The Womb and the Serpent: Welcoming Coatlicue to the Multiverse

The ancient gods are never truly gone; they are simply waiting for a time when we will listen and let them through. Today, I am finally ready to unveil my deep-dive page on Coatlicue, the Mother of the Serpent Skirt.

Explore Coatlicue: The Womb of the Earth

In the Western tradition, we are taught to fear the "Negative Mother"—the archetype that creates only to devour. But for those of us with roots in the soil of Mexico, or for folks who have taken time to decouple themselves from Euro-centric colonialist thought, Coatlicue is something far more complex. She is the raw, unrefined material of existence. She is the biological and spiritual womb and healer of the cosmos.

When I have stood before her eight-foot monolith in Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology years ago, her image never left me. The decapitated neck spurting gouts of blood that transform into twin serpents became a motif and theme that I would eventually explore in all of my body of work.

In my novels, specifically within the Coil series, Coatlicue isn't just a myth; she is a full being, large as a galaxy, and building toward a cosmic fracture. If you’ve read 13 Secret Cities, you’ve already met her kin through her daughter, Blue Hummingbird—the giant snake who helps Clara and José Maria in the book.

As we move toward the release of Hall of Mirrors later this year, and eventually the standalone Coatlicue novel in 2027, this new landing page serves as your field guide. It breaks down:

• The Iconography of Dread: Why her necklace of hearts and hands is a symbol of universal nourishment, not just death.

• The Blue Hummingbird Schism: My "new myth" regarding the resentment between the progenitor and the protector.

• The Proxy Narrative: Why I consider myself a mere vessel—a proxy—for these stories as they "bloom" from the divine.

👉🏽 Read the deep dive: Coatlicue: The Womb of the Earth and the Hunger of the Serpent Skirt

See you in Mictlan,

Cesar