From the underworld to the sea

A mural in Portico 2 of the Tepantitla residential compound depicts the Great Goddess as a mountain rising over a sea of red and blue volutes (Figure 3). Clams and quadruped clams with algae clinging to their shells (Angulo Villaseñor Reference Angulo Villaseñor and de la Fuente1995:78) dwell in the red volutes and starfish in the blue ones. The clams have their syphons curled, whereas the mouths of starfish are depicted by a circle (von Winning Reference von Winning1987:vol. 2:9, Figure 9c). In nature, clams dig under the sand with their foot and project a pair of syphons out to circulate water, whereas starfish crawl over sand, extruding their stomach through their mouth to engulf pray within or over the sand (Figure 4a). Clams and starfish bridge the sand with seawater, and they were likely selected as metonyms of the underworld to signify portals for the passage of the Great Goddess to the sea (Figure 2). This idea is supported by the depiction of the Circle Triplet icon that symbolizes water deities (Langley Reference Langley and Berlo1988:253, Figures 5–8) flowing off clam syphons in censer adornos and off the mouth of a starfish painted on the Great Goddess's robe (quechquemitl) in a mural in Casa Barrios (von Winning Reference von Winning1987:vol. 2:Figures 10a and 9l) (Figure 4b). The passage of the goddess as water through animal portals is signed in Tepantitla by the algae shaped like a quetzal-feathered headdress clinging from clams, a sign that can also be read in the rays of starfish.

Figure 3.

Great Goddess. Portico 2, Tablero 3, Tepantitla. Hands are depicted dorsally with thumbs up, representing the goddess from her back. Volutes at bottom represent the sea with clams and clam-dogs, starfish, snails, and algae. At middle left, volute of incense with rising Great Goddess metonyms and reciprocating volute with falling seeds. At top center, spider descending from tree, and spiders and butterfly within tree branches. Photograph by the author.

Figure 4.

Animals symbolizing the passage of the Great Goddess: (a) Clam in Tepantitla and Veneridae in nature. Note clam (above) with curled syphons and clam-dog (below) with anterior legs as syphons, tail as foot, and algae as tassel of quetzal feathers. Drawing by Floericke (Reference Floericke1920:67). (b) Clam in a censer adorno and starfish painted on Great Goddess quechquemitl in Casa Barrios mural. Note Triple Droplet icon flowing from syphons and from mouth of starfish. Drawing and rendering by Natalia Nájera, based on von Winning (Reference von Winning1987:vol. 2:Figure 10a) (adorno) and Gamio (Reference Gamio2017:vol. 1:330, Plate 35) (starfish). (c) Snail in Tepantitla and Triplofusus giganteus in nature. Note trumpet mouthpiece as the conch's spire, Circle Triplet icon as spire spines, and algae as feather tassel. Drawing by George Sowerby (Reference Sowerby1847:vol. 5:Plate IV). (d) Butterfly in Tepantitla and Papilio multicaudatus in nature. Note tails wings as streams of liquid. Drawing by Carlos Beutelspacher (Reference Beutelspacher1988:21, Figure 27; 44, Figure 81). (e) Moth in Descending Deity mural (see Figure 11) and Rothschildia orizaba in nature. Note arrow point markings. Drawing by Carlos Beutelspacher (Reference Beutelspacher1988:21, Figure 27; 44, Figure 81). (f) Monarch butterfly in mural in Tepantitla (see Figure 19) and monarch (Danaus Plexippus) in nature. Note dots and bands on wing borders. Photograph by Lightsource. (g) Trapdoor spider in Tetitla (see Figure 7) and Halonoproctidae in nature. Note silk lined tube. Photograph by Jiangyou, iNaturalist. (h) White pelican in Descending Deity mural (see Figure 11) and Pelecanus erythrorhynchos in nature. Photograph by José María Arguijo Núñez, Natusfera. (i) Quetzal in mural fragment at Museo Nacional de Antropología and Pharomachrus mocinno in nature. Note shield in mural formed by extended wing covert feathers; note bird perching with two frontal digits, and iridescent tail feathers changing color. Photograph of perching quetzal by PantherMediaSeller. Photograph of quetzal in flight by OndrejProsicky. All other photographs by the author.

In a mural from the Palace of the Sun (Figure 5) the goddess's diagnostic hands and bracelets are associated with a clam framed by a radiant scallop with a half-star icon at its center and with an upside-down dog projecting from the clam (A. Miller Reference Miller1973:84, Figure 126). The clam-dog icon bears tassels of algae resembling quetzal feathers (compare with Figures 4a and 4c) as a symbol of the Great Goddess's headdress. The dog's paws and head form an icon reminiscent of the Circle Triplet flowing from the clam's syphons, while the dog's paws and the goddess's hands touch a stream surrounding the scallop. In Mesoamerican cosmology, the dog and the half star represented Venus (Kelly Reference Kelly1980:24), whereas the disappearance of the planet from the night sky, and its reappearance in the morning symbolized its transit to and from the underworld (Reilly 1996:31; Sprajc Reference Sprajc1993:17). The clam-dog icon can therefore be read as a portal uniting the underworld with the sea for the passage of the goddess as sacred water.

Figure 5.

Great Goddess emerging as clam-dog from a star-like scallop. Detail. Note meandering clams next to volutes at left. Zone 5-A, room 18, Teotihuacan. Photograph by the author, Beatriz de la Fuente Museum of Murals, Teotihuacan.

From the sea to the cave-womb

The Tepantitla mural of the Great Goddess depicts four snails nestled between the red and blue sea volutes at the base of the mountain, and this can be read as their opening a cave by pressing the seafloor with their foot, which is in fact a ceramic trumpet mouthpiece (Both Reference Both2021:510, Figure 3) (Figure 4c). The shells’ lips are tasseled with algae, and their spire spines are substituted with Circle Triplet icons. Paulinyi (Reference Paulinyi2007:261) interprets the four snails as directional markers placing the Great Goddess at the center of the cosmos and opening the cave with their trumpet sound. The tasseled, trumpeting snails can therefore be read as a portal for the passage of the Great Goddess from the sea into the mountain cave.

