The Journey to Mictlan

Native people have a unique idea about death. From their perspective, death is part of daily life in the pre-Hispanic cultures. Everybody comes from Mictlan’s bones. Also, after we die, we will go back to bones. There, the death-life cycle starts and finishes in the same place, in the kingdom of death; in the Miclantecutli’s home. In other words, the village of our God mother-father, far away, close to the North, under the deep underground regions.

The human body is divided into three sources of life, head (tonalli), heart (teyolia), and liver (Ihiyotl). These organs support our life on the ground. First of all, the tonalli represents our way of thinking, our learning in this life. Part of our tonalli runs through generations because we can share it with our future and past family members, but the tonalli can just walk with us during our land time.

Second, the lhiyotl is the place where lives our shadow. Sometimes, when our bodies suffer a very bad emotional experience our shadow feels sick, so our energy weakens. In Mexico, some native people say –¡Tú necesitas ser curado de espanto! This means if someone’s shadow is sick, it can be diagnosed by knowledge of the function of the body’s spirit energy.

Third, and no less important, the heart is where the soul lives. The teyolia is the source of life, emotions, actions, movements, memories, and individual vital energy. After our body dies, the soul leaves the body through the mouth, in the last breath. Promptly, our soul starts a long journey to Mictlan land. For that reason, when someone dies, the family cleans the body, clothes it, puts a green jade in its mouth, and leaves a ceramic jar with enough water in the tomb.

Immediately, the soul starts a long journey lasting four years. The first year, it will be walking in this land. It has to collect its steps in the life world. We recover our life experience but also our parts of our body such as hair, nails, skin. At the end of the first year, we are ready to continue. That day, we will look at the last sunset; the last light in the sky helps us to find the road to the far North.

Then, our soul has to find two enormous mountains close to each other; between the two, starts a long road. Later on the way, our soul will confront a marvelous giant snake who is the guardian of the death world. The snake is the Quetzalcoatl symbol, which is a wise God. At that point, our soul is getting tired, but it is not the end of journey.

Our soul needs to continue until it finds the turquoise lizard; his name is Xochitónal. Next, we can look at the horizon for the last time, and our best friend is waiting for us. The xoloscuintle is an endemic dog from Mesoamerica, and it is our guide for the following adventure, so we need to take a breath and a little break because this is the beginning of the way to Mictlan.

Soon after, our soul continues to walk on four bleak lands and cross three long hills. Then, our soul could walk through the coldest place, where the cold wind feels like knives who are hurting our body. At the end of the journey, we can see a magnificent river, and our xoloscuintle's friend will help us to cross the river safely. Finally, the soul arrives at Mictlantecuhtli’s home where live all our ancestors. We return to bones; we go back to our origins.