Mayahuel is represented as a woman with Agave branches coming out of her body in sign of fertility and a Jade ring piercing her nose.
The Legend says that when the earth first began, there was an evil goddess, named Tzintzimitl, an evil goddess that devoured light, bringing darkness to mother earth. To give a little light to the natives in the form of stars, she asked for human sacrifices in her honor.
Quetzalcoatl, was the God of Redemption, the Feathered Snake God, the benevolent God. Tired from this human sacrifices, went up in the sky searching for the evil goddess to kill her, but he met ther her beautiful grand daughter, Mayahuel. Quetzalcoatl fell in love with her beauty and decided to rescue her from her evil grand mother, taking her back with him on earth.
When Tzintzimitl found out that Mayahuel dissapeared, she ordered the stars to look for her every night until they find them and execute them immediately.
This forced them to run from one place to another hiding from her. One day they decided that because there was no where else to hide they would become trees. There were two trees, one beside the other, so that when there was wind their leaves could caress one another as sign of their love.
Tzintzimitl, would not give up in the search of the two lovers Eventually the couple was found, and Mayahuel died in a fight with the stars, eaten by them… but Quetzalcoatl lived, the leaves of his tree remained intact.
After the death of his goddess, Quetzalcoatl, terribly sad, burried the rests of her loved Goddess and flew up in the sky to kill the terrible Tzintzimitl, this finally restored light on mother earth.
The rests of Mayahuel came to life as a beautiful Agave plant. Quetzalcoatl was always crying, so the Gods decided to help him: first they sent a lighting strike to the plant during a great storm and when the storm ended and the fire was out and the leaves were consumed, the heart of the plant was puring out the blood of Mayahuel; a sweet nectar that tasted like honey and had a very seductive smell… Quetzalcoatl drank this elixir and it gave him a great feeling of peace and comfort, because the Gods had given it some hallucinogenic properties to comfort his soul.
Since then, the nectar from the Agave plant became a ritual beverage and a ceremonial offer to the Gods.
