Religious divinity symbols.

Hits:38735

To close this chapter, will enumerate the Anahuac best known religious symbols. Understanding that these are not "gods" as in the Judean-Christian concept, but various avocations of the same unmentionable, impalpable and invisible reality. These multiple representations of referring to the various ways of perceiving the immeasurable, at times would seem to repeat or have great similarities. This assessment is correct, because these are abstract symbols that speak of universal truths seeking to be re-thought or conceptualized for popular use.

When we deal with the Anahuac multiple supreme divinity avocations, the precise period we are referring to must be clarified: formative, splendor or decadent. And at what level: if the philosophical investigated by knowledgeable individuals; the religious handled by the priesthood hierarchy or; the popular, worshiped by macehuales or commoners. And finally, of what culture, given that although all avocations had a single source, in every culture had a different name ?even if the meaning was similar? and had different iconography, according to each cultural style. But must point out that all shared certain common features. For example, in the case of Tlaloc and its avocations in all cultures. The graphical representation always had goggles, fangs, and a bifid tongue.

The exception to the rule is embodied by Huitzilopochtli, divinity representation unique to the Aztecs. Indeed, when they reached the Anahuac Valley in the 12th century, they brought it from the north, as their spiritual guide. Later, when the Aztecs are cultured with Toltec wisdom remaining from the classical period, they added their "tribal God" to the ancestral Anahuac Pantheon and embed it as one of the four sons of the divine couple. This happened during the philosophical?religious reforms made by Tlacaelel 81 years before the invaders arrival. There are also endless "smaller gods", which are very spatial references of human activities and, immersed in an extremely religious world, were envisaged not as gods as in the Judean-Christian context, but rather as a "sacred essence". We refer to the multiple "gods", such as: hunting, pulque, trade, and others. Something similar to what "saints" represent in Catholic religion.

The confusion arises from the European and Judeo-Christian vision of the 16th century, which had no elements, nor intentions to understand a much more ancient religion, abstract, and advanced. It is born of the prejudiced and intolerant attitude of the first foreign ?scholars" and their successive researchers. Also born from a series of lies, erroneous appreciations and distorted thesis of foreign researchers and local colonized followers, which have been formed and repeated through five centuries and have become the official version of official history.

The following list names the most important Cem Anahuac supreme divinity avocations; it is not a complete list:

1.Tloque Nahuaque or ?He who is here and everywhere?.
2.Ometeótl or ?Dual divinity?
3.Ometecutli ?Of the two The Lord?.
4.Ometecihuatl ?Of the two the Lady?.
5.Quetzalcoatl, ?Divine breath or air representation?.
6.Tlaloc, ?God of water or fertility?;
7.Tlaltecuhtli and Tlalecihuatl ?Earth Lord and Lady?
8.Coatlicue or ?The one with serpent skirt?
9.Cihuacoátl or ?Serpent Woman? Earth represented in three different modalities.
10.Tlazolteotl or ?Eater of waste?;
11.Tezcatlipoca, ?Smoking mirror or the Interior Enemy?;
12.Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlantecihuatl, ?Death Lord and Lady?.

