COYOLXAUHQUI

Within Nahua mythology, Coyolxauhqui has held an important place in the representation of the lunar archetype of the Mexica and/or Aztec ancestors. This dismembered woman is depicted on a large round stone monolith that was found in the Templo Mayor in downtown Mexico City on February 21, 1978.
Among the various interpretations of the mythological origin of this archetype, which have mostly been from the perspective of the Hispanic American patriarchal conception, we have managed, through Mexican cultural recovery, to understand a more authentic symbolism in our cosmogonic thought.
It is important to note that Coyolxauhqui, “she who adorns herself with bells,” is the daughter of the Great Mother Coatlicue and sister of Huitzilopochtli, the great left-handed hummingbird warrior from the South, who defeated her and subsequently decapitated her, which is why she is represented dismembered.

A popular version tells of Coatlicue becoming pregnant when a feather she had hidden in her womb fell from the sky. Her children, outraged by the mystery of the true origins of their future brother's father, plotted to kill their mother and child when he was born. Thus, the warrior Coyolxauhqui was defeated by her brother Huitzilopochtli when he was born fully armed on Cuatepec Hill (Serpent Hill).

In the mystical symbolism of the Lunar Woman, the archetype of Coyolxauhqui represents the cyclical and changing nature that all women embody, just like the Moon. In social evolution, she historically represents the fall of feminine power and sacredness; for us women, it is important to recognize and understand these latter aspects, especially in order to inhabit the Great Phenomenal Cosmology that governs our fertile and life-sustaining nature.

Just as our Grandmother Moon Meztli constantly changes during her authentic development from emptiness to fullness, we must recognize that in this Great Dance of Creation, Father Sun Tonatiuh (father of Huitzilopochtli) is the one who governs the possibility of death and rebirth, of decline and growth, since he is the one who gives his light to the Moon, our great mirror.

All this helps us understand the Natural Law that sustains Life in which women are the human representatives of the Great Mother.
Thus, Coyolxauhqui, the dismembered warrior, is the lunar archetype that represents our feminine energy and its different phases that we must learn to integrate every time we recognize ourselves as women before the reflection of the Moon.