Exploring the Enigma of the Feathered Serpent: History Meets Legend
Quetzalcoatl. Kolkan. The Feathered Serpent. No matter what name you use, this legendary figure has been at the heart of Mesoamerican mythology for centuries. But was it just a myth—or something more?
In this episode, we’re diving deep into the history, mystery, and symbolism of the Feathered Serpent. This isn’t just some ancient god that people used to worship—its story has been shaped, twisted, and used for political control over generations. The line between history and mythology? Yeah, it’s pretty blurry.
And I’ve got the perfect guest to help me unpack it all—Steven Moore, an adventurer and author whose travels and research bring this legend to life. Together, we’ll explore how the Feathered Serpent has influenced everything from cultural identity to adventure storytelling today.
So what do you think? Was Quetzalcoatl a misunderstood deity? A tool for rulers to maintain power? Or something even stranger? Let’s find out.
Takeaways:
- The Feathered Serpent, known as Quetzalcoatl, embodies a rich tapestry of myth and legend across Mesoamerican cultures.
- Quetzalcoatl's symbolism transcends individual civilizations, acting as a powerful unifying figure among them.
- The notion of cultural assimilation suggests that earlier deities were adapted by conquering cultures for political control.
- The importance of firsthand experiences in writing is emphasized as it fosters authenticity and depth in storytelling.
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Transcript
The Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs or Kolkan to the Maya, blurs the lines between history and myth, leaving behind ancient temples, cryptic prophecies, and a trail of unanswered questions that still intrigue explorers, scholars, and adventure writers today.
Speaker A:Hey, I'm Luke.
Speaker A:I'm an author of archaeological adventure novels.
Speaker A:I travel the world looking for stories to put into my books and share with you right here on the Adventure Story podcast to help us understand the mythical enigma of the feathered serpent.
Speaker A:Today, I'm joined by adventurer and author Stephen Moore.
Speaker A:Steve has turned a lifelong passion for travel into a writing career that has spanned continents.
Speaker A:With a background in anthropology, archaeology, and art history, he weaves his real world experiences into gripping fiction set in the places he's lived or explored.
Speaker B:Steve, thanks for joining me.
Speaker B:How are you doing?
Speaker C:Hi, Luke.
Speaker C:I'm very well, thank you.
Speaker C:Thanks for having me on this exciting new podcast.
Speaker C:Great to be here.
Speaker B:Oh, you're very welcome.
Speaker B:When I thought about this, I thought, you've got to come on because we've talked about adventures in multiple countries.
Speaker B:We have had adventures in multiple countries ourselves.
Speaker B:So it was a really good feeling fit.
Speaker C:I think you actually made me sound very exciting.
Speaker C:Now I'm a bit daunted.
Speaker B:Don't be.
Speaker B:Don't be.
Speaker B:So jumping straight into it then, for those who are unfamiliar, who or what.
Speaker A:Was the feathered Serpent?
Speaker C:Well, Quetzalcoatl, as you quite rightly mentioned earlier, he is kind of considered the creator God, the mother God of most Mesoamerican cultures.
Speaker C:He actually started out.
Speaker C:I'm assuming he.
Speaker C:That's probably wrong, but I'm going to go with he because all depictions of him are male.
Speaker C:He started in the Olmec culture, which is considered the mother culture from most Mesoamerican cultures and civilization.
Speaker C:So he predates the Aztecs and the Mayans as far back as the Olmec.
Speaker C:Like I said, the mother culture of most Mesoamerican civilizations.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So many cultures have this, as you say, have a different sort of version of this same.
Speaker B:This same deity, almost the same God.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker B:Why do you think this symbol appears or is so powerful that it appears across different civilizations?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's.
Speaker C:That's an interesting way to put it.
Speaker C:I don't think that many cultures have it independently.
Speaker C:Like I said earlier, most cultures and civilizations aren't new.
Speaker C:Most cultures emerge from previous cultures, whether that be via assimilation or conquest.
