Quetzalcoatl

This was one of those drawings that came to my mind all of a sudden, and other things I was doing were put to the side to do this.

It was inspired by a book I've read recently, Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012, the Return of Quetzalcoatl. It's a good book, go pick it up sometime.

Anyway, Quetzalcoatl, as I'm sure you all know, is the Feathered Serpent found in ancient mesoamerican indian mythology. He represents a coming together of Earth and Air, mind and spirit, and the enlightenment of humanity. In the mythology of the indians who believed in him, (and the hopis, as well) were are to go through five periods of history. We are currently leaving the fourth and entering the fifth. Quetzalcoatl comes at the end of an age to help move us along our evolutionary path towards the next phase.
As a god, Quetzalcoatl was the only god in the mesoamerican pantheon who was not apathetic toward mankind. As a man (he was believed to have incarnated as a king once) he banned human sacrifice, until he was ousted by a rival group of priests. He sailed to the west, vowing to return one day. He also had a beard, which indians do not, and this has led some to believe that europeans had sailed down there a long time before we think they did.