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The Eagle and the Serpent (Culturas Prehispanicas)

As a child growing up in the United States, I used to see the Mexican flag as a symbol that connected me to a cultural and geography that I scarcely knew. My eyes and imagination were always drawn to the image of the eagle perched on a cactus devouring a serpent. When I heard and read the stories of the Aztecs, the Mexica, who had come to build to build their capital city of Tenochtitlan on the island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, I would taste and savor those words and sense something of my own indigenous ancestry before the conquest and colonization of the Spanish.

I learned the accounts of how the Aztecs travelled from Aztlan, their ancient homeland in the North, following a vision given to their priests that instructed then to build their new central city on the place where they found an eagle and the serpent in this moment of embrace between death and life. They came into Anahuac, the Central Valley of Mexico as mercenaries. Known for their fierceness in battle, they were called ?chichimeca? (sons of dogs), who were enlisted to fight for the Toltec Lords of the region who vied for power and control. It was said that the Lord Mixcoatl, offered them the mostly barren land around Lake Texcoco as a reward for their help in defeating an enemy. As they surveyed the land, this ?place of the scorpions,? they witnessed the fulfillment of the prophecy as an eagle was seen, perched on a nopal cactus, eating a serpent. This would become the site of the great city of Tenochtitlan, from which the Aztec would come to political, economic and religious dominance over all of central Mexico.

This great city, described by Bernal del Castillo as rivaling in beauty and organization any of the great cities of Europe at that time, would fall to the Spanish conquistadores led by Hernan Cortez scarcely more than two hundred years later. On its ruins, the Spanish would build their new capital, the city of Mexico, and memorialize this ancient vision by adopting it as the coat of arms now adorning the Mexican flag.

Although many people are familiar with this telling of its origin, comparatively few have understood the esoteric meaning of this symbol. Koyote the Blind, Toltec Nagual (Man of Knowledge) and resident artist of the Tequihua Foundation, has revealed something about the long hidden or unrecognized transformative potency contained in it.

He sees in this symbol a formula for the spiritual aspirations of humans to the attainment of their divine nature. We are the earthbound serpent in our ordinary human form who seek the transformation to our higher nature, but are unable to achieve without the grace and unification with that which comes from the heavens above. This process is difficult, requiring discipline, sacrifice and sustained effort that may span many lifetimes.

The serpent must expend the effort to scale the cactus, which represents the World Tree or the Tree of Life. Our efforts compel a response from the divine, which descends in the form of the eagle to receive our sacrifice, our death, and leaving our corpse to fall back to the earth. As the eagle ascends, it drops one feather, which revives the fallen serpent, enabling it to continue its efforts again and again. Each time the serpent dies it gains another feather. After a lifetime, or many lifetimes, of such efforts, the now ?feathered serpent? has attained the ability to overcome its original earthbound limitations (gravity for example), and ascend to the heavens, completing its transformation.

You may recognize this as a story of the birth of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent who is known throughout the prehispanic cultures (culturas prehispanicas) of Mesoamerica by various names. He is called Kulkulkan among the Maya, Gukumatz among the Quiche and as Viracocha by the ancient Inca. In his divine nature, he has achieved the ?unification of the opposites,? which had been separated from its counterpart by the manifestation of the undifferentiated Absolute into the creation of this world. Unity is achieved as the power of the divine feminine principle (eagle) destroys the earthbound masculine serpent nature, allowing the heavens and earth to be made One.

I wish to express my gratitude to Koyote the Blind who has helped me to glimpse some of the mystery embedded in many of the ancient symbols that are all around us, but that remain hidden without the aid of a true guide.

George "Tecolote" Ramos  

George "Tecolote" Ramos is an educator and member of the Tequihua Foundation?s Board of Directors. Among his varied interests are the Toltec Arts, Native American Spirituality, Symbolic Magic and the use of the Aka Dua as a transformational substance.

The Tequihua Foundation www.tequihuafoundation.org