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TOLTECÁYOTL, "the art of living in balance"

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Each of the six original civilizations in humanity had a thought structure that not only interpret the world and life, but primarily raises the significance of existence, both at the individual level as in the community.

These different and supreme "social purposes", possessed an archetype. So it was Akhenaten, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster or Quetzalcoatl, among others, who built complex structures of thought, which in general we could call "philosophies", but that were raised in their ancestral religions, ancient traditions, usages and customs.

In the case of the Anahuac civilization the supreme symbol was "Quetzalcoatl", who was not a person as it appears with the Olmec 1,500 BC, continues present with the Toltec in Teotihuacan 400 AD, and still remains with the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan in 1519 AD, all this for over three thousand years. Quetzalcoatl is not a "God", on the contrary, is the symbol of the sought-after balance between the spiritual part of the human being represented by a quetzal and the material part of humanity represented by the snake that crawls on the ground, named in nahuatl coatl.

Hence, "the Quetzal-coatl" is the symbol of the search for the long-sought after "balance" in life between the spiritual and the material world. The "balance" then occupies a fundamental place in the philosophical thought of the ancient Mexico, reason why what Toltecáyotl teaches in essence is to achieve "balance" at the everyday level of everyday life.

This "pair of complementing opposites" achieve perfect unity with "another pair of complementing opposites", formed by the right side of the human being or the tonal and the left side called the nahual. The first associated with the male world, the Sun and above all the rational world. The second associated with the feminine world, Moon and especially associated with the intuitive world. It is no coincidence that almost all the ancient philosophies pose the same.

Yin and Yang is governed by the same principle of a pair of complementing opposites. Thus, the Toltec proposal is that the human being is immersed in the search for the balance of his life, trying to "balanced go across" the four directions of existence, symbolically represented by the four cardinal directions, four religious figures, four animals, and four colors. He can't, and should not give priority to any of the four. Each one is an important part of our "being and doing", but each with its measure and proportion, without losing the balance giving priority to any of them. Our ancient Toltec grandparents left innumerable iconography and architecture of this precept. For example: a courtyard surrounded by four rooms perfectly pointing to the four cardinal points. But perhaps one of the most impressive and aesthetic preserved up to our days is called "Voladores de Papantla"[1] in which this philosophical allegory is represented.

Four flyers pointing to each of the four paths of existence, a fifth flyer that is in the center and is responsible for maintaining balance and with "flower and song" thanks "Him for whom one lives" for the opportunity of the. The four flyers each go 13 laps until they reach the Tlaltipac or land detaching from the post which means the tree that binds heaven and Earth and their roots reach the underworld. The Toltec proposal still remains valid and effective until our days. Even more so in the time in which we live, where everything is money and consumption through the cult to the golden calf. Indeed, in the society in which we live "merchants" have the power and they have turned everything into a "vile and vulgar business". Food, health, education, organization, love, human realization. Everything is business and "in business as in love, everything goes". In this "making money" there is no ethics, values, respect, dignity, fraternity, honesty, religion, law, authority, tradition, rule of law, etc. The "big fish eats the little one", abuse, force, cynicism, corruption, impunity are the means that justify the supreme goal... making money at any price, above all and everything... without measure, both in the private and public sector.

For this necrophilia vision of the world and life, the antidote is the ancient wisdom of the Toltecáyotl, which gives us a path with an own face and a real heart. As valid as Buddhism or Hinduism, but different insofar as it is the "own-ours", born and developed in our land and by our ancestors thousands of years ago. We need to change. "the difficult part of changing is not doing it, but imagining it".

 


[1]  The Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers), or Palo Volador (flying pole), is an ancient Mesoamerican ceremony/ritual still performed today, albeit in modified form, in isolated pockets in Mexico. It is believed to have originated with the Nahua, Huastec and Otomi peoples in central Mexico, and then spread throughout most of Mesoamerica. The ritual consists of dance and the climbing of a 30-meter pole from which four of the five participants then launch themselves tied with ropes to descend to the ground. The fifth remains on top of the pole, dancing and playing a flute and drum.

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