The Recovery of the Chalchiuhomitl, the Precious Bones of the Ancestors
You can read the story from top to bottom; the text which describes the images follows. You can find prints of these paintings in the artist’s Etsy store, Mexica Heart, at this link.
1.1 Than it was that the Teótl called an assembly, for now that the earth was stilled and the sky called into being, in this new-born world of darkness, no man lived upon the earth to give witness to the gods. From their home in Tamoanchan they called out in distress; Citlallinicue, Citlallatonac, Apantecuhtli, Tepanquizqui, Tlallamanqui, Huictlollinqui, Quetzalcoátl, Titlacahuan, “Who will be seated there, on the earth, now that Tlaltecuhtli has ceased her writhing, now that the heavens have found their place?”
They summoned before them Quetzalcoátl and his Nagual, his spirit double, Xolótl.
“You who are the Morning Star, destined to rise before the sun and guide him from the underworld and to the heavens,” they said to Quetzalcoátl, and, turning to Xolótl, “you who are the Evening Star, destined to lead the sun into the darkness of Mictlán, there to find his path to rebirth and day, go you to Mictlantecuhtli, and bade him return the precious bones of the ancestors, so that man might be reborn on earth.”
1.2 And so the twin gods descended to Mictlán, entering the surface of the earth.
2.1 Xolotl led the way through the Nine levels of the underworld, across the river Apanohuaya,
2.2 the crashing mountains of Tepetl Monanamycia,
2.3 Itztepetl, the Mountain of obsidian blades,
2.4 the frozen winds of Yeehecayan,
2.5,6 the great lizard Xochitonal guarding the Place of Human Banners, Panoecoe Tlacaya-Cuepa,
2.7 the place of Arrows, Teminaloya,
2.8 and the place of the heart-eating beast, Teocoylqualoya,
2.9 before they arrived at Itzmictlan Apochalocan, the final home of Mictlantecuhtli in his infernal temple.
Than Quetzalcoátl spoke to Mictlantecuhtli, the Dead Lord, and his wife, the Dead Lady; “I come to take away the Chalchiuhomitl, the Precious Bones you hold in your keeping. I come to re-populate the earth and give birth, once more, to man.”
But Mictlantecuhtli was displeased by the request, and jealous of the jade-stone bones, “never shall I give them up, Quetzalcoátl. They shall remain in my keeping forever.”
“You misunderstand, Mictlantecuhtli,” replied Quetzalcoátl. “The bones are no more than borrowed, for just a little while, for all men born of bones shall to bones return, and in your realm eternally remain.”
“Take than, the Chalchiuhomitl. But first, play my conch trumpet and blow four times around the extent of my realm. Than you shall have your bones.”
3.1 Yet, the conch trumpet was not hollow, and had no holes for finger-stops. But Quetzalcoátl summoned worms, who drilled holes in the shell, and honeybees and wasps, who rushed inside and filled it with sound so that all Mictlán reverberated with its thunder.
3.2 And the twin Lords traversed the extent of Mictlán, sounding the trumpet in the East, the North, the West, and the South.
“He has sounded the trumpet!” cried Mictlantecuhtli, “he shall take my precious bones! Never shall shall I permit their escape!”
4.1 Xolotl spoke to Quetzalcoátl, saying “ Trick the Lord of Death. Tell him you shall leave the bones, even as we secret them away,”
So Quetzalcoátl cried out loudly “ See, Mictlantecuhtli, I shall leave without the Chalchiuhomitl, I shall return to Tamoanchan without the bones that you had promised!”
Yet even as he spoke, he quickly gathered up the sacred bones, those of the man in one bundle and those of the woman in another, and they sped away through the dark passages of Mictlán.
4.2 “They have taken my bones!” cried Lord Death, and he sent his servants, the spirits, the fleshless, and the quail, to pursue them. “Spirits!” he cried “Dig a pit in their path that they may not leave my kingdom!”
4.3 Looking behind them as they ran at the dark army of the Lord and Lady of the Dead, they did not see the pit dug in their path by the fleshless servants of Mictlantecuhtli. Suddenly, a covey of quail burst from hiding by the pit, and the Lord Quetzalcoátl stumbled and fell into its depths.
5.1 There he lay as though dead, the bones scattered and broken about him, as the quail nibbled and gnawed at the precious remains of the ancestors.
Arising from death, Quetzalcoátl saw the ruined and broken bones. “My nagual,” he lamented, “ how shall the new men be!”
And Xolotl replied “They have been broken. Thus shall the new men be.”
The two gods arose, wrapped the Chalchiuhomitl into their sacred bundles, and proceeded on their way.
10.1 Then it was that on the day Seven Flint, the Teteo gathered around Quetzalcoátl in Tamoanchan, the Twelfth Heaven. In a jade bowl, Cihuacoátl, Serpent Woman, ground the maize of four colors and the broken bones of the ancestors, and presented the sacred masa of her labors to Our Lord Sovereign Plumed Serpent.
With the bone dagger, the maguey spine, he pierced his penis and poured the blood of his sacrifice upon the masa.
11.1 Then, too, the gathered Teteo did penance, Xiuhtecuhtli, Tezcatlipoca, Centeótl, Mictlantecuhtli, Tlazolteótl, and Quetzalcoátl, who numbered six. The gods sprinkled their blood upon the flour, and Cihuacoátl kneaded the masa upon her metate of jade, and of the masa thus formed the first man, the first woman.
11.2 Quetzalcoátl, The Ineffable, blew upon their nostrils, and from his breath of generation, the blood and pain of his sacrifice, were they born to life.
Then they said, “Holy Ones, Humans, have been born.”
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