Reflections on Sustainability: "Water Is Life"

Written last May, this post brings together themes I've been mulling over for several months. It's taken a little time for me to get my head and heart around what seems to me to be the only message at this time. I plan to publish other posts soon centering on the same theme: the Health of Our Planet, Our Spaceship, Mother Earth, and what we can learn from Her Original Peoples—in Mexico, yes, of course; but also in the Western Hemisphere, and around the world.

Personal History Tells Bigger Story

I was born in Chicago six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a Reserve Army Officer, my father was called up and stationed in California. My mother and I joined him there. When the war ended, my Dad—a civil engineer—looked around and concluded, "A lot of people here need water and sewage treatment plants." Given that water was his specialty, he decided to stay. He wasn't alone.

In 1940, California's population was 6.95 million. At the war's end (1945), it had swelled to 9.3 million. When I graduated from high school (1959), it was 15.47 million; at my college graduation (1963), it was 17.67 million. By 1970, it had risen to 19.97 million. In just thirty years (1940-1970), California's population had nearly tripled.

But that wasn't anywhere near the end of the Golden State's explosive growth. By 2014, it stood at 38.8 million—that's nearly double what it had been in 1970! One thing was absolutely certain: Everyone needed water.

Over the course of his 30-plus year, post-WWII civil engineering career, my father put in if not the majority, then a significant share of the water and sewage treatment plants up, down and across California. In retirement, he told me that across the years he had watched the water tables consistently drop: "I've never seen them restored. 'They' are going to have to fix that."

Given California's epic four-year drought, it appears the time has come for 'them' to take action. Governor Jerry Brown's executive order mandating a 25 percent decrease in urban water usage may have been historic. Yet Robert Reich asks a good question (Facebook, 4/4/2015):

Why did Governor Jerry Brown exempt Big Oil and Big Agriculture from his order this week to cut water consumption by 25 percent? Big Oil uses more than 2 million gallons of fresh water a day in California for fracking, acidizing, and steam injections – nearly 70 million gallons last year alone. Meanwhile, California’s farmers consume 80 percent of the water used in the state but generate only 2 percent of the state’s economic activity.

Oddly, the Governor’s order focuses on urban water use, which makes up less than a quarter of the water consumed here. California could save the same amount of water by requiring its farmers to increase water efficiency by 5 percent. And in this seismically-challenged state, there’s no reason to continue allowing water-intensive fracking, which has been shown to increase the likelihood of earthquakes (just look at Oklahoma).

Mexico's Original Peoples Knew It First: Water Is Life

The seventh anniversary of our arrival in Mexico to stay came up last July. For the first three years, we had the good fortune to have lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. The people of this pueblo mágico gave us an unparalleled opportunity to become acquainted with the guiding cosmovision, myths and traditions of Mexico's original peoples.

Early posts in Jenny's Journal told stories about what we were learning and experiencing. One of the earliest on this theme is: Mesoamerican Culture: The Human Bond with Nature (8/22/2011). Two years later: The Enduring Power of Mexico's Natural Forces (9/19/2013). Both cite the oft-repeated Mexican dicho, saying, El agua es vida—Water is Life.

If I were to sum up our experience, I would say: Living in partnership with the earth; e.g., Mexico's Volcanoes & Mesoamerican Mythology (1/11/2012). One of my all-time favorite posts focuses precisely on that theme: "I Am the Earth."

The longer we live here, the more it becomes clear that familiarity with this ancient cosmovision lends cultural texture to much of what we encounter in Mexico. For example, toward the end of his formal announcement of a Zapatista conference scheduled for last May 3, 2015, Zapatista Subcomandante Galeano (nee Subcomandante Marcos) wrote:

Conference Begins on May 3. Why May 3? 

In our villages, May 3 is the day of planting, fertility, harvest. It is the day of the seed, the day of Santa Cruz, Holy Cross. In the pueblos, villages it is customary to plant a cross where the river begins, at the gully or spring that gives life to the settlement. This is how the place is shown to be sacred. It is sacred because the water gives life. 

May 3 is the day of asking for water for planting and a good harvest. On that day, the villagers go to give offerings where the waters are born. Or rather, as they speak to the water, they give it their flowers, they give it the bowl of atole (corn-based beverage), their incense, their salt-free pozole (chicken-corn soup). In other villages, they give a little drink, but alcohol is prohibited in Zapatista villages, so they offer a soda to the water. The pozole offered to the water is without salt, so the water doesn't dry up. During this ceremony of offering, they play music and everyone begins to dance—men, women, children, young people, old people—everyone!

When the offering ends, the socializing begins. The comida (food) they brought is shared: atole, chicken, beans, pumpkin. All the food is eaten communally at the very source of the life-giving water. When the meal ends, the people return to their houses. And now for pure joy, they continue the dance in the village and, still together as a community, they eat and have coffee with bread.

So there it is:

Zapatista vision infused with traditional Maya myth and custom overlaid with a patina of Roman Catholic Christianity: Holy Cross.

In distinct contrast to the so-called 'modern' approach taken in California by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

Qué te vaya bien ... May it go well with you.

Indigenous Wisdom and Clouds in Mexico ... and Alaska!

Today's weather forecast for Mexico is:

"Heavy rains are predicted across the entire country, including the Valley of Mexico" — Translation: Mexico City. 

For all the clouds we've seen in the last six weeks, we could have moved to Seattle!

Neither Reed nor I do very well with gray skies, but yesterday the air was clear, so I leaned out the bedroom window to check on Ajusco Volcano to the southwest. Here's what greeted my astonished eyes!

Cloud Formation on Ajusco Volcano - Click to Enlarge!
(Photo: Reed with my little Canon)

I have been on the lookout for this effect for at least five years. Why? An anthropologist studying the indigenous people of Mexico was told by his informants that clouds rise up from the mountains. Without success, he tried explaining scientifically how clouds are formed.

Then one day, he saw a formation like this one, and he had to admit that the traditional version was based on an understandable interpretation of their observation.

But believe it or not, la naturaleza, Natural World, wasn't quite done with me yet. On the same day, I opened up Facebook only to discover this photo taken by a friend who lives 25 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Kobuk, Alaska:

Camp Taiga, Kobuk, Alaska - Click to Enlarge!
(Photo: Gregory Jurisch)

Never mind the incredible cloud formation, I can't get over the flecks of white flowers, which seem to reflect the spots of snow remaining on the mountains.

Here's another of Greg's photos taken June 20 and captioned:

"Today's Weather Report, 'Hot Air Rising'."

"Hot Air Rising" at Camp Taiga, Kobuk, Alaska
(Photo: Gregory Jurisch)

Is that what's happening? Hot air rising off the mountains? Yet again, America's original peoples have it right. By America, I mean in its true sense of all residents of North, Central and South America.

Note: I just googled the phenomenon and found this wonderful diagram and explanation at Windows to the Universe:

When wind blows across a mountain range, air rises and cools, 
and clouds can form.

