Article suitable for Top Juniors and above

‘The Sinister Road: the Nine Levels of Mictlan’ by Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez (9)

18th Apr 2023

Mexicolore contributor Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez

Chapter 9...
The NOTES explain how the story fits - or doesn’t fit! - the illustrations and documented stages.

The calm waters carried them along as if on a relaxing outing - they were incredibly beautiful lagoons. After so much danger they experienced a peace going deep into their soul. They were passing through the nine lagoons of Chiconauhhapan, where the soul is cleansed of the sufferings of the body.
‘We’ve arrived they’re waiting for us.’
‘Who, my family? I can only make out two figures, a man and a woman… Who paid you to bring me?’
The two beings approached them, reaching out their arms in welcome, like a light taking physical form. An inner peace made him feel at ease.

‘What have you brought us?’ The voice was sweet and friendly, but it seemed only to exist in his mind. The question seemed puzzling – he couldn’t understand that they might be expecting him, and even less that he should give them a gift of some kind, but then he remembered the rucksack he had faithfully kept with him despite all the travails of the journey. He took out some precious stones that glittered in the light, offered them to the couple, who accepted them, and then proceeded to pull out more objects, some of which were formless, but they were all treasures to him, he knew instinctively, and gradually the truth dawned on him…
He was dead!
He had followed the path of the dead to Mictlan. He was now in the paradise of the dead. The beings who had welcomed him were the gods Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl. At that moment he turned to look at the guide and realised who he really was – the god Xolotl! In the form of a dog like the Xoloitzcuintli he looked beautiful, smooth, shiny black skin and pointed ears.

NOTES:-
• Again, sources, story and pictures are mixed up! Gonzalo follows the Florentine Codex version here, with ‘Package’ and Guide struggling through Chiconahuapan (‘The Nine Rivers’, or Black Waters Lagoon).
• In fact Gonzalo seems to conflate levels 8 and 9: in his notes (see chapter 10) he calls the eighth level Izmictlan Apochacalolca (‘Black Waters Lagoon’) which is the name the Codex Vaticanus A-Rios calls the ninth level! However some scholars (including the great Henry Nicholson) translate the Nahuatl name as ‘The Place of the Dead, Where the Streets Are on the Left’
• Though Gonzalo doesn’t specifically mention the techichi dog, destined again to guide the soul across the fast-flowing river to safety - he DOES relate how ‘Package’ realises that his guide is actually the deity Xolotl, canine companion/twin of Quetzalcoatl...
• In this chapter Gonzalo introduces the Lord and Lady of the Underworld - you will meet them in our chapter 10)

Picture sources:-
• Souls in flood: image scanned from our own copy of the Codex Borbonicus (ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1974)
• Main illustration by Steve Radzi/Mayavision for Mexicolore
• Warrior by river image scanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark facsimile edition of the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), London, 1938
• Greeting the Lord of the Underworld image from the Codex Laud (now known as the Codex Mictlan!) scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1966
• Xolo photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.