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Ancient Mesoamerican Religion
From: The British Museum
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Karl Taube |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
The ancient Aztec and Maya had a spiritual culture of almost mathematical complexity. Their calendar was both spatial and temporal--each day having not only a place in time, but a spatial orientation--and this system further corresponded to the identification of gods and their roles in the universe. Professor Karl Taube provides a clear and cogent account of the principles of the ancient form of spiritualism. |
 lthough 1492 marked the initial contact between New World peoples and Renaissance Europe, it was not until the early sixteenth century that Spanish explorers first encountered major native civilisations in southern Mexico and neighbouring Central America. The peoples of this region inhabited great cities with complex forms of administration and government, employed intricate systems of writing and calendrics, and celebrated refined poetry, music, dance and art. |
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| A Mesoamerican model of time and space. Gods, day-names, trees and birds are oriented to the four directions, with Xiuhtecuhtli in the centre. Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 1, Late Postclassic period. | |
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The region occupied by the ancient Aztec and Maya, now commonly referred to as Mesoamerica, is an area encompassing southern and eastern Mexico, all of Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador, western and southern Honduras, and the Pacific side of Central America as far south as the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. Ancient Mesoamerican peoples shared a series of cultural traits; among the most striking are two calendars of 260 and 365 days that permutate in a great cycle approximating 52 years, hieroglyphic writing, screenfold books and masonry ballcourts with rings. |
Calendrics
In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, calendrics played an essential role in mythology as well as in daily life. One of the most important cycles was the calendar of 260 days, composed of 20 consecutive day-names combined with the numerals one to 13. For example, a given day such as I Caiman was formed of two parts: the numeral I with the day-name Caiman. A particular day would not repeat until all 260 combinations of day-names and numerals were played out. In ancient Mesoamerica individuals, gods and even world epochs were often named by this calendrical cycle. Thus the legendary ruler of Tollan, Topiltzin Quetzalcoati, was also named by the day I Reed, or Ce Acatl in the Aztec Nahuati language. In a similar vein, many of the gods mentioned in the Maya Popol Vuh creation epic possess names drawn from the 260-day calendar. Although of less importance in native mythology, Mesoamericans also tracked a vague-year calendar of 365 days composed of 18 20-day months with a final period of five days. The 365-day vague year ran concurrently with the 260-day cycle, with each vague year being named by a specific 260-day date. Due to the permutations of these two cycles, a particular named vague year, such as 2 Reed, would not recur until the completion of 52 vague years. |
Still another calendrical system was favoured by the Maya and neighbouring peoples of south-eastern Mesoamerica. Known as the Long Count, this vigesimal system (based on the number 20) consisted of a constant count of days from a mythical event in 3114 BCE. Although first known among non-Maya peoples in the first century BCE, this system was developed to its highest level of complexity and popularity by the Classic Maya. An abridged form of the Long Count continued in use well into the colonial period among Yucatecan-speaking peoples of the northern Maya lowlands. |
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| The Venus god Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli attacking a watery mountain or altepetl, the Aztec term for town. Detail of Venus pages, Codex Cospi, p. 10. | |
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In Mesoamerican thought, the calendar concerned the definition and ordering of space as well as time. Each of the 20 day-names of the 260-day calendar was oriented to a particular direction, passing in continuous counterclockwise succession from east to north, west and finally south. Similarly, the 365-day years also moved in a counter-clockwise succession from year to year. Page one of the Fejervary-Mayer Codex depicts the 260-day calendar oriented to the four directions with associated birds and trees. The central Mexican god of fire and time, Xiuhtecuhtli, stands in the centre of the scene as a warrior backed by four streams of blood. The source of this blood appears near the four birds at the outer corners of the page: it originates from the severed arm, leg, torso and head of Tezcatlipoca, one of the greatest gods of central Mexico. Although this precise mythic episode is not known from other sources, the scene suggests that the casting of Tezcatlipoca's dismembered body to the four quarters by Xiuhtecuhtli was tantamount to the creation of the calendar and directions--that is, the delineation of time and space. |
Mesoamerican calendrical systems were not simply used to delineate 13-day weeks, 20-day months, vague years and other periods of daily reality. They also distinguished intervals that were especially charged with sacred and often dangerous powers. The peoples of ancient Mesoamerica keenly observed the sky and used the calendar to predict solar and lunar eclipses, the cycles of the planet Venus, the apparent movements of constellations and other celestial events. To them, these occurrences were not the mechanical movements of innate celestial bodies but constituted the activities of gods, the actual recapitulation of mythical events from the time of creation. In central Mexico, the first appearance of Venus as the Morning Star was Tiahuizcalpantecuhtli, Lord of the Dawn, who battled the rising sun at the first dawning at Teotihuacan. The calendrical cycles themselves also delineated sacred moments of time. The vast majority of Classic Maya stone monuments celebrated the completion of major Long Count calendrical periods. Among the Postclassic Maya of Yucatan, the end of the 365-day vague year was an especially dangerous time and, according to the colonial Cantares de Dzitbalche, was equivalent to the destruction and re-creation of the world. Thus much of the imagery in the Yucatec new year rites also appears in Maya creation mythology. Similarly, the completion of the Aztec 52-year cycle was marked by an anxious vigil: if new fire was not successfully drilled, the terrifying star demons of darkness, the tzitzimime, would reassert their control over the world. |
