How Cihuacoatl, as a Total Solar Eclipse, made herself known to me

Image: Collage of Cihuacoatl traveling over ancestral homelands, in honor of April 8, 2024 Total Solal Eclipse.

In honor of Venus and Jupiter coming together in the Cosmos today, and at the angle of my IC- the roots, home, ancestors in the birth chart -I'm sharing my story about Cihuacoatl guiding me to an ancestral journey to Mexico, where my lineage on my dad's side is from.

Because this is my first time sharing my story about Cihuacoatl and myself in this way it’s important that I take space to recognize some people who’ve had a significant impact on my path, the way I think about and view the world, and the way that I choose to walk on this amazing abundant Mother Earth.

One of these people is my uncle, Antonio. He encouraged me to learn about our cosmovision and to learn about the energies of Comos that rule over the day I was born. This led me to learning a little bit about the Nahuatl language, and the cosmovision of the 4 cardinal Tezcalipocas. Gaining even the little bit of knowledge that I have about the language and cosmovision of my Ancestors opened up lines of communication that could not otherwise have come through so clearly.

Through my uncle, I met an elder, Pete Jackson, who taught me a prayer to connect with my Ancestors. Before this prayer, I didn’t pray regularly because I didn’t grow up in a religious or spiritual household.

From 2018 - 2020 and in 2022, I was a student at Ancestral Apothecary, founded by Atava Garcia Swiecicki. I took a variety of classes and programs with many teachers, including Atava. This herbal school is where I learned to build relationships with plants and Mother Earth and my Ancestors. I also met so many beautiful people through this herbal school. *Much love to the Shooting Stars and Mushrooms- you all are an amazing group of people*

In November 2019, I began working with Marilu Shinn, who I found on instagram after calling in womb healing for myself. In January 2020, I participated in her 4-week womb and blood medicine circle, and on the last day of that circle is when the Asteroid Goddess Ceres came into my life (which I wrote about here). I continued to learn from Marilu in 2020 and for some time in 2021, where she facilitated several intimate circles on Earth-based medicine. She also encouraged that we learn from an original carrier of the Q'ero lineage, Don Alejandro Apaza of the Q’ero Family Apaza lineage and founder of the Inca Medicine School. In 2021, I became a student of Don Alejandro and his sons Don Raul and Don Justino.

There are also several authors whose books helped me to better understand and connect with myself, my path, my lineage, and the wisdom of the Earth and the Cosmos. V.F. Cordova’s How it Is: The Native American Philosophy of V.F. Cordova, Vine Deloria Jr.’s Red Earth, White Lies and The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men, Elena Avila’s Woman Who Glows in the Dark, and Mavis McCovey’s Medicine Trails: A Life in Many Worlds are all books that have informed how I view the world and what I believe it means to be human. Both Sergio Magaña and  Erika Buenaflor have written about healing practices with energetic systems of ancient medicine. I’ve learned from reading both authors about symbolism, energetic healing practices, and the cosmovision of my lineage on my dad’s side.

To these people, and many more, I give gratitude for you walking your path because it makes it possible for me to walk mine and that beauty ripples out across time and space.

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The Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024 travels through my grandparent’s ancestral homelands on my dad’s side; both his dad’s lineage and his mom’s lineage. In the photo collage I created for this post it shows the map for the Total Solar Eclipse, which travels through Mazatlan, Durango, Torreon, and San Pedro.

What makes this Eclipse even more significant is that April 8th is the death anniversary of my grandma, Eunice. And the day before, April 7th, is my great great grandma Florencia’s birthday. April 7, 2024 is also the Venus Gate, when the Moon and Venus come together in the sky; the two feminine luminaries shining bright.

A year before I learned of Cihuacoatl, an uncle told me that there is an Eclipse that travels through Mexico on April 8, 2024. In early 2020 I was doing research for an ancestral medicine project as part of an herbal medicine program. Through my research, I realized that the Eclipse happens on my grandma’s death anniversary and travels through her ancestral homelands. In December 2020, Cihuacoatl made herself known to me.

