Originally Posted by
Elendra
Yeah, I've now learned what I'd say was a sharable amount, so, why the fuck not? Care or not, here's some knowledge.
First off, as I said a couple times before, but not always at the fore, I would like to reiterate that after consulting mormons ( like actual ones ), it turns out that, yes, Quetzalcoatl is Jesus in their doctrine. I didn't ask what this would make of the wicked trickster destroyer of a brother, Tezcatlipoca, but I'm willing to assume that makes him Satan. Which actually is a lead into my next cool thing.
Aztecs had this belief called in a thing called "Nahualli". Now, I still don't fully understand this, but from what I've read and had explained to me, the nahualli belief is basically the belief that everyone ( gods, mortals, etc ) has this spirit twin, that is usually an animal of some kind. This animal would have traits that would be stronger associated with the individual, although not exactly identical. This animal wouldn't be a figurative "Oh, your spirit animal is a bear, you have stuff in common with all them bears". No, it was a single animal, a specific bear. Or dog. Or snake. This specific animal could be a physical one, or a more powerful spirit animal. But it's... a bit more than that. This would be a being that simultaneously was and was not you. You could share thoughts, act together, or apart, one could become dominant over the other, or you could just split off entirely.
Tezcatlipoca is noted as having two Nahualli, although he's far more associated with one of these, than the other. Tepeyollotl being the more associated one, a giant powerful jaguar in the underworld, whose roars would cause earthquakes. From what I've gathered, he would likely have made his home on the path to Mictlan, in that forest place with all the creatures that eat your courage. If nothing else, it sounds like where he'd hang around. So, while not technically a death god, a very important part of Tezcatlipoca resides in the underworld. So I can see more of the Jesus / Satan parallel Mormons seem to like.
I really only know of two more sets of deities like this. Quetzalcoatl, whom I originally thought was just a brother of Xolotl ( a dog god ), isn't. Xolotl is both Quetzalcoatl's brother, and Nahualli. They're twins, different but whole. As with Tezcatlipoca and Tepeyollotl, Quetzalcoatl's Nahualli resides in the underworld, although contrary to Tepeyollotl, Xolotl is a psychopomp. His job is to make sure dead souls make it safely to their final resting place. Tepeyollotl tries to stop them.
Last one is Xochiquetzal, Goddess of Beauty, Art, and Love... and Flowers. Her Nahualli is... well, the Obsidian Butterfly, the Star Goddess who seeks to kill most if not all life, who is bathed in the blood of innocents that she rends with her claws. That was a bit... bigger shift. But it kinda lines up. Itzpapalotl ( the Obsidian Butterfly ), was not just a Goddess of War and Doom and Stars... she was also the Goddess of Childbirth. You see, the Aztecs had this thing where childbirth, while a female thing, was just as bloody, and therefore just as powerful, as war. Therefore the Goddess of it ( had to be female, a female gives birth ) had to also be a pretty fucking powerful warrior. So, the spirit twin of love and beauty, is... well, the animal part itself, is the butterfly, I suppose.
Neat.
Okay, so, something I don't think I quite understood ( at least I don't recall understanding right ). Tlazolteotl, Aztec Goddess of Filth. See, originally, due to misinformation ( or rather, poorly translated information ) I thought she was like, an embodiment of sex. Dirty sex. But, really, no. She isn't. Her title is still completely apt, however. Aztecs tended to look down upon sex as a horrible thing that shouldn't happen until marriage. Tlazolteotl would go around, purposely tempting men, women, elderly, youths, into giving into lusts, and then fuck their shit up for having the balls to have sex when they weren't supposed to. Then, after being fucked over, they would have to make ample sacrifices, before she'd literally eat the sex and other gross things out of them, leaving them pure.
She mirrors Xochiquetzal for this, as both of them are fond of tempting mortals into doing lustful things when they shouldn't, and then punishing them when they do. Xochiquetzal turned a pious man into a scorpion because his morals fell around her perfect beauty. Like Tlazolteotl though, she had a thing for washing away those sins. Hers was marked by a huge party, and a ball game, where the outcome of the game would decide which team was sacrificed so everyone else was made pure. Unless I'm mistaken, it's the winning team. Because who would accept losers as a sacrifice?