"Some clouds form when air encounters a mountain range or other types of terrain. When this happens, the air will rise and cool, but this cooler air is no longer able to hold all of the water vapor it was able to hold when it was warm, so the extra water vapor begins to condense out of the air parcel in the form of liquid water droplets that form a cloud."

Thus confirming what the indigenous people told the skeptical anthropologist:

"The clouds rise up from the mountain."

And, of course, the mountains are sacred not just to Mexico's indigenous peoples, but to indigenous people all over the world.

It's also important to remember that Mexico City is at 7,000 feet [2,133.6 meters]; Ajusco Volcano is 12,893 feet [3,930 meters], with a prominance of 1,217 3992.782 which means that warm air is rising 3,992 feet [1,217 meters] along the volcano's flanks. Hence, it makes sense that warm air would condense as it rises along the flanks of high altitude mountains whereas it condenses at the top of mountains rising from sea level.

Then this morning, I wakened to the first sighting in two weeks of our volcanoes to the East: Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatéptl.

Iztaccíhuatl (left) and Popocatépetl Volcanoes
Bathed in Shades of Gray
(Photo: Jenny)

Ending on an upbeat for me means Mexico full of color. So here's the image of Iztacc and Popo I captured on a clear, clear morning:

Dawn's Early Light on Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatéptl Volcanos
(Photo: Jenny)

And another of Ajusco Volcano I captured on an exceptionally clear day during the dry season.

Ajusco Volcano Captured on a Rare Clear Day
(Photo: Jenny)

Over the last twenty-four hours, the natural world has treated me to quite an adventure!

P.S. More confirmation of the phenomenon comes by way of the photo I took today at sunset of a cloud 'rising up from' the flank of Iztaccíhuatl Volcano. Mother Nature never ceases to amaze and delight!

Cloud Rising From 
Iztaccíhuatl Volcano, 7/21/2014
Photo: Jenny

Still Curious?

• Here Comes the Sun!;
• Mesoamerican Culture: The Human Bond With Nature;
• Mexico's Volcanoes & Mesoamerican Mythology.

El Tajín II: On Ants, Gods and the Hill of Plenty

As I was finishing up the first post on El Tajín, the Totonaca ceremonial center in Veracruz state, I found myself poking around on the Internet just checking to see what else was available. Startled, I came upon a more or less recent report of a new hypothesis regarding the site's design issued by El Tajín's Academic Archaeologist—who among us US-ians would believe that such a post might actually exist? I couldn't resist checking it out.

Mantenimiento at...El Tajín?

The report first piqued my interest when I read about a cerro de los mantenimientos—"hill of maintenances?" 

My mind jumped to how, while working at Pemex (Mexico's oil company) over twenty years ago, I struggled to pronounce the word 'man-ten-ee-mee-YEN-toe'—where, of course, every other word uttered by the oil company's engineers was about plant maintenance!

Launching yet another Internet search, I found a delightful Mesoamerican legend that read like a fable: set in Cem Anáhuac (Nahua name for Mexico, which means "land with water all around"—the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), the legend has starving Humans, talking Red Ants, a greedy, defiant Red Ant Queen, a furious Tlaloc (god of water) and a somewhat clueless Quetzalcóatl (feathered serpent who, in his manifestations as Ehécatl, is god of the wind). 

I was enchanted, and I hope you are, too. A summary of the hypothesis is followed by the legend. I translated both. Here are links for those of you who might enjoy reading these pieces in Spanish:  

• Hipótesis de la traza de El Tajín, and 
• La leyenda de los mantenimientos. 

New Hypothesis Regarding the Design of El Tajín

At the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in St. Louis, Missouri, El Tajín's Academic Director, Archaeologist Patricia Castillo Peña, announced that an interdisciplinary team of specialists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have developed a new hypothesis regarding the design of the Totonaca archaeological site at El Tajin, Veracruz.  In Castillo's words, 

"...so far we have addressed the importance of this city beginning with its architecture or size, but our proposal is that its appearance as a city around 600 AD was determined by symbolic aspects of the Mesoamerican tradition."

Given all I've written about the role of metaphor in Mesoamerican culture, especially its cosmovisión (worldview), you can understand my interest. Archaeologist Castillo links their new hypothesis to the work of renowned archaeologist Alfredo López Austin:

"...in his book El mito del tlacuache (The Myth of the Opossum), López Austin asserted that 'under the mountain’s crust of stone and earth are the abodes of gods and the dead, realms of freshness and vegetation forbidden to man (...) Conversely, the people would  replicate the sacred hills, ... they would build the pyramids, artificial mounds whose summit would be inhabited by the gods'."

Castillo explained that the new hypothesis arose from pinpointing a hill whose location just East (Rising Sun) of El Tajín makes it a likely sacred hill. 

Cerro de los mantenimientos, or 'Hill of Plenty', located East of El Tajín.
The red lines identify three buildings thought by archaeologists to relate to the sacred hill in the "emulation of concepts linked to fulfillment of the [Mesoamerican] 'vital' cycle." 

Subsequent archaeological investigations have uncovered a series of altars half-way up the hill and at its summit—findings that seem to substantiate the archaeologist's hypothesis that the hill was perfectly sited to perform the role of the cerro de los mantenimientos recounted in the Mesoamerican legend.

The Spanish word mantenimientos doesn't have a good direct English equivalent. It is usually translated as sustenance or provisions, but these words lack poetic impact. Reed suggested plenty—Hill of Plenty, as comparable to the Horn of Plenty. Although an atypical translation, plenty conveys the sense of fullness, completeness, that is suggested by the Spanish word.  

Traditional Legend of the Hill of Plenty

Here is the legend as retold by Oscar Méndez Luna:

Long ago, when men still did not have houses or temples, food was not found as it is today. It is said that the gods arranged the plants, seeds and fruits in the world so every man and animal might have food to eat. This is the story of how it happened. 

The gods had created the new world, and there were plants, and there were people and animals. But the gods saw that their creations were not happy as they had left them. Then they decided to send one of their own to see what was happening, and their choice was Quetzalcóatl. 

So, the deity came down from heaven and walked about the world, he felt the sun, he breathed our air, and he enjoyed what he saw. But there seemed to be no trace of the seeds, grains or fruits that the gods had created for the earth. 

As the gods had arranged everything in one place in the world, Quetzalcóatl searched for the culprit, dazed by all he saw, but he found nothing until his eye fell to the ground, and there he beheld a strange and wonderful spectacle. 

Thousands of busy red ants were walking by Cem Anáhuac with small seeds, grains, etc., forming a long line that disappeared into the distance. The god decided to investigate this matter thoroughly. 

He walked with the ants and suddenly found himself facing a huge hill, which the little ants were entering. Quetzalcóatl decided at that moment to continue and find out what the ants were doing with everything they were stealing, since they were taking over the god’s divine powers. The god turned himself into a small black ant. 

