The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
Friar Bartholomew specially adds that this was the case in Mexico
according to the authority of Spanish missionaries and no one can doubt
that this was the case when they read that in the native invocations,
preserved by Sahagun, the supreme divinity is described as “invisible and
intangible, like the air, like the darkness of night,” or as the “lord who
is always present in all places, who is [as impenetrable as] an abyss, who
is named the wind [air or breath] and the night.” “All things obey him,
the order of the universe depends upon his will—he is the creator,
sustainer, the omnipotent and omniscient.” He is termed “the father and
mother of all,” “the great god and the great goddess,” “our lord and
protector who is most powerful and most humane,”—“our lord in whose power
it is to bestow all contentment, sweetness, happiness, wealth and
prosperity, because thou alone art the lord of all things.” One prayer
concludes thus: “Live and reign forever in all peace and repose thou who
art our lord, our shelter, our comfort, who art most kind, most bountiful,
invisible and impalpable!” (Sahagun, book VI, on the rhetoric, moral
philosophy and theology of the Mexicans, chaps. 1-40). It is related that,
in gratitude for the birth of a son, the ruler of Texcoco, Nezahual-coyotl
erected a temple to the Unknown God.... It consisted of nine stories, to
symbolize the nine heavens. The exterior of the tenth, which formed the
top of the nine other stories, was painted black with stars. Its interior
was encrusted with gold, precious stones and feathers and held “the said
god, who was unknown, unseen, shapeless and formless” (Ixtlilxochitl,
Historia Chichimeca ed. Chavero, p. 227; see also p. 244). A passage in
Sahagun (book VI, chap. VII) states that “the invisible and imageless god
of the Chichimecs was named Yoalli-ehecatl [literally, night-air or wind],
which means the invisible and impalpable god ... by whose virtue all live,
who directs by merely exerting his wisdom and will.” In the Codex Fuenleal
(chap. 1) the remarkable title of “wheel of the winds=Yahualliehecatl,” is
recorded as “another name for Quetzalcoatl.” This undeniably proves that
the Mexicans not only figured the Deity by the image of a serpent but also
thought of him as a wheel which obviously symbolized centrical force,
rotation, lordship over the four quarters, _i. e._, universal rulership.
[Illustration.]
Figure 16.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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