at San Bartolo but each variation is consonant with stylized flourish-
es that are conventionally employed in later water lily imagery.
Prominent among these is an elaborate neck pendant that is fash-
ioned as a trefoil attached to a cartouche with an infixed mat
motif (Figure 10c.6). The mat motif itself, known variously the
 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
plaited or braided mat motif in published accounts of this ubiq-
uitous symbol (Proskouriakoff 1950:64, 70, Figures 22.A1, 25, 26;
Cohodas 1982:Figure 3), is frequently attached to water lilies
(Figures 8a.2, 8b; Hellmuth 1987: vol. II, Figures 33, 64, 80a,
80d; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figure 7f) and probably symboliz-
es the plants serpentoid/writhing stalks (Figure 9b.1; McDonald and
Stross 2012:79, 84) and/or convolute peduncles during fruition. A
variation on this symbolic form may also be recognized in the pedun-
cle bundler during Classic and Postclassic periods (Figures 2c, 9a.3;
Hellmuth 1987:vol. II, Figures 17a, 17c, 63, 64, 80c; Maudslay 1974:
vol. I, Plate 95c; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures 4h, 6a, 6d), typ-
ically formed by a large, single-knotted cord element that secures a
cartouche and trefoil or water lily flower. Taube et al. (2010:
Figure 38) cite three examples of the water lily peduncle bundler
on trefoil earspool assemblages at San Bartolo and relates them
to similar motifs associated with early ear spools and the Maya Sun
God at Tikal and Kaminaljuyu. This seems to establish San
Bartolos floral ear ornaments as prototypes to water lily ear orna-
ments of WLM, WLS, and Chahk in Classic and Postclassic
periods and may also account for an early origin for the modern
Yucatec word for water lily, xikin Chahk, ear of Chahk
(McDonald and Stross 2012:93, Figures 8a8f).
While the generic trefoil that dangles from the birds ear ornament is
consistent with water lily ear flares of the Principal Bird Deity at
Palenque (Figures 2a.7, 2b, 4a.7, 5a.5), an aromatic (breathing), four-
cornered, floral medallion at the forefront of birds headdress
(Figure 10c.1) is equally suggestive of a water lily, insofar as the
corner orbs suggest a tetramerous calyx and the radiate perianth seg-
ments a polypetalous corolla. Copious nectar drippings that fall from a
lateral perspective of the radial floral medallion also suggest a water
lily characteristic. A similar but larger execution of this same aromatic
flower (Figure 10a) floats above the head of god number 5 (Taube
et al. 2010:Figures 7, 4768), where four naab signs (T501, T501v,
Montgomery 2002:96, 178; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figure 3a)
mark the corners of a tetramerous flower that compares closely with
the water lily war-shield of Pakal at Palenque (Maudslay 1974:vol. IV,
Plate 88) and other water lily quartets in Maya floral imagery
(Table 1.27, Hellmuth 1987:vol. II, Figure 61). Within this flowers
corolla are observed two dark orbs formed by several darkened, concen-
tric circlets, a detail that seems to be homologous with similar dark cir-
clets portrayed in later renderings of Maya water lilies (Figures 1a.2,
2a.4, 2c2d, 3c, 7a; McDonald and Stross 2012:Figures 5a5c).
These appear to bear some relation to the akbal (darkness) sign
and are likewise associated with the WLS (Figure 10b, Table 1.28),
WLM (Thompson 1971:272, Figure 12.1) and much later depictions
of the cosmic birds floral headpiece (Figure 2b).
The trefoil bird tail that produces a fascicle of long, arching
feathers is also consistent with water lily imagery (Figure 3a), as
the motif is subtended by a large circlet, infixed here with San
Bartolos ubiquitous and enigmatic U insignia (Figures 10c.7,
11a.3). This sign is also associated with various floral motifs, tri-
lobed or otherwise, and the trunks of trees numbers 2 and 4
(Taube et al. 2010:Figure 5, Individuals 3, 6, 11, Figures
38.A38.C) at San Bartolo. Given the Classic and Postclassic
habit of identifying the Principal Bird Deitys tail with water lily
buds and flowers (Table 1.29), one is inclined to interpret this
floral tail as a water lily as well. Indeed, Hellmuth (1987:vol. II,
Figures 136a136b) illustrates a ceramic from Tikal that portrays
a pair of similar birds with coiling serpents dangling from their
beaks and tails that terminate in water signs and a corolla that pro-
duces a fascicle of feathers.
