wings upon which to flutter about in your thoughts...

[thedarksiren2]

the following excerpts are from Maraleen Manos-Jones' The Spirit of Butterflies - Myth, Magic, and Art:

When the Gods first arrived in Mexico they were guided by the flight of the butterflies. The butterflies came from the direction of the north, along a route full of flowers and fruits. Both the butterflies and the Gods came to the same place by the same route. When all the Gods gathered, they asked, "Who will light the world?" A God named Fecuzistecatl boldly said, "I will undertake this task. I will light the world."


The Gods conferred again. "Is there anyone else who wishes to do it?" Everyone remained silent until at last the God Nanhuatzin offered himself. After this, the Gods lit a huge and very hot bonfire, the smoke and the flames from which drove the snakes to the pitted bottom of the earth.

The Gods said, "Jump into the fire," but Fecuzistecatl was afraid of the pain. Indignant that there was no light, the Gods turned to Nanhuatzin and commanded him to jump into the flames. Nanhuatzin closed his eyes and threw himself on the fire without hesitation. Upon seeing this, Fecuzistecatl then threw himself on the bonfire. The Gods sang and the day began to turn red. Light began to shoot forth toward the sky, and everyone knelt down to await the appearance of Nanhuatzin changed into the sun and Fecuzistecatl changed into the moon. It was never again dark in the world.

The Gods conferred again. "And now with what will we adorn this light which has arrived in the world? The light requires colors," they said. "Who wishes to adorn the earth?" they asked. All looked at each other and Quetzalpapalotl, said, "I will do it." And he drew himself the plumed wings of a butterfly. Thereafter he became known as the PLumed Butterfly. The Gods insisted, "But your life will not last as long since you turned it into color." Quetzalpapalotl responded, "It doesn't matter. I will not disappear when I die. I will fall from the sky which I adorn and adorn the earth as well." And so it happened, he flew away into space and fell from the sky to the earth. Where there was emptiness, there were now flowers and butterflies of every color. And this is how the world was prepared for man.



The early Mexicans were especially fascinated by butterflies and used them in many sacred contexts, from objects of adornment to religious stone carvings. Along with snakes, butterflies were the creature most frequently represented in a spiritual sense in Precolumbian Mexico...It cannot be coincidental that Mexico is also a place where more than a thousand species of lepidoptera make their home.





Deep in the heart of the Sierra Madre, Mother of Mountains, there is a sacred place where migrating monarchs have come for millennia to rest, gather, hibernate, and mate, although there is no evidence that the early Mexicans were actually aware of this phenomenon.

Mother of Mountains



Monarchs




The Mexican butterfly species Itzapapalotl is also known as the obsidian butterfly or the butterfly of four mirrors; scientists know it as Rothschildia orizaba of the Saturnidae family. The word Itzapapalotl is derived from the Nahuatl words itztli, meaning obsidian, and papalotl, meaning butterfly, and is also the name of a Chichimec goddess, known as the Obsidian Butterfly Goddess of Four Knives. The patterns on the wings of this butterfly are similar to the shape of the blades used in sacrifical rites that were made of obsidian, a hard substance born of volcanic fire.

Rothschildia orizaba AKA "Obsidian Butterfly"


When the Aztecs conquered the Chichimec people in the fifteenth century, they absorbed into their religion many earlier gods and goddesses, including Itzapalotl, who had apparently existed for many hundreds of years. Butterflies were often depicted on Toltec and Aztec warriors' shield. Some may refer to Itzapapalotl, who is said to have been a protector of warriors, but they may also refer to Xochiquetzal, the goddess of love and companion of the fire god.



It was she who followed young warriors onto the battlefields and made love to them while holding a butterfly between her lips, to give them courage and to reassure them that their souls would be transformed if they had to give their lives in battle.




The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy.
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
~ Richard Bach






*all artwork c/o the www! YAY!*

Comments

[limbik.livejournal.com]

I fucking LOVE Native Americans and their cultures and art.

[thedarksiren.livejournal.com]

me too.
~8)

I visited Chichen-Itza a few years ago, and have been in awe ever since.

[roguepuppet.livejournal.com]

thanks for sharing your contemplations
It never ceases to fascinate how all cultures (including ours) take the fascinating things they are surrounded with and transform them into something mystical and powerful. Maybe it is becuase they ARE mystical and powerful, and we have the natural insight to feel that. Maybe it is because we have the need for something mystical and powerful...and when we loose touch with it, we create it from what we find around us.
I wonder, if we loose touch with that which is mystical, and create our own mysteries-- does that create a false and hollow sense of being? WIll that echo and manifest itself in our lives and society, or will it fulfill just as well. Is it a real need for some universal power that charges us with power, or is it only a tangential creation of a drive in our brain to find patterns and make sense, which can be easily tricked and misled?

The aztec culture has long held my interest, they had such a strange and interesting blending of violence and beauty. It must have somehow related to the environment around them, but it is unusual. In most cultures, beauty and violence oppose each other, are the two sides of the coin. In the aztec culture, the coin has been melted and reformed. Where else would a kiss with a butterfly in your mouth ease the pain of battle and make you brave enough to want to die on the battelfield?

[thedarksiren.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I once had a project in a religion class which was based in mysticism. After reading through all the literature, and discovering that mysticism truly is beyond tangibility, I had but one option when it came to "representing" my project on a five-sense scale: music.

I held up a sign that read, "You can be a Mystic too!" and played some music by Lisa Gerrard, explaining that if something takes you above and/ or beyond your current state of being, makes you see light which isn't there, or causes butterflies (no pun intended btw), or warm sensations without heat...it is a mystcial experience.

It goes far deeper than that, and I am not meaning to trivialize others' experiences. I think people overall like reasoning, like knowing something is tangible and that's how we wind up with hugely analytical thinking. It's not bad, but I think it takes some of the joy, the magic, the spirit of beautiful things/ experiences away.

The Aztecs, as well as the Mayans (whom I am more interested in overall), both had a significant amount of violence associated to beauty and transcendence. There was no real fear of death...it meant transformation, and released the angry spirits from your body. When I visited Chichen-Itza a few years back, I learned so much about the culture of the Mayans and their theology...if I had the money and the time, I think I'd be researching that more. Although some of it is incredibly extreme to me, much of it also makes far more sense than anything I've known otherwise.

[tiktiktok.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the cool entry!

[thedarksiren.livejournal.com]

thank you for taking the time to enjoy it!
~;)