Quotes from _The Flower and the Scorpion_ #53

"Perhaps most important here, the text pictures Tezcatlipoca opposite Xochiquetzal. As the tlacuilo arranges the codex in couplets, he viewed Tezcatlipoca as Xochiquetzal's partner. In the image of Xochiquetzal (figure 22), three animals emanate from beneath her: a snake, a centipede, and an unknown feline. The snake and centipede, most often associated with Tlazolteotl, signified sexual excess. As animals of the dirt, they formed part of the tlazolli complex, the snake associated with the phallus and the earth, and the centipede associated also with the earth and with women who have died in childbirth. The batten Xochiquetzal holds signifies her role as a goddess of weaving, and that plus her headdress and facial paint would identify her to any Nahua familiar with her images."