Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky. David Bowles
in creating and maintaining the world they had envisioned. First they brought two sons into existence, opposite but complementary forces: Feathered Serpent burst from the cosmic sea and took flight through the endless sky, his long body rippling with bright red, green, and blue plumes. Heart of Sky swirled to life in the heavens before dropping to the waters and spinning like a violent cyclone, dark smoke curling from the black mirror on his forehead. The two looked upon their dual parent and awaited instructions.
“Mighty sons,” Ometeotl said, “you both hold one half of the key to creation. Feathered Serpent, you embody order and loving care, structure that comes from compassion. Heart of Sky, you wield force, passion, conflict—the willingness to tear down and begin again. Together you will build a world on which our children can thrive and work to keep the wheels of time forever turning.”
At first, the brothers spent years testing the limits of their powers. Each discovered he possessed a nahualli. Feathered Serpent could transform into a massive hound that wielded lightning and fire. In this guise, he was called Xolotl, twin or double. Heart of Sky was able to shapeshift into a huge jaguar (Tepeyollotl, Mountainheart) whose very steps would make the earth tremble one day.
At last the brothers came together and considered their parents’ vision of a world upon the waters of the vast cosmic sea. They thought long and hard about how to realize this dream, and then they debated with each other for many cycles of time. Finally, Feathered Serpent convinced Heart of Sky that they should try to reason with the great, hungry leviathan Cipactli. He called to it with his lulling, resounding voice, and the beast emerged from the depths.
“Powerful Cipactli,” Feathered Serpent said, “you have been chosen by our mother-father the Dual God to bear the earth upon your back. Your strength makes you the only being capable of this feat. All the inhabitants of the sea-ringed world will glorify your name, calling you Ruler of Earth.”
“I AM HUNGRY,” growled Cipactli. “WHAT CARE I FOR PRAISE?”
Heart of Sky drew closer to the leviathan. “Those who live on your broad back will curb that hunger with many sacrifices, beast. As many as you demand.”
Snarling, Cipactli twisted in the waves and clamped fearsome jaws upon one of Heart of Sky’s feet, tearing it away and swallowing it. “I AM HUNGRY NOW!”
Heart of Sky, angry and in pain, began to spin violently, attacking the leviathan. Feathered Serpent rushed to his brother’s aid, coiling himself around Cipactli so it could not move. Together they broke that massive beast in two, leaving it unable to ever dive again.
“Now the true work begins,” Feathered Serpent said to his brother. “A livable world must be crafted upon this craggy back. Then can we create new life, creatures for which we will be caretakers, stewards.”
Heart of Sky looked down at his leg. A bit of bare bone protruded where once he had possessed a foot. Pulling the smoking mirror from his forehead, he attached it to his mangled limb.
“Caretakers, for certain. But also judges, ready to punish when wrong is done.”
Feathered Serpent regarded his brother silently. He understood Heart of Sky’s outrage, but he hoped in time he could temper the anger that flared in his brother’s soul. Now, however, he took up Cipactli’s tail, which had been severed in the fight, and planted it at the center of the newly formed earth.
“Become a tree!” he cried out. “Sink yourself deep in the bowels of the world. Let those roots spread to the four corners of earth, sprouting into four saplings. Grow tall, spreading branches wide to hold the heavens away from the land, so that the future inhabitants of the sea-ringed world may live and breathe and contemplate the universe in awe.”
Thus the five world trees came into existence, ready to serve as passageways between the vast expanse of heaven, the surface of the earth, and the dark hungry recesses that were once the leviathan’s innards.
The brothers looked upon their work, satisfied at this beginning.
Mother, Protector and the New Gods
The female aspect of Ometeotl, our beloved grandmother, came to understand the need for motherhood, for someone to bear, nurture, and protect the generation of gods required to ready the earth for its future inhabitants. So she unfolded herself, bringing into existence the Divine Mother and the Protector. As they stood before her, hand in hand, she addressed them in this way:
“You, Divine Mother, embody love, care, and selflessness. Down the ages you will be called by many names: Quilaztli, Tonantzin, Queen of Heaven. Gods and mortals alike will turn their eyes to you for comfort in the darkest moments, and you will pour compassion on their heads.
“And you, Protector, reflect the other elements of motherhood: strength to face great pain, unyielding struggle, fierceness in keeping children safe. Ixchel, they will name you. Cihuacoatl, female serpent. Midwives and those giving birth will cry out to you in anguish, fear, and despair, and you will aid them in the battle to bring life into the world.”
Then the Divine Mother gave birth to the second generation of gods. There was the goggle-eyed and fanged god of rain, Tlaloc, whose power could feed or drown the world; the god of spring, Xipe Totec, who shed his skin each year like a dried-up husk in order to renew life; the goddess of flowers and fertility, Xochiquetzal, who clothed the earth in color; Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of rivers and lakes, who poured sweet water down her jade-green skirt for drinking and baptism. And these were just the beginning. More and more divinities were born, from gods of corn and maguey to deities of stone and stars and death itself. The Divine Mother and the Protector gathered them up and called their home Tamoanchan, place of misty sky. There, above the newly formed earth, the divine beings learned their destinies.
In time, the young gods began their work. With loving hands, they transformed the insatiable and broken Cipactli into the nourishing and verdant Mecihtli, Earth Goddess and source of fertility. Upon her ample flesh they formed mountains and streams, grew trees and plains, shaped beasts and birds to gladden the eye and heart. They readied the world for the arrival of human beings, the creatures whose praise and sacrifice would keep the wheels of time forever turning.
The Heavens and the Underworld
As the younger gods prepared the earth for the arrival of humanity, Feathered Serpent and Heart of Sky began to arrange the universe to sustain the fledgling world. Upon the boughs of the World Trees they set themselves to building, layering heaven in swaths of holy energy. The levels numbered thirteen, reflecting the perfection of the sacred calendar. The first level was set aside for the moon, which the brothers agreed would illuminate the night. Above that was the heaven of stars, thousands of glittering gems that would bring joy to wandering souls. But the brightest of lights would sail the sky in a third heaven beyond these astral jewels: a brilliant sun whose creation would be the brothers’ crowning accomplishment.
Feathered Serpent, wanting to be close to his handiwork, claimed the fourth heaven for himself. He set comets and shooting stars over his head in the fifth level to separate him from the somber sixth space of deepest green where his chaotic brother chose to whirl blackly.
The seventh layer was blazingly blue, the daytime sky we see when the sun arcs from horizon to horizon. Above it, Heart of Sky set the heaven of storms, a violent region of wind and lightning and thunder like the clash of enormous obsidian blades.
The remaining levels were set aside for the gods. After the dazzling heavens of white, yellow, and red, the brothers set Tamoanchan in the twelfth heaven at the celestial summit, a paradise which earthly words could never do justice. Thus were our Divine Mother and the Protector forever enthroned on high in an awesome metropolis built by divine hands, towering ziggurats, and broad avenues that cast a pale shadow in the minds of men: Teotihuacan, city of the gods.
Beyond all lay the thirteenth heaven: Omeyocan, Place of Duality, abode of our beloved grandparents. Deep in its inscrutable heart stood Tonacacuahuitl, the Mother Tree, where the souls of human beings began to bud, nourished like