Ixtab the Hanged,

Ixtab the Hanged

Up in the heavens with

Kukulcán the Fanged

The Ceiba dances with rotten appendages

The Maya hanging there

They gave their lives for Paradise

In Ixtab’s loving care

Suicide, the ultimate sacrifice!

By noose, she does prefer

The gods of the ground can’t get them now

They’re safe while with her

In her festering benevolence

She watches one’s last breath

The noose is like a deadly serpent

Choking them to death

Ixtab is not a macabre mistress

As some see as common truth

She’s actually a medium

To a land of eternal youth

Ixtab (eesh-tahb) is the Mayan goddess of sacrificial suicide. She is also known as The Lady of the Noose. According to the Maya, a ceiba tree represents the three planes of existence. The only way to travel between planes is through death. This applies to the gods, too. Some gods change form when traveling between the planes. The trunk of the tree represents our world. The roots of the tree represent Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. Ah Puch is the primary god of Xibalba. All dead (except for the ones taken by Ixtab) are sent there. Like most underworlds, it is a place of suffering. The branches of the tree represent the heavens. Itzamná is the primary god of the heavens. Ixtab hangs from one of its branches. She takes those that have sacrificed themselves to her or that died an otherwise noble death (e.g. war victims, women who died during childbirth, etc.).  Mayan culture is the only known culture to promote suicide.