Pictographic representation of the first dawn and its association with entheogenic mushrooms in a 16th century Mixtec Mesoamerican Codex

Resumo

Background: In Mexico, before the arrival of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, mushrooms had a paramount ceremonial and sacred importance as substantiated by linguistic and archaeological evidence and documented in various pre-Hispanic codices and colonial writings.

Objective: To describe a fascinating and paradoxically little known story linked to the conception of the first appearance of the sun and its relationship with entheogenic mushrooms according to the Mixtec codex “Yuta Tnoho” or “Vindobonensis Mexicanus I”, produced in the XVI century.

Methods: An exhaustive bibliographic review of the publications related to Codex studied was carried out in several digital databases at the University of Sheffield, the British Library both in England, and in Colegio de Postgraduados, Mexico.

Results and conclusions: A detailed interpretation of the pictograms that register the use of entheogenic fungi is presented from a ritual and sacred perspective for the Mixtec group in pre-Hispanic times prior to the birth of the first sun. This evidence constitutes a unique indication of the cultural and ceremonial importance of mushrooms in Mesoamerica, which survives in southeastern Mexico today in groups geographically close to the Mixtecs.