The mountain-cave roof is formed by layered, icon-filled semicircles, and its walls by flower stems (Figure 6a). Millbrath (Reference Millbrath1995:61) interprets this as a womb, based on the semicircles with flowing waters and seeds of fertility resembling the Postclassic lunar insignia—the yacameztli—that was worn on the nose by female goddesses associated with procreation and menstrual blood. The iconography can be read as the passage of seawater through the womb's perimetrium, which is depicted by the upper layer of the cave with starfish, followed by its passage into the endometrium as the middle layer, with the Circle Triplet icon signifying fertilized, sacred water (Figure 6b). The bottom layer of the cave's ceiling depicts a row of greenstones that can be read as sacred water streaming within the horns of the uterus, which connect to the fallopian tubes, signified by the two upside-down flowers hanging on either side of the cave's ceiling. The space of the cave is filled with icons of seeds and the cave's floor is drawn with a scalloping icon of flowing water from which icons of dripping water hang (von Winning Reference von Winning1987:vol. 2:Figure 8b). This iconography can be read as the breaking of the womb's membrane to give birth to fertilized water signified by the seeds.

Figure 6.

Great Goddess's cave-womb and mirror-vessel assembly: (a) Tepantitla Portico 2 detail. (b) Diagram of a human womb. The cave is also a womb and a mirror on top of a downturned vessel. The mirror's frame with starfish is also the perimetrium and myometrium of the fundus of the uterus (red dome in diagram at right), and the mirror's reflective surface with the Circle Triplet icon is also the endometrium (pink dome in diagram). The bottom of the vessel is also the uterine horns connecting the uterus to the fallopian tubes, signified by two blue flower corollas and red stems hanging from the cave ceiling. Photograph by the author. Diagram by MatoomMi.

From the cave-womb to the primordial cloud

The Great Goddesses in Tepantitla and in the residential compound of Tetitla wear greenstone earspools, necklace, and a spider nose bar (Taube Reference Taube1983:109) (Figures 7 and 8). The necklace falls from the earspools, and the spider's pedipalps touch it, and the spider's abdomen is emblazoned with the Circle Triplet icon. This greenstone ensemble can be read as a spider weaving a greenstone web anchored to the earspools to create a portal for the continued passage of the goddess. This idea is supported in Mesoamerican cosmology in that the power of greenstone to attract water is combined with the transformative force associated with spiderwebs as symbols of Ollin, the sign of transformation whose root is “something round, that spins and bounces like a ball” (Taube Reference Taube1983:111–113). Furthermore, Ollin symbolized the vertical movement of sacred spirits (Maffie Reference Maffie2014:186–187).

Figure 7.

Great Goddess. Portico 14, North Panel, Tetitla. The hands are depicted dorsally with the thumbs up, connoting the representation of the goddess from her back. Her bust emerges from a fuming mirror framed by quincunxes. The mirror is placed over a disk of ash traversed by rays penetrating the vessel below. Falling, fuming panels of greenstone icons emerge from the goddess's hands flanked by trapdoor spiders within their silk-lined hole. Photograph by the author.

Figure 8.

Great Goddess, Tablero 3, Portico 2, Tepantitla, mid-section detail. A cascade flows from the mouth. The pedipalps of the spider nose mask touch the greenstone necklace. Breadth spirit icons hang from the earspools. A yellow band between the nose mask and the eyes possibly represents rising humidity. Feathers hanging from the headdress with drops are possibly icons of iridescence. Photograph by the author.

The passage of the Great Goddess as water through the mountain can be read in two directions: downward as a spring gushing from her mouth, as depicted in Tepantitla (Pasztory Reference Pasztory1976:174); and upward into her head-summit, as depicted in Tetitla and Tepantitla (Figures 3 and 7). In Tetitla, the upward movement is depicted as yellow droplets around the mouth mask, whereas in Tepantitla, the flowing water is suggested by the yellow bar above the nosebar, possibly signifying mist. The water rising as humidity or mist transforms the mountain summit-heads into semi-transparent clouds, as seen in Tetitla by the yellow droplets set against the red background and, in both murals, by the depiction of the goddesses’ face masks—although they are standing on their backs, with their arms and hands in a dorsal position, their thumbs up, and their nails toward the viewer (A. Miller Reference Miller1973:146).

The frame headdress originated in Teotihuacan (Pasztory Reference Pasztory, Berrin and Pasztory1993:53) and can be read as symbolic of the Great Goddess's transformation into a mist and of the need to support the headdress on her shoulders with columns. This idea is also shown in the structurally similar Teotihuacan theater-type censers where the goddess's head appears hidden within their recesses (Berlo Reference Berlo1984:29; Pasztory Reference Pasztory, Berrin, Millon, Millon, Pasztory and Seligman1988:63, Reference Pasztory and Berlo1992:310). Further support to the idea of transformation of the head-summit into a cloud comes from the Water Talud mural in Tepantitla, which is just below the Great Goddess, in which the conical mountain summit is rendered as a mist of yellow dots over a blue background (Figure 19).

In Tetitla, three enlarged droplets contact the spider's Circle Triplet icon below her nose and can be read as the transformation of water into a mist through her breath, as is suggested by Classic Maya cloud-and-rain breath-spirit icons (Taube Reference Taube2005:23, 35), and also depicted in the goddess in Tepantitla as the elements hanging from the earspools. In Tepantitla, the goddess's eyes are depicted with the Diamond-and-Bar icon of burning incense, sacred fire, and brilliance (Pasztory Reference Pasztory1976:172; von Winning Reference von Winning1977:14, Figure 2). The context of a rising mist over the face of the goddess enables the reading of the diamonds as squinting and of the green and red bars flanking them as tearing and bloody eyes, respectively. Diamond-and-Bar eye icons were associated with crying, as indicated in molded plaques of tearing faces accompanied by rising icons of stones and prickly pears as symbols of the symptoms of eye irritation (Figure 9). Likewise, a mural in Techinantitla, Teotihuacan, depicts tears falling from a serpent's feather-crested red eye as a symbol of the celestial rain bringer (Taube Reference Taube and Coe1995:87). The transformation of the head of the goddess into a mist can therefore be read as occurring not only through breathing but through eye irritation and crying caused by incense smoke.

Figure 9.

Molded plaque with diamond-and-bar eye face as burning incense. Stone and prickly pear icons are possibly signs of smoke blow associated with tears streaming from the eyes. Drawings by von Winning (Reference von Winning1977:Figure 4e).

