Mictlancihuatl
Mictlancihuatl (also Mictecacihuatl or Mictlantecihuatl) means mistress of death in Nahuatl . In the Aztec pantheon she was the wife of Mictlantecuhtli , lord of the underworld Mictlan . She watched over the bones of the dead and the feasts dedicated to the dead. She wore a skirt made of rattlesnakes, had a skull and strong hands, as if they were used for digging. In the Aztec notion of the afterlife there were three realms: Mictlan, Tlalocan and Ichan Tonatuih Ilhuicac . Those who died of natural causes came to Mictlan, where they were received by Mictlancihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli.
- Now the god Mictlantecuhtli and his wife Mictecacihuatl let you participate in their whereabouts .
Mictlan was a place of testing:
- ... their breakfast soup is pus, they drink from a brain bowl ... And all poisonous herbs are eaten ... In the underworld there is great poverty and need .
Only after years do the dead, accompanied by a dog, reach the court of the ruler of the underworld and his wife Mictlancihuatl, where they are happy. From there the souls could be carried back to earth through the eternal fire.
Today it is assumed that the Aztec cult around Mictlancihuatl is at the origin of the Mexican Día de Muertos and the worship of La Catrina .
literature
- Günter Lanczkowski : The religion of the Aztecs, Maya and Inka , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt (1989), ISBN 3-534-03222-5
- Heike Owusu: Symbols of the Inca, Maya and Aztecs , Schirner Verlag Darmstadt (2000), ISBN 3-89767-073-9
