Who was Coyolxauhqui, the moon goddess whose body was cast down a sacred mountain in one of the most powerful myths of the Mexica (Aztec) world?

In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we journey into the cosmology of Tenochtitlan and the sacred stories of the Mexica people to meet Coyolxauhqui "She of the Bells on Her Cheeks." Beginning with a creative historical microstory set beneath the stars near the Templo Mayor, we trace her lineage, her contested position within Mexica cosmology, and the full, harrowing myth of Coatlicue, Huitzilopochtli, and the war at Coatepec. We follow the story forward more than five hundred years, to the moment in 1978 when a Mexico City electrical crew struck stone instead of soil and, without meaning to, brought Coyolxauhqui back into the daylight.

We examine how the Mexica understood the moon, sacrifice, sacred warfare, and humanity's responsibility within a living cosmos. We also explore the fraught survival of her story through colonial documentation by Bernardino de Sahagún and Diego Durán, the archaeological discovery of the Coyolxauhqui Stone, and what modern historians, artists, and Indigenous and Chicana scholarship reveal about her enduring, unfinished significance.

This episode contains discussion of ritual sacrifice, dismemberment, and colonial history.

What did the people of antiquity cling to when the shadows lengthened and they found themselves confronting the terrifying vulnerabilities of illness, childbirth, war, and the silent mystery of death? Across the sun-drenched river valleys of Egypt, the blood-soaked plains of Mesopotamia, the marble thresholds of Greece, and the frost-bitten horizons of the Norse world, ordinary human beings refused to face an unpredictable cosmos alone. Instead, they forged intimate alliances with the unseen world through small, tactile objects, sacred amulets, potent symbols, and deep devotion to protective goddesses.

In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we peel back the grand narratives of empires and kings to step into the quiet, candle-lit, and vulnerable spaces of everyday ancient life. We journey alongside archaeologists and mythologists into ancient bedrooms, gravesites, and battlefields to discover how human hands held cosmic power. From the fierce, life-giving magic of Isis and the monstrously comforting protection of Taweret in Egypt, to the shifting, celestial brilliance of Inanna in Mesopotamia; from the liminal crossroads of Hecate and Artemis in Greece, to the whispered sorcery of Freyja in the frozen North, we investigate the psychological, religious, and magical lifelines carried close to the skin. This is an exploration of ancient symbols, archaeology, and the eternal human desire to anchor hope within the palms of our hands.

References
Black, Jeremy & Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. University of Texas Press, 1992.
Cole, Susan Guettel. Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience. University of California Press, 2004.
Faulkner, Raymond O. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. University of Texas Press, 1972.
Faraone, Christopher. Ancient Greek Love Magic. Harvard University Press, 1999.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Basic Books, 1958.
Mauss, Marcel. A General Theory of Magic. 1902.
Pinch, Geraldine. Magic in Ancient Egypt. University of Texas Press, 1994.
Pinch, Geraldine. Handbook of Egyptian Mythology. ABC-CLIO, 2002.
Price, Neil. Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. Basic Books, 2020.
Riddick, Deanna. The Divine Feminine's Path to Seership. Independent Publishing, 2025.
Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga Saga.
Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2003.

Long before Olympus rose to power, before Zeus cast down the Titans, and before the constellations were fixed in the heavens, there was Pleione
.
Known primarily as the mother of the Pleiades, the famous Seven Sisters of the night sky, Pleione is one of the most overlooked goddesses in Greek mythology. Yet through her daughters, her husband Atlas, and her place within the ancient cosmology of the Titans, she stands at the crossroads of celestial order, navigation, motherhood, and the sacred relationship between humanity and the stars.

In this episode, we journey back to the Golden Age of the Titans to uncover the story of Pleione, explore the world she inhabited, examine what ancient sources actually say about her, and discover how modern spiritual seekers can connect with this quiet but powerful goddess of celestial guidance.
Ancient Sources
Hesiod

• Theogony (especially lines 346–364; 507–520)
• Works and Days (especially lines 383–404)

• Bibliotheca 1.2.3–6

• Fabulae 192

• Phaenomena (references to the Pleiades and celestial observation)

Atsma, Aaron J. Theoi Greek Mythology (entries on Pleione, Atlas, and the Pleiades).
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Harvard University Press, 1985.
Hard, Robin. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. Routledge, 2004.
Kirk, G. S. The Nature of Greek Myths. Penguin Books, 1974.
Larson, Jennifer. Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide. Routledge, 2007.
West, M. L. (trans.). Hesiod: Theogony and Works and Days. Oxford University Press.

In-Text Citations Used
(Hesiod, Theogony 346–364)
(Hesiod, Theogony 517–520)
(Hesiod, Works and Days 383–404)
(Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.2.3–6)
(Hyginus, Fabulae 192)