The following story sharing about Cihuacoatl is in honor of my ancestors, especially those I list below and those whose names I don’t know but who are guiding me on this journey and my life path.

My grandfather Rafael Vasquez Gonzalez, born in Mexico and some stories say Mazatlan. My grandmother Eunice Romero, born in Redlands, California. Her mother, my great grandmother, Concepcion Chacon ‘Concha’, born in Hacienda de Delores, Durango, Mexico. Her mother, my great great grandmother, Florencia Altamirano, born in Mexico. Eunice’s father, my great grandfather, Jacinto Romero, born in Torreon, Coahuila. His father, my great great grandfather Ramon Romero, born in Torreon, Coahuila. His wife, my great great grandmother, Ramona Herrera born in San Pedro, Coahuila, Mexico. [I included names the women were born with, not their married names].

My story of Cihuacoatl

From the Balsamic Moon in November 2020 to the Balsamic Moon in December 2020 (Balsamic Moon = day before the Dark Moon) I learned who Cihuacoatl is and made the connection that she is one of my guides supporting me to be in Mexico for a Total Solar Eclipse.

*Astrological note- I was born under a Balsamic Moon phase on a Friday, making this connection even more significant for me.

On Friday, November 13, 2020, under the Balsamic Moon, the word ‘Cihuatl’ was shown to me in a dream. A brown hand, with a feminine feel, shows me an oracle card with an image on it and underneath the image is the word ‘Cihuatl’. In the dream I know that it is a Nahuatl word, and I wake up saying the word in my mind and speaking it out loud. I did a quick google search to see if this word that came to me really is a word, and I found that Cihuatl is a Nahuatl word; its most common meaning is ‘woman’.

Later that morning, I went to my business partner’s home and shared about the dream. She encouraged me to look at an oracle deck of hers to see if Cihuatl was in the deck. I looked through the deck and there was no Cihuatl card, however, I did find a Coatl card. (Coatl is Snake in Nahuatl).

The Coatl card stuck out to me because I had been building a relationship with snake for about a year at that point. In September 2019, a few days before the Fall Equinox, I had a significant dream about a snake, whose blood I received through a ritual. After that snake dream I began working with the Yezcoatl, as shared by Sergio Magaña in his Caves of Power book. Yezcoatl is a Nahuatl word that means Blood Serpent. The Nahuatl language combines words to create a word, for example, Yezcoatl is a combination of Yei (three) and Coatl (Serpent/Snake).

The next day, two days after the dream, I asked how is Cihuatl significant to me? And I pulled a Tarot card which featured a snake and had messages of travel, journeys, adventures.

The day after the tarot message, three days after the dream, my business partner text me an image of a snake on a National Geographic magazine cover. She said it was the first thing she saw when she walked into work that day.

Three snakes showed up 3 consecutive days after my dream of Cihuatl. At that point, I knew that snake was somehow related to my Cihuatl dream. I wrote down different words in my journals; ‘cihautl-coatl’ ‘coatl-cihuatl’ ‘yei-cihuatl’ ‘yezcoat-cihuatl’. I was combining the words that were showing up in this experience because I know that the Nahuatl language combines words to create a word. It was my attempt to connect with the energy/energies that were coming to me, my attempt to understand and integrate the messages I was receiving.

On November 20, 2020, a week after the Cihuatl dream, I had the idea to check a book that I have by Erika Buenaflor to see if she references a ‘cihuatl-coatl’ at all. When I flipped to the index of Cleansing Rites of Curanderismo I found the word Cihuacoatl! Buenaflor writes that Cihuacoatl is known as an aspect of the Earth Mother Goddess (pg. 41). I was so excited to find this information especially because Ceres had come to me earlier in 2020 and she is also an Earth Mother Goddess. While I have three of Buenaflor’s books, I only looked at the one book that day.

