BROKEN WINDOWS

Monday, November 3, 2003

The Central Mexican Codex Fejervary-Mayer

3:39:17 PM |

The picture above is found on page 1 of the Codex Fejervary-mayer. A document that is believed to come from Central Mexico, perhaps the state of Oaxaca. It provides us with wonderful insight into the Mesoamerican worldview. The Aztecs viewed the world as a quincunx, having five directions: North, South, East, West, and Center. Of course the center was considered the most safe and best place to be. Each individual polity considered their town to be at this center. In the diagram, the Aztec god of fire occupies this most important spot. He is one of the 9 lords of the night, and he carries an atlatl and darts, which show his warlike nature. It is fitting that he should fill this position in this calendric drawing, for he is the source of the New Fire.
The New Fire Ceremony:
At the turning of a new Aztec century, every 52 years when the solar year and divinatory calendar were due to repeat their combined cycle, the Aztec would celebrate a "New Fire" ceremony. At this time the people grew nervous, because they were concerned the new century would not come and the world would end. They carefully extinguished all old fires and swept their places clean. They drew penance on their rooftops by cutting themselves and flinging the blood toward the mountain where the priests performed the ritual. Then, a new fire was drilled in the chest cavity of a sacrificial victim. This was the crucial moment, for if the flame did not ignite, the tzitzimime (flesh eaters) would descend on the people and consume them. Once the flame appeared all of the new fires throughout the land would come from it, and the new year would begin.
The World Trees:
Located in the four cardinal directions are the four world trees flanked by two lords of the night each. These world trees were considered to be a supporting link between the underworld, earth, and the cosmos. Through them, the gods and spirits could travel between the layers of the universe. In addition to this each of the four directions were associated with colors, seasons, and sentiments. For example, the fifty two years were divided into four 13 year periods, one for each direction. The sentiment associated with the direction, whether bad, good, or indifferent, would be felt during those years.
The Calendar:
The Aztec had two main interdependent calendars. One consisted of 20 days (like Monday, Tuesday, etc) combined with a thirteen numbers, totalling 260 days. The other closely approximated the solar year with 18 twenty day months, and a 19th unlucky five day month. The dots that line the border of the diagram total 260, the number of days in the Mesoamerican divinatory calendar. Between every thirteen dots there is a hieroglyphic symbol, these are the names of the Aztec days: Monkey, alligator, rabbit, reed, house, death, wind, lizard, dog, grass, jaguar, eagle, flint knife, turkey, earthquake, rain, water, serpent, deer and flower. At the intercardinal directions, the day names that mark the solar years (Rabbit, House, Reed, and Flint) can be found inside the center of a large raptor. New years could only begin on one of these four days, because 20 (the number of named days) goes into 365 (the approximate solar year length) eight times with a remainder of five, which evenly divides the 20 days into four. Therefore when taken in context, this drawing depicts a universe where time and space are interwoven not too unlike the concepts of Einstein's relativity. A very ancient SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM
Tomorrow kate will be back, thanks for reading.

3:34:33 PM |

3:28:55 PM |

2:59:13 PM |

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