Teotihuacán II: The Shape of Space and Time

Introduction: This is not the blog I set out to write. The blog about the Temple of Quetzalcóatl is next, I promise. As sometimes happens, the subject matter took over the writing of this post, which is not all bad. For us raised in the West, space and time are two separate and distinct phenomena. 

But the Mesoamerican concept of space and time is completely different. For them, space and time are understood to be a single, unitary entity. This notion is so alien to our mental habits that it's difficult for us to comprehend. But it's worth expending the mental effort because this concept rests at the heart of Mesoamerican culture, religion, politics and civic life. The consistency of its appearance throughout the region is, in fact, one of the features that distinguishes Mesoamerican culture. So, here goes...

Standing atop the massive wall—la gran plataforma—looking down at the plaza, I heard the voice of the sage,

"Teotihuacán was not only a container of religious symbolism, it was itself a religious symbol."

I reflected on what had been in the minds of Teotihuacán's first planners and architects. Jenny's first post Teotihuacán I: 'Where the Gods are Made' introduced the 'What' of Teotihuacán—the city's grid pattern and the construction of the Pyramid of the Moon and the Sun. But that post doesn't really explore the 'Why' of the place.

Looking south on Avenue of the Dead
toward the Pyramid of the Sun

Jenny's post Mesoamerican God-Kings as City Planners—written after our visits to archaeological sites in Chiapas, including Palenque and Toniná—gives important background information. But Palenque flourished in the seventh century; Toniná in the sixth to ninth centuries, while Teotihuacán was at its height in the sixth century—a hundred years before Palenque and five hundred years before Toniná.

Along with Monte Albán—built by the Zapotecs in Oaxaca at roughly the same time as Teotihuacán—Teotihuacán is among the first religious-political-ceremonial centers to arise in Mesoamerica.

There is a monumental difference between the two centers. Teotihuacán stands alone as the first capital in Mesoamerica. During its second phase in the third century, Teotihuacán's population numbered about 30,000. At its height in 500 CE, the city's population reached at least 100,000—and some experts estimate the population to have reached as high as 200,000.

So I find myself returning to the question,

"What was in the minds of Teotihuacán's first planners and architects?"

Teotihuacán as Metaphor

Archaeological excavations suggests that Teotihuacán's planners and architects set out to build a city in the image of their cosmology—their view of the universe. In this sense, Teotihuacán is a city based on metaphor. Shakespeare comes to mind, "All the world's a stage."

Verbal metaphors of Teotihuacán come from the later Aztecs, "City of Gods," or even more accurately, "City Where Men are Made Gods."

The metaphors employed at Teotihuacán are images that, usually used to designate one thing, are applied to other realities. The comparison between the two is implicit. The Teotihuacanos understood this visual-spatial language, but we outsiders—and at Teotihuacán, we are all outsiders—have to struggle to achieve even limited understanding.

The Teotihuacanos lived and breathed the visual metaphors that embraced them—in the murals that lined the Avenue of the Dead, faced the Pyramids and covered the walls of their palacios (residential complexes). Most of all, they physically walked through the spatial metaphor that comprised Teotihuacán's physical structure.

The Shape of Space and Time

In the Mesoamerican cosmovision or worldview, space and time are represented by the quincunx—a symbol whose variations are ubiquitous throughout Mesoamerica, seen not only in the images found at Mesoamerican archaeological sites, including Monte Albán (Zapotecs), Palenque (Maya), the Mixtec calendar, Aztec calendar, but throughout contemporary Mexico as well. Once you become familiar with the pattern, you'll be surprised to see it everywhere!

The quincunx (Figure 1) depicts the 52-year calendrical cycle marked by celebration of Nuevo Fuego (New Fire). The belief was that the world was in danger of ending. To forestall this event, all fires were extinguished, and a single New Fire was ritually lit at the temple atop Cerro de la Estrella (Hill of the Star).  Priests lit tapers from the New Fire, and runners carried them to all the pueblos. The different colors represent the four 13-year components that define the 52-year cycle.