The primordial cloud produced by the transformation of the goddess was likely represented as the cloud hugging the surface of mountains in the Triple Mountain icon that signifies water and fertility (von Winning Reference von Winning1987:vol. 2:12, Figure 14i) (Figure 19, shown on top of a speech scroll at the bottom right). The Mexica referred to a similar cloud as the house of Tlaloc or Poyauhtlan, and they described it as “a mist next to a mountain that looks like smoke” (Contel Reference Contel and Olivier2008a:348). The primordial clouds in Teotihuacan and Poyauhtlan among the Mexica were likely signified by the lenticular clouds forming over high mountain summits that are the most common source of cumulus storm clouds forming above them (Dent-Jones Reference Dent-Jones2013:6; Millar and Oakley Reference Millar and Oakley2013:48–49).

Passage through quetzal feathers

The axis mundi rising above the Great Goddess's head in Tepantitla drips water from its branches and points to the passage of the goddess into storm clouds. The headdress's fan of quetzal feathers mediates between the summit-head primordial cloud and the storm clouds, and can be interpreted as a portal for the continued passage of the goddess. The passage of water was likely symbolized by the waving feathers’ streaming of iridescence (Schultz and Thiemer-Strasse Reference Schultz and Thiemer-Sachse2021:35, 82, Figure 27) (Figure 4i). Quetzal feathers symbolized water and the regreening of nature in Mesoamerican cosmology (Taube Reference Taube and Coe1995:99, Reference Taube, Clark and Pye2000a:297, 310, Figure 13). In the postcontact Maya sacred books of Chilam Balam, quetzals are always mentioned in relation to sacred water, and the bird's tail always symbolizes streams of the sacred liquid (Barrera Vázquez and Rendón Reference Barrera Vázquez and Rendón1969:161; Barrera Vázquez and Rendón Reference Barrera Vázquez and Rendón1989:95, 101–102).

The passage of water as iridescence is possibly signified in Tepantitla by the enlarged, hatched feathers hanging from the headdress and flanking the goddess's head with four drops aligned over their vanes (Figure 8). In the Water Talud mural, a waving feather with its edges and rachis vibrating is depicted amid the droplets on top of the water-filled cave, and this can be read as iridescence streaming the humidity upward (Figure 19). The idea of iridescence as streaming water is further supported by a postcontact Mexica holy chant referring to “quetzal feather dew” (Cowgill Reference Cowgill and Berlo1988:236).

The feathers crowning the headdresses in Tepantitla and Tetitla surge from triangular icons at their base signifying radiant heat (von Winning Reference von Winning1977:14, Figures 1b and 1c), and in this context, they could signify the invocation of water in May when the central Highlands experience peak temperatures.

The creation of the axis mundi

The mural of the Winged Descending Deity in the Palace of the Sun depicts the Great Goddess dressed in a bird suit and baring her teeth as a symbol of her maleficent aspect (Pasztory Reference Pasztory, Collins and Stern1977:93) (Figure 11). The goddess is shown passing through a mirror, about to perch on a tree with her prodigal hands. This is indicated by her legs, which are behind the mirror, and her upper body, which is in front of it. The deity's teeth and eyes are each framed by a differently shaded and bordered greenstone plaque. Behind the goddess, an axis mundi blooms with darts, incense pouches, loincloths, headdresses, and a pulque jar—the icons of civilization (Helmke and Nielsen Reference Helmke and Nielsen2015:29).

Figure 11.

Winged descending Great Goddess in a mural fragment of the Palace of the Sun, Zone 5-A, Room 13. The bird's legs are placed behind a mirror. C. elastica drupe icons are placed both on the branches of the twisting tree on which the bird is about to perch and inside the branches of the axis mundi on the background. Photograph by the author, Beatriz de la Fuente Museum of Murals, Teotihuacan.

Helmke and Nielsen (Reference Helmke and Nielsen2015:29–32) interpret the Winged Descending Deity mural as a pictorial description of the myth of the Downfall of the Great Bird, a Mesoamerican myth that is depicted across cultures and media and that has its most detailed written expression in the Postclassic Maya Popol Vuh. The structural analysis of the myth (Levi-Strauss Reference Lévi-Strauss1963:210–213) reveals the hidden meaning of the perching of a bird deity for the creation of the axis mundi and for the invocation of rain.

In the myth, Lord Seven Macaw boasts, “I am great. My eyes sparkle with glittering blue/green jewels. My teeth as well are jade stones…When I go forth from my throne, I brighten the face of the earth. Thus I am the sun” (Popol Vuh Reference Allen2007:77). The listener is forewarned that Seven Macaw is not really the sun, given that he “only puffed himself up in this way because of his plumage and his gold and silver” because “he desired only greatness and transcendence before the light of the sun and moon were revealed in their clarity (Popol Vuh Reference Allen2007:78).” The hero twins realize that “good shall never come of this. People will never be able to live here on the face of the earth. Thus we will try to shoot him with our blowguns” (Popol Vuh Reference Allen2007:80). They strike Seven Macaw on the jaw as he perches on a nance tree, dislocating his jaw. As he falls, one of the twins tries to grab him, but Seven Macaw wrenches his arm out and, holding his jaw in his palms, he regains his perch to hang the arm “over the fire” and waits in pain and hunger for the return of the twins. Meanwhile, the twins seek help from their crouching, white-haired grandparents to regain the lost arm by posing as healers in charge of orphaned, innocent children as they approach Seven Macaw. The healers offer to replace his teeth with ground bone, an offer he reluctantly accepts, saying, “it is only because of them that I am lord” (Popol Vuh Reference Allen2007:85). Instead, however, the healers pluck out his eyes and replace his greenstone teeth with white, shiny grains of maize. With “the basis for his pride completely taken away,” Seven Macaw dies, the healers take his riches, and the twin implants his arm back into its socket (Popol Vuh Reference Allen2007:86).

The myth and its mural depiction share key actors and mythemes. Both Seven Macaw and the Descending Deity are humans dressed as birds, as inferred from the fact that birds have neither teeth nor hands. In both stories, the jaw, the teeth, and the eyes are at the center. In the myth, the bird holds his jaw with his palms, whereas in the mural, the plaques can be understood as splints holding his jaw and eyes in place after the mythical blowgun shot while framing their greenstone beauty. In the myth, the greenstone teeth are replaced with shining white grains of maize after tricking the deity with the offer of a false set of teeth. Greenstone symbolized divine water in Mesoamerican cosmology, whereas water signaled the germination of maize. In this context, the liberation of greenstone from the deity's body and its substitution with maize followed by her death can be read as her sacrificial release of rainwater for the germination of maize. In the myth, this is followed by the restoration of the integrity of the Twin and possibly by the revitalization of the withering grandparents, whereas in the mural; the triumph is signified by the blooming of the axis mundi.

