All the peoples on this earth have their own stories of how the world was created because human beings have the need to know and explain their origins. They need to know who they are and for what purpose they are on this planet. They must know and understand the meaning of this existence and where they are heading. Our own Old Grandparents, just like the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India and Perú, had their own accounts of how the world in which we live was created.
To our Old Grandparents, the world was in a constant estate of change and evolution. That is why four epochs or eras called Suns, have always existed. In each of these eras, human beings evolve and each Sun ends in a cataclysm that allows the creation or formation of a new Sun to intent a new optimized beginning. This is a new opportunity for human beings to improve on this earth.
Therefore, since remote times, our ancestors have been aware that in each generation we must better ourselves, be fully responsible for our own evolution and perfection and that of each individual. We are charged with the task to utilize our existence as a marvelous opportunity to fight for the individual and collective advancement of humanity through family and society.
Our Old Grandparents possessed this knowledge and passed it on from generation to generation, through verbal teachings and in the writings of codices that were, if you will, their books, colorfully depicting our history and wisdom. Our people, in fact, kept alive since memorable time its history, its language and its customs passed on from parents to children. The greatest legacy left to us is the written word, therefore, our Old Grandparents left their knowledge in writing less we forget:
Our grandfathers and our grandmothers,
Our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers,
Old ancestors,
Repeated their accounts in discourses
And left the stories as a legacy
To their descendants.
These will never be lost,
They will never be forgotten
To those that came after.
For they wrote to reaffirm
In black and red ink
Memories, names…, history,
We will never let their stories die.
We will keep them with us forever.
We are their children,
We are the grandchildren
Descendants carrying their blood
And same skin color.
We will continue to tell
And to communicate
What we know
To the new born.
By Fernando Alva Ixtlixóchitl
In this manner we get today in their own words, the memories, the history and accounts of how the world was born and how each of the Suns in ancient México came and went. This was so we never forget our past and keep it alive in the present by passing it to our children: thus says history, thus we remember.
SUN OF WATER
Here is the account the Old Grandparents used to tell in a remote time so long ago nobody remembers exactly when. This is about the birth of the First Sun that came to be when Quetzalcóatl blew his divine breath on the first human beings. At the same time, Tezcatlipoca, an eternal adversary of Quetzalcóatl, sent down a great flood and all human beings drowned, but were transformed into fishes. This happened at the time when the people ate teocintle – an early form of corn.
SUN OF FIRE
Many years went by and the earth was kept in darkness and void of human beings. The gods tried once again to populate the earth and in a second intent to perfect it, they placed Tláloc, the god of rain and celestial fire, as initiator of a new Sun, but Quetezalcóatl sent a shower of fire and human beings burnt to death to rise as birds of the sky. At that time, the food was the acecently – water corn.
SUN OF WIND
Again, the earth experienced many years without sunlight and without human beings to worship the gods. Then, Quetzalcóatl created the third Sun and attempted the new creation of human beings. At that time, humans ate of the acconcentlí – pine acorns.
It was Tezcatlipoca’s turn to send strong winds that destroyed most of the trees and human beings. The few survivals became monkeys and lived on the trees.
SUN OF EARTH
This Sun was created by Tezcatlipoca and populated the earth with gigantic human beings. When these giants fell, they did not rise again. These giants did not cultivate the soil and did no planting. They ate roots, acorns and other fruits they collected around the forest.
One day, Qauetzalcóatl defeated Tezcatlipoca using a cane and the latter fell in the water and was transformed into a tiger. The tiger ate all the giants leaving the earth depleated of human beings and, the earth, without Sun.