Speaker C:And in Mesoamerica, it was a mix of both, mostly conquest.
Speaker C:So you know, imagine back in the day, you take over, you assimilate this once great culture into your culture, and you take out some of the best bits and the most powerful gods in order to infiltrate still your power over those people.
Speaker C:So familiarity is a big thing in culture and civilization.
Speaker C:So they keep the things that those people will respect still, but maybe change it slightly and adopt it as your own creator God.
Speaker C:So it's not like it's a new deity, it's just the same one as before, but just evolved slightly to keep those people that you have subjugated, perhaps, you know, under your banner, so to speak.
Speaker C:So it's just a clever political tool, really, if you're a cynic like me.
Speaker C:But really, it was what they.
Speaker C:It was the tool to keep those new people under your.
Speaker C:Under your control in order, really.
Speaker A:I see.
Speaker B:So in the same way, sort of Christmas that we celebrate today or is still celebrated today sort of has roots in the pagan cultures, the Midwinter Festival and this sort of thing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And way back, the sun God ran, emerged on 25 December, like 5,000 years ago.
Speaker C:So, you know, most, Most.
Speaker C:Most things come from something before.
Speaker C:Yeah, let's just put it that way.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:No, I love that idea.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And how that could be traced back through the empires, through the different stages of human civilization.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So some theories suggest he was based on a real historical figure.
Speaker B:What's your take on that idea?
Speaker C:I like the stories, but I don't really subscribe to that myself.
Speaker C:I just happen to believe that, like most mythical figures or creatures from.
Speaker C:From history, I think that Quetzalcoatl was just that, just a myth.
Speaker C:Again, despite being fascinated by all of these cultures and mysteries and myths and mythology and all of that, I do think they are just that they are often political tools.
Speaker C:Even though the people believed in those things at the time, there would have been a section of society, the upper class, the elites of the society that play on these things and, you know, just use them as tools, really.
Speaker C:So, yeah, that's what I think.
Speaker C:Just a myth that happened to be very powerful at keeping the people in place, in their right status, in the.
Speaker C:In the culture.
Speaker A:I see.
Speaker B:So there's like a fear element to it, you know, like a.
Speaker C:Well, that's what most.
Speaker C:I mean, there's a clue in the word culture, Right.
Speaker C:It sounds like cult, you know, and it's true.
Speaker B:Never thought that before until now.
Speaker C:Most cults have leaders or leader figures, so.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's.
Speaker C:That's just.
Speaker C:That's my take on it.
Speaker C:As an old cynic who has studied these things quite extensively, university and stuff, so.
Speaker C:But I love the stories.
Speaker C:They're great stories.
Speaker C:They, they lead to great fiction.
Speaker C:I would hope you've got some of those in your own books.
Speaker C:I know great movies, of course, and just great tales that have been passed down, you know, thousands over millennium now.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So you've written a book in which the Feathered Serpent features or is the focus.
Speaker B:Why did you, how did you work with this legend and how did you twist it for your own story?
Speaker B:And I suppose why you, why you chose the Feather Serpent even to begin with for, for the focus of one of your action adventure stories?
Speaker C:Yeah, I'm not very creative.
Speaker C:My book is actually called the Feathered Serpent.
Speaker B:So I literally title.
Speaker C:It is a good title.
Speaker C:It's quite evocative.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:As you know, I lived in, I lived in Mexico for a long time and wherever you go in Mexico there are symbologies of, you know, art and architecture of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent.
Speaker C:And you know, I studied it at university.
Speaker C:It was very interesting.
Speaker C:It was always there in my mind.
Speaker C:It's such an evocative title.
Speaker C:The myths around him, the creator God, you know, the God of wind in some cultures, God of Earth, God of creation.
Speaker C:You know, it's just so interesting and.
Speaker C:Yeah, so I, I just, I just found it fascinating.
Speaker C:And in my story, Quetzalcoatl, there's always a bad guy in our kind of genre, isn't there?
