Quetzalcoatl Tattoo Meaning

Creation, knowledge, civilization, and the feathered serpent who gave humanity its gifts.

Quetzalcoatl is the Feathered Serpent — the great Mesoamerican god who unites the bird of the sky and the serpent of the earth in a single being, god of wind and learning and the morning star, the bringer of civilization who descended into the underworld and bled upon the bones of the dead to create humankind. To carry Quetzalcoatl is to carry the union of earth and sky and the gift of civilization at great cost — the feathered serpent who joins matter and spirit, the bringer of knowledge and culture who gave of himself to create and uplift humanity.

Quetzalcoatl — the 'Feathered Serpent' — was one of the most important gods of the Aztecs and of Mesoamerica: god of wind (as Ehecatl), of the planet Venus as the morning star, of learning, knowledge, the priesthood, and the arts of civilization. He was one of the great creator gods, and a culture-bringer who gave humanity the gifts of knowledge — and even, in the myths, of maize and the calendar.

His most profound act was the creation of humankind. After a previous age had ended and humanity been destroyed, Quetzalcoatl descended into Mictlan, the underworld, to retrieve the bones of the previous humans from Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the dead. Tricked and made to drop the bones (which shattered, explaining why people are of different heights), he gathered them up nonetheless, and then bled from his own body upon the bones, giving his own blood to bring them to life — creating the current humanity through his self-sacrifice. The Aztec Quetzalcoatl is the Feathered Serpent god — deity of wind, the morning star, learning, and civilization, the creator who descended to the underworld for the bones of the dead and bled upon them to create humankind.

In the Aztec creation myth, Quetzalcoatl descends to Mictlan — the underworld — to retrieve the bones of the people of previous worlds so that a new humanity can be made. Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead, agrees but sets impossible tasks. Quetzalcoatl manages them and flees with the bones. He stumbles; the bones break into unequal pieces. He grinds them into powder at Tamoanchan and mixes the powder with blood drawn from his own penis. From this mixture, the current humans were made — which is why humans come in different sizes (the bones broke unevenly) and why humans owe a blood debt to the gods (they were made partly from divine blood). Quetzalcoatl as Venus the morning star represents the deity who descends into the underworld (the sun setting) and rises again (Venus appearing before dawn).

Quetzalcoatl across cultures

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