neptunesdolphins | Tezcatlipoca (Great Smoking Mirror) of the Aztecs (Reply)

Writing about Tezcatlipoca (the Great Smoking Mirror) is difficult since most of the materials are written from the Western point of view. Most say He is the God of Evil, and emphasize the human sacrifices done by the Aztecs to Him. To know this God means going beyond Western sensibilities to understand Aztec cosmology. In Aztec philosophy, balance is essential since the world is constantly transforming. To stabilize the world, the Gods did sacrifice Themselves to ensure that life would thrive. Therefore, offerings of blood, flowers, and food would nourish the Gods in their efforts.

As the God of the Night, Tezcatlipoca is a significant part of maintaining this balance. Since He represent change through conflict, He is intimidating. Moreover, Tezcatlipoca is one of the Four Creator Gods of the Aztec. (Note 1) (Since Each is associated with a direction, He rules the North, as the Lord of Ursa Major.) This God created the First Sun, and then destroyed it later by transforming into a Jaguar. Tezcatlipoca is the darkness that offers balance to the light.

Tezcatlipoca’s face paint represents the jaguar aspect of his Being. Yellow and black bands (Note 2) appear across his body. Because He sacrificed his right foot in creating the world, this God is usually shown with his symbols – the Obsidian Mirror, Bone or Snake – in its place. He often wears a headdress of feather, flowers or flint knives.

Tezcatlipoca is best known as the “Smoking Mirror.” Obsidian mirrors were used by priests to access the spiritual world. For them, the Mirror is the tool that Tezcatlipoca uses to see what is happening in the world. The Mirror represents his omnipresence.

Tezcatlipoca, the Fifth Sun, is the Patron of Warriors and the Nobility. This God would appear at crossroads in the dead of night to challenge warriors. In that aspect, Tezcatlipoca usually comes as a Jaguar. Meanwhile, the Chief Speaker (King) of the Aztecs would stand before the God naked to “show how unworthy he was” to speak for the God.

Tezcatlipoca is a complex and fluid God. He represents the constant change that occurs in life. He governs power and gain, as well as the loss and conflict that comes with that. He embodies the duality of creation and destruction, as the Harbinger of Change.

Bernardino de Sahagun in Book VI of the “Florentine Codex” listed 360 aspects of Tezcatlipoca demonstrating this God’s complexity. (Note 3) Some of them are:

Chalchiuhtecolotl: “Precious Owl”

Chalchiuhtotolin: “Precious Turkey”

Icnoacatzintli: “The Merciful”

Ipalnemoani: “He by whom all live”

Ilhuicahua: “Possessor of Heaven”

Tloque Nahuaque: “Lord of the Near and Night”

Titlacahuan: “He whose servants we are”

Tehimatini: “The One who understands people”

Tlalticpaque: “Possessor of the Earth”

Tlacatlé Totecué: “Our Master”

Telpochtli: “Young Man”

Yáotl: “The Venerable Enemy”

Yoalli Ehécatl: “Night Wind”

Notes:

Note 1. The God are Huitzilopochtli (Left-Handed Hummingbird) ruled the South, Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent), the West, and Xipe Totec (The Flayed One), the East. They are the offspring of Ometeotl, God of All Things and Duality.

Note 2. This paint is called “mixchictlapanticac.”

Note 3. Bernardino de Sahagun was a Franciscan friar (d. 1590) who wrote the ethnographic study, the “Florentine Codex.”