Xochipilli Collage

Xochipilli, The Prince of Flowers, is the Aztec god of flowers, maize, love, games, beauty, song and dance. (Xochi is from the Nahuatl xochitl or 'flower', while pilli means either Prince or child.) He is the husband of Mayahuel and the twin brother of Xochiquetzal. He is also referred to as Macuilxochitl, which means "five flowers". In the mid-1800's, a 16th century Aztec statue of Xochipilli was unearthed on the side of the volcano Popocatapetl near Tlamanalco. The statue is of a single figure seated upon a temple-like base. Both the statue and the base upon which it sits are covered in carvings of sacred and psychoactive flowers including mushrooms (Psilocybe aztecorum), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), morning glory (Turbina corymbosa), sinicuichi (Heimia salicifolia), possibly cacahuaxochitl (Quararibea funebris), and one unidentified flower. The figure itself sits crosslegged on the base, head tilted up, eyes open, jaw tensed, with his mouth half open. The statue is currently housed in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia of Mexico. It has been presented by Wasson, Schultes, and Hofmann that Xochipilli represents a figure in the throes of entheogenic ecstasy. The position and expression of the body, in combination with the very clear representations of hallucinogenic plants which are known to have been used in sacred contexts by the Aztec support this interpretation.