how to worship quetzalcoatl

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It shows the first signs of a feathered serpent cult amongst ancient civilizations of the region. At temples such as the aptly named "Quetzalcoatl temple" in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently and alternate with a different kind of serpent head. Mexico's flagship airline Aeromxico has a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner painted in a special Quetzalcoatl livery. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. They therefore claimed that Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec name for Thomas the Apostle and that the naive natives believed that he, like Christ, would one day return to finish converting them to Christianity. The name Quetzalcoatl comes from this language and is most widely-used both because it was recorded by Spanish conquerors and because Nahuatl is still spoken by roughly 1.5 million people. They maintained a major pilgrimage and commercial center at Cholula, Puebla which the Spaniards compared to both Rome and Mecca because the cult of the god united its constituents through a field of common social, political, and religious values without dominating them militarily. READ MORE: Sun Gods: Ancient Solar Deities From Around the World. This constitutes the Late Pre-Classic Period of the Mayan civilization. Ququmatz Also written as Gukumatz, this name belonged to the Kiche Maya. The famous Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajin is believed by many to be dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, and the many ball courts there also suggest that his cult was important. As an Aztec deity, he was one of four sons of the creator god Ometeotl, associated with the wind god, and the patron god of arts and knowledge. In the codices, he was generally more human-like. However, independent historical sources do not substantiate this claim and later historians have disputed it as well. Quetzalcoatl stole the bones from the Underworld, taking great risks and evading many traps to bring them to the surface. [24], According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presided over one of the four cardinal directions. The Church of Latter Day Saints, better known as the Mormons, teaches that Jesus Christ walked the Earth after his resurrection, spreading the word of Christianity to all corners of the globe. Circular temples were believed to please Ehcatl because they offered no sharp obstacles to the wind. [41] However, in 1892 one president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, John Taylor, wrote:[42]. Aztec God Quetzalcoatl According to Aztec mythology, Earth had been through four cycles of Sun, each of which resulted in the destruction of mankind. Quetzalcoatl was also associated with Venus, the Morning Star, and thus the dawn. Other parties have also promulgated the idea that the Mesoamericans believed the conquistadors, and in particular Corts, to be awaited gods: most notably the historians of the Franciscan order such as Fray Gernimo de Mendieta. This made it an important sign of fertility because it brought with it the rains that renewed the earth. Where once feathered snakes were worshiped all over, after the Spanish conquest the locals were forced into worshiping Jesus Christ. Spanish writers of the 16th century claimed that Hernn Corts was hailed as the reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl when he arrived in Mexico in 1519. The God Quetzalcoatl definitely has a link of some sort to this hero. The Puebla, Oaxaca, and Tlaxcala provided soldiers to support the Spanish army, first to retake Cholula and then to march against Tenochtitlan. Cholula had been captured by pro-Aztec forces. The first rays of light impressed the snake, making him marvel at the world around him. He was quite a bit bigger than he was before. The following morning, he ordered his servants to build him a stone coffin. Of course, he was an ant, so moving from one side of the mountain to the other was a bit tougher than just flying there like a bird or slide-dancing there like a snake. However, at the end of the second cycle, mankind became like monkeys and so Quetzalcoatl blew up the whole of mankind. He took his companion Xolotl, a dog-headed god, with him. The Nahua largely spoke dialects of the same language, Nahuatl, which helped to unify their culture. One of his most defining attributes, however, is his breastplate. Cult worship may have involved the ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms (psilocybes), considered sacred. Quetzalcoatl stole the bones from the Underworld, taking great risks and evading many traps to bring them to the surface. [15] In the 17th century, Ixtlilxchitl, a descendant of Aztec royalty and historian of the Nahua people, wrote, "Quetzalcoatl, in its literal sense, means 'serpent of precious feathers' but in the allegorical sense, 'wisest of men'."