As an ant, Quetzalcóatl approached the line. One of the ant guards yelled at him: “Sister, what are you doing hanging around when we have a hill to fill?” 

The god quickly got in line and helped another ant load something heavy. Then he presented himself inside that he might be assigned a new job. 

Quetzalcóatl continued with the game. He helped another ant and began to walk toward a small entryway that existed in that mysterious mountain. 

     “I've never met an ant like you,” said the ant to Quetzalcóatl, who could only respond, “I got too close to a fire and got roasted.” 

      The other ant said, “That's interesting, now you load so we don’t waste any more time.” 

When he entered the hill, Quetzalcóatl marveled. The hill was hollow and had served as home to the ants. There were thousands of interconnecting tunnels. At the bottom of the main chamber of that hollow hill, he found a small lake that was like a sea for the ants. On its shores were planted small plants and seeds, although the vast majority of things were stored in thousands of chambers that served as warehouses. 

Thousands of ants lived in that small city, but while they enjoyed the benefits of these precious foods, the other animals were suffering hunger. 

Quetzalcóatl knew that something was not right, so without further delay he went to seek out the ruler of that place. Despite many setbacks owing to the ants’ persistent efforts to put him to work for the enterprise, he arrived at the Queen's chamber, guarded by soldier ants who blocked his way. 

But Quetzalcóatl was firm: he wanted to enter. The god didn’t want to waste any more time, so he used his magic to destroy the guards and doors. Then he entered and found a giant ant that was being fed unceasingly by others. 

     "Who dares enter my room without being invited?” shouted the Queen, much annoyed. 

     “Keep silent in my presence,” shouted Quetzalcóatl in reply, “for I am one of the creator gods. I am Ce Acatl Topiltzin Ehécatl Quetzalcóatl, and I demand to know why you intend to fill this hill.” 

     “If you were really ‘roasted’ Quetzalcóatl, I myself would welcome you with a fiesta full of good food, but you cannot come here to demand anything. Catch him and kill him! We will feed him as porridge to new workers!” 

Annoyed when the ants tried to attack, Quetzalcóatl just suddenly vanished into thin air. Then as the wind [Ehécatl], he swept swiftly up the hill and ascended into the heavens where the other gods awaited his return. The god told them what he had seen, and all the gods turned to Tlaloc. 

The rain god was also responsible for keeping watch and making sure that all the hills in the world stayed filled with water. The hills are like huge water jars, hollow and filled with the essential fluid, which is why clouds rise up from the hills on hot days, like steam from a pot on the fire. 

Tlaloc got really upset because the ants had made an unforgivable mistake. Thus, the two gods returned to the world, but before Quetzalcóatl could do anything, Tlaloc took his staff of thunder and divided it into four pieces. 

The four Tlalocs (blue, red, yellow and black) each took one of the four canes of thunder and placed each one at a corner of the hill (north, south, east, west). They aimed and fired a tremendous lightning bolt that blew the hill apart from its base. Absolutely everything blew away—plants, seeds, fruits and grains along with the terrified ants flew through the air. 

So for the wrath of Tlaloc, all the natural ‘provisions’ came by way of this explosion to each corner of the world, thus giving man and all the animals an opportunity to make a living anywhere in the world. 

What happened to the ants? They survived, and they were also dispersed into the entire world. However, by the same explosion, many of them turned black like black ant Quetzalcóatl. That's why when red ants see black ants, they run to attack them because they think the black ants are the god that removed them—the ambitious ones with power over the food for the entire world. 

And the hill that was destroyed was known as the “Hill of Plenty”. It was the site symbolically represented on the right side of Templo Mayor, which was the side of Tlaloc. 

Thus, the Templo Mayor of México-Tenochtitlan was the mythical representation of two sites at the same time: the hill of the serpents [Quetzalcóatl] and the hill of provisions. Although the site of the Templo Mayor might also have its own interesting history. [END]

Still Curious? 

Jenny's Journal has several posts that discuss the design of urban centers as replicas of the Mesoamerican cosmovision, which remained remarkably consistent across the entire region:

• Mesoamerican God-Kings as City Planners; 
• Teotihuacán II: The Shape of Space and Time; 
• Mexico Culture: Quetzalcóatl at Xochicalco and other symbolism;
• El Tajín: Beauty and Mystery. 

El Tajín I: Beauty and Mystery

El Tajín is on the coastal plain of Northern Veracruz, about forty miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The city of Poza Rica, newly created from oil revenues, is nearby, as is Papantla. 

This post owes a great deal to the insights of Leonardo Zaleta in his meticulously researched, highly readable introduction to the site, titled 'El Tajín: Misterio y Belleza' (El Tajín: Mystery and Beauty). In quoting Zaleta's superb sources, I have translated from the Spanish and appended the original text to this post. 

Now's a good time to mention that I've made a 'Translate' feature available to readers. Go to the side tabs; the first tab shows an "A". Click to translate Jenny's Blog into another language. I checked it by translating English to Spanish. The result was surprisingly good.

El Tajín is a beautiful archaeological site slightly off the beaten tourist path in northern Veracruz.  For us it translated into less hassle, more tranquility...reflected, I believe, in this post. Enjoy!

To walk onto the grounds of El Tajín is to enter another world. It had rained a couple of weeks before our arrival, so both the jungle surrounding El Tajín and the grassy site itself were cast in the emerald green of early spring. There were few visitors. We practically had the place to ourselves.

Looking down into the center of El Tajín from the upper city.
The temples built close together reminds me of Palenque (Maya site on the Yucatán Península).
Photo: Reed

And it is beautiful! At Teohihuacán, we climbed up to the massive gran plataforma then descended down onto the Avenue of the Dead, but it is different here at El Tajín, which rose to prominence as Teotihuacán fell and Monte Albán (built by the Zapotecs in Oaxaca) was enduring a long, slow decline.

Arroyo Group

At El Tajín we entered a ground level area that enclosed and embraced us. This area is called the Arroyo (Stream) Group because two small streams surround the space on three sides. The oldest part of El Tajín, its temple buildings were erected between 300 and 600 C.E.

Chronology studies suggest the area has been occupied at least since 5600 B.C., with nomadic hunters and gatherers eventually becoming sedentary farmers, building more complex societies prior to the rise of the city of El Tajin. The first settlement was established in the first century C.E.

Monumental construction started around 300 C.E. and by 600 C.E., El Tajín was an urban ceremonial center. Like Xochicalco, El Tajín rose rapidly because of its strategic position along the old Mesoamerican trade routes, which gave it control over the flow of commodities—both exports such as vanilla, and imports from other locations in what is now Mexico and Central America. 

From the early centuries, objects from Teotihuacán are abundant at El Tajín, which suggests at least strong trading relationship between the two ceremonial centers. It is believed that the area's large, central open space might have been the marketplace, which would have been lined with vendors' stalls.

Stairway to a temple now lost to time...has nonetheless not lost its ability to define the space as we enter the ceremonial center
Photo: Reed

But today, the space enchants...like this....

