Atla

As described in the Hyndluljod Saga, she was a giantess, the mother of
Heimdall, an important Norse god. Atlantean elements evident in the mythic
relationship between Heimdall and Atla begin in the obvious derivation of her
name. She was also a “daughter of the ocean,” who gave birth to her divine son
“at the edge of the world, where land and sea meet.” So too, in Greek tradition,
the Pleiades were daughters of Atlas—“Atlantises”—whose sons founded new
civilizations. According to MacCullow (111), Atla personified at once the waves
of the deep and the “Heavenly Mountain,” Himinbjorg, from which Heimdall
derived his name, just as Atlantis was known after the sacred Mount Atlas. Even
in modern Norwegian, himinbjorg refers to a mountain sloping down to the sea.
Like the Mayas’ fair-skinned Itzamna, who brought civilization to Yucatan after a
great flood in the Atlantic Ocean, Heimdall was “the White God,” the father of
mankind.
Another Atla is a town in Mexico’s central plateau region, inhabited by the
Otomi Indians who preserve the mythic heritage of their Aztec ancestors beneath a
Christian gloss. Some Otomi tribes are among the most culturally conservative
peoples in Middle America, refusing to wear modern dress and still preserving
ritual kinship institutions handed down from pre-Spanish times. Because of this
maintenance of prehistoric traditions, anthropologists regard the Otomi as reliable
guides to Mesoamerica’s past.
Pertinent to our study is the Otomi acatlaxqui, the Dance of the Reed-
Throwers. Every November 25, 10 dancers assemble in Atla’s main square, dressed
in red and white cotton costumes, and wear conical headgear. From the points of
these paper hats stream red ribbons. Each dancer carries a 3-foot long reed staff
decorated with feathers and additional reeds attached. The performers form a
circle, at the center of which one of their number, dressed as a girl, rattles a gourd
containing the wooden image of a snake. The acatlaxqui climaxes when the surrounding
dancers use their reeds to create a dome over the central character,
taken as a sign to begin a fireworks display.
The dance is not only deeply ancient, but a dramatic recreation of Otomi
origins. The 10 dancers symbolize the 10 kings of Atlantis, portrayed in their
conical hats streaming red ribbons, suggesting erupting volcanos. The reed was
synonymous for learning, because it was a writing instrument. The Aztecs claimed
their ancestors came to America from Aztlan, “the Isle of Reeds.” The boy “girl”
dancer at the center may signify the Sacred Androgyne, a god-concept featured
in an Atlantean mystery-cult. More likely, the female impersonator is meant to
represent Atlantis itself, which was feminine: “Daughter of Atlas.” His gourd
with the wooden snake inside for a rattle is a remnant of the same Atlantean
mystery-cult, in which serpent symbolism described the powers of regeneration
and the serpentine energy of the soul.
Forming a dome over the central performer may signify the central position
of Atlantis, to which all the allied kingdoms paid tribute, or it could represent the
sinking of Atlantis-Aztlan beneath the sea, an interpretation underscored by the
fireworks timed to go off as the dome is created. The Otomi’s acatlaxqui-Atlantean
identity is lent special emphasis by the name of the town in which it is annually
danced, Atla. Moreover, November is generally accepted as the month in which
Atlantis was destroyed. The name, Otomi, likewise implies Atlantean origins: Atomi,
or Atoni, from the monotheistic solar god, Aton.