[16]. If your web page requires an HTML link, please insert this code: . What did Quetzalcoatl teach? It is believed by the Aztec religion expert that the deity arose from the combination of the historical leader, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, and a Mesoamerican god. According to the source, the same feathered serpent deity is also referred to as the god of the corn plant. [43] In a 1986 paper for Sunstone, he noted that during the Spanish Conquest, the Native Americans and the Catholic priests who sympathized with them felt pressure to link Native American beliefs with Christianity, thus making the Native Americans seem more human and less savage. In the Codex's description of the first meeting between Moctezuma and Corts, the Aztec ruler is described as giving a prepared speech in classical oratorial Nahuatl, a speech which, as described in the codex written by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagn and his Tlatelolcan informants, included such prostrate declarations of divine or near-divine admiration as: You have graciously come on earth, you have graciously approached your water, your high place of Mexico, you have come down to your mat, your throne, which I have briefly kept for you, I who used to keep it for you. Quetzalcoatl's opposite was Tezcatlipoca, who supposedly sent Quetzalcoatl into exile. Throughout Mesoamerican culture, they practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism to placate this god. The Teotihuacan iconographical depictions are often interpreted as a version where Quetzalcoatl played the role of a fertility-related serpent deity. Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican god whose name literally means feathered serpent. Well, not all of them, but some do. To create humans, Quetzalcoatl had to go into the Underworld and collect some bones. According to this myth, the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, one of them being Quetzalcoatl, represent the four cardinal directions. At one hand, Mayans considered a snake as the embodiment of the cosmos. In Tenochtitlan, Quezelcoatls name was used as a priestly title. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. However, later sources uncover that already a year before him a similar figure dwelled in the lands of the Aztec territory. Welcome. The Nahua civilization, which included the central Mexican Aztecs, almost universally worshipped Quetzalcoatl among their gods. As a double of Quetzalcoatl, he carries his conch-like ehecailacacozcatl or wind jewel.Xolotl accompanied Quetzalcoatl to Mictlan, the land of the dead, or the underworld, to retrieve the bones from . Quetzalcoatl, or Feathered Serpent, was an important god to the ancient people of Mesoamerica. In the post-classic Nahua civilization of central Mexico (Aztec), the worship of Quetzalcoatl was ubiquitous. Each of these four sons presides over one of the four cardinal directions. And when the wind rose, when the dust rumbled, and it crack and there was a great din, became it became dark and the wind blew in many directions, and it thundered; then it was said: [Quetzalcoatl] is wrathful., -Bernadino de Sahagn, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. For more details, Wikipedia is a good resource. By the 3rd century AD this was recognizable as a god, who had a pyramid dedicated to his honor in the city of Teotihuacn. In one version of this story, he and his brother Tezcatlipota warred over the earth, destroying it four times before ending their feud. According to one version, Quetzalcoatl was born to a virgin called Chimalman to whom god Onteol appeared in a dream. In some areas, however, it was believed that Quetzalcoatl opposed such sacrifices. Evidence of such worship comes from the iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs occur frequently. Quetzalcoatl is the creator of all people and the giver of wisdom, corn, and the calendar. At the end of the fourth cycle, when mankind had perished again according to the mythology, Quetzalcoatl created a new people with his blood. Much of the idea of Corts being seen as a deity can be traced back to the Florentine Codex written down some 50 years after the conquest. The title of the twin Aztec high priests wasnt just Quetzalcoatl. In some stories he created mankind, and in others he worked with his brother to form the earth itself. [9] In Mazatec legends the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpanteuctli, who is also represented by Venus, bears a close relationship with Quetzalcoatl. In the Mesoamerican Epiclassic Period (900-1200 A.D.), worship of Quetzalcoatl took off. The eclipse that was caused by the birth of Quetzalcoatl is believed to be the fifth eclipse to ever happen. Before he left, however, he promised to return. The gods powers extended beyond the wind, however. Archaeological sites in Mexico City have street addresses, not GPS coordinates, as sites tend to elsewhere. The city was known as the center of Quetzalcoatls worship. The Tteoh as a whole were worshiped from the 6th to the 16th centuries by the Aztec ethnic group and other Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico. It allows for a form of food security, and therefore for peace, and as a result, has taken on not only physical and economic importance but spiritual significance as well. [12] Feathered-serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites. This made crops grow and brought water for drinking. Accessed March 1, 2023. He was so important that the worlds largest pyramid was just one of many places dedicated to his cult. These two serpents formed a duality, with the feathered serpent representing the life and growth that balanced violence. Although early images had shown a serpent, by the classical period of Aztec culture Quetzalcoatl was more often shown with a human body. As a god, its only logical that such reincarnations would be for the betterment of the earth and its people. Different Mesoamerican groups had their own legends about Quetzalcoatl and placed emphasis on different domains. The legend of Quetzalcoatl is spoofed in the Adult Swim CGI series Xavier: Renegade Angel. 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