Mexican Mythology Lesson 1

Introduction

Why teach Mexican Mythology? Well, the answer is kinda complex. At school, when I was much younger than today, I learned about the most famous mythologies around the world. Egypt, Greece, Rome... but as the time passed by, I realized that I knew nothing about my ancestors' beliefs. History class only taught me about kings, battles, but nothing else. I knew more about Ra, Hades or Jupiter than about Quetzalcoatl or Ehecatl.

So I took my education in my hands and started to read every book I found about the subject. Here my love for mexican mythology began. And now I want to share with you the rich and vast Mexican Mythology. Hope you all enjoy it.

1. Nature of Mythology

What are myths? Who wrote myths? Why were myths written? Why were they important? Who were the myths about?

First, some simple definitions:
All cultures have developed their own mythology over time, consisting of legends of their history, their religions, and their heroes. The great power of the symbolic meaning of these stories for the culture is a major reason why they survive as long as they do, sometimes for thousands of years. We can distinguish between myth, in the sense of this primary psychic image, with some kind of mytho-logy, or a system of words trying with varying success to ensure a certain coherence between these images. Not only are the principal mythic elements older than all mythological systems, but these systems themselves are still only accessible to a second signifying system, that of structural analysis, which rests upon intellectual categories of a rational kind largely foreign to the categories of "mythology".

Myths are not the same as fables, legends, folktales, fairy tales, anecdotes, or simple fiction, but sloppy usage has blurred the distinctions in many people's minds. The term "myth" is sometimes used pejoratively in reference to common beliefs of a culture or for the beliefs of a religion to imply that the story is both fanciful and fictional.

So I want to establish that myths were the result of beliefs. We may read them as stories, as literature, but they were believed by the people who told them. Myths are universal, so many groups of ancient and not so ancient people had mythology all around the world. We don’t know all of them because they were not all written down and a lot were destroyed. These myths that we do know give us clues to ancient civilizations. We learn more about who they were and what they were like. The beliefs of these peoples were often reflected in their art, architecture and behavior.

Mexican older religions have creation stories, some of which account for the existence and present form of the Universe by the act of creation by a supreme being or the Creator God. Most of these accounts depict one or several gods fashioning things out of themselves, or from pre-existing material (for example chaos). Creation myths are the beginning of any mythology.

In the mythology of ancient Mexico the world began not with a Genesis overseen by one almighty god, but with a creation resulting from a group effort of many gods.

2. Creation Myths

2.1 Legend of the Fifth Sun

The One World, Cem-á-nahuac, has existed for many milleniums. But even before the world as we know it there were four Suns and four Earths. Each Sun ended in a catastrophe, a cataclysm, and each time the world was created again, fatally identical to that before it. A new cycle began, and this cycle brought about an improved form of life. The four primordial forces presided over these Suns - Water, Earth, Fire, and Wind - until the age of the Fifth Sun, the Sun of Movement, which is the Sun we live in now.

The first Age was the Sun of Water, and the first humans were made of ash. They lived in the world, and existed as anyone may, until a great catastrophe came and destroyed them all. Water covered the earth, destroying them, and they were all turned into fish.

In the second Age, the Sun of Earth, humans were giants. These men and women, in spite of their great size, were, in reality, weak beings. When they fell, as in an accident, they fell forever. In this Sun the people were nourished with maize water. But this Sun, too, was destroyed. The people were eaten by jaguars.

In the third Age, the Sun of Fire, men and women lived in the world and were nourished on cincocopi, an ancient form of maize. But they too met a tragic end. The sun rained fire, and all the people were converted into turkeys.

Finally, the people who lived and dwelled in the fourth Age, they ate genuine maize as we know it, our sustenance, discovered by the god Quetzalcoatl. These humans, when they met their final doom, were converted neither into fish nor turkeys, but went to live among the mountains as monkey people. This was the Sun of Wind.

The fifth age in which we live, the Sun of Movement, had its origin in Teotihuacan long, long ago. This is why Teotihuacan is called the City of the Gods. It was there that the Gods united to create the Age of Movement. Movement is Ollin. All that exists is in constant movement: rivers and oceans, plants and animals, life itself and the movement of the sun across the sky. This is Ollin, the Sun of Movement, the world we live in today.

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The Legend of the Fifth Sun is the song of the Ages. Each Age begins with creation and ends in catastrophic destruction, which then brings about another creation. With this understanding it becomes clear as to why the Aztecs so greatly feared the destruction of the world we live in, the Fifth Sun. Cataclysm and destruction, being naturally occurring phenomena, could come at any time. To many, the Legend of the Fifth Sun is sacred because it preserves the history of our ancestors, whose cultural footprints have left an impression on our lives.

