http://www.history-aztec.com/rss.xml Culture, History and Religion of the Aztec Indians before the Spanish Conquest. The story of rise and fall of the Aztec Civilisation. en-en Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:15:59 EST Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:15:59 EST http://www.history-aztec.com/ you@youremail.com you@youremail.com http://www.history-aztec.com/index.html Culture, History and Religion of the Aztec Indians before the Spanish Conquest. The story of rise and fall of the Aztec Civilisation. http://www.history-aztec.com/aztec-pyramids.html The Aztec pyramids served as religious centers. Aztecs had a polytheistic society, with three head gods: Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. Each temple was dedicated to a one of these deities. http://www.history-aztec.com/people.html The Aztecs were the people of the sun; their city, Tenochtitlan, was founded on the site where the eagle, the representative of Huitzilopochtli, alighted on the stone cactus in the middle of the island in the Lake of the Moon. This lake was Lake Texcoco, known esoterically as Meztliapan. http://www.history-aztec.com/calendar.html The aztecs had two calendars that determined their religious ceremonies. The most important was the one called tonalpohualli. It was a combination of a series of twenty signs with another series of numbers from 1 to 13, the signs and the numbers being combined in such a way that both series followed an invariable order. The same combination of sign and number was not repeated until 13 times 20 or 260 days had passed. http://www.history-aztec.com/pantheon.html One of the greatest difficulties encountered in any attempt to understand Aztec mythology is the multiplicity of gods and the diversity of attributes of the same god. This is due, as has been said, to the fact that Aztec religion was in a period of synthesis, in which there were being grouped together, within the concept of a single god, different capacities that were considered to be related. http://www.history-aztec.com/raiment.html Sometimes it is quite difficult to be certain of the identity of a god, especially if there is no coloring, as is the case with most pieces of sculpture, for the same ornament, in different colors, may be characteristic of two different gods. http://www.history-aztec.com/creator_gods.html According to the aztecs, there were two gods who alternately crated the various humanities that have existed: Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent god, the hero-founder of agriculture and industry; and the Black Tezcatlipoca, the all-powerful, multiform, and ubiquitous god, god of darkness, patron of sorcerers and evil ones. http://www.history-aztec.com/collaborator.html The idea that man is an indispensable collaborator of the gods, since the latter cannot subsist unless they are nourished, was clearly expressed in the sanguinary cult of Huitzilopochtli, a manifestation of the sun god. http://www.history-aztec.com/creation_man.html The World and Man have been created several limes, according to the Aztecs, and each creation has been followed by a cataclysm that has destroyed mankind. The last time man was created, according to one ot tile myths preserved by Mendieta [Jerfonimo de Mendieta (1525-1604), a Franciscan friar, born in Vitoria, Spain. He came to Mexico in 1554 ... http://www.history-aztec.com/4dir.html One of the fundamental concepts of the Aztec religion was the grouping of all beings according to the four cardinal points of the compass and the central direction, or up and down. Therefore, in the Mexican mind the numbers 4 and 5 are very important, just as in Occidental magic the number 3 is significant. http://www.history-aztec.com/creation_gods.html Their names indicate this duality: Ometecuhtli means Two Lord, and Omecihuatl, Two Lady, and both resided in Omtycan, the place two. They were also called the lord and lady of our flesh and sustenance and were represented by symbols of fertility and adorned by ears of corn, for they were the origin of generation and the lord and mistress of food. http://www.history-aztec.com/character_religion.html At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the religion of the Aztecs was polytheistic, based on the worship of a multitude of personal gods, most of them with well-defined attributes. Nevertheless, magic and the idea of certain impersonal and occult forces played an important role among the people. http://www.history-aztec.com/magic.html It has been said with great truth that fear and hope are the parents of the gods. Man, confronting nature, which frightens and overwhelms him, sensing his own inadequacy before forces that he neither understands nor is able to control but whose evil or propitious effects he suffers, projects his wonder, his fright, and his fear beyond himself, and since lie can neither understand nor command, he fears and loves in short, he worships. http://www.history-aztec.com/worship-of-the-sun.html The sun, called Tonatiuh, was invoked by the names of http://www.history-aztec.com/earth-gods.html The earth and death were very closely associated in the Aztec mind, not only because the earth is the place where the bodies of men are placed when they die, but also because it is the place where the stars hide; that is, the gods, when they fall in the West and descend to the world of the dead. http://www.history-aztec.com/gods-of-death.html The god is portrayed with his body covered with human bones. Over his face he wears a mask in the form of a human skull. His hair is black, curled, and studded with starlike eyes, since he dwells in a region of utter darkness. http://www.history-aztec.com/gods-of-fire.html Like water, air, and earth, fire also had its special god. His name indicates the great antiquity of his cult, for the Aztecs called him Huehueteotl, which means http://www.history-aztec.com/links.html Some useful links for anyone who interested in Aztec History, Culture and Religion.