The sacrifice of the Great Goddess is likely signified in Tepantitla and Tetitla by the sacrificial knives with blood trilobes inserted diagonally amid the fan of quetzal feathers (Schele Reference Schele and Coe1996:110). Sacrifice is possibly also signified by the head of the bird, which Séjourné (Reference Séjourné1965:148, 156) interprets as a death-associated owl formed by conjoint quetzal heads in profile (Figures 8 and 9). The owl-quetzal symbol produces a cognitive shift that can be read as the resolution of the duality of the prodigal yet covetous bird deity through sacrifice. Duality is further signified in the double perching of the birds: in the myth, the bird perches both as it is struck by the twins and when it regains the perch with the arm, whereas in the mural, the deity is about to perch on the tree below her and is descending from the axis mundi behind, likely depicting her in her sacrificial fall. Sacrifice is also symbolized by the nocturnal Rothschildia orizaba moths, depicted in the Descending Deity mural, whose X-shaped knifepoint wing markings form the Olli sign of sacrifice and transformation (Beutelspacher Reference Beutelspacher1988:42) as well as the X-shaped arbitrary symbol for the axis mundi (Figures 4e and 11).

The creation, development, and eventual transformation of the axis mundi into rain is likely symbolized in the myth by the dismemberment of the twin's arm, its hanging like a tree branch “over fire,” and its replacement on the twin's body. Helmke and Nielsen (Reference Helmke and Nielsen2015:34) interpret Mural 1 in the residential complex of Atetelco as depicting the mythical bird deity holding the bleeding arm on its beak; furthermore, the deity bears a pectoral Reptile-Eye icon signifying “Earth” and “Abundance” (Kubler Reference Kubler1967:7). The severing of the twin's arm as he tries to grab the bird can be read as a sacrifice that transforms the bleeding arm into a branch that bleeds copal resin—the blood of trees in Mesoamerica—whereas its placement “over fire” can be understood as the burning of copal in a rainmaking ritual (Montufar López Reference Montufar López2016:50) to create the axis mundi.

The Descending Deity mural can be read as the creation of the axis mundi, as evidenced by the transformation of the tree on which the goddess is about to perch into the tree in the background from which she is falling. In the former, the branches are solid, and spongy icons are placed on their surface; in the latter, the branches are hollow, and the spongy icons flow within them. The depiction of a white pelican in the Winged Descending Deity mural likely suggests that the timing of the creation of the axis mundi is late in the dry season (Figure 4h). The large migratory bird visits highland lakes in winter, and it fishes by dipping its beak into the water while floating (Van Perlo Reference Perlo2006:237, Figure 8.1). These are habits that can be read as symbols for the bridging of the underworld and the heavens, leading to abundant water.

The creation of the axis mundi by the perching Great Goddess can also be interpreted as the main theme of a mural in Tetitla Portico 1 (Pasztory Reference Pasztory, Collins and Stern1977:88, Figure 10) (Figure 12). She is depicted as a human-bird by her feathered-cuffed hands perching on the branches of the axis mundi, which can be identified by its X-shape, by its hollow branches, and by the spongy icons flowing within them. The goddess is depicted only by her frame headdress and her disembodied, prodigal hands, likely signifying her sacrificial transformation.

Figure 12.

Great Goddess in Tetitla Portico 1, mural 1. C. elastica drupe icons flow inside crossbanded tree-vine branches. Feathered cuffs connote the disembodied hands of the goddess as a perching quetzal. Falling panels with seeds flow from the axis mundi. Rendering by Felipe Dávalos in Miller Reference Miller1973:120, Figure 231.

The species and symbolism of plants forming the axis mundi

Furst (Reference Furst and Hammond1974:193) identifies the vine of the axis mundi in Tepantitla as Ipomoea corymbosa, given the fused petals and seedpods that are diagnostic of the genus (Furst Reference Furst and Hammond1974:208). This plant is a natural index of water because it flowers in the rainy season in humid habitats close to rivers. Furst identifies I. corymbosa among other species in the genus based on the use of the plant by the contemporary Nahua in rituals in which the Mother Goddess of Seeds is invoked through a trance produced by the hallucinogens it contains. However, there is no evidence for the use of hallucinogens in Teotihuacan. In addition, two anatomical traits rule out I. corymbosa and point to I. alba instead, the vine whose sap was mixed with rubber latex to make bouncing olli balls (Austin Reference Austin2013:253). First, the sexual organs of I. alba grow out from their corollas but are hidden in I. corymbosa, and these organs are clearly shown protruding from the axis mundi flowers in Tepantitla (Figures 13a and 13b). Second, the floral tube of I. corymbosa is short and bulbous, whereas that of I. alba is long, wavy, and cylindrical, as depicted in Tepantitla (Figures 13a and 13c). Furthermore, I. alba flowers at night and withers in the morning, a trait associating the plant with the moon—a celestial body that was associated with water deities in Teotihuacan (Cowgill Reference Cowgill1997:151).

Figure 13.

Axis mundi branches and flowers in Tepantitla mural and Ipomoea alba in nature: (a) Axis mundi branches and flowers. Photograph by the author. (b) I. alba corolla. Photograph by Luis Humberto Vicente Rivera. (c) I. alba floral tube. Photograph by Mariano Gorostiza, demca.mesolex.org. (d) I. alba seedpods. Photograph by José F. Pensiero, Universidad Nacional del Litoral. (e) I. alba smothering a tree. Photograph by Don MacCulley. Axis mundi flowers are like those of I. alba, with fused petals, stigma, and stamens projecting from corolla. Axis mundi branches are like the elongated I. alba floral tubes. Seed pods change color from whitish brown to blackish brown as they mature.

