Pagan Blog Project 2013 - X is for Xochiquetzal, The Mother of the World

Xochiquetzal was an Aztec Goddess of flowers and the arts.  She was said to rule over love, marriage and sexuality.  Often Xochiquetzal was referred to as the “Mother of the World”, due to her union with her partner in repopulating the earth after a great flood.  Even though she was associated with love and sex, as with many of the Aztec deities she required blood sacrifices. 

Mother of the World, Earth Mother, Mother Goddess is used to refer to Xochiquetzal, as she gave birth to the inhabitants.  She has even been called the divine prostitute.  Similar titles are given to deities in cultures around the world.  There’s no way I could list them all, but here are a few.


Though Xochiquetzal’s children all came from one mother and one father, it was said they all looked different and spoke different languages.  This barrier led like to join together and populate the earth. 

As a follower of Hecate, I honor her as Soteira and the Cosmic World Soul.  She holds the keys to knowledge and understanding of the world around us.  She provides answers to the mysteries of life and death.  She guides us from the severing of the umbilical cord to the passage to the underworld. 

Father, the supreme God in the Chaldean system, sowed the basic seeds of the material world, identified as “lightning” or Ideas; these Ideas then entered the womb of Hekate.
Hekate had received the Ideas in her womb from the Paternal Intellect (God, the Father), she then transmitted these to the Demiurge, who embodied them in the Sensible world. Because of her role in receiving and then transmitting the seed (Ideas) onward, Hekate/Soul was understood as the “Mother of the World.”   -  Hekate of the Chaldean Oracles (link)

This resonates with me.  I’ve often felt that when we did, our energy is not lost.  It remains here or it goes into a pool of energy that may or may not return to earth.  We may come back here as a new life or we many wander the earth in ethereal form, watching those we love go on.  Seeing that references to Hecate as being the one source where all souls originate seems to me, to be compatible with that line of thinking.
Like Xochiquetzal, in antiquity Hecate also requested blood sacrifices from her followers.  Today the use of blood in rituals to Hecate are not require, though some of her followers will use their own blood for ritual magic. 

Xochiquetzal was not only the goddess of sex and beauty but also the Goddess of magic and love spells.  Here is another similarity to Hecate being the goddess of witchcraft and magic.
As with so many other myths and legends about deities, all these attributes can apply to some or all of the gods.  Humans need to have reminders.  We like to be able to point to something and say, this is justice or that is beauty.   I believe that is what these are.  I do not believe that there was a time when Gods and Goddesses walked the earth and man bowed before them.

I believe that these deities are merely the personification of “godly” attributes.  Thinks that we are part of being a higher being.  Call it Xochiquetzal or call it Hecate, the idea is what we’re talking about.  I believe there is a single source for all the souls, I cannot state factually that it was from an idea placed in the vagina of a goddess, or an alien being placing us here on the planet.   Perhaps the big bang was actually a cosmic orgasm that gave birth to our cosmic soul.

Each of us has our own thoughts about it, and what is true for us may not be true for another.  Be sure to give others the freedom to follow their heart just as you have.  It is not for us to judge.

Blessings
Sosanna

)O(

No comments