Speaker C:And the bad guy adopts that name as his like moniker, as his bad guy moniker.
Speaker C:He, he's a, he's a disgraced professor at a university in, in Mexico.
Speaker C:He was actually a good guy betrayed by the system because of his background.
Speaker C:So he wanted his kind of, let's just call it some kind of revenge over the system, those that betrayed him.
Speaker C:And you know, all bad guys have a name.
Speaker C:So he adopted the moniker Quetzalcoatl to strike fear into the, you know, to the people that were going to be his, let's say his victims or the people he wanted his revenge over.
Speaker C:So it just seemed a good name for a bad guy.
Speaker C:And I think it worked quite well in my, in my story.
Speaker B:It is a great name for a bad guy, to be fair.
Speaker B:I can see that.
Speaker B:Some kind of gangster type, you know.
Speaker A:Really sort of evil sort of guy.
Speaker B:But the Feathered Serpent is associated with lots of sites across the region of Mesoamerica in general.
Speaker B:But yours is set are in the sort of San Miguel region of Mexico, isn't it?
Speaker B:Because that's where you lived, which I know, having been there.
Speaker B:Why did you choose that specific.
Speaker B:That specific place and why.
Speaker B:Why did you choose.
Speaker B:Well, sorry, what place did you choose?
Speaker B:What sort of archaeological place did you choose and why?
Speaker C:Well, Luke, as you know, I've set most of my.
Speaker C:My action thrillers in places around the world that I've either lived in or spent a significant amount of time.
Speaker C:And I lived in, as you mentioned, San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico.
Speaker C:It's just.
Speaker C:It's an amazing place anyway, and I was naturally going to set a book there.
Speaker C:It just.
Speaker C:It just needed to.
Speaker C:I didn't know what I was going to write about, but, you know, when you live there long enough, the ideas come to you and there's a pyramid just outside of San Miguel.
Speaker C:I'm not sure if you visited or not, but it's called Canada Della Virginia.
Speaker C:It's like the.
Speaker C:The Mouth of the Virgin.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's from the Atomi people that.
Speaker C:Who are a branch of the Aztecs.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:They're the warrior class of the Aztec, the fighting class of the Aztec culture.
Speaker C:It's their architecture that built the pyramid or their architects that built that pyramid.
Speaker C:And you know, when you visit it, visit it, you can see representations of Quetzalcoatl on the pyramid, in the carvings and in the texts associated with it.
Speaker C:So it just seemed natural to choose that as the place.
Speaker C:It's a place I lived, so I knew it very well.
Speaker C:So it's just an amazing city and it was natural that I wrote a book, set a story set in that city that I call home for so long.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker B:I think you're right.
Speaker B:And it is a.
Speaker B:There's so much to that part of the world, isn't there, from the mountains to sort of Teotihuacan to the.
Speaker B:To the.
Speaker A:Whatever.
Speaker B:There's so many different legends and bits of history and myths and interesting stuff that you can tie into stories like art.
Speaker C:Absolutely right.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's a very evocative place.
Speaker C:Much of north.
Speaker C:Sorry, Central and northern South America, Mesoamerica, basically.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So many great sites, obviously.
Speaker C:Famously Chichen Itza in the Yucatan, you've got Tikal down in Guatemala, Palenque.
Speaker C:All of these great pyramid sites.
Speaker C:Some of the biggest and most impressive pyramids in the world.
Speaker C:Not.
Speaker C:Not the biggest, but some of the most impressive.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So many great sites, so much history, so many different cultures that overlapped and, you know, wiped each other out over a thousand years.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I've loved visiting there before.
Speaker C:I lived there and then I lived there too, which was just an amazing experience.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And I think one of them.
Speaker B:You're talking about how the cultures wiped each other out.
Speaker B:One place where that is very obvious is in Chula.
Speaker B:Cholula.
Speaker B:Cholula, isn't it?
