The Spirit of the Ancients

Mayahuel (Nahuatl pronunciation: [maˈjawel]) is the female divinity associated with the maguey plant among cultures of central Mexico in the Postclassic era of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology, and in particular of the Aztec cultures. As the personification of the maguey plant, Mayahuel was also part of a complex of interrelated maternal and fertility goddesses in Aztec mythology and is also connected with notions of fecundity and nourishment.

Products extracted from the maguey plant (Agave) were used extensively across highlands and southeastern Mesoamerica, with the thorns used in ritual bloodletting ceremonies and fibers extracted from the leaves worked into ropes and cloth. Perhaps the most important maguey product is the alcoholic beverage known as pulque, used prominently in many public ceremonies and on other ritual occasions. By extension, Mayahuel is often shown in contexts associated with pulque. Although some secondary sources describe her as a "pulque goddess", she remains most strongly associated with the plant as the source, rather than pulque as the end product.

Mayahuel was also defined as “the woman of the 400 breasts”, probably referring to the many sprouts and leaves of maguey and the milky juice produced by the plant and transformed into pulque. The goddess has many breasts to feed her many children, the Centzon Totochtin or “the 400 rabbits”, who were the gods associated with the effects of drinking.

In codices, Mayahuel is depicted as a young woman, with many breasts, emerging from a maguey plant, holding cups with foaming pulque.  As you can see, the drinking of these ancient spirits is closely linked to the mythology and creation stories of the indigenous people of the lands now known as Mexico.