Dreams, Reflections, and Experiences of Flower Worlds

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The following has been adapted from my monograph about Flower Worlds and related sculpture. The full written work can be found in the "Book" link in the main menu.

In Mesoamerica, the cosmos is traditionally conceived of as a dynamic unity that constantly unfolds, a totality of divine being with all its multifaceted components and their respective relations undergoing continuous transformation, always going through states of development, always coming into being. Sacred essences have long been conceived of throughout the Americas as sort of concentrated transcendent forces, as well as multifaceted sacred energies in perpetual motion and transmutation. They constantly animate, invigorate, and sustain humans and all other living entities, along with mountains, waters, sections of time, and ultimately, the entirety of the unfolding cosmos with vitality. Because everything is permeated by sacred essences, each entity, substance, or component of the environment, is considered to be equivalent to a person, and thus merits respect. As a central axis of cognition and operation, this general outlook on life provides a moralizing perception of reality.  A worldview of this nature expresses the fundamental responsibility that Indigenous people feel to proactively sustain effective systems of balanced and reciprocal relations with their environment and all its inhabitants. By no means is this an arbitrary or illogical conception of existence: one of its functions is to proactively modulate the behavior and even the general experience of humans in regards to the world they are a part of. Just as it is necessary to hunt, farm, and to generally consume what is popularly known as natural resources, it’s also necessary to limit exploitation and only take what is needed, because exceeding can bring disastrous consequences, just as those now experienced on an unprecedented global scale. Whereas in Western culture people generally think of the overexploitation of natural resources as the destruction of the environment, as degradation of the biosphere, or as an ecocide, Indigenous people perceive such abuse as a major genocide, because such mass destruction involves the death of entities and elements of the environment that are conceived of as persons and are therefore considered to be as worthy of respect, dignity, and life, as any human being.

Tim Ingold brilliantly states a more recent and refined understanding of animism in his 2006 paper “Rethinking the Animate, Re-animating Thought”:  

“...for many people, life is not an attribute of things at all. …[it] is rather immanent in the very process of [the] world’s continual generation or coming-into-being.  

People who have such an understanding of life… …are often described in the literature as animists. According to a long-established convention, animism is a system of beliefs that imputes life or spirit to things that are truly inert. But this convention, as I shall show, is misleading on two counts. First, we are dealing here not with a way of believing about the world but with a condition of being in it. This could be described as a condition of being alive to the world, characterized by a heightened sensitivity and responsiveness, in perception and action, to an environment that is always in flux, never the same from one moment to the next. Animacy, then, is not a property of persons imaginatively projected onto the things with which they perceive themselves to be surrounded. Rather - and this is my second point - it is the dynamic, transformative potential of the entire field of relations within which beings of all kinds, more or less person-like or thing-like, continually and reciprocally bring one another into existence. The animacy of the lifeworld, in short, is not the result of an infusion of spirit into substance, or of agency into materiality, but is rather ontologically prior to their differentiation.” (Ingold, 2006). 

As Ingold eloquently states, the property of being animate encompasses the complete network or field of ever-changing connections, relationships, and correspondences, which involves complex sets of performers who have agency at different magnitudes. Within such conception, agency itself is in turn a quality that intrinsically emerges from this dynamic network of relations. Building on the works of Ingold and others, Andrew Finegold writes a related insightful note about pre-colonial Indigenous traditions in his magnificent recent book, “Vital Voids: Cavities and Holes in Mesoamerican Material Culture”: 

“Mesoamerican cosmology was ultimately unitary and correlative. Everything that exists is interconnected: seemingly independent things or beings are manifestations of a single underlying and connective force that is always in motion and in a state of becoming. Matter and spirit are mutually expressive; just as matter can be thought of as being infused with life and energy, spirit gains expression through modifications to and proper configurations of matter. Like abstract concepts, deities - specific named configurations of the divine energy-in-motion that constitutes the world - could be discussed as if they had a real independent existence, but, like holes, they were only manifested in relation to a material host. This was the world in which Mesoamerican people existed and interacted, transformed their environment and participated in social and economic activities, created artworks and engaged in ritual behavior, waged war and mourned the dead.” (Finegold, 2021). 

