The kapok tree (i.e Ceiba tree) is the perch of the Maya principal bird deity. This deity is acting as a god by sitting on the Ceiba tree. This depiction of the priestess being fooled into praising the god shows the importance of the ceiba tree. The jewels the bird wears to imitate a true gods light while standing on the part of the ceiba tree that represents the heavens is enough to fool a priestess or goddess. The symbolism could mean that the bird on the tree is attempting to be amongst the gods. Exactly, where we see the floral motifs is from the snakes decapitated head and it supposedly to give off signs of floral aroma, the women also has three flowers on top of her head which look like water lilies. Among the gods, the world, and the heavens are images of the water lily, another significant plant to the Maya. Their three worlds' emphasis is clear to us a characteristic that the Ceiba Tree shares in the origin myth. 

Most frequently, trunk spines are depicted as appliquéd (applied afterwards) decoration on ceramics that are unpainted or only lightly painted, such as funeral urns and incensarios which are connected to Maya ceremonies of sacrifice and death.

Animals are frequently connected with vessels with spikes or "spines" kings and gods are also shown on these ceramics.

The importance of the story behind the Ceiba tree can be noted in these beautiful workpieces that surround important times of not just the Maya people’s lives, but all humanity: death. The spikes grow on the ceiba trees trunk and in the mythos of creation surrounding the story they represent the people. The Trunk of the Ceiba is the people on the world and the spikes are the main focus. The noticeable spikes make it into the Maya artwork surrounding sacrifice and death. The tree connects the gods to the people to the underworld. The spikes may be placed on the ceramic pieces as a remembrance that they are the trunk and therefore connected to the underworld and the heavens.

So the dead’s souls do not get lost they are given symbolic spines so they do can be part of the bridge that connects all three dimensions.

The sacredness of the elite is known and this artwork gives the ceiba tree the same respect. The ceiba tree represents the known universe to the Maya people and as it stands, the proper treatment of immortalizing the plant is given. 

The immortalization continues in the figure where we see the master ceramic work of the Maya people. The artist took the time to place important cultural items together to commemorate the sacredness of the objects. The sacred elite and the sacred ceiba. 

The elites’ headdresses are depicted in the artwork where they sit upon the ceiba tree seeds. These headdresses represent power and class for the wearers due to the rarity and beauty of the quetzal feathers which are a bright green. It makes sense for these feathers to be depicted in the same image as the Ceiba seed due to their name for it: The Green Tree. Just like the important stone, jade, the color is important to the Maya people and it extends to the ceiba plant.

A cylindrical cacao pot with an image of a bombacoid-like flower connected to a Maya male official's hat.

On a cylindrical cacao drinking jar, the smaller, white-flowered Quararibea funebris or Q. guatemalteca blossoms seem to be depicted.

This species was employed to flavor and froth cacao beverages, making it a suitable choice for the vessel's portrayal. 

The depiction of cacao beverage and ceiba leaves with the elite further emphasizes the importance of the plants. In the mythology the ceiba branches, leaves, and flowers represent a connection to the heavens. The Maya revered their elite as the messengers for the Gods and this could explain the imbibing of the ceiba flower and its presence in the hat of the elite. The messengers are literally drinking of the heavenly plant and keeping it above them to emphasize the meaning. 

Another example of the importance of the flower is the hieroglyph for “zero.” The flower being the symbol tells us that this monumental mathematical concept. Zero being the beginning of their number system alludes that the flower (heavens) being the beginning of their creation. From the gods creating the tree, the tree birthing the people, to the people depicting the heavens we see the symmetry that the Maya loved in the artwork.