We probably walked a good 100 yards (roughly 92 meters) through the Arroyo Group before we reached the next group of buildings, which includes the Pyramid of Niches.
Photo: Reed

The walk is a transitional space in which the newcomer leaves behind the ordinary world and prepares physically and emotionally to enter a sacred space...set apart from the tasks of daily life.

Awed and pensive, Blogger Jenny enters El Tajín's sacred space
Note the temple in the background.
Photo: Reed

Unlike most other Mesoamerican sites, El Tajín has a labyrinthine feeling....

Many temples were constructed almost on top of one another
Photo: Reed

El Tajín: What Does It Mean?

Veracruz is subject to frequent hurricanes and lightning strikes. In the Totonaca dialect, the name El Tajín means thunder, hurricane, lightning. Remember that during the rainy season (June to October), the Gulf Coast region is subject to cyclones and extremely heavy rains, which means that annually the people faced the destructive threat of fierce winds and flooding.

This three-sided, column sculpture is possibly a representation of the deity, Tajín, god of thunder, lightning, or hurricane—or possibly all three!  Photo: George DeLange

This sculpture was thrown down from the top of the pyramid and broken, possibly by the Chichimecas who drove out the Totonacas and sacked the ceremonial center. Archaeologists reassembled the sculpture at the spot where it was found.

Given the people's dependence on agriculture, it stands to reason that their economic and religious life was focused on influencing the meteorological phenomena that determined whether the crops were to be magnificent harvests leading to abundant life, or catastrophes that could spell death. Above all, like all the peoples of Mesoamerica, they honored the water deity in all his forms.

It is noteworthy that in the Totonaca dialect "Taajín" can also be translated as "Place of Smoke" or "Place that Smokes". As a dedicated ceremonial center where torches were lit and incense or copal were burned, El Tajín presented never-ending columns of smoke ascending to a cerulean sky, the Heavens, that arched over and enclosed the verdant countryside.

Surely, the sight impressed itself upon the psyches and imaginations of those living in the surrounding countryside. It certainly impressed the poet who wrote these words that come to us from a fragment found at El Tajín (Lazara Meldiu):

Tajín; I am your race
and for your race I come
with the voice that fell from my lips
with the word that flows blood
on the first day of your history.

With your splendid stone you yourself tell your elegy
Strung together in the night of the centuries;
Hard and beautiful expression
in the hidden code of your rituals.

Over a hundred years ago, renowned archaeologist W.H. Holmes observed:

"In the art of [the Mesoamerican] peoples, no motiv or artistic labor lacks allegorical meaning, an 'aesthetic myth'...."

Pyramid of the Niches

Today the Pyramid of the Niches presents itself in the sandy color of its aged stones, but it was originally plastered over and painted red. Centers of the niches were painted dark red. Niche frames (easily visible) were painted blue. Undoubtedly, the Totonaca people approached this pyramid with awe.

Pyramid of the Niches
Notice the niches set in the center of the staircase.
Niche openings measure 52 x 61 cms. (20.5" x 24") and 55 x 70 cms. (21.5" x 27.5") 

What does the Pyramid of the Niches represent?

The short answer is the pyramid is a visual-spatial representation of the solar year. In earlier posts [click on live links], I have written about the use of visual-spatial metaphors in the design of Mesoamerican ceremonial centers. From Teotihuacán to Monte Albán, from Xochicalco to Palenque, the intent of the planners and architects was always the same: to construct a ceremonial center in the image of their cosmology—their view of the universe.

Paul Westheim, German-born art historian who fled to Mexico from Nazi Germany, made intensive studies of Mesoamerican art, and his conclusions are held in high esteem by Mexican experts. Of El Tajín, Westheim speculates:

The Grand Pyramid at El Tajín is organized geometrically, but it is also organized in harmony with astronomic principles....

• The original number of niches was 364, which is the number of days in the solar year;  

• The Grand Pyramid is structured in 7 zones [6 levels topped by a temple now lost to time] as is the pyramid at Yohualichán (State of Puebla); hence, we have to suppose that the number 7 was a magic number for the Totonaca people; 

• The Grand Pyramid's 7 zones contain a total of 364 niches, or 7 times 52 niches [7 x 52 = 364].  Setting aside the fact that we have 52 weeks in our year, the El Tajín Pyramid established a relationship with the Mesoamerican calendrical cycle of 52 years: 52 serpent heads have been found at the pyramid at Tenayuca, and 52 tableros have been identified at the pyramid of Kukulcán at Chichén Itzá; 

• The 18 niches of the staircase at El Tajín correspond to the 18 months of the solar year.

The Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajín was, in effect, a three-dimensional, climb-up, walk-in, walk-around solar calendar that represented the Totonaca's cosmology, their view of the universe.

There is some speculation that at one time each niche housed an object, such as a palm, axe, statue of a deity or incense-burner. The object might have been related to the specific day represented by each niche. It is impossible to confirm or refute such speculation because the objects were destroyed by Chichimeca invaders who drove out the Totonacas and sacked the site.

Others take a more personal approach, seeing in these niches a chiaroscuro grounded in the Mesoamerican concept of the essential duality of all life: light/darkness, day/night, wet/dry, and time itself, that is, life/death.

 El Tajín's famed Pyramid of the Niches
Also notice the niches embedded in the stairway.  Photo: Reed
(Left click to enlarge image)

Octavio Paz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, had these thoughts about El Tajín:

The art of the Totonacas rejects the monumental because it knows that true grandeur is found in balance... These stones are alive...and they dance [Emphasis added].

Two buildings at El Tajín epitomize Paz's description. The stately geometry of Building 5 (below) is an elegant statement of architectural, even geometric balance. The stones constituting the Pyramid of the Niches (above) do indeed seem to dance. How were these effects achieved?

The classic design of Building 5' is remarkable. Note the three-sided sculpture is at the base of the broad staircase, atop the level with niches.  Left click for details, including niches, flying cornices and greca escalonada (described later).
Photo: Reed

Flying Cornices

One of El Tajín's distinguishing architectural features are its 'flying cornices'—diagonals that jut outward, 'fly', from the vertical face of a building layer. Their shape animates the building with movement, creating in the mind's eye the sense of dance that Paz describes.

Here's a bit of architectural history: The Pyramid of the Niches was constructed in the Talud-tablero style typical throughout Mesoamerica.

Figure 1: Talud creates the diagonal of the pyramid; Tablero is a vertical level bounded by a horizontal 'floor' and 'roof' that serve to  stabilize the Talud levels.  (Source: Wikipedia, public domain)

At El Tajín the niches were set into the vertical face of the Tablero, and the Tablero's 'roof' took the distinctive form of 'flying' cornices, as shown on the drawing below (Middle Row, Second from Left).    

Figure 2:  Talud-tablero styles used at major Mesoamerican ceremonial centers
El Tajín is middle row, second from left
(Source: Wikipedia, public domain)

Reed took this corner shot of the Pyramid of the Niches, with its prominent 'flying' cornices.