Even though it is already implied in the previous quote, I would add the fact that these ancient cosmovisions correspond with present Indigenous conceptions of existence and reality, which are now interwoven with Western, African, and other traditions encountered and integrated after early colonial times. 

In accordance with fundamental processes of self-sustaining cosmic unfoldment, sacrifice and creation, and by extension of meaning, death and life, substantiate one another as extremes of an increasingly more consummate continuum. It is through these kinds of universal operating systems that recurring underworldly death and decay generate sacred essences and sustenance for the continuous renewal of Flower Worlds. These transcendent processes are reflected in the earthly plane, where dead organisms, what would commonly be called material or physical remains, decompose and return back to the earth, thus forming part of both the ground as well as the base substances necessary for the composition and sustenance of new organisms. Quite literally, those who came before us not only make up the earth we walk on, but in addition, we are made with their remains and they sustain us with their ancestral vital essences. All entities, substances, and elements of the environment are in constant interaction with one another, specially in their immediate surroundings, and all are ultimately interwoven together at varying degrees to form a living totality continuously unfolding and striving for equilibrium. This is not only meant in a spiritual or abstract sense, but in a very real and experiential way too, because all parts contribute in one way or another to the functionality of the whole system of life on earth, or biosphere. Such interconnectivity means that every aspect of the system is interdependent on one another at different levels, and what is done to any part has effects that impact the entire system in different magnitudes. For the Indigenous inheritors of these ancestral traditions, living with these kinds of operating systems catalyzes active participation in, as well as exalted celebration and thorough integration of, the vital processes and cycles of the world, with special emphasis on the renewal of the force of life on Earth, what is denominated World or Cosmic Renewal. Such characteristics of traditional cosmovisions effectively guide people to navigate the world with profound gratitude and respect for all aspects of reality. This is indeed a more refined understanding of one's place, and a more authentic fulfillment of one’s function, in relation to the other elements and forces that make life possible.

In Mesoamerica, and throughout the Indigenous Americas, the forces and processes that generated and maintain the cycle of life renewal in motion, have long been and still are elevated to divine status of the highest degree. An overarching theme of ideal existence that emerges out of these traditional modalities of cognition and operation, is the concept of Flower Worlds, as denominated in recent literature regarding Mesoamerican archaeology and ethnography. In essence, Flower Worlds are ideal, yet experientially real reflections of the sacred living Earth. Contrasting the human world, these are wild and untamed environments, with jaguars and serpents as some of the powerful guardians of their most significant features, which are often flowery mountains and their sacred caves. There is a rich variety of manifestations of what scholars collectively call Flower Worlds, although present Yoeme people conceive of a sacred cosmic dimension they call the Sea Ania, which directly translates to “Flower World.” A main source of information for the refinement of my understanding of Flower Worlds was a radical and innovative book published in 2021, titled “Flower Worlds: Religion, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest.” In this work, several authors of high caliber including Karl Taube, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, John M. D. Pohl, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, and Davide Domenici tell us that Flower Worlds can be defined as: extremely sacred and important locations at local and cosmic scale, multifaceted agential dimensions of the personified living universe, and highly cherished generative qualities of the cosmos, the totality of which also operate as central principles of organization and as critical paradigms for the elaboration of systems of values and signification. Flower Worlds are full of delightful things and beings, like inebriating and aromatic flowers, luxuriant fruiting trees, radiant jewels, and beautiful butterflies and birds, along with aesthetically pleasing ephemeral phenomena and qualities, such as vibrant and iridescent colors, moisture and rain cloud-bearing winds, precious cosmic forces and essences, the prodigious smoke of incense (like copal), the sublime sounds of wondrous music and songs, as well as multisensorial and often synesthetic pleasure in general. 