The species of tree constituting the axis mundi can be identified as Castilla elastica, the main source of latex for the manufacture of olli (Hosler et al. Reference Hosler, Burkett and Tarkanian1999:1989). The spongy icons that flow within the branches of the tree-vine (Figure 10) can be read as an iconic symbol of the drupes of C. elastica (Figures 14a and 14a). C. elastica produces green drupes with the first rains, which turn orange as the season progresses (Pennington and Saruhkán Reference Pennington and Saruhkán2005:140). The drupes are 4–5 cm in diameter, oblong-lanceolate in shape and velvety in texture, and they grow aligned and alternating on opposite sides of branches. Each drupe includes 10 to 45 cone-shaped fruits with one or two dot-like seeds (Custodio-Rodríguez et al. Reference Custodio-Rodríguez, Vargas-Simón and Contreras-Sánchez2022:3). The icons on the tree-vine have the same color, shape, texture, and alternating alignment as the drupes of C. elastica, with the only differences being that icons are placed within the branches of the tree-vine alternating with elongated eye icons that symbolize flowing water (von Winning Reference von Winning1987:8, Figure 7b).

Figure 14.

Mesoamerican rubber tree Castilla elastica: (a) Drupe; (b) Drupes on branch; (c) Tree. Drupes mature from green to orange and grow into a semiconvex, dotted shapes aligned along opposite sides of the branch in alternation. Photographs (a) and (c) by Carlos Beutelspacher. Photograph (b) by Rosa Vázquez, iNaturalist.

The internalization of the drupes into the branches of the tree and their alternation with icons of flowing water can be read as the symbolic creation of the axis mundi, with the drupe icons transformed into a symbol of Blood of the Earth flowing together with Sacred Water in the twisting, hollow branches of a fused tree-vine (Figure 10). The idea of vegetable blood is supported by Carreón-Blaine's (Reference Carreón-Blaine2004:32, Reference Carreón-Blaine, Rubí and Blaine2014:263) interpretation of angular drop icons on paper offerings in Teotihuacan murals as blood of vegetable origin, an idea that is in line with the Mexica conception of tree resin as blood (Montufar López Reference Montufar López2016:50) and of human blood as clay (Graulich Reference Graulich2016:172).

The creation of the axis mundi as a sacred tree-vine can also be read as the symbolic manufacture of bouncing olli balls by mixing latex with vine sap to create the sacred symbol of Water That Burns. The internalization of the drupes as Blood of the Earth opposes the bleeding of the white, viscous, and combustible latex of the rubber tree, whereas the mixing of the Blood of the Earth with Sacred Water produces the sacred olli balls symbolized by the vine's seed pods. This reading is supported in the interpretation by Séjourné (Reference Séjourné1956:102) of the juxtaposition of the fiery eyes and flowing water in the depiction of the Great Goddess in Tepantitla as a symbol of Water That Burns.

The creation of the axis mundi can be read as a sacred, paradoxical transformation of nature to enable the production of Water That Burns. The thick, straight, and woody C. elastica tree (Figure 14c) together with the spiders and butterflies in its habitat are engulfed by the thin, winding, and watery I. alba vine (Figure 13c). This idea is supported by observing that C. elastica hosts a wide range of climbers and that I. alba, among them, tends to smother its branches in the rainy season (Rojas Reference Rojas2016) (Figure 13e). The engulfment of the tree by the vine could have been conceived as a symbolic, extreme smothering of the tree triggered by the perching of the Great Goddess with her spider nosebar, empowering the vine to trap and wrap the tree while engulfing the spiders and butterflies in the microhabitat. The engulfed butterflies and spiders can be also read as the integration of the social roles they symbolized. In Mexica cosmology, butterflies signified the souls of sacrificial warriors, and spiders signified women as weavers, with their confluence within the branches likely symbolizing gender integration (Schele Reference Schele and Coe1996:111).

The identification I. alba and C. elastica as the signifiers of Blood of the Earth and Sacred Water icons is supported in the use of these species for the manufacture of olli balls in Mesoamerica (Austin Reference Austin2013:253; Hosler et al. Reference Hosler, Burkett and Tarkanian1999:1989) and in the ritual use of olli in Teotihuacan, as is evidenced in the Mural of Agriculture, where olli balls are depicted as offerings to the Great Goddess (Carreón-Blaine Reference Carreón-Blaine2004:28, Figure 3; Pasztory Reference Pasztory, Collins and Stern1977:89), and in the Water Talud mural of Tepantitla, where bouncing olli balls are depicted at play (Figure 19, top center).

The passage of the Great Goddess through the axis mundi

The flow of the Blood of the Earth and Sacred Water icons within the axis mundi can be read as the passage of the Great Goddess transforming herself into olli balls as Water that Burns with the support of butterflies and spiders. The butterflies can be identified as Papilio multicaudatus, and their wing tails suggest a flowing liquid (Figure 4d). They swim within the branches, with their antennas toward the flowers, suggesting they push the Blood of the Earth and Sacred Water icons toward them. This behavior opposes their hovering over flowers to suck their nectar, and it can be read as symbolizing the integration of the cosmos. Likewise, spiders spin their webs between the inner walls of the branches, whereas in nature; they weave them between branches. In nature, the thin spider silk forms strong and elastic webs, suggesting that those within the branches infect the icons with these properties to make olli bounce. This idea is supported in the meaning of spider webs as Ollin signs of transformation (Taube Reference Taube1983:111).

The flowers at the tips of the branches are adorned with Circle Triplet or Doublet icons and elongated eyes (Figure 15), whereas the seedpods that are produced by I. alba are depicted with tassels (Figure 15a), pointing to their conception as portals where the Great Goddess flowed as fully formed olli balls. The synonymy of seedpods and olli balls is made evident with their alternate depiction as a viscous, stringed liquid streaming from the flowers as melting olli balls (Figure 15b). The maturation of I. alba seedpods could have been read as a metaphor for the manufacture of olli, given that the white fruits dry into brown or black balls (Figure 13d). Olli ball pods can be understood as being delivered to the goddess and the priestesses below them. The pods are attached to red and blue bands with elongated eyes flowing within them, suggesting iridescent quetzal feathers as streams of sacred water (Figures 3 and 13a).

Figure 15.

Axis mundi branches and flowers in Tepantitla doorway borders: (a) Flowers with tasseled seedpods associated with the Great Goddess. Detail of East Doorway border, Portico 2; (b) Flowers with seedpods represented as resinous olli drops. Detail of West Doorway, Portico 2; (c) Flower with mirror below its sepals. Detail of entrance corridor to Portico 2. Circle Triplet or Doublet icons and elongated eyes are represented in the corollas. Photograph by the author, with (a) and (b) rotated counterclockwise at 60^o_.