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355
In a similar vein, the wings of each of cosmic bird on all four
trees bear a symbolic motif that likewise exhibit hints of water lily
symbolism, in that its upper fringe carries a semicircular radiate,
polypetalous flower motif, with three prominent pointed features
as calyx segments (Figures 10c.5, 11a.1). That crossbars, paired
dark orbs, and nen signs observed at the center of these floral
motifs (Taube et al. 2010:31) likely relate to the habit of placing
each of these same signs within water lily flowers (Figures 1a.3,
1a.5, 1a.9, 1b1c, 2a.2, 2c2d, 3c, 4a.5, 6.1, 7a, etc.). Hellmuth
(1987:vol. II, Figures 113114) notes these same insignias (akbal
insignias, cross bars, and kin signs) are associated with bird
wings on early stelae at Kaminaljuyu and that they are clearly asso-
ciated with the WLM trefoil ear flares on Altars 9 and 10. A related
employment of water lily insignias is observed on a Tzakol ceramic
painting that portrays a series of water lily glyphs in association with
a metamorphosing birdman with nen signs decorating the shoulders
of his outspread wings (Hellmuth 1987:vol. II, p.149). Even more
consistent with the correlative use of water lily signs in association
with San Bartolos cosmic bird, Hellmuth (1987:vol. II, p.128) cites
a sculpted bowl that portrays a bird whose outstretched wings are
decorated with trefoils and stylized cartouches bearing akbal and
kin signs and a tail composed of three, superimposed trefoil/
corolla motifs with a nikte sign (flower, T646, T646v) at its
base. Interestingly, San Bartolos U motif is observed within
the central cartouche of the nikte glyph on this ceramic and the
bird carries a twisting bicephalic snake within his beak that exhibits
heads that are decidedly reminiscent of those at San Bartolo.
Conceptually, the expanded wing of San Bartolos cosmic bird is
likened to an expanded flower, much as feathers are symbolic of water
lily petals (McDonald and Stross 2012). This novel interpretation is
supported by the Preclassic placement of kin signs on outstretched
wings in association with a twisted snake motif with a trefoil tail
(Hellmuth 1987:vol. II, Figure 134). Hence the interpretations of
these paired signs by Taube et al. (2010:33) as a daily sun and noctur-
nal underworld sun, even while recognizing close and repeating floral
associations, may well relate to the solar aspect of an aerial flower and
the dark aspect of a later submerged flower. Perhaps this is why mu-
ralists at San Bartolo (Taube 2010:31) and Maya ceramicists frequent-
ly identified the forearm of the cosmic birds wing as a serpent head
(Bardawil 1976). Since cosmic birds throughout Maya history exhibit
all of the aforementioned attributes, as well as similar facial features,
feet, nen signs on top of their heads, water lily trefoils on their tails
(Hellmuth 1987:vol. II, Figures 128132, 136a136b) and so on,
we can only assume that these stylized floral forms are homologous
with more realistic water lily motifs placed on birds during Classic
and Postclassic periods.
The Principal Bird Deity on San Bartolos calabash tree assumes
an identical, victorious posture on the kapok tree (Figure 11a), but
here his outstretched wings exhibit a triad of calyx segments, a semi-
circular arrangement of petals, and shining nen signs. The birds
undamaged left wing is surrounded by red scrolls (wind or floral
scents, as earlier noted), which Taube et al. (2010:43) interpret as
the movement of air from the beating of wings, but which might
just as well be interpreted as breath or scent arising from floral
wings. In this scene the serpent represents a sacrificial victim,
insofar as the decapitated head (observed just above the image of
bleeding, sacrificial deer) is portrayed toward the side of the
snakes limp body with sprays of blood. While the decapitated
head exhibits a water lily trefoil earflare with a cut leaf surmounting
this motif, the attached head terminates in two trefoil floral motifs,
both emitting floral aroma signs (Figure 11c.5). These repeating
 356
motifs clearly relate to the attachments of trefoils on serpents and
birds on world trees at Palenque, Copan, and other sites.
While the West wall of San Bartolos Substructure1A focuses
in large part on a bird and its tree perches, images of the North
wall pertain primarily to a creation myth that seems to relate to
the birth of humankind, in that a series of linked images culminate
in a magnified scene of the bloody parturition of human children
from a gargantuan gourd-like fruit at the far side of a terrestrial
serpent (Saturno et al. 2005:Figure 5). While the interpretation of
this complex and puzzling painting is beyond the scope of the
present study, various human and anthropomorphic gods in these
scenes indicate that water lilies were involved here as well.
