MICTLAN "DIA DE MUERTOS" DAY OF THE DEAD

MICTLAN
Cargado originalmente por dixzarugs

Traditional Altar set up for the day of the Dead.
This is my Godfather's house in Teotitlan del Valle, OAXACA - MEXICO

The tradition passed to us by word of mouth says that when we die our essence travels to 'Mictlan', the world of the unfleshed ones. But every year we will have a chance to come back to this world and visit our beloved ones.

When you come back on the day of the dead, you will be able do everything you used to do when you were alive, you can talk but you won't be heard, you can eat but you wont consume, and this is because you have no more consciousness because when you die you give it back to 'Pitao' the divine essence.

The sugar cane will indicate you the portal that you have to cross to enter the "real" world, the light of the candles will provide guidance, once you smell the 'copal' (a type of incense) you will know you have arrived.

There will be plenty of food and beautiful flowers recently harvested. You will feel like you are still alive because your beloved ones have not forgotten you, they will welcome you with the best dishes, the most delicious hot chocolate, big loafs of soft bread specially decorated for you, there will be plenty of fruit to enjoy and even to take back to the other world. People will gather at night, they will visit each other’s houses and talk about the ones who had gone ahead to the other world.

There are four different places where you could end up, depending on how much consciousness you generated.

The first place is where the God of the Sun lives, is where he keeps the fire of the creation, the sun being the main source of life, energy and consciousness is the symbol used to represent that place and is where you go when you become a shaman, they say that you return to the sun, you become part of tha divine energy. A shaman can “see” how the energy flows in the world, that is how he creates consciousness by understanding the flow of energy, he is able to talk to plants and animals, to entities or spirits that also inhabit this world with us but that do not have enough energy to have a physical body. To become a shaman one must have won the battle against death, death is just one arm behind us, it is always stalking and one day if you are not ready it will touch your left shoulder and you will die. A common ritual to become a shaman consists in Jumping from a cliff, in that way when you are falling you are deliberately faced to your death, right then there are no other options, there is no other time, no past no future, the only option is to gather enough will and be able to ‘stop the world’ stop the world as we know it, you will need to gather enough energy to shift your attention to other possibilities to other vibrations, some shamans will transform into their ‘nahual’ into an Eagle, into a Jaguar, a serpent, or even fire, wind, rain or any other thing according to your essence.

The second place where you may end up, is the place where the God of the water lives, this is where you go if you became a warrior, and fought against death but lost your battle, in this place there is plenty of food and shelter, it is your gift to recognize your effort in creating more consciousness, it was not easy, it was a tough battle, you managed to eliminate your ego and fears, you became responsible for every single action you did and you helped a lot of people along the way. Here you will rest until you have another chance to go back to the world and dream again.

In the third place you will see the tree that nourishes life, you will go to this place if you became aware of your divine essence but did not managed to become a warrior and fight your ego and fears. You will be nourished to gain more energy until you have another chance to go back to the world of the fleshed ones.

The fourth place is MICTLAN the reign of Mr and Mrs MICTLANTECUTLI, if you did not purified yourself by fighting against everything that corrupts your consciousness, you will get purified in this way in other to arrive to the place, the trip could last 4 years but if you get stuck you will remain in that part an eternity.
1. First you have to cross a very tough and long and cold river, Xólotl the giant dog will help you, but if you mistreated a dog in your life he won’t help you and you will have to cross by yourself.
2. Walking your way to MICTLAN you will have to pass in between two mountains that are constantly crashing on each other, here you will loss all of your belongings including your mind.
3. Then you will have to walk barefoot on a hill covered with flints and obsidian in this way you may learn to control yourself.
4. Then you will arrive to a valley where the wind will blow off your skin and then you will head to 8 hills where never stops snowing.
5. Then you will cross a desert where you will experience the hottest days and the coldest nights.
6. The next place is where you get wounds of arrows, two invisible hands are permanently shooting at you.
7. In the seventh place the great Jaguar will open your chest and eat your heart, you will give back the most pristine feelings of the human essence. Your body will be carried to the next place by a giant lizard.
8. This place is very foggy and you have to come across 9 rivers to learn how to “see” without eyes.
9. Finally you have arrived to the last place, now you can rest peacefully until Mr and Mrs MICTLANTECUTLI come to tell you go back to live your mortal dream again.