Maize constitutes one of the fundamental foods of Mesoamerican societies, while also serving as a cosmogonic and ontological principle that remains present in Indigenous thought to this day. Chicomecóatl, “Seven Serpent,” was one of the principal female deities associated with maize, vegetation, sustenance, and abundance. Her cult and calendrical numeral reflect the profound connection between the cycles of maize and the social, temporal, and religious organization of society. The number “seven” (chicome) refers to seeds in general, while “serpent” (cóatl) designates maize; in an analogous manner, squash was known as “Seven Eagle.”
The goddess is represented as a young woman holding pairs of ears of maize in her hands, a symbol of the “heart of the granaries.” Other sources indicate that she held a vessel in her right hand and a shield with a flower in her left. Her paper headdress evoked a granary or the ears that announce the arrival of the fruit. Her face and clothing (cueitl, huipilli, and sandals) were dyed red, a color associated with the East and the “paradise” where maize grew: the Tlalocan. Chicomecóatl is the female manifestation of Cintéotl, god of the mature ear of maize, son of the earth goddess Xochiquétzal and the solar god Piltzinteuctli.
Together, the deities associated with maize formed a system representing the stages of the plant’s growth: Xilonen corresponded to tender maize or jilote; Chicomecóatl to young, growing maize; and Cintéotl to the mature ear. The latter was also associated with the color white, the West, and the earth goddess Teteoinan Toci. The correlation between deities and phases of maize persists in contemporary farming communities, where the grain is conceived as a being, human in nature, which passes from childhood, when it requires care, to old age and death at the end of the harvest.
The centrality of maize in ritual life is expressed in religious celebrations that coincide with the stages of the agricultural cycle, preparation, planting, and harvest, the arrival of the rains, and, in colonial and contemporary times, the calendar of Catholic saints. In this sense, the cult of maize integrated deities and entities associated with water, the earth, and fertility. In the past, Chicomecóatl was honored during the month of Huey Tozoztli, when fasts, self-sacrifices (piercing of the ears and legs), and ritual combats were carried out before her temple. Figures made of amaranth (tzoalli) representing the deity were also fashioned and offered grains of maize, beans, and other seeds. As in the present, children and young people played a central role in agricultural celebrations as symbols of vitality and fertility; today, for example, they are dressed in colors to embody the seed-hearts.
The figure of Chicomecóatl illustrates the close relationship between religion, agriculture, and cosmovision in Mesoamerica. Her cult, intimately linked to the cycle of maize, sustenance, and fertility, structured the ritual calendar and guided the everyday practices of nourishment, planting, and reciprocity with the earth.