With the Toltecs we enter recorded history, though it begins with the myth of the god Quetzalcoatl, who was sent by the supreme god to be an earthly king. This god-king went through a career as a good ruler, but fell victim to temptation by the witch goddess. He was intoxicated by the magic mushroom which she controlled, and in a euphoric daze had sexual intercourse with her. When he recovered he realized that he had broken the sacred traditions and must leave Mexico, taking with him his dwarfs, and other creatures, who all eventually died on the journey. This myth can be seen as an allegory of the disappearance of the stars and the planet Venus as they approached sunrise. When Quetzalcoatl reached the sea coast he embarked in a raft made of serpent skins and sailed towards the sunrise. He was absorbed in the fire of the rising sun, though his heart was seen shining in a solar eclipse. A picture of this event in an ancient Mexican sacred book, Codex Vindobonensis Mexic. now in Vienna, shows the eclipse with Venus still visible, and this astronomical event has been dated as July, AD 750.
The only human sacrifice ever made to Quetzalcoatl was in his periods of invisibility, when nobles of ancient Toltec descent chose one of their numbers to be taken secretly through the carved serpent jaws of the round temple of Quetzalcoatl and slain. At no other period was any human sacrifice made to him, and no person of lesser quality than one of the highest degree of nobles might be sacrificed, since in his lifetime Quetzalcoatl had been the first ruler of the ancient Toltec empire.
As far as the common people were concerned, it was dangerous to go out in the evenings when the Evening Star was shining, for fear that his rays would send darts of illness or even death towards them. But to be shone on by Venus as Morning Star was a matter of great good furtune. It was the custom to cut one's ears with a cactus spine and take two drops of blood on two fingers which were then lifted up to cast the blood in the direction of the Morning Star. This was a little fering of discomfort and life's substance, meant to please the god Quetzalcoatl.
The god would always listen and dispatch an appropriate messenger. Sometimes, the terrible northern rains would come, sweeping down with the wind, now known to modern Mexicans as the Norte, bringing hail and thunder. In Aztec symbols, this was a destructive rain, bringing white snow and hail, like the bones of the dead. But if happiness reigned in the rain god's heaven then the eastern rain might be sent. it was thought of as the golden rain which sprinkled lightly over the fields, causing the young plants to sprout their green shoots above the earth, with a promise of life. to come. The southern rain was a rich rain of summer fertility, and was thought of as the blue rain, since blue was the sacred colour of Tlaloc himself. The southern rain brought warmth, richness, and growth.
The western rain was a red rain, not of blood, but coloured from the clouds of sunset. It heralded the period of fruitfulness in the autumn. It was the rain of richness and success, before the fields were left fallow for the new planting.. . .
The story of the first great king Quetzalcoatl relates how he came from heaven to earth and founded a dominion amoung the people of Mexico where he lived as a celibate, holy priest, until a dispute among the gods led to his destruction. While at a great ceremony, Quetzalcoatl was plied with strong drink laced with the magic mushroom. Tempted by the demonic goddess who inhabited the mushrooms, [or his evil brother] he seized her and copulated during the feast. On awakening from his poisoned sleep he realized that he had condemned himself. Giving up all his palaces, he travelled across Mexico until he arrived naked on the shores of the Caribbean Sea. There he embarked on a raft of serpent skins, and sailed far away, towards the sunrise, until the tremendous heat ignited the boat and his heart arose, flying up to join the sun.
Burland 1975: It is not possible to identify with certainty any figures which could represent Quetzalcoatl in the art of Teotihuacan, but to the south of the Aztec region, amoung the Maya tribes, there was a true equivalent to the god Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukulcan. This name means quetzal bird-serpent, the exact equivalent of Quetzalcoatl. The Maya god was also the god of the wind and giver of jewels; he protected growing things, and to some extent he was a fertility god. There are few recognizable images until later times, but when the Maya had fallen under domination by Toltec refugees from the fall of Tula, we find Kukulcan, with his name written in Maya syllabic characters, painted on a cap-stone from Chichen Itza, in Yucatan. Here he is shown in the centre of a sun symbol; the picture almost certainly represents a transit of Venus in the twelfth centruy AD. The Maya god is wearing a wind mask with an extended snout, similar to that shown on Aztec figures, and is disposing of jewels and showering blessings on the earth.
Burland 1975:48
It was very important to the Aztecs, as well as to most North American Indians, to have a knowledge of the four directions of this world. They were: the east, where the sun rose; the south, where the sun was highest in the sky; the west, where the sun set; and the north, where the sun was never visible. These four directions were the keys to an understanding of all religious and magical thinking.
The sequence of the path of the sun through the sky and into the underworld was also the sequence of life, in which the human being rises, becomes vigorous, weakens, and dies. The concept of growth and decay was essential, and it was linked with the idea of the sequence of the seasons and of the hours. It also had obvious affinities with the life of vege tation. A picture in Codex Fejervary-Mayer, now in Liverpool, shows that the east was the home of the Morning Star, the south the home of the Mother Earth, the west the home of the Lord of Jewels, and the north the land of the dead, as well as the land of the maize seed, which was conceived as dead maize, awaiting its resurrection in the morning of the year.
