MOCKERIES AND METAMORPHOSES OF AN AZTEC GOD: TEZCATLIPOCA, “LORD OF THE SMOKING MIRROR” - GUILHEM OLIVER trans. MICHEAL BESSON

Very technical. I suppose I did buy an out-of-print book, translated from Spanish, about a less popular Mesoamerican God but long portions of this were boarding on too dry to read. Oliver gets deep in it, spending pages and pages evaluating different pieces of archaeological evidence, reviewing all of the 500 years of commentary, and passing judgement over whether or not the persona depicted is Tezcatlipoca. As he puts it, “due to the “elasticity” of pre-Colombian deities, their ability to change shape and become astral, human, animal, vegetal, mineral, entities and step easily over these boundaries we assign these categories; and their capacity to fuse with other gods, dividing into 2, sometimes 3 or 4 different entities.” aka this work can be tricky. Tezcatlipoca is also worshiped not just by the people who are historically called the Aztecs (but who are actually more accurately called the “Mexica”) but also by groups across what is now Mexico and central America for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In the most provocative section of the book, Oliver highlights a connection that other scholars have apparently noticed, “Tezcatlipoca is supposed to have inherited his warlike character and his invisible and unfathomable nature from the Great Spirit of the North American Plains Indians.” I find such a connection very interesting and exciting but it speaks to how all over the place and how many holes there are in pre-Colombian religious studies. I like to imagine that the Mediterranean world was whipped out in a manner similar to the ancient Mexicans and then think about how one would piece together the aspects of Jupiter or even how you tell that Zeus and Jupiter are the same deity. But difficulty aside, this book is full of interesting insights and speculation about Aztec spirituality. I was especially interested in Toxcatl, the month of celebration for Tezcatlipoca, which culminates in the sacrifice of Tezcatlipoca’s ixiptla (a human who has been living as Tezcatlipoca for a year). The idea of a god being the sacrifice to itself reminds me of Chhinnamasta. Likewise, many of Tezcatlipoca’s aspects seem, to me, to be preserved in Santa Muerte. But that’s probably a theory for another time. I’m very sympathetic to the idea that the universe/fate is cruel and this should be reflected in the gods themselves. Tezcatlipoca both revels fates as well as mocks man for their misfortune. I find this much more in keeping with lived reality than the ideas in mainstream Christianity (tho, Gnosticism has some demiurge/Tezcatlipoca crossover it seems). Tezcatlipoca is also a sort of Shiva/Kali energy given his association with the ends of eras and cycles and ages. He was apparently behind the many prophetic dreams and events that overtook the Mexica before Cortez’s arrival. I think I would have preferred more of the high-minded theory and speculation and less on the nitty gritty of who this god is on such-and-such page of this-or-that codex but I’m glad to take it. Excellent god. 2 Death.