Tezcatlipoca, the god of fate and bringer of discord and vice, was likened to Lucifer in the Christian tradition by the Spanish conquistadors and priests who destroyed the Aztec empire.
To the Aztecs, Tezcatlipoca was a creator divinity and shared the credit with Quetzalcoatl for the creation of the world from the body of the Earth Monster.
However, whereas Quetzalcoatl, known s the Plumed Serpent, was a civilizing cultural hero who introduced mankind to maize, Tezcatlipoca was a god of war who brought men into a cycle of destruction and new creation.
Tezcatlipoca’s cult goes back at least as far as the Toltecs (c. 950 CE). They told a tale of a mirror of dark obsidian glass that could predict famine. At a time of great need, when people were starving in the land, Tezcatlipoca found and hid this mirror in order to extend the people’s suffering.
Known as the Lord of the Smoking Mirror, Tezcatlipoca was believed to wear a mirror of the volcanic glass obsidian in the back of his head and was often portrayed in Aztec pottery and Aztec masks. Sometimes he was also said to have a mirror in place of one of his feet.
Traditions vary as to whether Tezcatlipoca lost his foot when he and Quetzalcoatl were fighting the Earth Monster in order to create the earth and sky, or when he was flung out of the thirteenth heaven as a punishment for misusing his dark ability to seduce a fair goddess. Often he was depicted simply with a missing foot, his leg ending in the shinbone.
As the god of night, Tezcatlipoca was patron of hidden nocturnal activities, often shameful and wicked ones such as adultery and stealing. Sometimes he was depicted carrying a scepter concealing a hole through which he could see the hidden side of people and their motives. Using his shadowy mirror, it was said he could also see the patterns of the future and the private imaginings of people’s hearts.
View Aztec masks and Mexico crafts at www.AncientMexico.biz
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This post was written by guestauthor on July 22, 2010
