To those who see and hear, the Black & Red Ink refers to generations of highly skilled artists – lineages of painters, writers, storytellers, sculptors, cartographers, healers and shamans. They lived a discipline, a code, that originated in pre-columbian times in Mexico, a certain knowledge said to be 7,000 – 10,000 years old. Our book’s title, The Black & Red Ink, A Course in Freedom, honors these warrior artists.
The warrior artists of the Black & Red Ink define legendary, with a special place in history, both before the conquest of Mexico in 1521, and after, into the emergence of New Spain. While we are fascinated and guided by our history, our greatest thrill is that the Black & Red Ink is alive and well today.
The Mexican historian, philosopher, poet, Miguel Leon-Portilla, in his anthology of nahuatl poetry, titled The Black & Red Ink, La Tinta Negra y Roja, quotes the Florentine Codex, VI,P, 180 r-v:
Care for the black and red ink,
The books, the paintings,
Place yourself near them, on your side,
Of those who are prudent and those who are wise.
In this verse an Elder exhorts a young man to choose the wise path, the one of the Black & Red Ink. The artist-authors of these verses are known as tlaquilos – scribes, painters, writers, sages. Their discipline enables them to reach far above average abilities in language, culture, customs, religion, medicine, politics and more.
The art had to be more than beautiful. It had to be functional, in support of the People’s lives and communities. The artists earned, for instance, great fame as cartographers. Their maps helped the growth and progress of the conquerors, but the quality and method of their work saved many tribal people from extinction.
The nahuatl words intlilli, intlapalli, translate to the Black & Red Ink, but a more exact translation reads, “the black paint and the colored ink,” – as in a painter’s palette. This symbol, both subtle and simple, refers to the “tradition and knowledge that flowed through their artwork,” (Portilla).
At the source of the tlaquilos’ knowledge were the tlamatinime: the wise men, elders, ancestors, leaders and honored women and men. The word translates literally as a “person who makes art of their life,” and serves as a perfect introduction to the toltec way.
The Spanish accounts of the conquest and colonization, by mostly priests and scholars, paint the words toltec, tlaquilo, tlamatinime and intlilli intlapalli as the ultimate evil, orchestrated among the “savages” by Lucifer himself. This immediately put toltecs on the Holy Inquisition’s Most Wanted list.
Between the church and the army, the colonizers proceeded to silence, assassinate, burn, destroy artifacts and books, along with the people associated with them. Only a handful of priests and several indigenous scholars saw the value of the material and fought a good enough fight for many of the books to have survived. Conquerors don’t like bright people, yet the bright find a way to shine.
The functionality and power of the toltec way, of the Black & Red Ink, to survive the harshest of genocidal attacks is now more apparent as history plays out, 500 years later. The knowledge continued to produce functional art , in the arts, of course, but in medicine, nutrition, fighting skills and simply, finding a better way, as well. The way was artfully interwoven into daily life, hidden in plain sight, as they say. While the Spanish made us the devil and damn near wiped us out, the practitioners of the art went underground. We hid it as we lived it, in our homes and in our hearts.
We’re grateful for the length and breadth of this wisdom as it crosses mental, physical, emotional and spiritual scenarios with life-sustaining information that continues to be instrumental to the survival of not only the knowledge, but the People! Our ancestors left us with well-proven knowledge that now must be shared with the world.
Many good reasons exist for the knowledge to be kept secret, primarily for the defense of the People against the conquering hoards of the European invaders. When the indigenous cultures that survived by virtue of this knowledge are told they must share this treasure with the world, you can imagine it to be quite upsetting. We indigenous, however, were also told long ago that the knowledge would have to go out to the whole world at a certain time. We know there’s a good reason for that, too.
First the toltec way came back in academics, starting in earnest in the mid 20th century. Many of the indigenous artifacts, like the “books” given by Spain to other countries 500 years ago, came back to Mexico. Much of toltec ideology, systems and methods were uncovered and now form an ancient reference to our work here.
That book – the Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of knowledge – and 11 others would make a large splash in the world, in social studies, self-help, the New Age genre, the sorcery arts, healing and overall, in any activity that stretches human consciousness. In short, the knowledge of this ancient path attracted authors, philosophers and spiritual leaders all over the world. The path had been a secret for most of the last seven thousand years. and here it came, gushing out!
Along the way this knowledge has saved many indigenous peoples from extinction, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, even now. The toltec way began revealing itself and is now pretty well established for those who want to live the wisdom. People literally everywhere are in some way imitating the art of the Black and Red Ink.
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The Black & Red Ink 