Broken Mirrors Were Not Bad Luck to the Mayans

I don't know about you but I am extremely careful handling mirrors lest I crack or break one. Superstitions about cracked or broken mirrors predict 7 years of bad luck. However, for ancient Mayans, cracked mirrors were a portal to the world beyond. Nobles of the powerful Mesoamerican civilization conjured gods and ancestors in rituals centered around the objects as explained in this fascinating article on Atlas Obscura.

Highlights from the article are here as expressed by James L. Fitzsimmons, a professor of anthropology at Middlebury.

Some people fear that breaking a mirror can lead to seven years of misfortune. The history of this superstition may go back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who ascribed mysterious powers to reflected images. As a scholar of the Indigenous religions of the Americas, I know that the ancient Maya had a different take on cracked mirrors. During the first millennium, the Maya used such mirrors—in cities from southern Mexico to western Honduras—as channels for supernatural communication rather than as cosmetic accessories.

Using hallucinogens, these nobles stared at their reflections, seeking mystical experiences. The cracks between the pieces resulted in fractured, distorted reflections, through which it was believed that people could talk to divine beings. The nobles hoped to find wisdom in the lands beyond mirrors, which they associated with gods, ancestors, and other spirits.