Since the beginning of time, human beings have had to face the world, life and death from two fundamental positions, with their countless variations and vicissitudes.
From the spiritual perspective or from the material. Two opposing and complementary forms. Essentially, the pair of complementary opposites that dialectically explain existence, from the "human" perspective.
In general, the oldest civilizations with an autonomous origin, based their human development on the perspective of the Spirit. In them, "matter" is a means that allows the "work" of the Spirit on the human plane.
However, it is Western culture that has embarked on the development of the material world. This vision stems from the "fusion of cultural appropriations" of the remnants of the Mother civilizations, which emerged between the Euphrates, Tigris and Nile rivers, and which by the year 336 BC were in decline. This is why the Macedonian, Alexander the Great, invaded and plundered them culturally to lay the foundations, through their fusion, of what we would later know as Greco-Latin culture, but which has its genesis in the wisdom of Mesopotamia, Egypt and India.
When human beings reach a stage of existential maturity, when they have left, by evolution, their "basic-animal" state and question the meaning and transcendence of their own existence, they face the ontological problem of being. Who am I? Where do I come from? And where will I go?
In the History of Humanity, especially in antiquity, we find varied and different paths that were defined by the spiritual-transcendent vision. The total renunciation of the material world. The symbolic and real sacrifice of the human body, as a symbol of matter. Pain and lack as a path to enlightenment to reach the world of the Spirit. Spirituality and even religion, reaching the extreme spaces of fundamentalism.
In the same way, we can appreciate the opposite path. That of the cult of the material world, and with it, that of the senses. The vision of "the here and now". That the only thing that is seen and touched is real and true. Of the limitation and finitude of existence, and of the reality "of earthly pleasures". Until reaching the "religious" fundamentalism, of the cult "of the Golden Calf". Understood in popular philosophy, as "how much you have, how much you are worth" and the saying, "dead dog, rabid dog is over".
(dragons are the oldest beings on the planet)
The ancient inhabitants of Anahuac, like every Mother civilization, also posed the ontological problem of Being. It is important to note that from the early Olmec period (1500 BC), we already find very clearly defined what would be for at least three thousand years, the answer that would illuminate the period of splendor with the Toltec culture (200 BC-850 AD) and despite the cultural decline of the Postclassic period, it would remain even in the Mexicas or Aztecs (1325-1521 AD).
It is astonishing to find in "Universal History" a civilization that from the very beginning of its origins, already presents us with a fully defined answer to the ontological problem. Indeed, the Olmecs "as such" appear around the year 1500 BC, already determined with a completely decanted philosophical proposal, which would remain intact, in essence, until the European invasion. Perhaps, the only caveat is the transgression made by the Mexicas to Toltec thought, from the year 1440 AD, with the ascent to power of Tlacaélel, the ideologue of Mexica imperialism, who transgressed thousands of years of Toltecáyotl and in less than 81 years, led not only the Mexicas to a cultural-civilizational catastrophe, but also involved all of Anahuac.
The answer of the Toltecáyotl to the anthropological problem of Being is iconographically present from the Olmecs, in the period known as Preclassic. It will remain vigorously during the next period known as Classic, in the so-called Toltec culture. And it will arrive unscathed until the end of the Postclassic period with the Mexica culture.
The Toltecáyotl solves the philosophical problem precisely and clearly. The answer is "balance". The just mean, the center that unifies and harmonizes complementary opposites. And symbolically they represent it with the figure of "Quetzalcoatl". Metaphor and parable will be the language of the Spirit. With "Flower and song" the ancient inhabitants of Anahuac tell us about the wonderful myth of "The Feathered Serpent".
Iconographically, we find it present in La Venta, Tabasco and in Chalcatzingo, Morelos, in the Olmec culture at the beginning of the Anahuac civilization. But undoubtedly this "iconography" is the tip of an immense Toltec philosophical iceberg. Just as "the dove" iconographically represents the Holy Spirit for Judeo-Christians. Therefore, "The Feathered Serpent" will be the relevant motif in Teotihuacan in the Classic period of splendor, and later, in the decadent Postclassic period in Tenochtitlan.
The quetzal is the symbol of the Spirit. In that it is the bird with the most beautiful plumage that overcomes gravity and takes flight to the unfathomable heights of the Spirit.
The serpent is the symbol of matter. In that it is the reptile, the animal that crawls over the material world and where it exercises its power.
The wise and ancient Toltecs then define the answer to the ontological problem of being, through BALANCE. Embodying the symbol of Quetzalcoatl in everyday life, in the real world, is the challenge, not only for the Warriors of the Flowered Death, but for everyone: maceguales, men and women; Yaquis, Nahuas, Zapotecs or Mayans. Of yesterday and today.
This is why the institution of higher education known as Calmécac was known as "the house of measure". Indeed, it is MEASURE that allows human beings to achieve balance. Balance, in this way, is not only WISDOM, but fundamentally BEAUTY. This is why the Toltecs defined the field of philosophical knowledge as "Flower and Song". In which the first symbolically represents beauty, and the second, wisdom.
The philosophical figure of "Quetzalcoatl" appears clear and luminous from the beginning of the creation of Anahuac. It will reach its zenith in the Teotihuacan universe, and will be expanded throughout the civilized confines of Cen Anahuac by the wise Toltec teachers.
Quetzalcoatl for the Anahuac cultures, from the Olmecs to the Mexicas, will be the symbol of human perfection. The same as Krishna and Zoroaster are for India and Iraq respectively. In this way, Quetzalcoatl occupies a fundamental place for the understanding of the Toltecáyotl and of what we are today, the peoples inheritors of the wisdom of the Toltecs.
Year 2011.
Yahuiche, Oaxaca.
Educayotl AC. Educating for the future with the wisdom of the past. You cannot escape the dungeon of colonization with the ideas and categories of the jailers. Decolonizing is dignifying.
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