Figure 1: We came upon this diagram using the quincunx at the Cerro de la Estrella (Hill of the Star) archaeological site in Mexico City. The red circle in the center is the axis mundi, which represents the center of the universe. 

A quincunx is formed by the arrangement of five points inside a square. Variations on this basic pattern are practically endless. I even found it recommended as the preferred pattern for planting fruit trees in an orchard!

I tried to find a digital image of the Teotihuacán four-petal flower with its center point, but initial Internet searches yielded nothing. The four-leaf clover actually comes close:

Figure 2: Teotihuacán's four-petal flower sign with its center circle is remarkable similar to this four-leaf clover, whose stem forms the fifth point. 

Update: Reed and I recently spent a few days in the colonial city of Puebla, about an hour outside of Mexico City. The hotel where we stayed is a restored sixteenth century convent. I blinked in disbelief when we found nestled in the space made where two arches connect—this colonial rendition of Teotihuacán's four-petal flower symbol!

The four-petal flower symbol is prominent in this remnant of the original, 16th c. fresco. Its similarity to the four-leaf clover is quite remarkable!

A cross with arms of equal length forms this quincunx.

Figure 3: The end points of the quincunx's two arms represent the four cardinal directions. The circle at the center point represents the axis mundi (World Axis), sometimes referred to as the world navel.

Hold on to your hat! The solar diagram below shows how the Teotihuacanos and those who followed them

"...understood space and time as manifestations of a cosmic order underlying all reality, an order that expressed itself in space and time but was itself beyond space and time."

Figure 4:The Shape of Space and Time(Adapted from R.H. and P.T. Markman, Masks of the Spirit, p. 121). 

• Time: The diagram depicts time as the daily path of the Sun (Yellow Vertical Ellipse) through space. Rising in the East (Red Line), the Sun passes its Zenith as it moves across the Heavens before descending, at sunset in the West (Black Line), to travel through the Underworld passing its Nadir before rising again in the East. Teotihuacán's astronomers also tracked the Sun's monthly and annual paths, which were elaborated on complex and remarkably accurate calendrical systems.

• World Axis: The Blue Line connecting the Sun's highest (zenith) and lowest (nadir) points is the axis mundi (World Axis). The intersection of the axis mundi with the East-West line locates the center, which is the point—symbolically the world center—around which the Sun revolves.

• Space: The diagram depicts space as a rectangle (outlined by dashed line), or by the Green Horizontal Elipse. In any event, these horizontal shapes represent the plane that is the World of Humans.

According to experts, the Mesoamerican mental image of earthly space was of a landmass that was square, circular or four-lobed, "resembling our four-leafed clover," as one expert phrased it.

This landmass was conceived as a crocodilian or toad-like monster floating in water that merged with the sky at the horizons, thus enclosing the earth in an "envelope" of spirit represented by the water underneath [Underworld accessed through caves, streams, wells, etc.] and the sky above [Heavens accessed from mountaintops and pyramids].

Aerial View: Pyramid of the Sun

Take a look at this aerial view of Pyramid of the Sun (Click Google Map). Seen from directly above, the pyramid forms a quincunx. The staircase in the middle of the west facade is the west 'point' of the quincunx; barely visible are staircases in the middle of the east-north-south facades.

The central axis—axis mundi (fifth point of the quincunx)—is defined by the pyramid's highest and lowest points:

• Its highest point is the top of the pyramid (visible  on Google Map at the center of the pyramid); a temple constructed at the top gave priests ritual access to the Heavens;  
• Its lowest point is an ancient cave above which the pyramid was constructed; the cave gave priests ritual access to the Underworld below;
• The line that connects the cave below to the pyramid's highest point is the axis mundi. 

Axis Mundi Links Heavens, Earth, Underworld

Is your head spinning?  Mine, too.  But hang on.  Remember Mircea Eliade, the 1960's spiritual scholar and hippie guru? He observed that the line connecting the highest and lowest points is a familiar feature of any shamanistic religion.