Flying Cornices are clearly evident in Reed's corner shot of the Pyramid of the Niches
(Left click to enlarge image—you'll be glad you did!)

On the enlarged image, it's possible to see that the diagonal of each cornice is formed by three stone layers—each stone layer stepped out from the preceding, supporting layer.

Reed reminds me that although the Maya lacked knowledge needed to build true arches; they nonetheless were able to construct 'false arches' (corbel arches) by stepping each successive block, from opposite sides, closer to the center, then capping the structure at the peak to close the arch. The flying cornices at El Tajín are a variation on the Maya technique and reflect Maya influence.

Greca Escalonada

Another architectural feature that distinguishes El Tajín is the greca escalonada:

The black, geometric, spiral figure at the right is the greca; the staircase at the left is the escalonada. The complete figure is known as a greca escalonada. 

Okay, I admit it, I've spent way too much time figuring out what exactly this term means. Arte Historia has the shortest, best definition:

• Greca: Meandering or undulating line with corners or right angles; this line is so typical of the Greeks during their Geometric Period that art historians refer to this shape as greca.
• Escalonada: Architectural ornament that combines a greca with a figure in the form of a staircase.

German linguist and archaeologist Edward Seler would take exception to the notion that the greca escalonada might be 'ornamental'.  Here are his reflections on El Tajín:

...with difficulty we are able to think that one of the principal ornaments of the precortesian world might have been merely decorative. In the first place, the frequency with which the greca escalonada appears and its preservation across centuries and millenia contradicts this thesis. A solely ornamental form would have worn itself out in time, as has happened with the 'dying' styles of Europe. It would have lost its attraction and been replaced by new forms to provide revitalized fascination and suggestive force. 

If the greca escalonada were not replaced with new ornaments, it is because, for the peoples who first employed it, it had a psychological or magical value beyond the aesthetic. Just as the cross isn't a purely decorative form, neither is the greca escalonada. 

Experts differ on the meaning of the greca escalonada. For Octavio Paz, it symbolizes the serpent who comes from the earth. But most experts, persuasively, agree that the spiral greca signifies the whirling winds of the hurricane or cyclone.

The staircase is sometimes interpreted as 'falling rain'—a concept that had me puzzled until I figured out that stairs may be descended! Archaeologist José García Payón spent forty years guiding restoration of the ruins at El Tajín. Here are his thoughts:

The greca escalonada is the product of a profound rootedness in meteorological phenomena, in religious sentiment, in the twin concepts of the economic necessities [balanced with] the most urgent, collective longings and anxieties. That is to say, it seems that the greca escalonada, which probably was originally in the form of a spiral before it became the familiar geometric form, represents to us the wind and the rain. Or even better, it symbolizes the deity of the hurricane with the name Tajín. 

But other experts suggest that the staircase represents the earth itself, which may be the more plausible explanation. A terrestrial staircase allows for priestly, ritual ascent to the top of the pyramid—where the gods descended to meet the priestly intermediary who petitioned the gods. Petition completed, the priest descended down the same staircase to the earthly plane.

Mexican historical investigator Leonardo Zaleta writes:

Understanding the symbolism behind El Tajín requires us to keep in mind a fundamental principle: the prehispanic peoples were eminently theocratic. For the original people, man was impossible in a world without deities.

Now is a good time to return to the photographs of the Pyramid of the Niches and Building 5. Left-click to enlarge the image and note the prominence of the greca escalonada figures. This symbol was part of El Tajín's symbolic and architectural vocabulary from the culture's earliest days.  

Tajín Chico

The last part of El Tajín was built behind a retaining wall that was back-filled to create a level area, which is sometimes dubbed an acropolis. The buildings at Tajín Chico were not temples, but palaces that housed Tajin's priestly and ruling elite, and civil structures that were used for administration.

Building in Tajín Chico.
Note the flying cornices and greca escalonada figures. Interestingly, the staircase is 'upside down' (wide above; narrow below), which gives the impression that it is falling (rain?) from the flying cornice above, thus supporting Payón's interpretation. 

But there's more...Great Xicalcaliuhqui

Just below Tajín Chico to the east is a labyrinthine temple complex built to imitate the hurricane's swirling winds—either Xicalcaliuhqui, god of thunder who lives in the sea; or Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent deity (also god of wind) revered throughout Mesoamerica.

Reed photographed the sign to show the layout of the complex, which is one of the last set of buildings constructed at El Tajín.

Built as a 360 m (1,181 ft) structure covering 1 hectar (2.5 acres) shaped as a squared spiral, or greca; the escalonada, staircase, is the entrance at the left. 

The labyrinthine, temple complex in the form of a spiral recreates on the earthly plane the whirling winds of the hurricanes. Given the prominent appearance of the greca escalonada on El Tajín's earliest buildings, we can assume that construction of this complex was simply the most mature expression of a cosmology, view of the universe, that was an essential component of Totonaca culture from its earliest days.

The wall has 158 niches, which equal the number of days of hurricane season (June to October). Tellingly, pilgrims arrived at El Tajín and fiestas were held during the hurricane season. As Reed observed elsewhere, "Myth arises when man confronts the forces of nature," and so it must have been at El Tajín.

The exterior wall of the Xicalcaliuhqui complex; the center is totally overgrown. 

Here is the staircase entrance:

Stairway entrance to Xicalcaliuhqui complex; the modest size of staircase and doorway invites speculation that access to this 'inner sanctum' was tightly controlled.

Final Reflections 

During a ride in the countryside near Papantla, Veracruz, I was startled to see the windows of an upscale house under construction styled in the same proportion as the niches at nearby El Tajín. It's remarkable to see that the ancient style lingers as a contemporary architectural motiv. Edward Seler would say, "Of course!"

In March of each year, the Cumbre de El Tajín is held in Papantla, Veracruz, and at the archaeological site itself. One of cumbre's meanings in Spanish is high point, or outstanding (another is summit). The purpose of the week-long cumbre, or fiesta, is to reinforce ancient Totonaca traditions, including the Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers).

Site Map of El Tajín

I didn't want to interrupt the flow by putting this site map earlier. Sorry.

Taken from Andrew Coe's Archaeological Mexico.
Left-click to enlarge.

Still Curious?

Here's the link to Reed's Photo-Essay of our visit to El Tajín.

Here's the link to the latest archaeological findings—including the legend of the "cerro de los mantenimientos" ("Hill of Plenty"): El Tajín II: Of Ants,Gods and the Hill of Plenty.

Beautiful photographs on a sunny day: Slide Show of El Tajín.

Good description/good pics of El Tajín by George DeLange, who has "thirty years experience in astronomy"; his comments on the subject are intriguing.

George DeLange's account of the legend surrounding the origin of the Dance of the Voladores (Flyers) of Papantla is well-told and accompanied by a good video. My palms start sweating just thinking of their 'dance'—which occurs atop a 100' pole!

