The great bird-serpent Quetzalcoatl is the most powerful and highly recognized figure in all of Mexican and South American mythology.

As a symbol he presides like the wind over all space.  He is the soul taking wings to heaven, and he is the blind force pulling man down; he is waking and dream, angel and demon.  He represents daylight and also, when he journeys to the underworld, night.

Quetzalcoatl is a composite figure describing the many orders of matter in creation, a kind of ladder with man at the centre, but extending downward into animal, water and mineral; and upward to the planets, the life-giving sun,and the god creators.