The metamorphic powers of the goddess's prodigal hands

The hands of the goddess in Tepantitla, from which a liquid flows (Figure 16), are interpreted by Caso (Reference Caso and de Antropología1967:252), Kubler (Reference Kubler1967:7), and Séjourné (Reference Séjourné1962:63) as signs of completion and delivery of the vital energy to the world. The hands of the goddess can be read as bringing about her transformation into the Storm God through a sacrificial process associated with the powers of olli and butterflies.

Figure 16.

Great Goddess's hand melting and fuming olli. Detail of Tablero 3, Portico 2, Tepantitla. Melting olli projects from greenstone thumb extension. Photograph by the author.

The mural fragment of a descending, ringed-eye deity as a butterfly (Figure 17) depicts the goddess's diagnostic hand as a butterfly's abdomen producing two drops of a liquid that can be read as olli by its dark blue color and its viscosity. Melting olli is sticky and can be interpreted as hinging the butterfly's wings to the goddess's abdomen-hand. As olli melts when heated it producess dense, wispy fumes which in the mural are shaped like antennas. The greenstone bracelet has an adjacent drop of the same material, and olli also drips from it. These depictions can be read as the manifestation of the power of olli to transform greenstone into sacred water. The same transformations can be seen in Tepantitla (Figure 16), where the goddess's thumbs are enlarged by greenstone distal and proximal phalange bones, and molten olli flows from their tips. Olli also drips from her palms and from her greenstone bracelets while antenna-like wisps of olli fume from the greenstone thumb. The greenstone thumb extensions suggest that the Great Goddess is empowered by olli to transform mountain rock into greenstone—which, in turn, transforms into sacred water—in line with her transformation from the rock mountain summit-head into a mist cloud.

Figure 17.

Mural fragment of descending deity as quetzal-butterfly, Palace of the Sun. Upper wings are also the deity's upside-down legs. The butterfly's abdomen is also the deity's hand fuming and oozing olli. The lower wings are also quetzal wings. Photograph by the author, Beatriz de la Fuente Museum of Murals, Teotihuacan.

The transformation of the goddess's hands into butterflies through the action of olli can be read as an intermediate step in her transformation into the Storm God. The antenna-like wisps of fumes in Figure 17 are also shaped like the ringed eyes of the butterfly above them, identifying the butterfly as the Storm God (Miller Reference Miller1973:118). Following this cognitive shift, the two drops of melting olli hinging the wings and the drop of olli off the greenstone bracelet now configure the diagnostic Storm God waterlily buds (Figure 18), and the phalanges of the goddess's hand become the Storm God's teeth. The promise of a bountiful harvest symbolized by the greenstone-maize teeth of the Descending Deity can now be read as being fulfilled by the olli empowered Storm God.

Figure 18.

Border of Talud 2, Portico 2, Tepantitla, with frontal and profile Storm Gods. Blue and red water streams surge from the frontal Storm God's head and are continued as interlaced red and blue streams along the border. Waterlily drops emerge from the Storm God in profile at left and drips water from its neck into the blue stream. Photograph by the author.

The symbolism of deity transformation is also apparent in Tepantitla (Figure 3). A pair of reciprocating panels flow from the palms of the censer-bearing goddess impersonators flanking the Great Goddess. The rising panels project toward the goddess and can be read as fumes filled with greenstone shell and chalchuite icons bordered by tree-vine flowers, both metonyms of the goddess. The falling panels contain streams of chalchuites and seeds—signifying water and fertility, respectively—and are bordered by water lilies diagnostic of the Storm God. The ritual being performed points to a reciprocal relationship between the two deities to produce rainwater and fertility through the transformation of greenstone into water.

The Great Goddess in Tetitla is depicted as the image of a mirror, as suggested by the rounded quechquemitl robe modifying its usual triangular shape (Taube Reference Taube1983:109) bordered with quincunxes, a design consisting of five circles symbolizing the delivery of precious water in all cardinal directions (Anderson and Helmke Reference Anderson and Helmke2013:170; Langley Reference Langley1986:279) (Figure 7). The palms of the goddess produce falling panels filled with round, drop-like icons colored as greenstone and shaped as hands, nose masks, heads, vessels, shells and chalchuites (Miller Reference Miller1973:148, Figures 307–314). Colas (Reference Colas2011:15, 21) reads these icons as signifying the vital force of fertility with the power to energize people, animals, and objects alike. The panels are bordered by smoke volutes (von Winning Reference von Winning1977:28, Figures 4e, 9c, 9q) and can be read as melting olli with the power to transform greenstone into sacred water. The goddess is replicated in six side-by-side murals in Portico 14. These are identical except for the falling panels, which have different sets of icons (Langley Reference Langley1991:293), suggesting the multiplication of the Storm God as clouds beyond the mountains.

The portico doorway borders in Tepantitla depict Storm God busts next to tree-vine branches, a juxtaposition that Pasztory (Reference Pasztory, Collins and Stern1977:83) interprets as the god's association with the Great Goddess through fertility (Figure 10). Angulo Villaseñor (Reference Angulo Villaseñor and de la Fuente1995:76) notes that the branches source water from the sea below them and return it as sacred water, and he interprets them as representing the water cycle. Likewise, streams of water surge from the Storm God's head and flow downward to the sea. The two sets of water cycle representations can be read as the paired action of the Great Goddess and the Storm God for the completion of the water cycle.

The Tepantitla murals as a liturgy of passage

The Great Goddess tablero murals in Tepantitla Portico 2 are painted above inclined talud murals depicting humans in sacrifice and play, each characterized by what Pasztory (Reference Pasztory1976:62) interprets as water, ballgame, medicine, and feline themes. The taluds contrast with the tableros in content and style, with the former depicting a multiplicity of lively seminaked—that is, fully visible—gravity-defying humans, whereas the latter depict a rigid, semihidden and earth-bound deity (Headrick Reference Headrick2007:147; La Gamma Reference La Gamma1991:280). Schele (Reference Schele and Coe1996:110) interprets the difference in style and content as that of an act of creation in the tableros as against the materialization of this act on earth in the taluds. Following the preceding interpretation, the contrast between the tableros and taluds can now be read as that between the passage of the goddess from the underworld to fill the mountain with water, form the axis mundi and create the primordial cloud in the former, and, in the latter, her transformation into the Storm God to create and disperse rain clouds, heal the sick, and reinvigorate the land.