There was a reflection of this progression in the circle of the heavens. The Aztec deities could be found in the stars, where they had their dwelling houses in the signs of the zodiac. It is especially interesting to note here that many of these star groups were given names similar to those in use in Europe and Asia. That there was any very ancient cutural contact which may have determined this is by no means sure. It may be that the association of groups of stars with the symbols gave rise to some similar names, not only because of the shape of the groups, but also through associations with fertility in the form of seasonal growth and decay.
Another remarkable coincidence is that the Mexicans began their account of time (not the year but the circuit of 52 years, which was their basic time count) with the appearance of the stars of the Pleiadeson the eastern horizon at sunset. This occurs early in November, and it links with the basic calendar of ancient Europe, in particular the one used amoung the Celtic peoples. The Celts held their ancient fire festival celebrating the setting of the sun, and, of course, expressing the hope for a later return of the sun, in November.
In the night sky the symbol of the god Tezcatlipoca could be seen as the group of stars we call the Great Bear. To the Aztecs, this was the single footprint of the god who had lost his other foot when he drew the earth out of the waters in the titanic struggle before mankind was created. The god tempted the Earth Monster to come to the surface of the waters and drew her on with his enourmous foot. The gigantic monster snapped of his foot, but he in turn tore off her lower jaw. On her rugged back all the tribes of men were created and lived.
These ceremonies o ccurred mainly in the summer and autumn, although one of the greatest was celebrated at the beginning of winter. This was Panquetzalizli, the 'lifting of banners', which took place in the last days of November and the first part of December to honour Tezcatlipoca as Huitzilopochtli, the patron god of the Aztecs. The position of the stars marking the advent of this great festival were Aldebaran in Taurus, visible at midnight very high in the sky, and the star Regulus in Leo, equally high when the sun rose. In the evenings the constellation Aquarius was a sign that the power of the war gods was passing for a time, and that that of the fertility gods was about to come.
...The captives to be sacrificed on this occasion had their hands dipped in blood and the handprints were pressed on the doorways of the temple just before they were stretched on the sacrificial stones.
Burland " It is safe to say that the cult of the warriors was as characteristic of Toltec society as it was of the Aztecs. Although the patron god of the Toltecs was Quetzal- coatl, he did not entirely displace the great Tczcatlipoca. The two gods were both active in the minds of the Toltecs, just as much as they were within the Aztec theology, but their dominance in the social structure was apparently reversed.
Hernando Cortes landed on one of the very few days in which it was possible for Quetzalcoatl to assume his proper power. Thus the circuit of fate was completed and the patron god of the country, the Smoking Mirror would have to submit before the new power of the Morning Star. The history of the conquest of Mexico is, very largely, an enactment of this myth. The Aztec armies fought the invader only when the Morning Star was invisible, otherwise they would take up defensive positions or retreat. In all these events, the reign of superstition determined the course of Mexican history.
It is quite clear that for Mexican minds history was predetermined, and the fate of the nations had been decided by the rhythm of time even before they had come into being. There is no doubt that this pessimistic acceptance of total subservience to the rule of the gods led to a great deal of bravery, but it also led eventually to the end of their civilization. The Spaniards, too, fought with a religious zeal, though it was ultimately their greed which led to open conflict with the Aztes and the destruction of Tenochtitlan.
None of the Aztec wise men could have realized that the end would come so dramatically, at the hands of strange, white-faced people from over the seas only 18 years after the Aztecs had attained the goal promised them by the god. At the time of their fall, the Azte were indeed rulers of Anahuac, and their last fight was struggle of tremendous intensity in which the warriors counted the loss of their lives as the winning of a place in heaven; they fought furiously to the end for the sake their beloved but terrible patron god.
Burland 1975:70-71
The changing position of the fixed stars in the night sky was obviously important for astrology. The stars were divided up into constellations, and those which we know about appear to have been roughly the same as the constellations adopted in the European astrological tradition. Aquarius was a sign associated with the water god Tlaloc, and Scorpio was also the sign of the scorpion to the Mexicans. As has already been said, the Pleiades marked the beginning of every 52 year cycle, In fact, most of the major groups of stars had significance.
Burland 1975:102
There was, however, a central dichotomy in the spiritual world of Montezuma. He was properly elected to the leadership of the Aztec people, and was therefore dedicated to their patron god, Huizilopochtli. Their fate and welfare, he realized, depended upon the devotion the nation showed through him to this mighty power. But Montezuma himself was born on a day sacred to the Morning Star, Quetzalcoatl. He was thus directly involved in the strange conflict between the two deities. From our modern standpoint Tezcatlipoca can be seen as a projection of the 'shadow' side of human nature, and Quetzalcoatl as the fully conscious intelligence of mankind. In Mexican mythology these two gods were part of a great complexity of divinities. The indevitability of their conflict is as clear from the legends in the painted books as it might well be to a psycho-analyst today. Montezuma was well aware that this strain was present, and he must also have believed, possibly because of his own descent from the Quetzalcoatls of the Toltecs, that one day the power of Quetzalcoatl would be restored. The possibility of this return would occur in a year called Ce Actl (one, arrow-reed), which was the name of Quetzalcoatl as Morning Star, and on the day Chiconaui Ehecatl (nine, wind) which was the birthdate of the first Quetzalcoatl. This combination occurred every 52 years, and it was expected only once in the lifetime of Montezuma, in the spring of the year 1519.
[Next occurrence: 2039]
Burland 1975:110