He is the double and the double is not always kind
Resonance
The dying those who keep the dead company twins and the misfit
Symbols
Dog headBackward feetEvening starBallgame yokeFlint knife
Mythology Summary
Xolotl is the dog-headed twin of Quetzalcoatl, the evening star, the god of twins, doubles, monsters and the ballgame, and the guide who swims the river of the underworld with the dead. The Leyenda de los Soles in the Codex Chimalpopoca tells how, when the gods had to die for the fifth sun to move, Xolotl refused, wept until his eyes swelled, and hid himself as a double-stalked maize plant and then a double-stalked maguey and at last as the axolotl in the water, and was killed anyway - the axolotl still carries his name. Sahagun (Book 7) describes him as the evening star and the twin, and the dogs that were buried with the dead are his.
Modern Practice
Xolotl is the companion for dying and for keeping the dead company, for dogs, for the twin and the double, and for anyone whose shape does not fit the one they were given. Ballgame work and shapeshifting belong to him, as does the awkward honesty that he ran from death and was still taken.