TLAZOLTEOTL

Tlazolteotl It is the archetype that governs the energy of transmutation. This Huastec deity iconographically displays symbols of duality: day and night, death and rebirth, energy and matter…

The meaning of Tlazolteotl It is etymologically rooted from the prefix Tla de tlalli- Land- zölli -filth- and Teotl -divine energy-. She is also called the “eater of filth”. In ancient representations she is honored and invoked as the Lady of Medicine, since she transforms the filth of illness, bringing back health, as she also governs the healing power of plants. She has attributes of the transformative energy of death and birth, since she is represented in the codices giving birth.

Also known as Tlazohteotl, of Tlazohtla -love, desire- is the “Goddess of carnal love”, promotes the desire for sexual encounters and assists in the cleansing brought about by menstruation. This energy represents the Love of Mother Earth and Nature that transmutes and composts matter to maintain the fertility that brings new life, fruits and their nutrition, pure and immaculate.

She is represented sitting on moons, her skirt is made of moons, her nose ring is a moon, and her crown is also a moon. These crescent-waning moons, equally represented on the duality of red and black, are open and receptive to the energy of Heaven to bring the cosmic and lunar force that allows the fertile and regenerative transformation of reproduction….

Her headdress shows two spinning spindles, one on each side, representing the rhythmic weaving that unites and weaves all the manifestations of cosmic-telluric nature to give consistency to the transformation process that sustains the purity of renewed life.

I chose to Tlazolteotl to represent the Autumn Equinox, since she, as Guardian of the Fertility of Nature, makes the great molt and cleansing of the onslaught of the earth, leaves, waste and filth left over from the past productive and nutritious seasons, become nutrients again for the new seed that will be embraced in the loving and clean womb of Mother Earth, mother who incarnates in all of us, her daughters of all kingdoms.

I want to mention that our original Nahua ancestors did not know or conceive the concept of “garbage”. Everything that She gives us in the material realm is the sacred sustenance of earthly existence thanks to the favor of the Divine Energy. Tlazolteotl.