Mictlantecuhtli, the Lord of the Dead, and his consort, Mictecacihuatl, governed the ninth level of the underworld: the Mictlán. The Nahua ancestors described this area as a space of deep darkness, which the deceased accessed only because of illness or old age. Comparatively, those felled in battles, captured and women who died in childbirth, would go to the House of the Sun, or Tonatiuh ichan, located in the sky, tasked with helping the sun during its daily journey. Tlalocan, governed by Tláloc, god of the water, was where those who drowned or were hit by lightning lived. As for the children who had not yet consumed earthly food or corn (just their mother’s milk), they were welcomed into Chichihualcuauhco, “the place of the tree with breasts,” to be nursed while waiting to return to earth as “seed of the heart” or the vital force purposed with giving life to new beings.
Nahua concepts of death are reflected in current indigenous worldviews, which have integrated the Christian notions of heaven and hell. However, unlike the Christian tradition, in which one’s destiny depends on behavior during a lifetime, in Mesoamerica destiny was determined by how one died. Before, as now, the Indigenous cultures see death and life as a unity and as regeneration: it is not the end, but rather a transformation of the person and their spiritual entities, in order to support the cosmic flow. Even more, death represents the human beings’ return to earth as its sustenance.
After death, the deceased went on a four-year journey, covering eight regions and overcoming different ordeals. This journey was meant to eliminate the deceased’s memory and individuality. In order to reach Mictlantecuhtli, the deceased had to ride on a dog and cross the rushing river Chiconauapan. As an offering to the god, the deceased turned over a consignment of papers, string and cotton blankets, as well as other objects given to the person when they died. At the end of this journey, the deceased was purified of their earthly condition, and what remained was their spiritual essence or “heart,” hoping to be recycled into another human being.
There are many representations of Mictlantecuhtli, but the sculpture along with the source images offer valuable information regarding his features. The Lord of the Dead is shown with a stark face and carrying a pleated paper rosette, which is an emblem related to the entities of the underworld. His face has yellow and red circles as symbols of bone and blood, as can be seen in the Borgia and Fejérváry-Mayer Codices. His attire features sandals and the máxtlatl, as well as hands or hearts used as ear flaps or bracelets. Sometimes his liver is shown exposed, as in the sculpture that protects the entry to the House of the Eagles, at the Great Temple in Mexico City.
Taken together, the features of Mictlantecuhtli describe a symbolic complex in which death serves transformative and generative functions, which are evident in agricultural and human cycles. The god’s shape as a skeleton and the crossed bones shown in his adornment not only represent the physiological process of death, but also the vital power and strength of the fertility residing in the bones. As the Legend of the Suns relates through Quetzalcóatl’s journey to the underworld, death is the generating principle of life: in the myth, Quetzalcóatl asks Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl for the precious bones he will use to create a new humanity. This association of death, life and fertility is one of the central principles of Mesoamerican cosmovision, and it to this day is present in current indigenous agricultural practices, where the deceased are considered to be those in charge of bringing rain to the cultivated fields. Water, vital liquid, flows from the mountains – a cold, feminine and deathly environment – and is indispensable for growing corn, and consequently, for human survival.