MexConnect has an excellent article on Dance of the Voladores, including the numeric symbolism, which is remarkably similar to the numeric symbols found on the Pyramid of the Niches.

These links are both to Spanish-language sites, but the content is mostly visual and hence nearly 'language-free'; the photos are worth giving the sites a shot:

• Tourist-taken, good pics of the Voladores (flyers) of Papantla.  
• Here's another link to the Voladores (flyers) of Papantla.  

Great photos of archaeological site at Yohualichán in state of Puebla, which reflects major architectural influence of El Tajín. It's interesting to see the architectural vocabulary repeated, i.e., the niches.

Web site provides images of greca escalonada on contemporary pottery, woven rugs, textiles, etc. The greca escalonada figure is alive and well, which would undoubtedly also please Eduardo Seler!

Terrific web site about the Maya developed by Jeeni Criscenzo del Rio, author of Place of Mirrors, a novel about the ancient Maya. I haven't read the novel, but the web site is surprisingly useful.

Biography of Paul Westheim. 

In Spanish:

Cumbre de El Tajín 2012, as reported by the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

Appendix: Original Texts in Spanish 

Octavio Paz, Risa y Penitencia: "El arte totonaca rehúsa el monumental porque sabe que la verdadera grandeza es equilibrio... Estas piedras están vivas y danzan".

Fragment found at El Tajín:

Tajín; yo soy tu raza
y por tu raza vengo
con la voz que cayó sobre mis labios,
con la palabra que brotó la sangre
en el primer día de tus anales. 

Con tu roca soberbia dices tú mismo tu elegía
enhebrada en la noche de los siglos;
ruda y bella expresión
en el códice oculto de tus ritos.

Eduardo Seler:

"...con dificultad podremos pensar que uno de los ornamentos principales del mundo precortesiano hay sido mero elemento decorativo. En primer lugar, la frecuencia con que aparece la greca escalonada y su conservación a través de centurias y milenios se oponen a esta tesis. Una forma sólo ornamental se habría gastado a través del tiempo, como ocurrió con los estilos 'agonizantes' de Europa. Habría perdido su atracción y habría sido substituida por nuevas creaciones formales, de renovada fascinación y fuerza sugestiva. Si la greca escalonada no fue reemplazada por nuevos ornamentos, es porque, para los pueblos que primero la emplearon, tenía un valor psíquico o mágico más allá de lo estético. Así como la cruz no es una forma puramente decorativa, no lo es tampoco la greca escalonada".

José García Payón:

"La greca escalonada es el producto de un profundo enraizamiento en la fenómena meteorológica, en la emoción religiosa, en los conceptos mutuos, en las necesidades económicas y en los anhelos colectivos más angustiosos y apremiantes. Es decir, parece que la greca escalonada, que probablamente fue de forma espiral y se transformó en su forma geométrico conocida, nos representa al viento y la lluvia. O más bien simboliza al huracán deidificado con el nombre Tajín." 

El Tiempero, 'The One Who Sees and Speaks Nicely with Popocatéptl'

This first-person profile of 'El Tiempero', the one who sees and speaks with the volcano Popocatéptl, is remarkable for the window it opens on Mexico's traditions, myths and legends. Reed has said, "Myths arise when man encounters the forces of nature."   

I have tried hard to preserve the flavor of the original Spanish which, at times, approaches the biblical. Popocatéptl has many nicknames, 'Popo'  is one, but he is most commonly referred to as Don 'Goyo' — the nickname for Gregorio. Click on the original Excelsior article for great photos and a videoclip.

Excelsior: SANTIAGO XALITZINTLA, Puebla, April 23 - The face of Antonio Analco betrays annoyance at the sight of outsiders wandering around his community, just because Don Goyo is "making a little noise."

A man with white hair under a hat he seldom removes and skin burned by the sun, he has spent more than six decades at the feet of the volcano Popocatépetl, listening to him purr, observing the winds and clouds. He says he doesn't understand why there is such alarm by exhalations and ashes, "if nothing is going to happen here."

Don Antonio Analco, El Tiempero, from the pueblo of Santiago Xalitzintla, a mere 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the volcano's crater. 

In the community he is known as El Tiempero, the one who can see and talk with Don Goyo, as did his father, Pedro Analco, his grandfather, Encarnación Analco, and his father and grandfather before him. His voice is the one that will announce to the people (those closest to the volcano) the moment when they will have to leave their lands, their fields and their work tools to take refuge in foreign territory.

"I am the only one who can speak with the volcano. Sometimes in dreams, and other times when he appears to me on the mountain. He has told me that I might be calm, not to alarm ourselves like the strangers who have come to our land. When 'The Creator' notifies him [Don Goyo] that the hour has come for him to get up [erupt], then the volcano will tell me in a dream. 

"He will tell me to go out with my people, to take my wife, children and animals and leave these lands. I already told those who came frightened from other pueblos that nothing is going to happen, that the bells did not ring, and that it will not be necessary to go out to the shelters," he says.

Don Toño chats with this reporter with the same calmness with which the women cross in front of his shop and greet him. Down the sidewalk skinny dogs roam with children trailing them. The music of a band, hired by the father of a teenage girl to celebrate her quinceañera (fifteenth birthday), makes it seem that Saturday might be a holiday.

Any little boy of Santiago Xalitzintla who might cross the path of a stranger knows where Don Antonio lives. Don Antonio Analco, the one who speaks with the volcano. Among little boys there is still curiosity about men with video cameras on their shoulders and institutional trucks prowling around City Hall. But in adults there is weariness and distrust. They do not understand how the National Center for Disaster Prevention — "with all its little machines" — can figure out if Don Goyo will stand up [erupt]. They know that it takes two: Antonio Analco and the volcano itself.

"In 1994 there were eruptions," recalls El Tiempero, "many police came and took many people by force. When I found out, I went to the officers and asked them very annoyed, 'Has Don Goyo appeared to you in dreams? Do you know what size it is? Would you say something? And then?' And they returned my people to me."

The man closes his little shop and accompanies this reporter on a walk. Twelve miles from the village, black smoke is observed leaving from the mouth of the volcano. The sound of the exhalation is similar to the sound an airplane makes if it passes close. It puts to work the camera crew that arrived last week from the Federal District. El Tiempero looks at them and smiles:

"Do they have more years than I? Do they know more about volcanoes?"

He also says that he was given his relationship with the volcano when he was in the womb.

"As a child I had dreams that I did not understand. Until one day I was bringing some cows to the mountain when an enormous man with snow-white hair appeared to me. He told me that his name was Gregory Chino Popocatépetl, that I was very small but that when I grew older I would have a wife and children, and that my destiny would be to communicate with him in order to serve as a messenger to my people."

He states that recently [the man] appeared. He asked if I was scared.

"I said 'no', and then he told me that I was to tell my people that they might be calm. I have told everyone, but those coming from Mexico City arrived with fear in the head."