Creation Myths

2.2 The Popol Vuh - The Mayan Myth of Creation

THIS IS THE ACCOUNT OF HOW ALL WAS in suspense, all calm, in silence; all motionless, still, and the expanse of the sky was empty.

This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky.

The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky.

There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky.

There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed.

There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water surrounded with light. They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and were therefore called Gucumatz. By nature they were great sages and great thinkers. In this manner the sky existed and also the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of God and thus He is called.

Then came the word. Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness, in the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together. They talked then, discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts.

Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear. Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven who is called Huracán.

The first is called Caculhá Huracán. The second is Chipi-Caculhá. The third is Raxa-Caculhá. And these three are the Heart of Heaven.

Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light, what they would do so that there would be light and dawn, who it would be who would provide food and sustenance.

Thus let it be done! Let the emptiness be filled! Let the water recede and make a void, let the earth appear and become solid; let it be done. Thus they spoke. Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth! There shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation and formation until the human being is made, man is formed. So they spoke.

Then the earth was created by them. So it was, in truth, that they created the earth. Earth! they said, and instantly it was made.

Like the mist, like a cloud, and like a cloud of dust was the creation, when the mountains appeared from the water; and instantly the mountains grew.

Only by a miracle, only by magic art were the mountains and valleys formed; and instantly the groves of cypresses and pines put forth shoots together on the surface of the earth.

And thus Gucumatz was filled with joy, and exclaimed: "Your coming has been fruitful, Heart of Heaven; and you, Huracán, and you, Chipi-Caculhá, Raxa-Caculhá!"

"Our work, our creation shall be finished," they answered.

First the earth was formed, the mountains and the valleys; the currents of water were divided, the rivulets were running freely between the hills, and the water was separated when the high mountains appeared.

Thus was the earth created, when it was formed by the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth, as they are called who first made it fruitful, when the sky was in suspense, and the earth was submerged in the water.

So it was that they made perfect the work, when they did it after thinking and meditating upon it.

Creation Myths

2.3 Aztec Stories of Creation

Quetzalcoatl, the light one, and Tezcatlipoca, the dark one, looked down from their place in the sky and saw only water below. A gigantic goddess floated upon the waters, eating everything with her many mouths.

The two gods saw that whatever they created was eaten by this monster. They knew they must stop her, so they transformed themselves into two huge serpents and descended into the water. One of them grabbed the goddess by the arms while the other grabbed her around the legs, and before she could resist they pulled until she broke apart.

Her head and shoulders became the earth and the lower part of her body the sky.

The other gods were angry at what the two had done and decided, as compensation for her dismemberment, to allow her to provide the necessities for people to survive; so from her hair they created trees, grass, and flowers; caves, fountains, and wells from her eyes; rivers from her mouth; hills and valleys from her nose; and mountains from her shoulders.

Still the goddess was often unhappy and the people could hear her crying in the night.

They knew she wept because of her thirst for human blood, and that she would not provide food from the soil until she drank.

So the gift of human hearts is given her.

She who provides sustenance for human lives demands human lives for her own sustenance. So it has always been; so it will ever be.

The mother of the Aztec creation story was called "Coatlique", the Lady of the Skirt of Snakes.

She was created in the image of the unknown, decorated with skulls, snakes, and lacerated hands.

There are no cracks in her body and she is a perfect monolith (a totality of intensity and self-containment, yet her features were square and decapitated).

Coatlique was first impregnated by an obsidian knife and gave birth to Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, and to a group of male offspring, who became the stars.

Then one day Coatlique found a ball of feathers, which she tucked into her bosom. When she looked for it later, it was gone, at which time she realized that she was again pregnant. Her children, the moon and stars did not believe her story.

Ashamed of their mother, they resolved to kill her.

A goddess could only give birth once, to the original litter of divinity and no more.

During the time that they were plotting her demise, Coatlique gave birth to the fiery god of war, Huitzilopochtli.

With the help of a fire serpent, he destroyed his brothers and sister, murdering them in a rage.

He beheaded Coyolxauhqui and threw her body into a deep gorge in a mountain, where it lies dismembered forever.

The natural cosmos of the Indians was born of catastrophe. The heavens literally crumbled to pieces.

The earth mother fell and was fertilized, while her children were torn apart by fratricide and them scattered and disjointed throughout the universe.

Ometecuhlti and his wife Omecihuatl created all life in the world. Their children were:
- Xipe - Totec
- The Lord of the Springtime
- Huitzilopochtli - the Sun god
- Quetzalcoatl - the Plumed Serpent
- Tezcatlipoca - the god of Night and Sorcery
- Coatlique - She of the Serpent Skirt