The Fifth and Sixth Worlds of Creation
A recurrent mythology in Central America is that the world has been created and destroyed a number of times. The most complete version of this myth in Aztec mythology is found in the Codex Vaticanus, where it is recounted that the world has previously been destroyed four times. Jaguars destroyed the first world, storms destroyed the second world, volcanoes caused the end of the third world, and a great flood wiped out the fourth world.
Are we coming to the end of the fourth or fifth world?
Mayan sources are not conclusive. Some accounts mention that the world has been destroyed twice, others that this is the fourth world. Some scholars consider that the Maya thought the same as the Aztecs in this matter, as there are many parallels between the mythologies of the two.
A common idea is that we are now, in the approach to 2012, in the transition between worlds and that this world will in some way be destroyed. In the Mayan mythology, each time the world was destroyed humanity was somehow recreated so that life could continue. Rather than the complete destruction of the planet, the Maya seem to be talking about a series of cataclysmic events that define the endings and beginnings of the world ages.
For the Maya, each world age was like a great experiment for the creator gods in perfecting the world. At the end of this world age, they hope this perfection will finally be achieved. This means the world will not necessarily literally end in 2012 or at the next ending of the world age; it will simply be recreated anew. There will be a new beginning, although life in the new world may be very different from this one.