There are other benign concepts associated with these most sacred locations: highly esteemed cultural values (like respect, gratitude, and the fructification of hard work), the generative flourishing of the divine living cosmos, the world’s breath as winds that bring rain clouds, waters of essential vitality, general fertility and abundance, healing qualities and powers, access to the venerable ancestors and their benedictions, themes of resurrection and primordial emergence, along with the reinvigoration of the force of vitality at large. Diverse variants of Flower Worlds have existed throughout the millennia, with material remains bearing Flower World iconography dating back to around 900 BCE. But these early pieces of evidence substantiate the fact that the themes and notions of plurisensorial, pleasant, and paradisiacal flowery realms, had already been established by then, and actually originated sometime in the Early Preclassic or the Late Archaic era. During those times, these systems of signification were mainly expressed in perishable media, like paper, cloth, hides, wood, and many others that after thousands of years did not leave much trace. Flower Worlds are still present today as integral aspects of the living cultural heritage and lived experience of various groups of Indigenous people, not only in Mesoamerica as exemplified by the Nahua, Yoeme, and Wixáritari, but also among the Hopi, O’odham, Zuni, and other Pueblo nations from the American Southwest, or Oasisamerica, as well as other neighboring cultural areas. 

There are various ways through which Flower Worlds can be experienced as prodigious qualities of the multifaceted cosmos. Such distinctive modalities of existence can be perceived in special circumstances, in which common dimensions of space, time, and identity, merge with their transcendent counterparts. This is usually achieved through the undifferentiated domains of ritual and domestic labor by people who are sufficiently receptive, predisposed, and prepared to partake in communion with life’s most profound mysteries. Navigating reality and conducting life in concordance with traditional values also catalyzes the true manifestation of Flower Worlds in the intimacy of immediate experience, at personal, family, and community scales. During peregrinations to sanctuaries and sacred places in the landscape, during recreations of transcendent acts and events, and during effective ritual performances in general, eloquent and poetic speech, songs, music, and dance, can not only delight but also entrance the audience, consecutively revealing aspects of Flower Worlds at varying degrees, or even directly transport the listeners, active witnesses, and all other participants to these most sacred cosmic realms. Such powerful effects of ritual performance derive from basic characteristics of representations at large: for Indigenous people’s lived experience of reality, images, utterances, symbols, or any other signifiers, are fundamentally undifferentiated and indistinguishable from that which they represent. The signifier can instantiate, embody, and render present the signified or original referent. In other words, the symbol itself manifests what is being represented. Thus, flowers, altars, iridescence, and luminosity, along with other colorful and aesthetically pleasing things and experiential phenomena, do not just symbolically represent, nor do they only metaphorically stand for, Flower Worlds. When composed of suitable materials, set in an appropriate order, coupled with properly organized ritual acts, and all orchestrated in concordance with traditional signification systems, highly esteemed implements of liturgy can be made to converge in revealing the normally concealed Flower Worlds. Furthermore, all these phenomena, paraphernalia, and actions, when properly deployed, can also give tangible shape and immediate presence to Flower Worlds, or even embody them, for those who are predisposed, capable, and empowered enough to perceive them. 