And if the bells of the church ring? The question must be repeated several times in the ear of Juan Castro, of eighty and many yesterdays, holding a cane that he never puts down.

Sitting at the kiosk in Santiago Xalitzintla, Juan Castro mentions that he knew Pedro Analco, Antonio's father,

"a solid gold Tiempero. I knew him to speak nicely with Don Goyo. Like the time when a drought was wilting the corn, and we got together so Don Pedro might ask the volcano for favors. He asked us to come back with tequila, pulque, cigarettes and food, and we went up to Popocatépetl to make an offering. We hadn't yet made it down the mountain when a rain saved the crops. Or the other, when a cloud full of hail threatened our corn yet the ominous threat disappeared. Only those who speak with the volcano can do this."

Under the Ritual

Inhabitants of pueblos near Popocatépetl report that since ancient times, an old man who personifies the volcano and calls himself Gregory Chino Popocatépetl, usually appears in the area.

In a loving manner, he is called Don Goyo and, in agreement with residents of the area, it is he who appoints The Tiempero, who every year leads the birthday celebrations for Don Goyo, to whom are brought various gifts, such as food and drink, especially a gourd full of pulque.

This festival is held every March 12, which is the fiesta day of St. Gregory the Great. The ritual is also part of a ceremony in preparation for the formal request for rain, which is held on May 2.

Because of this year's volcanic activity, the gifts and offerings for Popocatepetl have been exceptionally bountiful.

On the Slopes

Santiago Xalitzintla is part of the municipality of San Nicolás de los Ranchos and is the town closest to the crater of Popocatépetl, twelve kilometers (a little over seven miles) away. Spanish original

Still Curious?

CNN Mexico ran a delightful article about the villagers' annual spring pilgrimage to a cave on the volcano's slopes in order to request the rains needed for good harvests and for protection against crop-destroying hailstorms. Given 'Popo's' increasing restiveness, this year the villagers' petitions carry special urgency: Maintaining tradition, villagers present offerings to calm Popocatéptl.

The interplay between human life and natural forces begins here: Geography: Ground of Mexico Culture and History. (All-time Reader Rank #2)

Cuicuilco is the site of perhaps the first ceremonial center in the Valley of Mexico; when the volcano Xitle erupted, Cuicuilco was buried:  Cuicuilco, Volcanoes and the Fragility of Life in Mesoamerica.

Poetry, science and mythology—this post is a Top-Ten All-time Reader Favorite: Mexico's Volcanoes and Mesoamerican Mythology.

We find the bond with nature right in our Coyoacán (Mexico City) neighborhood: Mesoamerican Culture: The Bond with Nature.

And: Mesoamerican Worldview: Nature and Spirit.

Still more....

Blogspot continues to update this template. On the right side of the screen are Tabs that open when you pass your cursor over them. The Topics tab lists all topics. Click to open all posts relating to a topic. Click on 'natural world', for example, for posts similar to those listed above.

Teotihuacán IV: Temple of Quetzalcóatl

Introduction: This post is fourth in our series on Teotihuacán: I. 'City Where the Gods are Made', II. The Shape of Space and Time, III. Seat of Political-Religious Power and V. Palace Murals. 

I confess. To the delight of some readers and the consternation of others, I've been immersed in Mesoamerican mythic and spiritual traditions for some weeks now. Coming up for air, I'm tempted to observe, “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” 

The assumptions underlying the Mesoamerican worldview are radically different from those of Western Europe. To try to understand them requires more or less a leap of faith into the unknown. Is it worth it? 

The renowned myth scholar Joseph Campbell thought so. Reflecting on Mesoamerican spiritual thought, he wrote: “For myths, by their very nature, function to reveal the inner in terms of the outer.” Campbell then quotes Novalis, “The seat of the soul is there, where the outer and inner worlds meet.” 

This post is heavily indebted to the beautifully written, insightful analysis of Roberta H. and Peter T. Markman in their seminal work, “Masks of the Spirit: Image and Metaphor in Mesoamerica.” 

Previous posts discuss how Teotihuacán was laid out to replicate on the earthly plane the culture’s vision of the cosmos symbolized by the quincunx—an arrangement of five points in a square or rectangle with one point at each corner and one at the center.

By locating the Citadel at the intersection of Teotihuacán’s two major thoroughfares—the Avenue of the Dead, representing the realm of the spirit, and the East-West Avenue, representing the world of humans—the city’s planners established the symbolic center of the universe. By this act, they defined the Citadel as the “sacralized political center” of the vast Teotihuacán Empire.

Temple of Quetzalcóatl

With the pyramid-temple placed at the back of the plaza of the Citadel, the city’s planners faced the challenge of consecrating this edifice where spirit and matter were to meet in the person of the priest-king who manifested the divine on the earthly plane.  The physical arrangement represented this sacred meeting place, or threshold.

Facing the Citadel's plaza, the positive upward thrust of the pyramid-temple balances the negative "sunken" space of the plaza itself—a repeat of the earlier design of the Pyramid of the Moon and its sunken plaza. These arrangements are surely the symbolic equivalent of the combination of cave and pyramid seen at the Pyramid of the Sun located between the Pyramid of the Moon and the Citadel.  

In each case, the emphasis on penetration of the upper (Heavens) and lower (Underworld) realms of the spirit defines man's place in the world of nature.

The architectural masks that adorn this pyramid-temple serve to designate it as sacred. Masks symbolize the point of priestly passage between states of being—Underworld, Earthly Plane, Celestial World.  

Sculptured facade of the Temple of Quetzalcóatl

Originally, the Temple of Quetzalcóatl was literally covered with masks. The reconstruction (below), housed in the National Museum of Archaeology and History in Mexico City, shows the undulating bodies of serpents on the narrow bands between each row of masks.

Reconstruction of the west facade of the Temple of Quetzalcóatl at the Museum of Anthropology and History, Mexico City. The paint that originally covered the facade is long gone. The reconstruction hints at how the pyramid once appeared to Teotihuacanos. Notice the undulating serpent bodies on two levels: between the masks, but also as wavy lines on the level that separates the masks.  (Click image to enlarge)

Transformations Natural and Divine

Central to the Mesoamerican cosmovision was the process of transformation, by which the world of spirit entered into the contingent world of man, creating and sustaining life as we know it. The solar path provides the impetus by which the natural world moves through the annual agricultural cycles of generation, life and death. Over a longer timeframe, humans are born, live and die. Observation of these natural phenomena led Mesoamerican spiritual thinkers to conclude that life itself is cyclic.

As we consider the masks that adorned the Temple of Quetzalcóatl, it is essential to keep in mind that Mesoamerican gods are not like the pantheon of Greek gods. They are more like Hindu gods, who can exist simultaneously in more than one state.

Given the multidimensionalality of these gods, it’s helpful to keep in mind these concepts:

·         Duality—light/dark, life/death, creation/destruction, fire/water, order/disorder;

·         Reciprocity—mutual obligation.