The borders between the tableros and taluds depict frontal and profile Storm God busts associated with streaming and twining red and blue bands (Figure 18). Kubler (Reference Kubler1967:8) interprets Teotihuacan mural borders as qualifying the main theme depicted in the mural while specifying the liturgical order of the various themes depicted. Following his approach, the Storm Gods can be interpreted as qualifying the humans in the taluds with their powers, which makes it possible to read them as Storm God helpers. Furthermore, the streams running along the borders can be interpreted in association with the axis mundi in the tableros and can qualify the icons of butterflies and seeds in the taluds as symbolic clouds of fertility.

The Storm God's passage into the cave

The frontal Storm Gods wear frame headdresses like those of the Great Goddess, with the bird substituted with quincunx icons that can be read as water distributed across all cardinal directions (Anderson and Helmke Reference Anderson and Helmke2013:170). The gods hold scepters decorated with Storm God busts and with rainclouds and smoke volutes emerging from their heads (Caso Reference Caso and de Antropología1967:253). The gods in profile wear the usual Storm God head-supported headdress adorned with greenstone circles (Millon Reference Millon and Berrin1988:116, Figure V.3). Paulinyi (Reference Paulinyi2007:257) interprets the frame headdress as the god's cave abode, an idea that is in line with the hollowed-out summit created by the head-summit's transformation into mist while pointing to the borders as cave walls.

The frontal gods’ eyebrows are depicted by vertical red and blue bands and can be read as flowing from their ringed eyes, continuing as same-colored hair streams with bubble icons and then as the same-colored, entwined streams joined behind the scepters and flowing along the border. The gods in profile drip water from their necks and feed it into the blue band, an iconography that Uriarte (Reference Uriarte and de la Fuente1996:252) interprets as a possible allusion to decapitation. Heyden (Reference Heyden, Carrasco, Jones and Sessions2000:177) notes the similarity of the twining red and blue bands to the yellow and blue streams of light that flowed from cave walls in the mythical Mexica caves of origin, which Séjourné (Reference Séjourné1956:110) interprets as the union of fire and water. Following these ideas, the streams projecting from the gods’ eyes can be read as rays of watery light emerging from the gods’ ringed eyes and which Taube (Reference Taube1992a:213–214, Figure 11) interprets as mirrors. The gods depicted on the Portico 2 doorway borders wear mirror pectorals and project streams as hair from mirrors attached to their headdresses (Figure 10).

The diagnostic Storm God's raised upper lip, with its edges downturned to expose the upper gum, can be read as a crying rictus that tenses the facial muscles to provoke salivation and tearing as sacred rainwater. Water-lily buds emerge from his mouth and touch their round leaves (Figures 10 and 18). Pasztory (Reference Pasztory1997:215) interprets the plant as sacred water, but it can be understood better as denoting the sacredness of the gods’ secretions. Lilies grow in the still water of ponds, and their flower buds emerge from the water, open their petals in the early morning, and close them at night, a behavior that Uriarte (Reference Uriarte2006:29–30) interprets as the god following the sun from the underworld. Ponds symbolized mirrors in Mesoamerican cosmology (Taube Reference Taube1983:113), and the god's lily buds coming off his mouth touch his pectoral mirror, pointing to his connection with the underworld (Figure 10).

The lily as a symbol of the Storm God's connection with the underworld transforms the god's crying rictus from a natural index of rage into a symbol of a fearful and powerful voice from the underworld. This connection is also signified by the god's fangs as a serpent's metonyms, and its poisonous bite is symbolized by the lighting rod he bears as a serpentine lance in other depictions (Pasztory Reference Pasztory1974:4, Figure 3). The crying rictus as an expression of the underworld also exposes and wets the god's teeth, which can be read as symbols a bountiful harvest—an idea in line with the transformation of the teeth of the Great Goddess into grains of maize.

The scepters that have the Storm God's likeness and that issue smoke volutes and clouds can be read as a pair of subordinated helpers involved in cloud formation. The scepters touch the streams as they project along the cave's wall, and these can be interpreted as modulating the Storm God's signals to helpers fulfilling rain orders in the world.

The replication of the Storm God through his helpers

The Talud 3 mural in Tepantitla depicts a water stream flowing from a spring along fields and into a mountain filled with and surrounded by seminaked humans swimming, playing games, and sacrificing (Figure 19). Caso (Reference Caso1942:131), following the myth of the Tlalocan paradise expounded by Sahagún (Reference Sahagún1977:vol. 2:297), interprets the humans as Tlaloc helpers reborn from the humans who met a watery death. Taube (Reference Taube1983:136), rejecting the notions of paradise, interprets the humans as ancestors in a historical context, which is supported by the possibility that some icons are place names. Both Caso and Taube can be correct, given that helpers could have been historical figures who drowned or died by water-related diseases.

Figure 19.

Detail of Talud 3, Portico 2, Tepantitla. The mountain summit is depicted with cream-colored dots of mist over a blue background. An undulating and vibrating quetzal feather projects from the cave into the mist. The stream carries entombed fish-men into the cave. The stream is also a snake, bending upward to transform into the quetzal feather and bending back into the cave. Figures within the cave are possibly fish-men transforming into Storm God helpers, who dive upward and wade out of the cave. The crying man standing on the spring emits a speech virgule bearing a Triple Mountain icon covered with a lenticular cloud. The game of machincuepa is played by rolling figures at the middle center, and a game of circling humans with a bone, leg, and fume icon is played below it. Photograph by the author.

Pasztory (Reference Pasztory1976:189) interprets the nakedness of the humans as a sign that they are devoid of rank. The naked humans could also be symbolizing skin as their origin from olli in their transformation of the Storm God. This idea is supported by the resemblance of the humans to the figurines used for rain rituals by contemporary Lacandon (Palka Reference Palka, del Carpio Penagos, Hernández and Castillo2017: 254, Figure 6) and whose supple skin was likely symbolized by the elasticity of olli (Carreón-Blaine (Reference Carreón-Blaine, Rubí and Blaine2014:259–260).