As noted above, recent academic research evidences the fact that ritual and quotidian realms of human endeavors merge as prodigious media through which Flower Worlds can be created and made manifest by Indigenous people. Indeed, acts of spiritual, ritual, and domestic nature, are all equivalently conceived of as important actions and essential labors, which are performed in order to actively express a proper and dignified existence. Every-day actions such as cooking, burning copal as offering, farming, and changing flowers on an altar, are far from mundane acts and are thoroughly imbued with exemplar values, cosmogonic associations, and meanings of cosmological order. In Classic Maya art and architecture, scenes with falling or floating jewels, flowers, water, and other precious and sacred graphic elements, visually instantiate paradisiacal dimensions. When performing musicians are also included in an image, their presence indicates that the beautiful music itself makes Flower Worlds manifest. Ancient drinking vessels from the northwestern region of Mesoamerica are decorated and molded to embody floral blossoms, so that when these ceramics were utilized, likely in ritual or ceremonial contexts, people would be akin to moths, butterflies, and hummingbirds drinking out of flowers. The proper ritual and medicinal implementation of the ancestral steam bath house during traditional childbirth procedures in contemporary Indigenous communities throughout Mesoamerica, which often include healing and at times flowering plants, catalyzes the health of the baby and the recovery of the mother. Present-day Wixáritari weaving traditions from the Nayarit area, through elaborate and interwoven systems of signification, establish in each weaver the very capabilities of the divine ancestors: bringing about the first dawn, conjuring the rainbearing clouds, and ultimately generating the sacred flowery realm in the environment itself. Such elaborations of meaning exist in concordance with others across Mesoamerica, where the difficult work that goes into the preparation and performance of ritual practices and domestic duties, is conceived of as a generative expression of self-sacrifice and is essential to make Flower World manifest. In the words of Andrew D. Turner and Michael D. Mathiowetz, from the introduction to their co-edited revolutionary book, “Flower Worlds”: “... everyday behaviors and quotidian tasks serve to embody and materialize overarching cosmological principles in individuals’ daily lives as lived experiences” (Turner and Mathiowetz 2021). As elucidated in Alan R. Sandstrom’s contribution to the same volume, even though the greater mysteries of Indigenous people’s theological and spiritual conceptions are often too complex to ever be found within Western-style writings, they are readily expressed through multifaceted and intersecting approaches for engaging with the divine, such as ritual practices and quotidian labors. In the end, as well as in the beginning, general states of affairs are not brought into balance, nor is the human world ordered, through intense philosophical debates, but rather through effective actions of substantial impact. 

In her powerful epilogue to “Flower Worlds”, titled “‘It’s Raining Feather-Flower Songs’: Commentary on Current Flower Worlds Research,” Kelley Hays-Gilpin brilliantly summarizes some of the previous ideas: “[Recent findings by several researchers] make the case that the expression of flowery worlds in contemporary Indigenous practice reveals a monistic understanding of the world contrary to the Western dualisms of sacred/secular, good/evil, spirit/body, and so on. Sacredness pervades everything… In Nahua, Yoeme, and Wixárika understandings of the world, sacredness is revealed or unconcealed according to its own volition in collaboration with human actions and orientations… Both [spiritual and ordinary worlds] are always present, but the spirit world is usually concealed. As we intend flower worlds to be understood, they are made visible, or are unconcealed, in [ritual] contexts… Like many rituals, flower worlds embody reciprocal relationships among humans and all the other agential beings of the cosmos. Worlds in this sense are active, agential. Worldings might be a better term. Ritual performances that are not only sacred but entangled with all life activities - from hunting to feasting to weaving - are called “doings” [among Pueblo peoples]. These activities and their images, materials, and technologies, are generative. [For today’s Nahua people], one sings the flower world into this world. One sings people into relationships with the world… Wixárika pilgrims become peyote flowers… Felipe Molina, as a Yoeme deer singer, brings the sea ania, flower world, into this world… When he enters the village plaza, it becomes a flowery patio of the sea ania, where space and time, people and animals, are deeply connected in dynamic balance.” (Hays-Gilpin, 2021). 