Speaker B:Where you've got the, the Spanish era church right on top of the pyramid, which they didn't even realize was there, I think first for several hundred years.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker C:Sorry, yeah, I visited that.
Speaker C:It's just, just outside of Mexico City about an hour.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's right, yeah.
Speaker C:Actually the world's biggest pyramid.
Speaker C:But as you said, it was covered by, you know, trees and forest for centuries until finally it was discovered.
Speaker C:And yeah, there's a very cool whitewashed Catholic church perched right on the top of what was the old pyramid.
Speaker C:Very cool place.
Speaker B:Fascinating.
Speaker B:Fascinating place, yeah.
Speaker B:Why do you think it's important to visit the sites in which your books are set rather than Google Maps or YouTube or one of these great resources we've got as writers nowadays?
Speaker C:I'm not sure I'd say it's important, but what my readers tell me is that they really felt that they were in the place and were on some kind of a vicarious adventure with my mate, main protagonist.
Speaker C:And as, as you know, I've.
Speaker C:I've been lucky enough to live around the world and live in lots of different, really amazing, exciting places and I've set lots of books around the world and I find that, like I said, I don't know if it's important, but it really does.
Speaker C:I think it does help to get a sense of place and I think place is an underrated character in books.
Speaker C:You know, I like to use a full sensory experience.
Speaker C:You know, that you can smell the, the incense in Bali or you can smell the rice paddies in Thailand or, you know, the temples.
Speaker C:I just feel that that's a more unique experience and because if you've experienced it firsthand, I think you can write it more authentically than just having googled it.
Speaker C:Don't get me wrong, I've definitely done lots of Googling for my, for my research and I've read lots of historical texts as well, left over from my studies at university.
Speaker C:But I just think there's something a bit unique.
Speaker C:I think a reader can tell if the author knows what they're talking about.
Speaker C:But there's nothing wrong with researching other ways.
Speaker C:And I use all of the tools at my Disposal.
Speaker B:It's almost intangible, isn't it, that it's like an X factor, like a sixth sense that you can add in, having been there, having understood, or you see it in a slightly different way or describe it in a slightly different way, don't you?
Speaker C:I think that's exactly right.
Speaker C:It's the small, nuanced details.
Speaker C:It might be a.
Speaker C:You know, I like to use foreign words in my dialogue in my books, and it might be a word that only the locals would use.
Speaker C:And yet not many readers might have been to that place.
Speaker C:But the handful who haven't recognized that word, that's a really fun moment for them.
Speaker C:It's like a.
Speaker C:Like a magic ticket in the book.
Speaker C:Like you've discovered something, or it's a smell that you only can experience in a certain place or a food that you.
Speaker C:A local food that your character might eat that only if someone's been there themselves will they understand that.
Speaker C:So I do think it's a unique, unique experience.
Speaker C:And the readers do get that, I think.
Speaker C:Yeah, so, yeah, that's just.
Speaker C:And it's just the kind of stuff I love to read as well.
Speaker C:So I, Yeah, I put as much of that local tech, contextual stuff into my stories as much as I can.
Speaker B:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker B:I agree with you and do exactly the same.
Speaker B:So Mexico and the Feathered Serpent aside, what mysteries and places do you still long to write an adventure novel about?
Speaker B:Because I feel our work as adventure novelists is never quite finished.
Speaker C:Well, you know, Luke, you and I, we have similar genres and we have traveled a lot and we write places about places that we love.
Speaker C:So it's almost like a race between you and I, who's going to write the next book in the next place.
Speaker C:And I think you beat me to Cambodia.
Speaker C:Cambodia is a place.
Speaker C:It gets mentioned in some of my books because my main character has traveled there.
Speaker C:But I haven't yet set a full novel in Cambodia.
Speaker C:And of course that's definitely high on my list.
Speaker C:But since I got beaten to it, I think it can wait a couple more books until a bit further down the line.
Speaker C:But, yeah, so I'd love to write a novel, probably one of my Hiram Kane novels, set in Cambodia in the Angkor Wat temple complex.
