Codices - clip from "The Tree of Life"

http://www.docfilm.com - THE TREE OF LIFE (29 min) is the only complete film on the Volador (flyer) ritual of the Totonac Indians of Mexico.

The Tree Of Life grows
In the Land of Mystery:
There we were created;
There we were born.
There He by whom all things live
Spins the thread of our lives.

"Los Voladores" (the Flyers) is a 1500 year-old rite sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the Morning Star. From its origins on the Gulf coast of Mexico, the ritual spread throughout Mesoamerica: a special square was reserved for it in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, and a variant is still known among the Quiche' Maya in Guatemala.

Today "Los Voladores" is best known in its original home in the Huasteca region, especially among the Totonac, who have lived in the area for millenia. The version shown in the film is from Huehuetla, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla.

The film opens with images from the Nuttall, Laud, and other Codices. Narration is provided by "pre-conquest" Nahuatl verse from Texcoco.




At the home of the Volador Captain, we watch the preparation of the characteristic seven-branched wax candles, crowned with a representation of the Volador pole (a mayordomia obligation, part of the cargo system). Intercut with the candle-making, children learn the ritual of the Voladores by re-enacting it from start to finish.

In the forest, the Voladores bless the tree chosen for the rite. The tree is felled and dragged by 300 men along mule trails into the village, where it is wrapped with vines and raised entirely by hand to its new place in the churchyard. Preparations are completed as the Voladores bring the hub, the sacred symbol of dynamic change (Olin), from its place at their home altar, set it on the tip of the pole, and thread the ropes which will bear them on their flight carefully through the hub and around the pole.

Dressed in costumes drawn from 18th-century European models, the Voladores join the statue of San Salvador, the Risen Savior, in the fiesta procession. As the capitan of the Voladores dances on the narrow bub, high above the flagstones, other dance groups perform: Huehues, Quetzales, San Migueles, and Negritos. Then the Voladores descend head down, arms spread, in a slow spiral, to the sound of drum and flute...

Combining ritual, dance, music, poetry, and art, "THE TREE OF LIFE" is a meditation on the mystery at the heart of human life. It calls us to keep the world in balance with our lives. You have become the Tree of Life. Dying, you have been born again. Swaying, you spread your branches And stand before the Giver of all life. In your boughs our home shall be: We will be your flowers.

Awards: First Prize, Festival of Films on Native Americans (Mexico); First Prize, International Festival on Culture & Psychiatry; First Prize, The American Film Festival; CINE Golden Eagle; Berlin & London Film Festivals, Musee de l'Homme, Smithsonian, Walker, MOMA, Museo Nacional de Antropologia.

TV: US (PBS), Germany (ZDF), Japan (NHK), Sweden, Spain (RTE), and Mexico

(Note - the Volador ritual is performed as a religious ritual, for free, in dozens of villages in Mexico, not just in Papantla!)

Ethnoscope Film & Video

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Volador
• Mexico
• Voladores
• Totonac
• Veracruz
• Puebla
• ritual
• dance
• myth
• codex

[SICKFRESH619]

Our ancestors were DEEP in knowledge and culture...fuck hot dogs and hamburgers! pass me the tortillas and frijoles!!!

[SICKFRESH619]

thanks for what?...smallpox, slavery, rape, murder...NO THANKS!!!

[ohnoesfedzilla]

this has so much parallels with ancient hidden or repressed knowledge between the old world and the new world sometimes i feel like they were all masters

[tecpatochtli]

Thank you for this beautiful poem

[thenewend2012]

our ancertors knew it all.

[xmenox]

thats right we are our ancestors! we live because of their prayers and we are the fruition of their hopes lets live up to it!

its kinda fucked up Naco a word reserved for silly backwards people comes from Totonac.

Noxtin Nomecayotzin!

[beatrizquiroz]

Nice poem :)Viva Azteca/Maya cultura forever!

[beatrizquiroz]

Right on..he he ...dont forget thanks for christianity(being sarcastic)...my mom, being more indigenous than spanish(decent) is hardcore cathoilic and i find it sad..she doesnt know much of how are people wer forced into christianity

[Jinuniki]

I love this its a really beautiful and unique poem. Its also interesting in that the person who wrote this poem is asking the same questions that we do today. Where will I go when the end comes?

[ronrom123]

do not ever forget the last mandate of the tlatoani..