Xochipilli

Xochipilli (in the classical normalized Nahuatl spelling Xōchipilli, literally 'The Prince of Flowers' or 'Noble Lord of the Flowering') is the venerable Mexica deity of lyric poetry, sacred song (in xochitl in cuicatl), music, festive dance, handicrafts, youthful beauty, ritual games (such as patolli) and the sacred plants that induce altered states of consciousness. Closely associated with, and at times interchangeable with, Macuilxochitl ('Five-Flower', lord of the Ahuiateteo, deities of pleasure and sensory exuberance), Xochipilli personifies cosmic joy, the solar fertility of spring and the aesthetic inspiration of nobles and artisans. His most celebrated archaeological work is the monumental statue carved in volcanic stone in the sixteenth century, found on the slopes of the Popocatépetl volcano at Tlalmanalco (today held in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City), which depicts the young god enthroned in a meditative pose with his face raised in visionary trance, surrounded by botanical carvings of psychoactive plants such as teonanácatl (sacred mushroom), ololiuqui (Turbina corymbosa) and sinicuichi (Heimia salicifolia). In the ritual calendar tonalpohualli, he governed trecenas associated with creativity and received communal homage at the solemn festival of Xochilhuitl.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

The flowers, the butterfly, the huehuetl drum and the pierced heart

Primary sources

• Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco), Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España: Book I (Ch. XIV: Macuilxochitl) and Book II (Festivals of the Cuicacalli). translation: Critical edition by Ángel María Garibay K. (Colección Sepan Cuantos, Editorial Porrúa, México, 1982). read
• Dominican Friar Diego Durán, Ritos y Fiestas de los Antiguos Dioses de la Nueva España (Treatise on Xochilhuitl). translation: Edition with commentary by Doris Heyden (Book of the Gods and Rites, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1971, ch. 38). read
• Nahua scribes of Tepeapulco (under Sahagún’s guidance), Primeros Memoriales (Folio 260v: The Adornments of Macuilxochitl and Xochipilli). translation: Thelma D. Sullivan et al., Primeros Memoriales: Paleography of Nahuatl Text and English Translation (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1997). read
• Traditional Tlacuilos of the Mixteca-Puebla Region, Codex Borgia (Plates 10, 57 and 64: The Lord of Games and Music). translation: Eduard Seler and Karl Anton Nowotny, Códice Borgia: Facsimile and Commentaries (Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz, 1976). read

Studies

• R. Gordon Wasson, The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica (Botanical and historical study of the statue from Tlalmanalco). McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1980. open
• Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hofmann, Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1979. open
• Alfonso Caso, El pueblo del sol (The religion and symbolic art of the Aztecs). Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City, 1953. open
• L. López Luján (Templo Mayor Project), Las ofrendas del Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan (Catalogue of votive offerings to Macuilxochitl). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, 1993. open