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Xochiquetzal, Flowery-Plumage.
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Alternate meaning: Flower-Feather.
[to Whom the fourteenth day of June, day 165, is dedicated]


Geography/Culture: North America, Mexico (Mexico City 19.28n x 99.09w): Aztec.
Description: Lovely and gay Goddess of the stars, those points of light that mark the ultimate reach of human thought; and on earth, She Who is Goddess of flowers, beauty, art, music and love; She Who lives on the mountain top surrounded by musicians and dancers; Gaurdian of the sexual pleasures of women; Spirit of change within changelessness; Giver of the gift of language; Matron of painters, embroiderers, weavers, silversmiths, sculptors and all whose profession it is to imitate nature in crafts or drawing; Overseer of domestic work; Ruler of the land of the dead.
To Whom Sacred: marigold plant, flower and seed; butterfly; monkey; ocelot (Her throne is covered with an ocelot skin); dog (or coyote); mountain lion; jaguar; dove (and birds in general); tzoalli (a sacred bread of amarinth seed and corn grain kneaded with honey); artificial trees covered with flowers; the colours black, yellow (or red), white, purple (blue or green); (perhaps) the cardinal points. She is believed to have presided over the 20th day of the Aztec calendar.
Her small temple contained cloth, feathers, jewels. Her Image, on a tall altar, received incense four times a day. Her priests were the same as Huitzilopochtli's.
Iconography: Image of wood -- a young woman, hair in a queue hanging to the shoulders with bangs over Her forehead; gold earplugs, gold nose ornament which hangs over Her mouth. Crown -- garland of braided red leather form the sides from which emerge green feathers, round, and looking like horns. She wears a finely worked blue tunic decorated with woven flowers formed of feathers with many plaques of gold pendants all over them. Her arms open like a woman dancing.
Festival: Xochilhuitl, 'Farewell to Flowers'. A twenty day festival lasting from October 6th to October 26th. People, houses, streets and temples, were all adorned with flowers. With dancing, merry-making, festivities and farces, gladness and good cheer, this festival is especially solemnized by artists. On the last day two virgins of noble family, one young and the other older, were sacrificed. Another woman, incarnating Xochiquetzal was also sacrificed, by the artists. {For more on festival, see Durán BGRAC 241-47}.
Male Associates: consort, Tlaloc, Pulp-of-the-Earth, God of rain, mountains, and springs. Her Twin is Xochipilli, Prince-of-Flowers, God of beauty, love, happiness, youth, music, dancing and gambling. He presides over the 7th hour of the day. Her lover is Tezcatlipoca, Smoking-Mirror, God of the summer sun (which ripens the harvest but also brings sterility and drought), spreader of wealth, cause of disorder and war. Source: Durán BGRAC 68, 238-40, 243, 296, 477, image pl. 25; NLEM 436-8, image 437.
worked on: July 29, 1991; May 1995
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