One of several female participants in this creation scene pays
obeisance to the most prominent divinity at San Bartolo: a snaggle-
toothed human form that Taube et al. (2010:5760) identify as the
corn god. The woman wears a head band composed of three, tetram-
erous floral motifs with cross bars filling the flowers central disk
(Figure 11b), these matching precisely with stylized water lily
flowers that surround lotus groves at Palenque (Figure 3a.1). As
noted earlier, the presentation of three flowers is a Maya convention
that apparently relates to water lily anthesis, which lasts for three
days before the peduncles draw the flower below the waters
surface to initiate fruition. It is also noteworthy that the same
gourd that gives birth to children at the far end of the narrative is
mounted on this womans water lily headband (Figure 11b).
Conversely, we note that the large gourd that gives birth to children
with bloodstained umbilical cords (Saturno et al. 2005:Figure 5) is
sustained by a pair of floral motifs that suggest water lily flowers
i.e., two double-trident motifs flanked by three darkened tridents,
forming a quartet of flowers.
While the foregoing discussion focuses primarily on lotus
imagery at San Bartolo, this is not to imply that the water lily is
the one and only significant plant in Maya iconography and/or my-
thology; indeed, the same gourd is displayed on the head of a wor-
shipper just to the left of the worshiping woman, but this fruit gives
rise to a vine with rounded leaves, thereby introducing one of many
other botanical ambiguities involved in the cosmological views of
the Maya. Archeological records of the Maya are filled with distinc-
tive plants that have yet to be identified, much less explored in terms
of their mythic and/or symbolic significance. Nevertheless, the
treasure trove of images on the Preclassic murals at San Bartolo in-
dicate that water lily symbolism was front and center among herba-
ceous and arborescent motifs many centuries before they were
integrated into the tree motif itself, and that this particular plant
species was obviously crucial to the practice of religion among
Preclassic Maya communities.
In retrospect, comparisons of early water lily and tree imagery at
San Bartolo with selected world trees from Palenque and Copan,
and those presented on various Preclassic to Postclassic ceramics,
seem to suggest that the descendants of Preclassic Maya communi-
ties deconstructed the symbolic zoomorphic figures of their ances-
tors and grafted them onto a more integrative, highly stylized,
symbolic plant. The distinctive features of the calabash tree, such
as cauliflorous flowers and fruits and fascicled leaves, and those
of the kapok, such as swollen trunks and palmately compound
leaves, do not figure into Classic world tree executions that conven-
tionally spring from the flower-marked cranium of an aquatic skull.
The twisted serpents with floral ear ornaments that dangle from the
beak of the cosmic bird at San Bartolo seem to slip the grip of the
Principal Bird Deity and come to rest comfortably on the three-
boughed canopy of the Classic tree, while the bird itself either
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McDonald
perches or flies about the canopy without a hint of authority or pred-
atory proclivities. Moreover, various floral attributes and motifs that
occur on San Bartolos bird and serpentincluding trefoils, ro-
settes, water lily peduncle bundlers, nen, ik, akbal, te, kin, kan
signs, and suchtend to migrate from the bird and snake and repo-
sition themselves upon or within the cosmic trees of Palenque and
Copan, assuming symbolic roles upon or within the plants trunk
(Figures 2a, 4, 5a, 8a, 9a), boughs (Figures 1a, 2a, 3a, 4, 5a, 6,
9a) and flowers (Figures 1a, 2a, 4, 5a, 8a), or in association with
the WLM and Quadripartite God (Figures 1a, 2a, 3a, 4, 5a), while
still maintaining symbolic associations with zoomorphic origins.
To determine how and why this came to pass, or where these devel-
opments took place, will require additional studies and perhaps new
and revealing insights from future archeological discoveries. But
one key to understanding the shadowy processes of these icono-
graphic and presumably mythic developments is the central role
of water lily symbolism.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Upon re-examining the physical and ecological aspects of the Maya
world tree at Palenque, Quirigua, Copan, and on ceramics from
various lowland sites, conventional interpretations of these vegeta-
tive motifs as either a corn plant or kapok tree appear to be untenable
in many cases. The widely accepted habit of identifying the tree
as both a corn plant and bearer of soul-flowers (Freidel et al.
