Hunab Ku

Hunab Ku (Mayan pronunciation:[huˈnaɓ ku]) is a Colonial period Yucatec Maya reducido term meaning "The One God". It is used in
colonial, and more particularly in doctrinal texts to refer to the Christian God. Since the word is found frequently in the Chilam
Balam of Chumayel, a syncretistic document heavily influenced by Christianity, it refers specifically to the Christian god as a
translation into Maya of the Christian concept of one God, used to enculturate the previously polytheist Maya to the new Colonial
religion.[1]

References to Hunab Ku have figured prominently inNew Age Mayanism such as that of José Argüelles.

Contents
Hunab Ku as the Christian God
Hunab Ku in New Age Belief
Hunab Ku as Symbol
See also
Notes
References

Hunab Ku as the Christian God

The earliest known publicly available written reference to the term "Hunab Ku" (which translates as "Sole God" or "Only God")
appears in the 16th centuryDiccionario de Motul, where "Hunab-ku" is identified as "the only living and true god, also the greatest of
the gods of the people of Yucatan. He had no form because they said that he could not be represented as he was incorporeal".[2][3]
The term also appears in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel,[4] written after the Spanish Conquest, but is unknown in any pre-
Conquest inscriptions in Maya writing. Hunab Ku was closely associated with an indigenous creator god, Itzamna, in an effort to
make use of religious syncretism.[5] An assertion that Hunab Ku was the high god of the Mayas can be found in Sylvanus Morley's
classic book The Ancient Maya (1946).[6] It is necessary to refer to Mayan authors to verify the Mayan origin and use of this.

However, the interpretation of Hunab Ku as a pre-Hispanic deity is not widely accepted by Mayanist scholars today. Anthropological
linguist William Hanks, for example, identifieshunab ku as an expression created in the context of maya reducido, a form of Yucatec
created in the context of missionization. He writes, "The use of hunab ku ['one' + suffix + 'god'] for the singularity of God is
linguistically transparent to the oneness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and occurs widely in the missionary writings.[7] He also
notes, "the fact that close paraphrases make reference to Dios, halal ku, and hunab ku allows us to securely identify hunab ku with
[8]
the Christian God, even when surrounding text may be ambiguous."

Hunab Ku in New Age Belief

New Age beliefs about Hunab Ku derive from the work of Mexican philosopher Domingo Martínez Parédez (1904–1984), who first
presented his interpretation of the concept in 1953[9] and expanded upon his ideas in a subsequent book, Hunab Kú: Síntesis del
pensamiento filosófico maya(1964).[10] Martínez interpreted Hunab Ku as evidence for Maya monotheism and suggested that it was
represented by the symbols of a square within a circle or a circle within a square, the square representing measurement and the circle
representing motion. Martínez related Hunab Ku to concepts and symbols in Freemasonry, particularly the idea of a Great Architect
of the Universe and the Masonic square and compass. It was also Martínez who first associated Hunab Ku with the expression "In
Lak'ech," which he translated as "Eres mi otro yo." (In English, this means "You are my other I.")[11] Martínez' ideas were
popularized by Hunbatz Men [12][13] and José Argüelles.[14] The significance of the symbol has also been discussed by José Castillo
Torre[15]

Hunab Ku as Symbol
After being introduced to the concept by Hunbatz Men, who discussed this concept
in his 1986 book Religión ciencia maya,[16] Argüelles popularized Hunab Ku in his
1987 book The Mayan Factor.[17] However, instead of Martínez' symbol, what
Argüelles asserted was the "Hunab Ku" symbol was originally a rectangular design
used by the Aztecs for a ritual cloak, known as the Mantle of Lip Plugs (or
, arguably,
mantle of "spider water"). The design survives today as a rug design being sold in
central Mexico, but was associated with the Milky Way and the god Hunab Ku by
Argüelles, who modified the symbol to look more like a circular motif evoking a yin
and yang symbol as well as a spiral galaxy or the blood dropped by Hunab Ku on the
bones that Quetzalcoatl took from Ah Puch to create humanity. It has become
associated with Mayanism.
Argüelles' modification of the Hunab
The earliest known appearance of the design is in the 16th century Codex
Ku symbol.
Magliabechiano, an Aztec (not Maya) document that is also known for graphic
depictions of heart sacrifice drawn by indigenous artists. The design was first
reproduced by Zelia Nuttall, who rediscovered the Codex Magliabecchiano in Florence, Italy in 1898, in her 1901 book The
Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican
Religious, Sociological and Calendrical Systems.[18] Facsimiles of the codex were published in 1903 and 1982.[19][20] In 1976, the
design was introduced to the weavers of Teotitlan, Oaxaca by epigrapher Gordon Whittaker, who commissioned a rug based on the
design in the Codex Magliabbechiano. By 1978, it had been reproduced multiple times. Argüelles says he purchased two rugs from
Teotitlan with the design, which he subsequently modified and popularized in his book The Mayan Factor (1987) and during the
1987 Harmonic Convergence.

The design, rendered in black-and-white, appeared on the cover and on decorated pages of The House of the Dawn (1914), a romance
novel by Marah Ellis Ryan set in Hopi territory during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Decorative borders on pages in the book combine
this design with the swastika, a motif that also appears frequently in other books by Ryan. It is likely that the illustrator for Ryan's
book found the Aztec design in Nuttall's 1903 publication. John Major Jenkins, who first saw the symbol as used by Argüelles,
subsequently encountered Ryan's novel in a used book store.[21] He appropriated the decorated borders for use in his zine Jaloj Kexoj
and PHI-64: The Dual Principle Core Paradigm of Mayan Time Philosophy and its Conceptual Parallel in Old World Thought
(1994) and also a version republished with modifications as the zineAztec Sacred Science (1994).

Despite the assertions of Martínez, Argüelles, and Jenkins, there are no known representations of "Hunab Ku" that have been
documented for the ancient Maya. It is anAztec, not a Maya motif.

See also
Mayanism

Notes
1. Hanks 2010:355 - "It might be objected thathunnab ku could refer as well to a non-Christian deity , as to God, and if
so our reading of the foregoing passages would shift fundamentally
. Even if this is possible in theory, it is unlikely in
fact [why?]."
2. Roys 1967: 167