Venus Inferior Conjunction (Evening Star Dies, Descent to Xibalba)

Venus passes between Earth and Sun at inferior conjunction, disappearing from the evening sky. In the Popol Vuh, this moment corresponds to the Hero Twins’ descent into Xibalba, the underworld, to face the Lords of Death. Venus will be invisible for approximately eight days before reappearing as the Morning Star. The Dresden Codex records this eight-day period of invisibility with extraordinary precision. For the Maya, this was the most cosmologically charged moment in the Venus cycle: the death of one aspect of the god and its resurrection as another.