Mictlan: The Complete Journey Through the Nine Levels of the Aztec Underworld | Mythology for Sleep
A slow, quiet journey down through the nine levels of the Aztec underworld, made for falling asleep to.
Most afterlives are a destination. This one is a walk, and it takes four years.
The Aztecs did not believe you went where your conduct sent you. Where you ended up depended on how you died — drowning sent you one place, childbirth another, and most ordinary deaths sent you here, on the long road down. What follows is that road, level by level. A river at the bottom of the first descent that has to be crossed with the help of a dog. Two mountains that come together. A hill of obsidian blades. A wind full of flint. A place where banners fly, a place where arrows are fired at you, a place where something eats hearts. And at the end of it, after four years of walking, the ninth level, where the soul finally rests — by which is meant that it stops, completely, with nothing further.
That’s the part that stays with people. There’s no punishment anywhere on this road and no reward at the end of it; it isn’t a judgement, it’s a journey everyone makes. The dead were buried with provisions for it, and with a dog, because the river was the first obstacle and nobody crosses it alone.
The recording itself is the usual thing. A low, even voice, no music, no sound effects, nothing that rises or drops or suddenly arrives. Nothing in it is built to frighten you. Slow enough that following along stops feeling necessary somewhere in the first twenty minutes. If you drift off at the river and surface five or six levels down, that’s the intended use. Most people don’t make it past the first half hour, and the rest will still be here tomorrow night.
Put it on, turn the volume down, and let it go on without you.
Mythology & Folklore for Sleep — long, calm retellings of Greek myths, Norse legends, Egyptian tales, Hindu epics, Chinese classics, Mesoamerican stories and old folklore from around the world, made for insomnia and the hours when you can’t sleep. Bedtime stories for adults, told in a slow, quiet voice. New episodes every day.
