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‘The Sinister Road: the Nine Levels of Mictlan’ by Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez (10)

Chapter 10...
The NOTES explain how the story fits - or doesn’t fit! - the illustrations and documented stages.

Mictlantecuhtli (L) based on Codex Borbonicus pl. 10 and Mictecacíhuatl (R) based on Codex Fejérváry-Mayer pl. 28; illustrations by Miguel Covarrubias (Click on image to enlarge)

The guide smiled, saying –
‘My warrior friend, you were really brave, you succeeded in following The Sinister Road. You will be warmly welcomed as you cross the threshold of Mictlan. Do you want to see your body for the last time?’
The man, now no longer a ‘package’, assented and together they walked to the edge of the dark lagoon, which reflected images like a luminous mirror. The warrior calmly observed his features: nothing scared him any more. His body was fleshless, heartless and lacerated all over by the sharp flints, arrows and obsidian blades – unrecognisable even to him! Yet he felt satisfied: he had reached Mictlan, the underworld paradise. He cast a grateful look at his guide, giving his good friend a firm hug. A warm light subtly enveloped him, what was left of his body fell to the ground, and without knowing how, he followed the gods to his final home, where brave warriors lie…

Toponym for the town of Mictlan; Codex Mendoza fol. 17r (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

NOTES:-
• Here ends Gonzalo’s story. In his book, he supplies additional notes and a short glossary, which we will add in below.
• As noted in chapter 9, the Codex Vaticanus A-Rios calls the final stage in the journey Iz Mictlan Opochcalocan, variously translated as ‘The Place of the Dead, Where the Streets are on the Left’, ‘Black Waters Lagoon’, ‘Place of the Dead Through Obsidian Where the House that Steams is’...
• The Florentine Codex simply calls the final stage Chiconauhmictlan or ‘Nine-Place of the Dead’.

The soul is consumed by the deities of death: detail from a 1964 mural by Raúl Anguiano, showing upper world, earth and underworld, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (Click on image to enlarge)

The nine regions of Mictlan, according to Mexica mythology (studies by Miguel León-Portilla) - notes by Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez:-
• 1st level, called Chiconahuapan. This began on the banks of a river; the dead person had to cross this with the aid of a brown Xoloitzcuintle dog
• 2nd level, called Tepectli Monamictlán. ‘The Place Where Mountains Collide’ – according to the ancients here two mountains constantly crunched together and then separated; the dead had to choose the opportune moment to run between them without being crushed
• 3rd level, called Iztepetl. A mountain covered with sharp flints, which could cut the bodies of the dead to shreds as they climbed to its summit

Illustration of Tomb 104, Monte Albán, Oaxaca, by Miguel Covarrubias (Click on image to enlarge)

• 4th level, called Itzehecayan. A desolate place of stone and ice where it always snowed and where the wind blew so fiercely it injured those passing through - called ‘Place of the Obsidian Wind’
• 5th level, called Paniecatoyan. Called ‘Place Where People Fly and Whirl like Flags’ – a place where the dead floated at the mercy of the winds before being released at the next level
• 6th level, called Timiminaloayan. The place ‘Where People are Shot with Arrows’; a broad pathway, from the sides of which invisible hands fired arrows which riddled the bodies of the dead. It was said that they were arrows that had been lost on the battlefield
• 7th level, called Teocoyohuehualoyan. A place where jaguars ripped open the chests of the dead to eat their hearts

Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Land of the Dead; ceramic fleshless figure from Central Veracruz, Xalapa Museum of Anthropology, 600-900 CE (Click on image to enlarge)

• 8th level, called Izmictlan Apochacalolca. ‘Black Waters Lagoon’, where the dead were finally defleshed, and their tonalli (soul) completely liberated from their body
• 9th level, called Chicunamictlan. Here the dead had to cross nine lagoons, after which their soul was totally freed from the sufferings of the body. Here they would be received by Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, masculine and feminine entities.

The dead person had to carry with them a pack to help them survive the journey, containing water, weapons, blankets, gifts, etc.
Xolotl - patron of the West, god of spirits, of twins, of Venus the evening star - accompanied the dead to Mictlan.
Gods of the Dark who fed on the fear and agony of their victims included:-
Kisin – Lord of Contagion Editor’s Note: Kisin is a god associated particularly with the Lacandon Maya people; Alfredo López Austin describes him as Lacandon Lord of the Underworld (‘The Myths of the Opossum’ 1993)
Popocatzin – cruel and pitiless Smoking Lord of the Shadows.

Figure of Mictlantecuhtli, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (Click on image to enlarge)

Picture sources:-
• Illustrations of Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl by Miguel Covarrubias: images scanned from The Aztecs - People of the Sun by Alfonso Caso (1958)
• Main illustration by Steve Radzi/Mayavision for Mexicolore
• Codex Mendoza image scanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition, London
• Photo of Raúl Anguiano mural by Ian Mursell/Mexicoloe
• Illustration of Tomb 104, Monte Albán by Miguel Covarrubias scanned from Indian Art of Mexico & Central America by Miguel Covarrubias (1957)
• Mictlantecuhtli figures: photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• ‘Pushing up daisies’: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.

‘Pushing up daisies’, Mexican style... (Click on image to enlarge)

CONCLUSIONS
• There are discrepancies in the ethnohistorical sources reagarding the hazards a soul faces on the journey to Mictlan
• The differences make no difference to the ‘moral of the story...’
• The overall purpose of the sequence of challenges and hardships is, as we noted in the Introduction, in Alfredo López Austin’s words to ‘cleanse the individual’s history’
• Life and death are inextricable; our identity may disappear and fragment when we die, but our soul(s) continue existing in different forms in the great universe around us.

This article was uploaded to the Mexicolore website on Apr 18th 2023