On Sunday, December 13, 2020, under the Balsamic Moon, I went to the Napa River to write my New Moon intentions. These are waters that I was born near, less than a mile away at the Queen of the Valley hospital, so I visit her often and bring her offerings. To write my New Moon intentions, I brought with me the three books I have by Erika Buenaflor to see if there was more she had written about Cihuacoatl.

When I referenced the book Sacred Energies of the Sun & Moon, I was excited to find that there was more! Buenaflor notes, “Cihuacoatl, who was associated with the moon, possibly the new moon and the solar eclipse, was part of the Teteo innan complex of Earth fertility deities” (pg 19). This sentence helped me to understand that Cihuacoatl is a Total Solar Eclipse and she is guiding me to Mexico on an ancestral journey. It was especially sweet to receive this information on the day before the December 14, 2020 Total Solar Eclipse, and while I was on the lands that I was born.

*Astrological notes- the December 14, 2020 Sagittarius Total Solar Eclipse was near conjunct my Sagittarius Rising point/Ascendant. This Solar Eclipse was also the start of my nodal return because my nodes are in the Sagittarius/Gemini axis. During this Eclipse, the nodes were at 19 degrees and were conjunct my Ascendant and Descendant angles at 20 degrees.

While Buenaflor notes that it is possible that Cihuacoatl is associated with the New Moon and a Solar Eclipse, I believe that my experiences confirm that she is associated with a Total Solar Eclipse. Cihuacoatl made the eclipse aspect of herself known to me the day before a Total Solar Eclipse, and it is a Total Solar Eclipse that is calling me to my ancestral homelands on my dad’s side on April 8, 2024.

This is truly a once in a lifetime experience. An ancestral journey that is no doubt to bring more questions, some answers, a deeper knowledge of self and my gifts, and all of which is in service to the Earth to Humanity during these transformational times.

Tlazocamati, Ometeotl

Thank you, Creator,

A little more about Cihuacoatl

The following are quotes from author and curandera, Erika Buenaflor. I’m sharing these quotes to demonstrate the ways in which Cihuacoatl has been recognized and her role and responsibilities in cosmovision and in society.

Sacred Energies of the Sun & Moon, Shamanic Rites of Curanderismo

“The Cihuacoatl was head of the civil service and police, supervised the collection of taxes and tributes, and parceled out the land” (pg. 19).

“Cihuacoatl, who was associated with the moon, possibly the new moon and the solar eclipse, and was part of the Teteo innan complex of Earth fertility deities” (pg. 19).

“As a lunar deity, Cihuacoatl embodied the creative power of Earth and sometimes had malevolent traits, destroying life, particularly during an eclipse….As mentioned, Cihuacoatl was also the title of one of the highest governing positions held by males who handled the internal affairs of the state…Cihuacoatl is associated with midwifery, healing, purification, and acting as a protector and warrior” (pg. 33).

“Cihuacoatl’s transformative, generative, and regenerative nature could be invoked to cause and direct cyclical successions. During the Tititl rite, which marked the end of cold and frost, Cihuacoatl’s third-gendered aspect, along with the complementary male and female aspects, made an appearance, principally to secure an auspicious seasonal transition”  (pg. 33 - 34).

Curanderismo Soul Retrieval, Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul

Cihuacoatl is said to ground the human bones of the previous race of humans into meal, which was then used to create the present race of humans. She does this in the place of Tamoanchan, the place of origin, supreme heaven, the place of duality (pg. 109 - 110).

Jade Oracle, Deities and Symbols of Ancient Mexico, by Veronica Iglesias and Anne Key

Cihuacoatl: Snake Woman

Cihuacoatl was associated with creativity, fecundity, and childbirth. She helped create humanity by grinding bones that Quetzalcoatl brought from the land of the dead. She is an earth deity. Interestingly, a government post of the same name was second in command to the Aztec emperor. When Cihuacoatl appears, she is here to remind you that you have the power to be present, to create community, to serve as a leader. She reminds you that you can care about humanity and that you can move beyond yourself, taking into consideration society as a whole.