Who is Chicomecóatl?

Chicomecóatl, «Seven Serpent», is one of the forty-five energies that rule the days, trecenas and veintenas of the Mexica calendar. Ripe and stored maize — the seed that carries next year.

Why do you call Chicomecóatl an energy and not a god?

Because «god» translates badly. The Mexica did not separate the deity from the force it stands for as the European word does. «Energy» is not perfect either, but it does not carry that freight. It is a decision of this site, declared as one — and it applies to Chicomecóatl as to the other forty-four.

Why is the full entry on Chicomecóatl only in Spanish?

Because the entry on Chicomecóatl quotes Sahagún, Durán and the codices in their own sixteenth-century words. A quotation carried across stops being a quotation. The Spanish entry is linked from this page.

The energies

One of the forty-five energies

Chicomecóatl

Seven Serpent

What it rules

Ripe and stored maize — the seed that carries next year.

Why «energy» and not «god»

Because «god» translates badly. The Mexica did not separate the deity from the force it stands for in the way the European word does, and calling them gods imports an idea that is not theirs. «Energy» is not perfect either, but it does not carry that freight. It is a decision of this site, and it is declared as one.

The full entry is in Spanish, and here is why

What you have read above is this project's own summary of Chicomecóatl. The full entry — the part that rests on the sixteenth-century sources — has not been translated, and that is a decision rather than an omission.

We chose not to touch the primary text. Those sections quote Sahagún, Durán and the codices in their own words, often in sixteenth-century Castilian. A quotation carried across stops being a quotation: it loses the register, the ambiguity and the exact wording someone might want to check against a facsimile.

In Spanish the entry carries:

El nombre
Cómo la pintaban
Las tres que sostienen
El corazón de la troje
Las tres del maíz
De dónde viene su imagen

Read the full entry in the original Spanish → Nahuatl names and terms are identical in both versions.

Where its image comes from

The images in this app are drawn for it, not traced. Below is what the sources say about her appearance, feature by feature. What they do not say is left blank: a declared gap is better than an invented feature.

How she was painted

The source describes her image in detail: a crown on the head, a vessel in the right hand and a shield with a large painted flower in the left. Skirt, huipil and sandals went in vermilion, and the face was tinted the same colour.

The three of the maize

Three energies share the maize and are not the same. Xilonen is the xilote, the tender ear still in milk. Cinteotl is the living maize, the standing plant. Chicomecoatl is the ripe and stored maize, the dry grain waiting in the granary. The plant's three ages, each with its own name.

How to cite this page

Alma Mexica, «Chicomecóatl», The energies. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/energy/chicomecoatl/

The name

Seven Serpent. Seven is a number of abundance in the count, and her name places her on the side of what accumulates and suffices. Sahagún presents her without ceremony: the goddess of sustenance, of what is eaten and what is drunk.