Day versus night
The contrast of night and day constitutes one of the most basic oppositions of Mesoamerican thought. Native accounts of the first dawn describe this event as the origin of the legendary and historical time of mortals, in contrast to the mythical period of creation. Thus in the Quichi Maya Popol Vuh, the gods and fierce beasts become stone at the first appearance of the sun. Similarly, according to one Aztec account, Tiahuizcalpantecuhtli turns into the god of stone and cold at the first dawning at Teotihuacan. In Aztec myth, the gods were sacrificed during the dawning at Teotihuacan and, according to one version, sacred bundles were made from their remains. Both the Aztec and Maya accounts explain the origins of the later condition and appearance of the gods, who in reality were represented in inert stone sculpture or wrapped in sacred bundles. |
Whereas dawn marks the daylight period of stability and order of daily mortal existence, the night corresponds to the mythic time when gods and demons come alive. According to modern peoples of Veracruz, once the sun sets, only the night stars keep rocks from turning into jaguars. In Mesoamerican belief, the night is when form-changers and other demons prowl. The dark nocturnal hours are also a special time when mortals communicate with the supernatural. During dreams, one's spirit familiar performs hazardous journeys to meet ancestors, gods and other supernatural beings. The night is also the preferred time for consuming psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, morning glory seeds and other hallucinogens in order to communicate with the spirit world. Above, in the night sky, the sacred episodes of creation are continually played out in the apparent movements of constellations and planets. Solar eclipses are especially feared, since they constitute the violent reassertion of the stars and other night beings over the day. |
Although there is a contrast between the chaotic nocturnal hours and those of the day, it is by no means a simple distinction between good and evil. In Mesoamerican thought, such dualistic principles tend to be considered in complementary opposition: both are required for existence. Just as sleep is a necessary revitalising counterpart of daytime activity, the night and sacred time infuse daily reality with renewed power and force. The junctures noted in calendrical periods correspond to those times of rejuvenation when the forces of creation recur. This sacred mythic time can penetrate into daily existence through ritual and omens, and even by the presence of actual living individuals such as kings, priests and shamans, curers and twins. |
Twins
Twins are commonly regarded with a certain apprehension in Mesoamerica where, much like monster births, they are feared as strange and abnormal portents of religious significance. In central Mexico the canine god Xoloti was god of both twins and deformities. According to the Dominican Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Aztec twins posed a mortal threat to their parents and for this reason one of the pair would be slain at birth. However, the fear of twins involves more than parental well-being, for they also embody the mythic time of creation. Twins are widely found in the creation mythology of the Aztec, Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples. Quite commonly they serve as monster-slayers and culture heroes who create the environment and materials necessary for human life. But just as they are the creators of order, they are also the embodiment of conflict and change. |
The Quiché Maya Popol Vuh contains a detailed account of the hero twins Xbalanque and Hunahpu, who descend to the underworld to avenge the deaths of their father and uncle (also twins). In central Mexico, the culture hero Quetzalcoati is identified with twins, and the concept is even contained in his name since in Nahuati the term coatl signifies both 'twin' and snake. Quetzalcoati is often paired with Xoloti or Tezcatlipoca in Aztec creation mythology. Although not as explicit as the Quichean Hunahpu and Xbalanque, these pairings also allude to the concept of hero twins. The motif is clearly of great antiquity in the New World; aside from Mesoamerica, hero twins are commonly found in the creation mythology of neighbouring Central America, lowland South America and the American Southwest. |
Role models and social conduct
Mesoamerican myths are more than sacred accounts of the origins of the world; they also contain profound lessons for proper behaviour. Among the most commonly mentioned vices to bring disaster or defeat are arrogance and greed. In Aztec mythology it is not the vain and wealthy Tecuciztecati but rather the humble yet brave Nanahuatzin who eventually becomes the sun. In the Popol Vuh, the hero twins slay the monster bird Vucub Caquix because of his excessive pride and bragging. Arrogance and avarice are vices common to high office, and a great deal of the preserved mythology provided models for royal conduct. However, Aztec and Maya mythology also address broader and more profound matters, such as the meaning of human existence. According to the Popol Vuh, the gods create the present race of humans, the people of maize, to supply sustenance to the gods in the form of prayer and sacrifice. Similarly, the accounts of sacrifice of the gods at Teotihuacan and the killing of Coyoixauhqui and her brothers describe the necessity of human sacrifice for the continuity of the world. Although this continues to be the most vilified aspect of ancient Mesoamerican religion, human sacrifice arose out of a basic premise, a recognition of the active role and responsibility of people for the maintenance of cosmic balance. |
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