Origin: Aztec mythology
Type: Goddess
Coatlicue is believed to have given birth to the Moon and Stars, appearing as a woman wearing a skirt of snakes. She has claws on her hands and feet, and wears a necklace of human hears, hands and skulls. Her name means ‘the one with the skirt of serpents’ in Nahuatl.
She presides over life, death, and rebirth. She is both the patron of women who die in childbirth and a monster who consumes everything that lives. In one myth, after she is magically impregnated by a ball of feathers, one of her daughters rallied the other children to overthrow and decapitate their mother. Out of Coatlicue’s womb was Huitzilopochtli, fully grown and dressed for battle. In another version, Huitzilopochtli arrived from the womb just in time to save his mother’s life.
