Youalmixtli

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐥𝐢 (𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐭)

I am in love with this painting. The energy it carries and the wisdom that is channeled through speaks from another world. A world of ancient intelligence, connection to all of creation and manifestation in this realm.

I asked the artist, Miktlan Kouatl, to share about the painting, and I felt the power shudder through my being.

Youalmixtli (or Youalmixtlet) is Nahuatl for Jaguar.
“Youali" means night, circle, or sphere
"Mixtli” means cloud
“Tlet" means fire

"The jaguar is the symbol of the void or of the night. In the Toltec system, it is a circle - “youali", which also means night. If you see light emanating from a point, it always is forming a sphere, while it is traveling. The entire sphere around the light is “youali." It is a container of everything.

In the Toltec system, all the symbols are concepts within ourselves, within the human body. We are always emanating light, and in ourselves it is how we think, how we do things, our rational part, our bright light. The jaguar symbolizes that sometimes you have to turn off that light and be the night. When you turn off that light, you stop emanating it. Then you can see clearly other stars in the night. All those stars are different people you know and how they do things, how they are also light, and how they can guide you. You can learn how to guide yourself by their lights. In a way, the jaguar is the unknown. How you can enter to other people places that you don’t know, or how other people do things and you can learn from them and expand your horizons. So you are enlightening yourself by the light of others.

The jaguar is curiosity and the imagination, how you can integrate other systems into your ways. Of course, the imagination has no limits. It is a way to expand and it is more an intuitive process, more than something rational. It is also feeling and accepting others and their ways of doing things. It is the most important - the acceptance of others. In this, the jaguar is love. To accept everything just because it is. And because it can show you something that you may have ignored.

When I am painting, the symbol develops inside myself. I learned a lot by observing my 3 cats to understand how they behave. They are not like dogs to form a pack, but they care about each other, and they watch out for the others' health and happiness. Sometimes when one cat is inside my house, it wakes me up to open the door for the other cats so they can eat or rest.

Cats define very clearly their territory. In ourselves, you define until where someone can go inside your life and your beliefs and everything that is yourself. You can let them in, but then they are in your home, your space. They have to be very kind with you and vice versa. When you go into the space of others, you have to be kind with them. It makes the relationship strong. They don’t force anything- they don’t need to be together, they just join each other for the things that they enjoy.

In the Toltec system, one of the greatest achievements to accomplish is to be a jaguar - to turn off your light, let others be bright and guide them through their own experience. Just be a container where their energy can flow and you can direct or conduct them to know themselves in a better way. Jaguar warriors weren’t fighters, like the army. If you achieve that place, you are disappearing, and you won’t be noticed- you are silent. Even though you are teaching. The best teachers in the Toltec system are the jaguars. Those who guide you to know yourself by your own experience. They just help guide your actions and let you grow. They are like a container and structure where you can walk and go further.”
~ Miktlan Kouatl