As much as Indigenous people are able to bring Flower Worlds into the immediacy of experiential reality through dedicated hard work of various kinds, these very labors function as transcendent keys through which the special flowery dimensions are able to make themselves manifest in everyday perceptual existence. The dedicated labors of humans are not the only kinds of work that operate as mergers between different cosmic dimensions. Anything from raincloudbearing winds, flowing waters, decomposing remains of dead organisms, flowering plants sprouting, seed-spreaders, animals, the Earth itself, the cycling seasons, and any component or phenomenon of the environment, are thought of as laborers, because they all contribute in one way or another to the proper functioning of the whole ecosystem. Some of the components of ancient Flower Worlds could even be gendered and could be associated more with masculine themes, like warriors, war, as well as illuminated and highly chromatic diurnal realms of the Sun, while other fundamental aspects of these paradisiacal realms were more feminine, such as abundance, water, sustenance, fertility, and beauty. However, it is important to remember that gender distinctions are not always clear nor definite, and that the traditional signification systems are complementary and unitary in nature, allowing fluidity not only of gender, but of identity and states of being at large. Traditional Indigenous systems of existing, operating, and navigating through reality, are fundamentally interconnected with, and inseparable from, people’s surroundings and the environment, along with all its inhabitants, whether it be of earthly or transcendent nature. As Turner and Mathiowetz insightfully elucidate in their introduction to “Flower Worlds”: “Indigenous histories and identities are embedded in the natural landscape within multidimensional and interconnected worlds/realms along with the plants, animals, and ancestral beings that inhabit them. Performance and song as forms of collective sacrificial labor are critical acts at the intersection of these worlds to bring them into presence, which involves collective remembrance that is critical to identity formation” (Turner and Mathiowetz 2021). Flower Worlds, underworldly realms, celestial domains, the earthly plane, and all the other interconnected dimensions, as active and generative agents in the cosmic network of relations, ultimately bring one another into existence too. Not everything about Flower Worlds is positivity and bliss. Even though the colorful and illuminated Flower Worlds are understood to be qualitatively distinct from the achromatic and dark underworldly planes, both kinds of cosmic dimensions are fundamentally complementary polarities of one another, functioning together as parts of the universal system that configures reality in its present states. The qualities and beings from one realm may seep through or filter into another. Such permeability accounts for the fact that Flower Worlds can even be dangerous or deadly, and why there can be precious phenomena like the powers of growth and revitalization in underworldly domains. In addition, Flower Worlds grant a great amount of power, whether it be political, ritual, social, or of another kind, to those who can access them. But the moral ambiguity among people who acquire great power also increases the possibilities for the abuse of such power. Consecutively, constant counteractions have to be implemented to balance power, even if only partially.

The Olmec Dragon is a composite divine entity combining characteristics of different kinds of creatures, prominently reptilian (especially crocodiles), avian (especially harpy eagles), human, feline (especially jaguars), and at times piscine (especially sharks) attributes. Olmec peoples are considered to be the originators of complex societies in Mesoamerica, and their earliest remaining artworks go back to around 2500 BCE. Along with the Omec Maize Deity, the oldest divine figure known for them is this dragon. Interestingly, this being can take many forms, and the portrayals of this dragon deity have numerous variations, at times more bird-like, fish-like, crocodile-like, etc., depending on the intended graphic discourse.  

In past and present Mesoamerican graphic communication systems, visual creations (aka art, crafts, etc.) were and still are intended to communicate multifaceted forms of information (often for ritual or spiritual practices), which are depicted in very didactic ways. One of the Olmec Dragon portrayals' most distinctive characteristics is the so-called “hand-paw-wing,” which is a composite body part that integrates a human hand, a jaguar's paw, a bird's wing, but at times even a crocodile's leg or a fish's fin. One of the ideas indicated by the hand-paw-wing is that the dragon can freely navigate through the different cosmic realms, whether it is underworldly (often watery), earthly, or celestial planes of reality. The Olmec Dragon is associated with a very ancient cross icon, which in turn refers to the sacred world directions (east, north, west, south, and center), as the dragon has the power to traverse throughout (and take on the respective attributes of) said cosmic directions. Additionally, this cross has long been interpreted by scholars of Olmec art as a star, which in turn is associated with the movement of celestial bodies as perceived from the Earth, as well as the advancement of the seasons, the interconnected calendar systems, and the cyclic aspects of existence. Through the visual elements that images of the dragon display, an ancient Olmec viewer could readily understand that: the dragon can be as much on the Earth as in the heavens and underworld (because of the hand-paw-wing), the dragon is here and everywhere (because of the world-direction cross), and that the dragon has power over the ever sequencing calendars and the cycles of the cosmos ( because of the same cross, which is a star).

