Ometeuctli, the Creator,
gave birth to four creator-gods, who created five suns.
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The first sun was created by
Tezcatlipoca, the God of Earth. |
He mistakenly created men as giants and carelessly created
only half a sun. The human giants were forced to live on acorns and pine nuts, and as a
result were feeble and slow.
Jaguars came and ate the half-sun. As it was
now dark they were able to kill the giants. |
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The second sun was created by Quetzalcoatl, the
God of Wind. |
Now man ate seeds from the mesquite tree. The seeds did not
give enough energy to survive the harsh winds. Hurricanes eventually blew the humans away.
However, some people were able to survive by
transforming into monkeys. |
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The third sun was created by Tlaloc, the God of
Fire . |
Men harvested grain for food. But huge volcanoes erupted and
cinders rained down from the sky to burn the world.
However, a few men were able to change in to
birds to escape the scalding heat. |
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Chalchiuhtlicue, the Goddess of Water, created
the fourth sun. |
Men attempted to survive on a seed called acicintli, but it
was not enough food for the humans who must fight the great floods. Water sprang from the
center of the earth causing the sky to collapse. Most men drowned, but some were turned
into fish.
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And then there was a fifth and final Sun ... |
The Aztec universe has three levels--the heavens,
earth, and underworlds.
Whether you will live in the
heavens or underworlds when you die depends on your life
on earth.
All through time man lived on earth, which was a huge disc
sitting in the center of the universe. Surrounding earth was a large ring of water, which
joined the earth to the heavens.
Above the earth were heavens that were homes to gods.
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The first four
levels, known as Teteocan, were occupied by the storms, sun, sky, stars, moon, etc. |
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The next levels of
the heavens are called Ilhuicatl. Here lived
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The Red God of Fire, |
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The Yellow Sun God |
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The White Evening Star
God |
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At the very top level
lived Omecteuctli, the supreme creator of all. |
Below the earth were nine underworlds.
These underworlds were called Mictlan, place of the
dead.
In the lowest level lived Mictlanteuctli, the God
of Death.
The dead had to struggle through the nine
underworlds to reach peace.
The struggle through the underworlds was extremely
hard until the ninth underworld, where the dead rest eternally with Mictlanteuctli.
However, if someone died for a good cause, they
went to the heavens. For example, if a woman died in childbirth or a warrior was killed in
battle, or you were sacrificed you they may to Tlalocan, the first level of the heavens. |