The Aztecs generally reffered to the nomadic tribes of the north as the Chichimec. Among these people were most likely the ancestors of the Huichol, who now live in Sierra Madre and Tarahumara, from the high north. Both tribes have preserved the peyote cult, which can be traced back to prehistoric times. As a result of contact with the Spanish conquerors, however, some Catolic elements have made their way into the Huichol ceremonies. The desert region the Aztecs called mictlan, "realm of the dead" is the Huichol paradise that they know as wirikuta. In the Third Song of the Peyote, it is said "In Wirikuta grows a flower that speaks and you understand it". Once a year, the mara'akame, the Huichol shamans, make a pilgrimage to wirikuta, traveling to their mythic origin and to the venerated peyote grounds. They undertake this journey "to find their lives" and to hunt the peyote they require for this purpose. For them, the peyote is fundamentally feminine. The peyote cactus is both the origin and the center of the universe. In the cosmology of the Huichol, it is symbolized as Grandfather Fire (= the sun), as a deer and as a maize plant. This trinity reflects the foundation (diversity and integrity) of the Huicholculture: Gathering (peyote), hunting (deer) and agriculture (maize) form an inseparable mythical and practical unity. The journey to wirikuta is a joumey to the origins of the world and of culture. Here in wirikuta, the gods created the world in all its manifestations; here is where time began, with all its consequences; here is where the peyote grows, which keeps alive the memory of creation by leading humans back to the source of all being, thereby enabling them to take part in the divine.