Xochipilli Lives!
Xochipilli in temicxoch !
Xochipilli - The "Prince of Flowers" of the Mexica
or Aztecs of Mesoamerica.
This statue of Xochipilli was unearthed at
Tlalmanalco on Mt. Popocatépetl and is dated approximately 1450
A.D. The god's body is adorned with carved flowers including
coaxihuitl or the
morning glory
Turbina Corymbosa (L.) Raf., source of ololiuhqui seeds,
quauhyetl or the tobacco Nicotiana tabacum L., and other visonary
plants, including rosettes of the sectioned caps of the mushrooms called
xochinanácatl or "flower mushrooms"
in Náhuatl, probably Psilocybe aztecorum. For the Aztecs
"flowers" were a metaphor for the entheogens as evidenced by the
repeated reference to "flowers that inebriate" in their
poetry. The
face of Xochipilli is contorted as if seeing visions in ecstasy, and
the head is tilted as if hearing voices. temicxoch...
As
R.G. Wasson says in the
The Wonderous Mushroom of the statue of Xochipilli:
"He is absorbed in temicxoch, 'the flowery dream'*, as
the Nahua say in describing the awesome experience that follows the ingestion of
an entheogen.
I can think of nothing like it in the long and rich history of European art:
Xochipilli absorbed in temicxoch."
* Note: Translated as 'dream flowers' in the original.
© Joel Snow
Created May 1, 1995
Revised October 1, 1997