1993:218)based on the questionable assumption that the close as-
sociation of water lilies and the supposed corn-tree is meant to
symbolize the controlled agricultural world, the waters of the
canal system and the water lilies that grew in them; the maize
rising from the fields; and the water birds that searched for fish
and food in the canals (Schele and Miller 1986:182) is problem-
atic, given the absence of definitive corn plant features on the world
tree and the biological inconsistency of maize plants growing from
aquatic substrates. Similarly, the highly generalized interpretation of
the naab glyph as a mere indicator of fertility and/or abundant food
(Thompson 1971:72) seems incomplete.
A botanical assessment of Maya symbolism necessitates that we
at least recognize a central role for an aquatic, herbaceous plant in
the conception and historical development of the Maya world
tree. If such is the case, new and considerable implications arise
from this interpretation, one being the recognition that planetary
phenomenology has received undue emphasis with respect to
Maya world tree imagery. The narrow interpretation that every
major image from Maya cosmic symbolism was probably a map
of the sky (Freidel et al. 1993:87), that the water lily-bearing, bice-
phalic, crocodilian serpent among lotus groves is a sky symbol that
represents the milky way or heavenly vault (Stuart 2005:72; Looper
2012:202203), or that iconographic representations of Chahk on
the cosmic plate (Figure 1a) represent the rise of Venus from the
waters of creation, after which he transforms himself into a
bloody, sacrificial vision serpent that represents Maya kingship
(Schele and Miller 1986:304), seem contrived in light of the forego-
ing discussion. Although the latter authors inconsistently identify
identical, personified water lily buds on the world tree of the
cosmic plate (Figure 1a) as either leaves, personifications of
blood, personified heads, and personified water lilies (Schele and
Miller 1986:310311, Plates 122b122c), no trace of stars or blood-
letting rituals are observed on the plate.
The most conspicuous and recurrent planetary symbol in world
tree imagery involves the sun, an important element in Maya
 The Symbols and Symbolic Meaning
cosmology that often implicates the use of ajaw and nik signs; yet
both of these glyphs relate equally to radiate, polypetalous floral
motifs, quatrefoils and lateral views of these sun-flower insignias
in the guise of a trefoil that is a prominent aspect of the world
tree itself. As deduced in the present essay, the sun-and-flower asso-
ciations can usually be explained in terms of the water lily morphol-
ogy, circumstantial support for which is based on the absence of
realistic solar and stellar images among Maya ruins and tombs.
This general view is also supported by considering the principal ca-
lendric events outlined in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel of 1782,
which pay little heed to the rotations of the sun and stars, but rather
to cyclic biological phenomena, such as seasons for spawning fish,
egg-laying turtles, the appearance of white flowers, among other
biotic processes (Milbrath 1999:59). Glyphic and iconographic
RESUMEN
Las representaciones iconogrficas del rbol csmico entre las culturas
Mesoamericanas han sido interpretadas por historiadores de diversas
maneras, algunas de ellas contradictorias entre s. Las imgenes de las
plantas veneradas por los mayas se han identificado como el pochote
(Ceiba pentandra), el maz (Zea mays), el cacao (Theobroma cacao) y
otras plantas tiles. El significado simblico de tales motivos tambin se
ha interpretado como un signo de realeza, un puente divino entre el
dominio celestial y el terrestre, o como un conducto trascendental para el
rey y sus ancestros. A pesar de estas diversas opiniones, los esfuerzos
para resolver los desacuerdos en trminos botnicos, y entre las hiptesis
que explican el papel central que juega el rbol en la simbologa y
mitologa maya, han sido escasos e insuficientes. El presente estudio pre-
tende investigar los aspectos morfolgicos, ecolgicos e iconogrficos
del rbol con base en sus manifestaciones fsicas y mticas en las artes vis-
uales. Para ello se utilizan y comparan restos antiguos de pinturas,
cermicas, murales de estuco y estelas de piedra. Empezando con obras
de arte del Perodo Clsico y terminando con murales del Preclsico de
San Bartolo en el Petn, Guatemala, el estudio llega a conclusiones
sorprendentes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Brian Stross of The University of Texas, Austin, provided useful comments
on early drafts of the manuscript and Steven Beasley provided assistance in
fieldwork. Luis Materon reviewed the resumen while Justin and Barbara
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