Interestingly, the dragon often lacks teeth, or it has one or two teeth only, which likely alludes to its old age (and by association, immense wisdom) along with its origins as an ancient divinity from extreme antiquity. This last characteristic, along with the fact that its main locomotive organ is in part a human hand, also alludes to the fact that the dragon is in part human, and more specifically a master spiritual/ritual specialist (as in, an elder mage or medicine person). Indeed, this would refer to the original ritual specialist, the one who is many, the many who are one, whose ultimate act of magic was the creation of the cosmos itself, and who embodies the different aspects of the universe, changing form and becoming this divine dragon. Furthermore, because there are several graphic expressions of human figures wearing the dragon’s hide or incised with scarifications/tattoos in the form of the dragon wrapped around their back and head, said depictions indicate that exceptional master ritual specialists could indeed become this dragon in ritual performance, just like the original one could. This notion is common among Indigenous Mesoamerican spiritual practices, even in the present, where powerful specialists routinely transform into divine/ancestor beings as an integral part of traditional Indigenous ritualism and spirituality. 

My triptych depicts a master ritual specialist of such immense power that they are in the process of transforming into the Olmec Dragon. The three panels have star flowers located on the four corners of each. There are extra flower-stars in the central panel, on each scale plate on the central dragon headdress, and on the large hand-paw-wings in the side panels. Also, the side panels show the specialist's more human-looking hands with the large dragon's hand-paw-wings behind. There are flower-stars and stepped fretworks in the palms of these hands. Said fretworks appear like stigmata in the hands, for they reflect the fretworks appearing on the divine dragon's hand-paw-wings. There are smaller hand-paw-wings and dragon heads attached to the tips of the fingers on both hands, indicating the Olmec Dragon is manifesting from the immense power of the specialist's hands. Furthermore, the specialist's left hand has six fingers, and the small dragon unfolding from these fingers has two heads. The extra finger is an allusion to traditional Indigenous customs, ancient and present, in which they consider anyone in their communities who is born different as someone who has a deeper connection with non-ordinary dimensions of the cosmos, and thus, someone likely marked to become a powerful spiritual/ritual specialist (the criteria for being born "different" is quite diverse). The central panel depicts the specialist's face looking forward and wearing the dragon's head as a headdress, in the same fashion as the well-known Atlihuayan terracota figure does (look up "Atlihuayan figure"). The eye area has been treated with similar cavities as the ones on the same Olmec-style figure from Atlihuayan. A small dragon, with it's respective hand-paw-wings, emerges from the specialist's mouth, indicating the dragon is coming into being from the specialist's breath/singing. Other indicators of the dragon-specialist's unfolding are the profiles to the side of the main head, both of which are profile images of the central face, complete with their dragon headpieces and small dragons at the mouth areas. 

There is a four-pointed star and an obsidian mirror within a quatrefoil located bellow the central face, indicating the practitioner's heart. Hand-paw-wings are set to the sides of the heart-star in a presentation gesture: they are presenting the triumphant starry heart of the dragon-specialist, a heart rendered more permanent, like a polished stone, and as such, it reflects that which is set before it, achieving communion between outer and inner universes. Just like this heart-star, the main hands and face emerge out of a partial quatrefoils each (the latter three are made up of three petal-chambers only, since the fourth is being covered by the corresponding body part that emerges out of it). These quatrefoils are based in the common Olmec quatrefoil motifs, which among other concepts, conceptualize ideas of sacred caves and world centrality. The idea is that the master spiritual specialist has conducted powerful acts of ritual performance within a sacred cave, and is emerging triumphant out of said cave, transfigured in apotheosis, unfolding prodigiously into various manifestations of the divine Olmec Dragon. In essence, the practitioner's transformation indicates the successful manifestation of the divine dragon's presence in the intimacy of immediate experience as a fructification of the properly executed ritual performance. In a way, with so many expressions of the Olmec Dragon present in the image, existence itself is dragoning (indeed, dragon is a verve here). 

