killerplants.com | Herbal Folklore | Herbal Folklore Archives Most Recent | Free Newsletter Signup

How did the Aztecs use the divine cactus?

Suggested Reading—>Click here.

Killer Picks: NOVICA's Mission, 'Aztec Sun Stone', Jewelry, & more—>Click here.

Aztec legend says the people wandered for hundreds of years, seeking their new home. The god, Huitzilopochtli told them that when they had killed his nephew, Copil, and thrown away his heart, it had fallen on a stone in a lake. From the stone grew the divine cactus, teo-nochtli.

The Founding of Tenochtitlan,
from the Codex Mendoza,
Made for the Viceroy of New Spain, 16th C
Buy Giclee Print at AllPosters.com

The people were to build their home at that place. They would know the location for an eagle perched on the divine cactus. Huitzilopochtli named it, the place of the rock and divine cactus--Teo-noch-ti-tlan. The center of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan was built on an island in Lake Texcoco, modern day Mexico City.

In The Classic Codex of 1552 (trans. William Gates, 1939), teo-nochtli was recommended for toothache. Martín de la Cruz wrote, "Weak and decaying teeth are first to be punctured by a dead tooth. Then the root of the tall plant teo-nochtli (Nopalea cochenillifera (L.) Salm-Dyck) is to be ground up and burned with deer's horn...." These were combined with ground 'precious' stones, farina (corn meal), and salt wrapped in cloth, "...compressed on the teeth for a while, especially on those where the injury or trouble with the pain is felt severely."

The treatment completed with "white frankincense (probably resin of Protium copal) and the kind of ointment we call xochi-ocotzotl (turpentine or resin of Pinus teocote) are burnt over the coals, with the odor whereof a coarse pad of cotton is impregnated...kept moving frequently between the cheeks...to reach the pain spot."

Aztec Tenochtitlan has a beautiful website featuring the art and history of Mexico. To view the site, click on the link:

http://www.tenochtitlan.com/

TROPICOS of the Missouri Botanical Garden has a photograph of the teo-nochtli. To view, click on the link:

http://mobot.mobot.org/cgi-bin/search_vast?imagx=05100480

In the menu box highlight Plant, then click on Submit.

killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~

NOVICA's Mission

NOVICA®

In association with National Geographic, Novica today serves as an online arts agent for more than 1,700 artists in countries around the world. Visitors to the Novica Web site can read about the artists, explore their cultures, view photographs of their work and select from more than 8,500 handcrafted works.

Novica arts and technology teams (staffing Novica offices in El Salvador, Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Zimbabwe) interview each artist, photograph their artwork, post the interviews and photographs online, and handle all packing and shipping on behalf of the artist. International couriers deliver the artwork directly to customers, eliminating numerous middlemen and transferring the savings to creator and customer alike.
Click here to read more about NOVICA's misssion.

The Aztecs (or "Mexica," as they called themselves) believed the sun struggled daily against the forces of darkness. They aided the sun through human sacrifices.

Please note amber is a natural, fossilized resin, and thus color can differ. Amber may feature moss or lichen as it is part of the natural fossilizing process. In this way, each jewelry item that Dominguez crafts is set to be unique within the same design, since no two amber pieces can be the same.

Known to the Aztecs as cuetlaxochitl, it was prized for the curative properties of the milk that drips from its leaves, stems and flowers when cut; the pigment from the "petals" was used to dye cotton fibers. .925 rating silver