1.Tonantiuh, ?The Sun?.
2.Tonacatecutli y Tonacatcihuatl, ?"The Lord and Lady of livelihood".
3.Xochiquetzalli, ?Precious flower?.
4.Huehueteotl, ?The ancient fire god?;
5.Chantihco, ?Earth heat, home fire or female energy part?.
6.Tonatzin, ?Our beloved mother.
7.Mixcoátl, ?The nebulous serpent? referring to the Milky Way.
8.Xipe Totec, ?The gaunt Lord?, nature cleaner or the action of separating matter from the spirit.
9.Xolotl, ?The twin or nagual? of Quetzalcoatl.
10.Macuilxochitl, ?Five Flower? or spirit enhancer by exercise and dance.
11.Mayahuel associated with ?pulque? as spirituous beverage;
12.Yspapalotl, ?Obsidian Butterfly?;
13.Toci, ?The venerable grandmother?.
14.Chicomecóatl, or ?Seven Serpent?, corn deity.
15.Xilonen The Young corn mother?;
16.Tlaloques smaller rain entities;
17.Chalchihuitlicue, ?"The jeweled mantle", female avocation of divine water.
18.Patécatl; ?From the medicine land?;
19.Metztli, ?The Moon?.
20.Tepeyolohtli, ?The heart of the mountains?;
21.Yacatecuhtli, ?The Lord guide of traveling merchants?;
22.Ixtliton, sicknesses healer avocation, ?Lord of health?;
23.Chiuatetéotl, avocation of dead women while giving birth;
24.Xiuhtecuhtli, fire avocation.
Almost all cultures shall share the same avocations, but the iconography is slightly changed and the name totally changed according to each language.

One of the most important legacies from ancient Mexico indisputably is the spiritual and mystical vision that Mexicans have about the world and life. The old grandparents very wisely knew how to adjust to the imposed religion. Changed everything on the outside, but inside maintained the fundamental bases of their millenarian religion until today, especially in the original Anahuac towns.

One of the many legacies of the this religious world which lasted, perfectly structured, for at least 30 centuries before the arrival of the Spanish invaders, can be found today in the way in which native peoples relate with the divine and sacred. Natives don't need "middle men" to come in contact with the supreme divinity. They currently use Catholic images, but assign names in their native languages and worship them in personal and community cults where they officiate, without the need of priests or vergers.

In closing it is stated that religion is and has been one of the bases of the Mexican people. The mystic and spiritual meaning of life is one of the valuable legacies of the old grandparents.


1.? Huston Cummings Smith (born May 31, 1919 in Suzhou, China) is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions (originally titled The Religions of Man) remain a popular introduction to comparative religion.
2.? Omnipresent
3.? The Florentine Codex is the common name given to a 16th century ethnographic research project in Mesoamerica by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Bernardino originally titled it: La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana (in English: the General History of the Things of New Spain). It is commonly referred to as "The Florentine Codex" after the Italian archive library where the best-preserved manuscript is preserved. In partnership with Aztec men who were formerly his students, Bernardino conducted research, organized evidence, wrote and edited his findings starting in 1545 up until his death in 1590. It consists of 2400 pages organized into twelve books with over 2000 illustrations drawn by native artists providing vivid images of this era. It documents the culture, religious cosmology (worldview) and ritual practices, society, economics, and natural history of the Aztec people. One scholar described The Florentine Codex as ?one of the most remarkable accounts of a non-Western culture ever composed.? The dual divinity.
4.? Ometeótl (Two God) is a name sometimes used about the pair of god Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl (also known as Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl) in Aztec mythology. Whether such a deity existed among the Aztecs and what was its meaning is a matter of dispute among scholars of Mesoamerican religion. Miguel Leon-Portilla interprets the name "Ometeotl" as "Lord of the Duality" and argues that Ometeotl was the supreme creator deity of the Aztecs, and that the Aztecs envisioned this deity as a mystical entity with a dual nature akin to the European concept of the trinity. He argues that the Aztecs saw Ometeotl as a transcendental deity and that this accounts for the scarcity of documentary references to it, and why there is no evidence of an actual cult to Ometeotl among the Aztecs. Leon-Portilla's arguments have largely been accepted among scholars of Mesoamerican religion. Other scholars however, notably Richard Haly (1992) argue that there was no "Ometeotl".
5.? In Aztec society, the macehualli (or macehualtin, plural) was the social class above slaves, and were hierarchically below the p?piltin or nobility. The maceualtin rendered military service, paid taxes and worked in collective works. As the slaves, they could also own property, marry free people, have free children, having a relative freedom.
6.? E. de Jonghe "Histoire du Mexique" XVI Century French manuscript manuscript (Paris National Library.)
7.? Popol Vuh. Mayas sacred book.