Dung Series, Piece 1: Big Beast - The Healthy, Hungry Universe

In all beauty, lies ugliness. Imagine the Universe as a giant, living, crocodilian beast perhaps a bit like the Aztec Goddess, Cipactli. This cosmic Beast ate and digested creatures, feeding more with her dung. Likewise, do all beings. Further, as we and Cipactli die and decay (even cosmoi die), we feed others enmeshed in the ongoing recycling processes of existence. Our cosmos is like the Aztec’s and dung proves essential for a beautiful, healthy universe.
In this series on Dung, I play with the beauty that lies behind the seeming ugliness of dung. In actuality, dung plays a universally central and beautiful role in the foods that keep all creatures healthy. Eating produces dung and, as gardeners know, dung is an essential food for growing robust gardens. Other cultures besides the Aztecs have recognized the importance of recycling excrement, often equating feces with the beautiful, naturally balanced processes of death and decay, which feed life.