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by Mildred Boyd
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ancient Americans, like most primitive societies, worshipped and feared
a huge pantheon of powerful beings who controlled every aspect of their
lives. If a thing was worth bothering about there was a god for it, including
Huix-tocihuatl, goddess of salt and Tlatolteotl, goddess of licentious-ness!
There was even a special goddess of the maguey!
The four cardinal points, each with its
special color, animals and gods, represented the four previous creations
as symbolized by earth, air, fire and water. Our present, and frighteningly
temporary, world is the fifth sun. Only Tezcatlipoca appears in all quadrants,
though oddly at variance with the usual color associations. He is black
in the white north, blue in the yellow west and white in the black south.
Only in the red east does he deign to wear the right color. Deities associated
with the south, gods and goddesses of the dance, drinking, pleasure, beauty
and flowers, seem, on the whole, the most attractive lot.
Since pagan beliefs were much the same
world-wide it is hardly surprising that many pre-Columbian deities have
their counterparts in old-world mythologies. Nor was it a unique concept
that the world had been destroyed four times, twice by flood, and would
be destroyed again by cataclysmic earthquake at the end of some 52-year
cycle. Concepts of afterlife, including 13 heavens and 9 hells, are startlingly
similar. They even believed, like the Norse, in a “Valhalla”
reserved for those who died in battle or childbirth. All others were required
to spend at least some time in purgatory, though suicides were doomed
there for all eternity. Tlalocan was a special paradise reserved for those
sacrificed to Tlaloc or killed by lightning and, oddly, those who died
of dropsy or skin diseases. Good souls rejoiced forever in the shade of
the heavenly tree, Yaxche; bad ones suffered eternal torment in Mitnal.
The rest awaited rebirth in Mictlan.
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 Quetzalcoatl
(Feathered Serpent) and his evil twin, Tezca-tlipoca (Smoking Mirror) engaged
in a never-ending battle for control of the earth and its people. They represented
the gentle and destructive wi nds and were symbolized by the planet Venus
in its dual roles as Morning and Evening Star. Tolpiltzin Quetzalcoatl seems
to have been a quasi-historical figure, a benevolent priest/king who became
identified with the god and was tricked by Tezcatlipoca into committing
the unforgivable sins of drunkenness and incest and shamed into self-exile
in Yucatan.
The Mayan Kukulcan is identical with Quetzalcoatl.
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 Huitzilopotchtli
(Hummingbird on the Left) was divinely born of Chalchiutlicue (Jade Petticoat)
after that lady was touched by a falling feather. He immediately proved
his prowess by defeating and killing his sister, Coyolxahqui (She of the
Golden Bells) and his 400 brothers in battle. He seems to be the only god
of purely Aztec origin and, along with Tlaloc, ruled their pantheon. He
was also a sun god, but it was in his aspect as god of war that he demanded
and received offerings of thousands of human hearts. The so-called Flower
Wars were fought solely to obtain victims for his bloody altars.
Nacon was his Mayan equivalent.
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 The
long-nosed Mayan Chac and the Toltec/Aztec Tlaloc were agricultural gods
who could, at will, nurture or destroy the crops upon which all life depended.
Such powerful beings had to be constantly appeased with prayers and offerings
lest they wreak vengeance. This was no idle fear for, according to their
legends, Tlaloc and his sister, Chalchiuhtlicue, Goddess of Running Water,
had each destroyed the world by inundation. In their kindlier aspect they
ruled over their special heaven, Tlalocan.
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 In
sheer number of offspring, if nothing else, Coatlicue (Serpent Skirt) was
well qualified as patroness of expectant mothers. Miraculously impregnated
by a piece of flint, she gave birth to 1,500 gods but any resemblance to
the gentle Virgin Mary stops there. Magnificently hideous of aspect and
wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace of severed human hands
and skulls, she delighted in blood sacrifices.
Tlacolteutl, goddess of childbirth, and Akhushtal,
her Mayan counter- part, seem to have been more amiable.
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 The
Maya, especially, were obsessed with the study of the heavens. The Moon
Goddess, Ix Chel, was very important since her waxing and waning determined
planting and harvest times. In their mythology she was a young maiden who
had a star-crossed love affair with the sun and is doomed for-ever to chase
her lover across the sky, never to catch up with him. In her aspects as
goddess of childbirth and weaving she was particularly worshipped by women.
Coyolxauhqui (She With Bells on Her Cheeks)
served much the same functions for the Aztecs.
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 Like
the wind, the sun has both benevolent and destructive powers. Maya Kinich
Ahau is usually shown with large, squarish eyes, curlicue eye-brows and
exaggerated cheekbones. The shape of his pupils, whether squares, spirals
or crosses, indicated his different aspects. When he took the form of a
macaw he was called Kinich Kakmo.
Aztec Tonatiuh, though actually a solar deity
like Huit-zilopochtli, also had warlike attributes. He was patron of those
elite warriors, the Eagle and Jaguar Knights.
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 Since
there were nine under-worlds, it follows that there were numerous gods associated
with death, including those devoted to the punishment of specific classes
of sinners. The chief deities were Aztec Mictlan-tecuhtli, who reigned over
Mictlan, and Mayan Ah Puch, supreme ruler of Mitnal. In this case the Mayan
version is the more fearsome. There was no hope of reprieve from his eternal
hell and his statues often show him contemplating a human skull with all
too obvious enjoyment.
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 Maize
has always been the staple food of Mexico. As such, it required a number
of gods to supervise every phase of its growth. Aztec Centeotl, son of that
goddess of licentiousness, and Maya Um Kay were responsible for the mature
crops while Xochipilli guarded the young maize. Special gods guarded the
fields against destructive winds and rain.
Xochipilli and Um Kay are usually depicted
as a beautiful youths, befitting their other aspects as gods of feasting,
springtime, flowers and love.
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 The
rites of Xipe Totec (The Flayed God) were undoubtedly the cruellest though
their purpose was beneficial. Humans sacrificed to him not only lost their
lives but were literally stripped of their hides. The skins were then worn
by the priests in ceremonies symbolizing the sacrifice of the fertility
god, who had allowed himself to be flayed alive so that seedlings might
like-wise shed their husks and escape the confining earth to produce the
crops which sustained all life.
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