Lastly, a note about the flower-stars, and especially the ones on the dragon's scale plates. I took the artistic liberty of fusing the images of four-pointed stars with that of four-petal flowers, not only due to the traditionally corresponding quadripartite form of both in some portrayals, but also to the close association between flower imagery and the sun (a star), something that occurs especially in the Maya area. One of my intentions was to include flowers and not do it separately from the stars. Moreover, my main intention was to express stars on the dragon's scale plates while simultaneously expressing flowers there. The idea was to reflect some of the Olmec Dragon images, in which the dragon carries the stars on it's mouth or scale plates, and fusing them with others in which plants sprout out of the body of said divinity. The latter graphic convention has long been interpreted to signify the dragon (and especially it's back) serves in part as the surface of the fertile Earth, with abundant plant life sprouting from it. Of course, this interpretation has to be extended: something else that is indicated with such foliated dragon images is the intrinsic connection between one of the oldest Mesoamerican deities, the Olmec Dragon, and the earliest graphic expressions of Flower Worlds, as conceived of by the ancient Olmec peoples who created both. 

Throughout the ages, Mesoamerican peoples have held flowers among the principal natural elements from which a great abundance of conceptual associations and ideological complexes can be elaborated. In Classic Maya art, not only the physical parts of the flower were accounted for, but also their invisible components. To indicate their condition as living beings, the aromatic fragrance of flowers and their breath of vitality were both depicted in the form of pairs of curving lines and volutes respectively. Flowers were also analogous to jewels, and in the iconography, they merge together as flowery jewels and jeweled flowers, at times indistinguishable from one another. From their physical inclusion in altars, offerings, and medicine, to their intimate integration into systems of signification, flowers have been essential for traditional ritual practices across Mesoamerica, as they not only facilitate communications with transcendent forces and realms, but can ultimately embody the latter in the earthly plane. Throughout the region, a four-petal flower can be an expression of the whole cosmos, with each petal directed to the world directions and the middle part instantiating the axis mundi, the fifth direction and cosmic center. Qualities of positivity, pleasure, beauty, divinity, and the bountiful abundance of the living universe, as well as cherished values like moral rectitude and the fructification of hard work, are often associated with flowers. Precious flowers incarnate the reinvigorating force of vitality, and freely substituted for elements that embodied the breath of life in ancient art, such as jade beads or outwardly spiraling volutes. In fact, both the Classic Maya and Postclassic Mexica held flowers in such high regard, that to describe something as flowery was equivalent to highly praising it and emphasizing its divine quality. Since flowers originate from Flower Worlds, they evidence and ultimately embody it, making it present in the human realm. Flowers are inherently generative in nature, even to a cosmic scale. Divinities and ancestors are often depicted emerging out of flowers, and some of the idealized paradisiacal realms of the multidimensional cosmos, such as Flower Worlds, were even conceived of primarily as flowery sacred locations. Exemplified by the likes of the Cantares Mexicanos, Nahua literary expressions of the early colonial period include exalted songs of gratitude that praise the supreme creator deity and sustainer of life, who is referred to as Life Giver and is said to paint-recite joyous and beautiful “feather-flower songs” with fragrant flowers. It is worth remembering here that, around the same time period, some of the accounts of the prodigious manifestation of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s image on St. Juan Diego’s cloak, relate that the Virgin herself rendered her own likeness on the cloak, and she miraculously painted it with the iridescently colorful flowers St. Juan Diego gathered for her atop the sacred Tepeyac Hill, which had prominent Flower World associations from pre-hispanic times.