This central axis of the universe

"...is conceived as having three levels—sky [heavens], earth, underworld—three great cosmic regions that can be traveled because they are linked by this central axis."

The point at which this axis penetrates the earthly plane (center point of the quincunx) provides

...an "opening,"a "hole"; it is through this hole that the gods descend to earth [from the Heavens] and the dead [travel] to the [Underworld]; it is through the same hole that the soul of the shaman [priest] in ecstasy can fly up or down in the course of his celestial or infernal journeys. . . .  Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, 1964. 

It is widely accepted that Teotihuacán's priests were following in the footsteps of earlier shamans in mediating between this world and the world of the spirit. The rites and practices at Teotihuacán and, later, throughout all of Mesoamerica, were undertaken by rulers regarded as god-kings.

As embodiments of the gods, priest-kings ascended sacred staircases to temples built near the Heavens and descended the pyramid's subterranean stairways and tunnels to sacred caves. In these temples, the god-kings performed rites to assure harmony between the realm of the spirit and the world of man.

Thus the line that connects Sunrise in the East (Red) and Sunset in the West (Black) on the solar diagram 'shapes' and defines the earth's surface and the time-frame of man's life and death, as represented by the Sun's daily rising and setting.

The cross created by the intersection of these two lines (Zenith-Nadir; East-West) forms a vertical quincunx. It was this worldview that Teotihuacán's planners and architects had in mind when they designed their city. Their intent was to create an earthly image of the cosmos as depicted by the quincunx.

Summary 

What is even more amazing as we look back from the vantage point of some two thousand years, is that later ceremonial centers throughout Mesoamerica laid out their cities following Teotihuacán's urban plan. Some experts speculate that their imitation reflects Teotihuacán's economic, political and military hegemony, but others say that the imitation rose from a desire to create on the earthly plane an image of the cosmos itself—an imago mundi (World Image).

Memorably, the Markmans have written about the grid design employed widely in Mesoamerican ceremonial centers. The grid design, they write, laid out the on the earthly terrain

"...five points of the quincunx that symbolized the earth and the cosmos, life and motion, and the endless cyclic whirling of time."

Related Posts

• Teotihuacán I: 'Where the Gods are Made' (Pyramids of the Moon and Sun, Avenue of the Dead);
• Teotihuacán III: Seat of Political-Religious Power;
• Teotihuacán IV: Temple of Quetzalcoatl (The Plumed Serpent);
• Teotihuacán V: Residential Palaces and Mural Art.

Still Curious?

Here is another example of the quincunx at Teotihuacán:

Fertility Goddess, Mural at Tetitla Palace, Teotihuacán.

The face of the goddess is portrayed between her outstretched hands; she has three layers of 'necklaces'. The green jade (symbol of life) necklace and ear plugs next to her face; the next layer has an undulating pattern, probably a serpent (fertility symbol); the third layer shows five squared, evenly spaced objects—the center object is presented as a diamond—within each squared object appear five dots in the pattern of the quincunx. (Click to expand)

Here are quincunx's from other contexts:

Spanish Colonial fountain, exConvento Churubusco, Coyoacán, Mexico City. Shaped in the pattern of the quincunx, the four points (corners) represent the cardinal directions; the fountain in the center is the axis mundi.  Reed had the nagging idea that the design of this fountain went back to the Moors, and he was right! See fountain below.

A similar, four-pointed fountain of Persian design in the Garden of the Sultana, Generalife ("Architect's Garden"), Granada, Spain (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia). The Moors brought this Persian design with them to Spain. Given the ubiquity of the design worldwide, Carl Jung might opine that the pattern is a world archetype.  

Here's yet another pattern of the quincunx:

Pattern of the quincunx appears as symbol in alchemy. 

Perhaps Jung is correct!

For the Irish, Four-Leaf Clovers symbolize Faith, Love, Hope and Luck.