Ilamatecuhtli
Old Lady
What it rules
Old age and what looks back — the veintena of Títitl.
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 Ilamatecuhtli. 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
- La máscara de dos caras
- El baile que recula
- La troje que llevaba su nombre
- De dónde viene su imagen
Read the full entry in the original Spanish → Nahuatl names and terms are identical in both versions.
The name
Old Lady: old age with rank, not old age as subtraction. The source records that she was also called Tona — «our mother» — and Cozcamiauh, «necklace of maize tassel».
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.
The two-faced mask
Her attire has one feature she shares with no other energy of the calendar: she wore a two-faced mask, one in front and one behind, both with very large mouths and bulging eyes. Over it, a paper crown.
How to cite this page
Alma Mexica, «Ilamatecuhtli», The energies. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/energy/ilamatecuhtli/