...
Well, Huitzilopochtli would, but he's a bit indiscriminate about who is sacrificed to him so long as they came from battle and had a nice heart!
Okay, so, next thing.
Aztecs... had a lot of taboos. I'm getting some level of conflicting information across translations, but I see that eating chicken was bad, paprika was likely also bad ( although this could also be paprika with fish, or paprika during certain times of the year, it's not clear ). Pregnant women were also forbidden from eating burnt food, because it was thought that if they ate burnt food ( or more specifically, food that would stick to whatever cooked it or it was served on ), then so too would their child stick to their insides, and have to be scraped out. Lovely. Aztecs kinda viewed sex as bad, and lust and adultery doubly so. Didn't stop them from naming avocado's "testicle fruit".
And one last thing. While the Aztecs certainly liked gathering up people to kill and use the blood of, it wasn't a passionate thing. It was a very careful practice, very precise. They would make sure that only certain organs, nothing offensive to the gods, was offered. While they would declare war on themselves, to make sure they always had war slaves to sacrifice, they thought it was nightmarish and unthinkable to attack a civilian. More so to harm an artist or priest, which made them flip the fuck out at the Spanish when it turned out that they had no qualms. The Aztecs were heavily invested in spilling blood, but to them it was always for a purpose, never wasteful. They could sacrifice a child, because a good child sacrifice meant rain. But to attack a child in battle? You might as well switch sides, because your allies probably would want you in line to be sacrificed if they saw you pulling that shit.
Oh oh oh, okay, one more thing.
Tezcatlipoca loved slaves. While he was the patron of the ruling class, he had a personal distaste for anyone who would mistreat a slave, or abuse their power. A bit hypocritical, yes, but it was normally handwaved as "He's a fucking god, who are you to argue?" In short, you mistreat a slave, your ass is grass. Tezcatlipoca, being friends and enemies to all factions, liked the mortal world to be incredibly orderly ( as did all other gods basically... except the aztec rendition of Coyote... ), possibly just because of peer pressure... or more likely, because it was easier to fuck around with us if we always followed the rules.
... okay one last thing.
Tezcatlipoca isn't a name. It's a title. It's not even a title that only Tezcatlipoca has. It's a title that four gods all have, who are thought to all be closely related ( although some of their myths do not allow for this ). Tezcatlipoca is actually derived from the Nahuatl for... well, Obsidian Mirror. The priests would use Obsidian Mirrors for divination and talking with gods and stuff. So the four most important gods, were the four Tezcatlipocas. The most mysterious would be known primarily as only Tezcatlipoca, although his full title is Black Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca's brother, is White Tezcatlipoca. Xipe Totec, the flayed one whose blood births crops ( and was apparently the hottest male god of the pantheon until he tore his skin to shreds and bled over the world... ), is Red Tezcatlipoca. Probably because blood. The final one, is Huitzilopochtli... Blue Tezcatlipoca, God of War and the Sun. Actually, on Huitzilopochtli, while I haven't confirmed it yet, I think his Nahualli is probably a hummingbird of some kind. He's heavily associated with them....
Okay, I lied, one more thing. This ties into how they saw war, and of course, the Blue Tezcatlipoca himself, Huitzilopochtli. So it came to be that Huitzilopochtli was very busy doing wars and sun related things, that he decided to delegate his war duties to his daughter, Malinalxochitl. However, unlike him, who knew manners in war, and how to conduct himself, she was too violent, too bloodthirsty, and when he heard the prayers of his enemies and his former warriors, he put her to sleep, and took his soldiers away, leading them back home. Malinalxochitl woke up, and was so fucking pissed off, that she spontaneously gave birth out of pure rage to Copil. She then sent him to go try to kill Huitzilopochtli out of revenge. It didn't go well. Long story short, Copil's heart became the spot where Tenochtitlan was built.
And that's it for now. I swear.
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