Speaker C:Absolutely amazing place, as you well know.
Speaker C:There's also a loss.
Speaker C:I'm not sure I should tell you this.
Speaker C:There's a lost city in Colombia that's very famous.
Speaker C:It's called the Ciudad Perdida, literally Lost city of Colombia.
Speaker C:I haven't been myself so that's definitely a research trip down the line.
Speaker C:But I'd like to write a book about set in Colombia at least with that involved somehow.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:Yeah, I've got so many ideas going around and in fact we had a conversation, didn't we, a couple of months ago and you said you had had some ideas for one in Greece.
Speaker B:And I thought, ah, damn, that means I can't do my next one in Greece.
Speaker B:You know, I thought I'd best leave that to you.
Speaker C:Yeah, the first draft of that is largely finished, so yeah, you can keep your hands off that one.
Speaker C:But that set it in Crete.
Speaker C:Crete and the Gnosis.
Speaker C:The Gnosis temple and the Minoan culture is something that I really studied a lot at university is so fascinating and actually one of the most important cultures of European history and thus the world history in my opinion, and that's Theseus.
Speaker C:And the Minotaur was set, you know, was based around that.
Speaker C:So I just think there's a, there's great history and a great story there and I hope to be the one to put that action thriller novel out there first.
Speaker C:I'm probably about three months away from that one being available, so I look.
Speaker B:Forward to reading it.
Speaker C:And I think I can say the title live here for the first time.
Speaker C:Where Monsters Dwell is the title.
Speaker C:That's an exclusive view there right on this podcast.
Speaker C:Right on this podcast.
Speaker B:Love that.
Speaker A:Look forward to it.
Speaker C:To be HIRAM KANE Number nine, I think might be 10 or 10.
Speaker B:Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker B:So you've talked about your studies of these cultures, you've talked about your, your experience writing them, but what inspired this love of adventure, this love of adventure and adventure stories?
Speaker B:What first sparked this imagination for you to sort of put pen to paper and, and want to actually make these stories yourself?
Speaker C:Well, that is a very good question and the answer is quite simple, but also multi layered.
Speaker C:Like the travels came first for me.
Speaker C:I'd been traveling.
Speaker C:I left for my first kind of backpacking adventure a very long time ago, 32 years ago when I was.
Speaker C:People can work that out.
Speaker C:I'm an old man now.
Speaker C:So it was the travels first and I started out traveling in Bali, hence why my first action thriller is set in Bali.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's the travels that came first to my being inspired around the world in all these cool places.
Speaker C:Then I, then I went to University as a 35 year old and studied my archaeology and art history and I got really deeper into the, all of that stuff and then actually I got challenged to write a novel by, as you know, My missus challenged me to write a novel, so I did.
Speaker C:And then that's where the, you know, the book started.
Speaker C:And naturally I was as an adventurer myself, some might say I was always going to write in that genre.
Speaker C:And of course, like you and like most of our peers in our genre, we loved the books by people like Clive Cussler, the granddaddy of action adventure.
Speaker C:We love the Indiana Jones movies, for example.
Speaker C:So it was natural that I was going to write in that genre.
Speaker C:And it did come quite naturally to me as well.
Speaker C:Not saying writing is easy, it's not.
Speaker C:It's very difficult.
Speaker C:But that was, if I was ever going to write a series of novels, it would be in that, in that adventure vein because I just, just love it.
Speaker C:I love to read that stuff.
Speaker B:Brilliant.
Speaker B:No, I absolutely agree with you and I feel the same myself.
Speaker B:So where can people find you and your books online?
Speaker C:You can search my name, Stephen Moore, Stephen with a V M O O R E.
Speaker C:And you can find my books on Amazon.
Speaker C:They're all available there under, just under my regular name.
Speaker C:And the Hiram Cain action thrillers is the Hiram Cain is my, my main protagonist.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So easy to find on, on Amazon across the world.
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