The Maya, one of the most important peoples of ancient Mesoamerica, had a pagan religion. Itzamna, regarded as the creator of the human race, was one of the greatest Mayan gods. He was thought to have invented writing and to be an authority in medical issues. Rumour has it that there was a deity called Hunab Ku, who was even superior to Itzamna in rank and thus was the greatest deity.

Hunab Ku is an expression meaning The Only God in Maya reducido, a version of Yucatec Maya created for the purpose of Christianizing the Maya people by Spanish monks.

There is conflicting information regarding the role of Hunab Ku in the Mayan pantheon. Hunab Ku is said to be a deity belonging to the original Mayan pantheon in some sources, whereas in other sources he is specified to be a deity added to the Mayan pantheon by Spanish monks for the purpose of accelerating the Christianization process of the Maya people.

In my opinion, the latter is much more likely to be true. Hunab Ku is an incorporeal god living in the skies. He is so supreme that he never meddles in human affairs and actions. He is perfect and devoid of any shortcoming or fault. However, pagan deities are not such. Gods are not regarded as the sole authority in pagan religions; they have humane shortcomings and faults and commit immoral acts from time to time. The fact that Zeus, the greatest god in Greek mythology, seduced Leda, queen of Spartans, by disguising himself as a swan or that Odin, the greatest and wisest god of the ancient Norse people, had to sacrifice one of his eyes to be able to drink from the elixir in Mimir’s well for the sake of acquiring wisdom could be shown as proof of the vulnerability, weakness and faulty character of the deities in pagan religions. From this standpoint, the concept of Hunab Ku does not fit with the pagan nature of the ancient Mayan religion. Another point worth bearing in mind is that the concept of Hunab Ku exists only in the texts of the Hispanic era. This concept is never seen in the texts written in the Pre-Hispanic era; hence, it is highly likely for the Spanish monks to have added this notion in doctrinal texts for the purpose of familiarizing the Maya people with the concept of the sole god in Christianity, which appears as a combination of three distinct persons ­- the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In the Mayanist New Age doctrines of the western world, Hunab Ku has occupied a pivotal role as a supreme being of consciousness living just in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy. Mexican writer Domingo Martínez Parédez elaborated on his opinions regarding this notion and likened Hunab Ku to the concept of the Grand Architect of the Universe in Freemasonry in his book Hunab Kú: Síntesis del pensamiento filosófico maya ( Hunab Ku: Synthesis of Mayan Philosophical Thought ), published in 1964. The ideas of Parédez were popularized by Hunbatz Men, cultural ambassador for the Maya, and spiritualist writer José Argüelles.

The figure leading the path for the adoption of the Hunab Ku symbol is José Argüelles. For Parédez, the symbol for Hunab Ku was a circle inside a square or vice versa. The square symbolized measurement and the circle motion. Argüelles used the symbol seen above for Hunab Ku in his 1987 book The Mayan Factor and this symbol has established itself as the one for Hunab Ku. Interestingly, Argüelles created this symbol out of a motif on a cloak the Aztec people used in their own rituals. This motif is not found in any Mayan text or any work of art created by the Mayans. The motif evokes in mind a representation of harmony similar to yin and yang and that of a spiral galaxy. The two images seen below are the original motifs in Codex Magliobechiano, an illustrated Aztec codex,  that inspired the Hunab Ku symbol.

Below the image on the right is written cloth of the spider water in Spanish. Boone holds that the scribe mistook Nahuatl word teçacatl, which means lip plug, which is seen below the image on the left for tocalatl, approximately meaning spider water, and wrote it below the image on the right erroneously ( Hill, 1983 ). This symbol was most probably used in ceremonies where Aztec people put on lip plugs as ornaments or status symbols.

This symbol today continues to manifest itself on rugs sold in Central Mexico.

Boone, Elizabeth Hill (1983) The Codex Magliabechiano and the Lost Prototype of the Magliabechiano Group . Berkeley: University of California Press