Among the divine figures of Mesoamerica, none has enjoyed a fortune comparable to that of Quetzalcoatl, the "feathered serpent". He appears, under different names and forms, in cultures far apart in time: at Teotihuacan, where a temple stands decorated with the heads of feathered serpents; among the Maya, who knew a similar figure by the name of Kukulkan; and above all among the Mexica, commonly called the Aztecs. His image unites two opposite worlds, and for that very reason it is one of the richest in symbolic meaning.
The name: bird and serpent
The name Quetzalcoatl, in the Nahuatl language, joins two words: quetzalli, the splendid green feathers of the quetzal bird, and coatl, "serpent". The serpent crawls on the earth; the bird flies in the sky. The feathered serpent is thus the union of earth and sky, of matter and spirit, of what is below and what is above.
It is a symbol found in different forms in many traditions: the idea that true realisation consists not in denying the earth but in making it "fly", in making matter luminous.
The faces of the god
Among the Mexica, Quetzalcoatl had many functions:
| Aspect | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ehecatl, the wind god | the breath that sweeps the way for the rain |
| Patron of priests and of learning | knowledge, the calendar, the arts |
| The morning star | the planet Venus heralding the sunrise |
| Creator of humanity | the god who gives life to human beings |
The link with Venus is especially significant. The morning star disappears and reappears, passes through periods of invisibility and then shines again: a natural image of death and rebirth.
The descent to Mictlan
One of the most beautiful myths about Quetzalcoatl concerns the creation of the human beings of the present age. According to Mexica cosmology, the world had passed through several ages, or "suns", each ending in destruction. At the beginning of the fifth age there were no more people.
So Quetzalcoatl goes down to Mictlan, the realm of the dead, to retrieve the bones of the previous humanity. The lord of the dead, Mictlantecuhtli, sets him a test: to blow a conch shell that has no holes. Quetzalcoatl calls worms to bore holes in it and bees to fly inside and make it sound.
The lord of the dead pretends to let him go, but sets a trap for him. Quetzalcoatl falls, the bones break and quails peck at them. The god nevertheless manages to gather them up and carry them away. The bones are ground, and Quetzalcoatl pours his own blood over them: from this mixture the new human beings are born.
The meaning of the myth
The story contains a profound idea: humanity is born from a divine sacrifice. The god goes down among the dead, faces absurd trials, suffers a fall and gives his own blood. The broken bones explain, according to some interpretations, why human beings differ in height; but they also suggest that every life carries within it the trace of a fragility.
The king of Tollan and his fall
Alongside the god there is a legendary figure, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, priest-king of the city of Tollan, which the Mexica regarded as the birthplace of civilisation and the arts. He was described as a wise, chaste king devoted to penance, who refused human sacrifice.
According to the story, his divine rival Tezcatlipoca, whose name means "smoking mirror", showed him a mirror in which Quetzalcoatl saw himself old and deformed. Then he persuaded him to drink pulque, a fermented drink. Drunk, the king forgot his vows. On waking, full of shame, he left Tollan and set out towards the east. According to some versions he set himself on fire on the seashore and his heart rose into the sky to become the morning star.
This legend was later linked to the arrival of the Spaniards, with the idea that Cortés had been taken for the returning god; this reconstruction, however, is now widely questioned by historians.
The symbolic reading
The story of the king of Tollan is a tale about the fall of one who has reached a high spiritual level. Tezcatlipoca's mirror is the confrontation with one's own image, the discovery of one's fragile side. The pulque is the abandonment of discipline. The flight and the fire are purification after the fall.
The teaching is clear: no elevation is final, and self-knowledge also passes through the recognition of one's falls. But the heart that becomes a star says that even a fall can be transformed into light.
In short
- Quetzalcoatl, the "feathered serpent", unites the bird of the sky and the serpent of the earth.
- Among the Mexica he was god of wind, learning and the morning star, and creator of humanity.
- In Mictlan he retrieves the bones of the ancient people and brings them to life with his own blood.
- The king of Tollan, tricked by Tezcatlipoca with a mirror and pulque, leaves his city.
- The heart that becomes the morning star expresses the transformation of a fall into light.
