Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2019

The Ancient Mexica Center
Our Sacred Center and Trance-Journeying: A Portal to Other Worlds

The ancient Mesoamerican peoples honored five cardinal spaces: the East, North, South, West, and Center—the axis mundi or central axis. The central axis was both a fixed space and an unfixed space that acted as a portal to other worlds. As a fixed space, the center was often symbolized by cruciform shapes and the quincunx, in which the axis stood in the middle of the four directions; this design was very typical in their architectural layouts. As a metaphorical space, it was replicated at each of the other cardinal spaces and was often portrayed as a World Tree that acted as a bridge between the nonordinary realms. The central axis served as a portal for the souls of humans to pass through after death and for supernatural beings to pass into the Middleworld.¹

The center was also the heart of a place, a space, sacred objects, and people. Here sacred energy converged and permitted access to the vertical, nonordinary realms. At the center of the multilayered universe, the axis mundi pierced all tiers of existence. Caves, crevices, cenotes (sinkholes), and other geological features that pooled water were also associated with the axis mundi.² These different understandings were not mutually exclusive: the axis mundi was polysemic in meaning and application.

The Ancient Mexica Center

The Heart, Portal, and Space of Creation

The Mexica associated the center with the heart, vegetation, maize, blood, water, earth, and sky, and more broadly, with fertility, renewal, and ultimately life energy itself. Many sacred spaces, including cities, mountains, temples, and homes were believed to have a center, which was often identified as their heart.³ For the Mexica, the center was not only a portal to the nonordinary realms but a space of creation energy, as well as where creation originated.

A common thread in the various Mexica creation stories was that the creator deity, known by many names, including Ometeotl and Ipalnemohuani, created and sustained the Earth from the center of the cosmos. The creator and its creative life-force energy were present in all places and spaces: clouds, sky, underworld, plants, and water.⁴ The creator deity was the mother and father of all the gods and the origin of all natural forces and existing things. According to Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas, the creator deity gave birth to four sons, who were the primary forces that activated the world. They were responsible for creating fire, the sun, the land of the dead, the place of waters, and the regions beyond the heavens.⁵ Each son was oriented toward a different cardinal space, a quadrant of universal space.⁶ Each cardinal sky quadrant ruled one day, following the order acatl (East), tecpatl (North), calli (West), and tochtli (South) (see plate 3).⁷ The center was also the place where the deity Nanahuatzin immolated himself and was reborn as the fifth sun.⁸

The center was also associated with the xictli (navel) of the cosmos. Its color was blue-green, which represented the balanced synthesis of all the colors.⁹ The center of the earth was called the “heart of the Earth,” which referred to the Earth’s life-force energy.¹⁰

The importance of the center as creating and sustaining life is reflected by the hearth, which was in the middle of every home, regardless of class or status. The hearth was where food was cooked and where pots sat. It consisted of three stones supporting the comalli, a clay griddle; in between the stones, logs were burnt. The hearth had a sacred character, and it was believed to house the mysterious power of their fire deity.¹¹ Baby girls, who would one day have the power to create life, had their umbilical cords buried underneath the hearth, an action believed to tie women to the home.¹² At the same time, with their umbilical cords placed in the center, they became a part of the life-force creation energy and therefore permeated all spaces. As the center of the home, the hearth mimicked creation stories. It contained a creation rope of life-force energy—the umbilical cords of baby girls—it embodied their fire deity, who sustained life; and it fed the family with cooked meals.

The ceremonial center of the Mexica capital Tenochtitlan was considered to be the heart of the capital, the space where the Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld met.¹³ The temples of Tenochtitlan were believed to represent mountains and, like mountains, symbolized the concept of altepetl, which was understood as the heart of the city filled with fertilizing water.¹⁴ At the heart of Tenochtitlan, there was a rectangular public plaza with civic and religious buildings. Most temples, shrines, and pyramid temples were found in the central public plaza. The most important political, religious, and social rites took place within the heart of the capital.¹⁵

From the center came sacred life-force energy that permeated everything, and the center was itself a portal to the nonordinary realms: Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld.