Winter Solstice and the Birth of the Goddess Malinalli: Magic Biding Time

To bide your time means to wait for something, in a state of readiness and expectation.  It implies a sense of being outside of right timing, in a state of holding, where the essence of something meaningful will not yet be received in the proper spirit.  It means, in many cases, preserving a potential reality, without revealing it, and without letting it flower.  Not forever.  Just for now.

There is a Winter Solstice story from Ancient Mexico that has been on my mind.  It has to do with the birth of magic, and with the Earth and Cosmos at odds.  When personifications of such large forces, and the relationship between them, are at play in myth, it often speaks to cycles of time, strong astrological influence, and how these shape the fundamental rules of collective reality.

So here it is.

Once, a very long while ago, the Mother Earth, known as Tonantzin Tlalli Coatlicue became pregnant.  This pregnancy was a surprise.  There was no father to her conception, and she was no longer young.  When her first children, the Moon and Stars, heard of this unusual pregnancy, they were scandalized.  They vowed in secret to attack and kill her during her birthing labors.  Upon learning of this plan, the Earth was deeply saddened, but just then she heard a voice from within which said “Don’t worry, Mother.  When the time comes, I will protect you.”  Before long, her labors began, and as she feared the Moon and Stars attacked.  Her child, however, was born quickly and with a large hook in his hand.  Huitzilopochtli, the force of warriorship, discipline, and overcoming weaknesses in order to make the impossible possible, who would later lead the Mexica (Aztec) people to their empire through dreams and symbols, emerged fighting.  He defeated the Moon and Stars in battle, slicing the dualistic Moon into its four phases, into the aspect known as Coyolxauhqui.  But, while this was happening and the attention of the Cosmos was distracted, a second child was born.  The girl child, and powerful feminine force known as Malinalli arrived almost in secret.  She was born the pure force of magic, the natural magic of the Earth, carrying the sacred mystical knowledge of the plants, of seeing, of shapeshifting, of the art of sorcery.  Yet, when her mother saw her, she did not celebrate.  She was worried.  She told her, with her first words from mother to child, to hide what she was.  She told her that the world was not ready for her gifts.  She told her to keep them quietly within, until a certain time, when a great shift would take place.

But Malinalli didn’t obey.  Long story short, it proved not to be her time.

This is a story of the Fifth Sun, the cycle of 6,625 years that just ended this year in May.  This “Sun of Injustice” or “Angry Sun” carried a theme of oppression and marginalization for the hidden arts and the Feminine Forces, among other minorities in our world.  That great shift the Mother Earth was describing, and for which Malinalli was told to wait, is taking place now.  The Mexica/Aztec Empire ended 500 years ago.  This vision of an impending world in which the cosmic alignments of the moon, the stars, the planets, and the earth would be in support of magic, of the Feminine Path of Knowledge, and of the secret power within plants, has been held for a very long time.  And, this is just one story, from one ancient culture among many that made predictions about our time.

And the ancients didn’t just wait passively for it.  They studied, prepared, preserved what they learned and developed, and trusted the cycles of time, as well as the future generations.  They did their part to contribute to a complex system of cosmic observations, measurements, and predictions.  They passed down theories, practices, and stories like this one, so that way out here in the future, we could perhaps wake up the parts of us that were not welcome to flower before, and think about our time in a different scope. What are we going to do?

To bide your time means to wait for something, in a state of readiness and expectation.  It implies a sense of being outside of right timing, in a state of holding, where the essence of something meaningful will not yet be received in the proper spirit.  It means, in many cases, preserving a potential reality, without revealing it, and without letting it flower.  But not forever. 

What opportunity are you waiting for, to bring your true gifts forward, to step into belief in yourself and the potential of magic that resides in our Earth?  How can you help to create the conditions you need?  The dark of Winter is a time for dreaming, preparing, gathering momentum, waiting, but not forever.  Within that quiet, hidden time within, what are you going to weave?  Light a candle, to represent Malinalli and all those who held the light of sacred knowledge, even when it would not be well received.  Gaze into it.  Ask yourself the questions:  What part of you has been biding its time, and for what purpose?  How can you create the conditions for that part of you to rise, flourish, and reveal itself? 

Ometeotl.

-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez, originally for publication with the eleventh house.