Temple Masks: Tlaloc and Quetzalcóatl

The masks covering the Temple of Quetzalcóatl alternate in their representation of two gods: Tlaloc and Quetzalcóatl. Tlaloc is the god of rain. Quetzalcóatl is the plumed serpent, miraculous synthesis of serpent and bird. The Markmans suggest that these separate gods are best thought of as part of a continuum.

On the temple frieze, naturalistic masks of the feathered serpent (Quetzalcóatl) with ruffed collars alternate with abstract, geometric, “flat” masks of the rain god (Tlaloc). Dominance of the feathered serpent is evidenced by his masks that line the staircase ascending to the temple atop the pyramid.

Mythic Transformations

As the Markmans explain, the masks on this temple represent the story of the relationship between man/matter and nature/spirit. In sum, the gods transform spirit, that is, themselves, into matter (rain). In turn, man reciprocates by transforming matter into spirit.

The ritual burning of incense sends clouds of smoke into the air, thus reenacting the coming of the rain clouds needed to begin another cycle of the endless process in which life [or the life-force, symbolized by ollín] was constantly poised between creation and destruction. Incensarios found at Teotihuacán depict Huehuetéotl, the old fire god who was also prominent at Cuiculco.

Heuheutéotl, Old Fire God.
His hat is a brazier for burning incense.

These two seemingly separate gods—Tlaloc and Quetzalcóatl—are best seen as parts of a continuum, a union of opposites that points to a larger spiritual reality.

Union of Opposed Elemental Forces

At one level, the temple’s theme appears to be fertility. The unusual texture of the Tlaloc mask may suggest corn. The circular mouth on the feathered serpent suggests an aspect of Quetzalcóatl—Ehécatle, who blew winds to clear the way for the coming rains. Tlaloc (rain) and Ehécatle (wind) hence work together to provide man’s sustenance, corn.

But the temple masks may also suggest another unity born of the merging of opposites. The Markmans note that the serpent is the “quintessential symbol for sacrificial blood,” which leads them to conclude that Tlaloc as metaphor for rain and the plumed serpent as metaphor in this instance for sacrificial blood suggest the cyclical process by which life itself is maintained: in return for rain provided by the gods, man is called upon to provide the sacrificial blood that metaphorically nourishes the gods.

Tlaloc

Both the Olmec culture, the ‘mother’ Mesoamerican culture (that is, a community organized at political/religious levels) and the Zapotec culture (Monte Albán in Oaxaca was roughly contemporaneous with Teotihuacán) related Tlaloc to rulership. 

These cultures recognized in this deity the ability to provide the divine force from which earthly rulers drew their mandate. For these early cultures, Tlaloc provided not only man’s sustenance but the community’s divinely ordained rulers.

In sum, agricultural fertility (abundant crops and the resulting surplus) gave rise to civilized life—that is, to civil order. This order was by and inherent in the ruler as priest-king. 

Tlaloc. His goggle-eyed face is combined with an animal figure, likely a crocodile, symbol of the subterranean waters of primal chaos. Tlaloc is the source of all forms of water from the heavens above (rain, hail, snow) to the earth below (lakes, rivers, springs).

But Tlaloc had another aspect. As Lord of Times, he also provided for the annual cycle that nourishes vegetation and hence life. The widely held expert view is that the Temple of Quetzalcóal originally displayed from 360 to 366 composite masks. In this it is similar to the Pyramid of Niches constructed at El Tajín on the Gulf Coast in Veracruz state. El Tajín was built as Teotihuacán declined (600 CE). 

Quetzalcóatl

The serpent was used to define the meeting place of spirit and matter. The use of the serpent to flank the stairway at the Temple of Quetzalcóatl prefigured the symbolic use of serpents to flank temple doorways and pyramid stairways elsewhere at Teotihuacán. 

Quetzalcóatl: This multi-dimensional deity combines not only the bird, who ascends to the Heavens, and the serpent, who comes from the Earth, but the jaguar as well. The jaguar represents the night sun that travels through the Underworld. 

The Markmans:

This use of the serpent to define the liminal meeting place of spirit and matter coincides with the serpent symbolism associated with blood sacrifice since it was up these pyramid stairways, after all, that the sacrificial victim made his way to the temple where his spirit was freed by the act of sacrifice to return to its home [in the essential life-force] and his body, now merely matter, was released to tumble back down that same stairway to be reunited with the earth (Markmans, p. 45).

Over time, the serpent symbol would come to be used by later cultures in the Valley of Mexico.

Some Final Thoughts

The masks that cover the frieze of the Temple of Quetzalcóatl represent the relationship between the realm of the spirit and the world of man. The message of the images that cover the Temple suggest that for Teotihuacanos, life is made possible in the visible, tangible world of man through the continuous intervention of the invisible, intangible realm of the spirit.

Let me give the scholars the last word:

These [masks] can only be called graphic symbols…[full of meaning] for those who beheld them. In this sense [these images were] the expression of a sacerdotal body, the reflection of a caste of learned clerics concerned with elaborating the concepts of a pantheon in which the forces of the universe are personified [emphasis added].

Henry Stierlin, 1982

Teotihuacán was a highly developed society, which

...was unquestionably the preeminent ritual center of its time in Mesoamerica. It seems to have been the most important center of trade and to have had the most important marketplace. It was the largest and most highly differentiated craft center. In size, numbers, and density, it was the greatest urban center and perhaps the most complexly stratified society of its time in Mesoamerica. It was the seat of an increasingly powerful state that appears to have extended its domination over wider and wider areas…. Indeed, it appears to have been the most highly urbanized center of its time in the New World (emphasis added).

René Millon, 1976

Still Curious?

The archaeological excavation continues. This article (Aug 2010) describes initial exploration of a tunnel found under the Temple of Quetzalcóatl.

UTube Video (1:59 sec), produced by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, features excellent close-up views of the temples plumed serpent (ruffed collar) and Tlaloc (goggle-eyes) masks.

UTube video (36 sec), shot from a viewing platform atop the second facade, has a good view of the plumed serpent masks lining the staircase of the Temple of Quetzalcóatl.

UTube (1:09 sec), shot from a viewing platform atop the temple's second west facade, gives excellent views of the entire Citadel complex from the stairway lined with plumed serpent masks, across a long view of the temple masks,  panning the area of the residential complex that surrounded the temple on three sides. A view is also given of the sunken plaza in front of the temple with the great altar and temples ranging the plaza's massive exterior walls.

Here's the link to Reed's Picassa photo album, From the Monumental to the Miniature, of Teotihuacán and artifacts found in its site museums.  The "miniatures"—small sculptures—are an unexpected delight!

Jenny's Post Quetzalcóatl at Xochicalco (Morelos state) describes the Temple of Quetzalcóatl built by the ruling elite of Xochicalco, which rose to power in the vacuum created by the decline and fall of Teotihuacán.