Page:Historia Verdadera del Mexico profundo.djvu/127

 represent the "imperishable" part of the human body. The skull is the last part to disintegrate and is taken as a symbol to refer to the eternal presence of the spirit. So ancient grandparents when they used a skull, they philosophically referred to the eternal spiritual life.

The ancient Mexicans life on earth was temporary. Eternal life was found after death. Whether in the Chichihuacuahco for children, place where infants that died at an early age went. A paradise with a huge tree that sprouted milk droplets from its branches. These children would wait there for the creation of the sixth Sun to be born again.

The Tlatócan was reserved for people who die from water-related causes. A concept very close to the Judeo-Christian idea of paradise.

The place for male and female warriors of the Flower War. The Ilhuicatonantiuh was the sky where the male warriors accompanied Sun on its daily path, from dawn through the Zenith, and female warriors from the zenith through sunset. A luminous place par excellence. And Mictlán, the place for people who died from common death. In the Mictlán they would suffer before reaching the Lord of death and disappear.