A Book Of Tongues

BOOK THREE: JAGUAR CACTUS FRUIT

March 9, 1867

Month Two, Day Seven House

Moving from Arizona to Mexico City through Mictlan-Xibalba, along passages sacred to Xiuhtecuhtli, First Lord of the Night

Xiuhtecuhtli, the Old God, is also Huehueteotl, the gatekeeper of Mictlan-Xibalba’s tunnels. There he appears as an elderly man, bent over and carrying a brazier, or small stove, on his head.

But sometimes he is accompanied by another: either the Mayan god K’awil, “God K,” who is drawn with a sacrificial knife in his forehead and one leg replaced by a snake, or perhaps Tezcatlipoca — the Smoking Mirror — whose right foot is replaced by an obsidian mirror.

Tezcatlipoca is associated with hurricanes, the north, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty, war. At times he is called Night Wind, Possessor of the Sky and Earth, and — most threateningly — We Are His Slaves.

Tezcatlipoca ruled the first world that ever existed, before it was destroyed by Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl created the second world, which Tezcatlipoca subsequently destroyed. Yet they worked together to create the fifth and present world, along with their “brothers” — Huitzilpochtli, god of war, and Xipe Totec, the god of maize. These four gods — Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec — are referred to respectively as the Black, the White, the Blue and the Red Tezcatlipoca.

In fact, some even believe that all other gods and goddesses are, ultimately, only aspects of Tezcatlipoca.