The religious traditions of ancient Mesoamerica — the Aztec tradition of the Basin of Mexico, the Maya civilization of the Yucatan and Guatemala, and the earlier Olmec and Teotihuacan cultures that influenced them — represent one of humanity's great spiritual civilizations, developing independently of the Old World and arriving at its own sophisticated answers to the deepest questions. The Aztec cosmology of five suns, the elaborate calendar system that embedded time itself in sacred significance, the Mayan Popol Vuh's vision of human beings created from maize after earlier attempts failed: these are not primitive myths but rich philosophical and theological systems. Their descendants — the millions of Maya, Nahua, and other indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America — continue to maintain and practice these traditions today.
Rumi