Devoid of rank and associated with olli, the naked figures can be read as humans who died by water or in sacrifice and that were transformed into Storm God helpers engaged in games symbolizing the creation and control of diverse clouds and weather phenomena. Rolling cloud and thundercloud games can be read as examples, with the former signified by a scene that Angulo Villaseñor interprets as the Mesoamerican game of machincuepa, where children summersault forward holding hands (top center in Figure 19), and whose Nahuatl translation Angulo Villaseñor cites as “a volute or thing that doubles, returns or comes back over itself to arrive to its prior position” (Reference Angulo Villaseñor2016:1–3). The thundercloud game can be interpreted as a group of four humans circling a fifth (center in Figure 19). The game is accompanied by a speech-scroll compound icon of a bone, a leg, and a fume of smoke. Taube (Reference Taube2000b:32) suggests that this and other speech scroll icons in the talud can be read as game names, and this one points to lightning producing fire and dismemberment following the queue of the depiction of the Mexica God of Thunder by a one-legged figure (Olivier Reference Olivier1998:130).

The floating anthropomorphic clouds qualify the humans on the ground as helpers directing ground water phenomena as they touch leaves and flowers or sit next to trees. This symbolic transitivity is found in other murals in Teotihuacan where the theme that is asserted in the borders is reasserted across thematic layers in the main panels (La Gamma Reference La Gamma1991:279–280).

The helpers’ origin in humans who died by water is suggested by the fish flowing within the stream encased within rectangles (bottom of Figure 19). Taube (Reference Taube1986:53) interprets them as mythical fish-men survivors of the destruction of the Fourth Water Sun era in transit to becoming the humans of the Fifth Sun era. Storm God helpers in passage from the dead were likely conceived as impersonating deities associated with epochal transition as a metaphor for the regreening of nature after the dry season. This idea is supported by the Sacred Fire icon, which signifies epochal transition as a part in the Four Element icon, which signifies a water prayer (von Winning Reference von Winning1977:12, Figure 29) (Figure 24b). Furthermore, Vidarte (Reference Vidarte1968:142) interprets the crying human (bottom right in Figure 19) as Nanahuatzin, a deity who was afflicted by Tlaloc with buboes and who threw himself into the sacred fire to create the Fifth Sun after bathing in a spring and penancing with a branch of fir. The human emits a quadruple speech scroll with Triple Mountain and butterfly icons, possibly naming the talud mural as a sun creation metaphor for the regreening of nature.

The fish-men flowing along the stream and into the water-filled cave can be read as the passage of the spirit of the dead through the water that sealed their fate and into a cave-womb that transforms them into diving Storm God helpers seeking their way back out into the world. The stream can be read also as a wriggling snake pushing the fish-men together with the water into the mountain cave. The snake bends up to exit the cave and bends down to renter it while transforming its bent middle section into a vibrating quetzal feather (Figure 19).

Quetzalcoatl, the mythical snake-bird associated with lightning and storms (Taube:Reference Taube1992b:175, 177, 181), is depicted in the bas reliefs of the temple of Quetzalcoatl, meandering within the constrained space of the temple's taluds and pushing along—within its meanders—snails and clams as symbols of water. The Ch'ortí from Honduras tell of water snakes moving into mountains in the dry season in search of water and moving back into the swelling rivers when rain arrives, pushing water upward with their forceful movement (Broda Reference Broda, Broda, Iwaniszewski and Maupomé1991:484). In a myth recorded by the author among the Wixarika of northern Mexico, water snakes are born in the dry season and become constrained as they grow within the trickling streams. With the first storm, they move into mountain caves where they grow wings to engage in a mortal battle with shooting stars, as is demonstrated by the skin they leave behind.

The passage of the Storm God into clouds of fertility

The Water Talud mural depicts two species of butterflies: Danaus plexippus (monarch) and Papilio multicaudatus (two-tailed swallowtail; Figures 4d and 4f). The two-tailed swallowtail resides throughout the year in the Highlands, whereas the monarch is a migratory species and is found in winter swarming in the forests of fir above 2,800 m. Mount Tlaloc is the closest to Teotihuacan with this elevation (Giménez de Azcárate Reference Giménez de Azcárate2009:111; Reppert and de Rood Reference Reppert and de Roode2018:1010) (Figures 4f and 19).

Two icons can be identified interspersed with the butterflies as the seed scales of fir, with the seed wings attached in a symbolic arrangement, and as the seeds detached from their wings (Guzmán Vázquez et al. Reference Guzmán-Vázquez, Francisco and Leopoldo2023:3) (Figure 20). Fir trees are the tallest in the Highlands, reaching 60 m, and their seed scales explode from cones in the winter to produce clouds of winged seeds that fly spiraling with the wind. The swarming of monarchs coincides with the explosion of fir seed cones and can be observed as intermingling clouds. The symbolic depiction of the fir seed wings attached to the seed scales can be read as symbolizing the monarchs, with the scales as their abdomen and wings, and the seed wings as their antennas (Figure 20a–b). Fir seeds are not depicted on the ground, where they would come to rest, but rather as a cloud of multifaceted, stone-like icons.

Figure 20.

Comparison of icons in Talud 3, Portico 2, Tepantitla (a and c) and fir (Abies religiosa) winged seed scales and seeds (b and d). The seed scales in the mural are depicted with the winged seeds still attached, as are found in the cone prior to its explosion. The detached winged seeds are depicted on top of the scale as butterfly antennas. This arrangement is reproduced in (b). In the mural, the minute, multifaceted fir seeds are depicted after their wings are detached, as shown in (d). Photographs by the author.

Fir was likely a metonym of the Storm God, given that it grows in the highest mountain ranges where rainclouds transformed from primordial clouds associated with the god's creation. Fir seedlings sprout from tiny, winged, drop-like seeds, yet they are edged like a weapon and grow into the tallest trees in the Highlands. Fir could have been conceived specifically as a metonym of the weapons associated with the Storm God, as was the case among the Mexica. They carved fir branches into Tlaloc lightning rods (Contel Reference Contel2016:21) and into batons planted on the ground in ritual games during Tlaloc festivities (Sahagún Reference Sahagún1977:vol 1:166). Fir was also likely the species of the “tallest and most beautiful tree” placed in Templo Mayor as an axis mundi during the Huey Tozoztli rain ritual (Durán Reference Durán1995:vol. 2:95), and in the myth of Nanahuatzin's creation of the Fifth Sun, he flayed himself with branches of fir (Vidarte Reference Vidarte1968:142)