Mictlantecuhtli, the God of the Dead was the supreme ruler of Mictlan, or what you may call the Underworld.

So today he will talk about Mictlan and the way the deceased reached this place

The deceased people, those who had not been elected either by the Sun (Tonatiuh) or by Tlaloc, the God of Rain, upon their death would descend to Mictlan, passing through a series of tests before reaching the final resting or disappearance.

These tests were nine and, in a sense, they could be defined as layers, corresponding to the underworld, each deeper than the last.

This belief is evident in certain details of the funeral rites, such as the custom of burying a puppy along with the dead person. It was done out of the conviction that the dead had to cross the underground river with only a dog able to assist him in this undertaking.

Therefore it is said that Xolozcuincles (a dog) was to accompany the soul on its last journey.

The location of Mictlan is desputed, with various traditions in disagreement as to the exact place. Some claim Mictlan existed deep in the earth, other state that it was located in the far north. The latter claim seems to be more consistent, as the east and the west corresponded to the paradise of the sun, south was governed by Tlaloc, therefore north has to belong to Mictlan.

In any case, it is, beyond dispute, a gloomy underground character, but the belief in a circular route from the sun assumed that, after his trajectory from east to west, the Sun penetrates the earth at the end of each day, to journey through the underworld and lit the world of the dead, which arouses the living as they do in the light of the new day. Also this belief is found recorded in the work of Sahagún, the most valuable source of ancient Mexico.

Temitl/CasaMeshico writes: “Mictlan or Region of Death, is convened each year by our tradition for the 1st and the 2nd day of November. Our grandparents said that this moment is a reminder that all go through this stage. These days are utilized to synchronize with nature that calls for the transformation of all that is, is the beginning of cold and right within 52 days of the start of the Winter solstice…”

For Meshicas (Mexica people) Mictlan is one of the most important places in their world, and it’s also the site that we access, just when the time comes to make our life on thirteen areas, when Perdernal Obsidian Knife (Tecpatl) starts our breath of life, when we stop standing forever. The touch of Mrs. Tlazolteotl is essential, taking life for transformation into an opposite energy, decay and chaos, cold and darkness, filth and stench, to collect in her gut and return to all, carrying snakes in her skirts to feed on her. Snakes of life and death to walk the earth, transforming the flesh and bones on precious substances for life. In this region it governs creative duality expressed in the Underworld Space Nine, the halls of Mictlan.

Mictlancihuatl and Mictlantecutli – they are the ones that supervise the nine dwellings and the process of reaching it, while the dead are going through the nine stages. If we unite nine and thirteen underground that link to the infinite sky, supporting the 22 mansions of Nahui Ollin Teotl, the spiral encompassing four directions, which is right in the center that looks and surrounding spiral which expands infinitely close to the site of and Del Together, the Coyani Moyo, multidimensional infinity.

All ladies and gentlemen who live and are born, die, and this process repeats itself, among everything that is alive. So thought our ancestors. There are nine regions in Mictlan, each representing the nine processes occurring after the death of a living being, namely:

1. Chignahuapan. One has to cross the river, which was customary to place an animal, a dog of a person’s preference, to guide the soul on its way and to accompany it to the other side.
2. Once on the other side, the dead would have to cross the ground between two mountains that destroy everything.
3. The third step is to go through the obsidian mountain from which sharp arrows were shot.
4. Iztehecayan or northern icy wind that cuts like obsidian, prepares everything to be divided and cut into smaller pieces, until only the heart remains.
5. At this stage, the journey is through the banners that float to remember where you come from.
6. Passing the banners, what remains are the arrows to go far.
7. In this place is where the heart is devoured by wild beasts.
8. In this stage, going through narrow places between stones.
9. Chignahumictlan, the final stage, to reach the home of the duality, Mictlan. His presence once delivered to desaparcer offerings or enter the abode of infinite space encompassing the fence and along Moyocoyani.

According to Sahagun, Quetzalcoatl is the powerful lord of the transformation that gets through the nine stages to be resurrected, shining at the end of the process, hence the duality of the underworld. Mictlantecuhtli had taken up in their iconography, Miclancíhuatl – a female aspect of the Great Lord – morning star, evening star.

Mictlantecuhtli appears with his body covered and made out of human bones, and wearing a skull mask with jaws wide open, with black hair where the stars are fixed, but on the whole planet venus. Its dual head, also the red hummingbird, Hitzilopochtli Meshi, the first light of day or life energy, with its large peak hummingbird in his chest or pectoral Quetzalpapalotl Butterfly Snake, as confirming that the great warrior Started in Missions of the Sun, who should meet the nine stages, before achieving his death and born again, transfigured with light body.

Nowadays, the iconography and symbolism used by men of ancient knowledge, represented by symbols presented in codices, sculptures and engravings, a coding system used to represent the invocations that correspond to each of them, and sacred cosmic forces that act with the universe and the most important stages and processes must meet the Solar Guerrero.

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