LVX Lodge Ordo Templi Orientis

Notes on the Aztec magick presentation by Craig Berry LVX Lodge April 29 2003.

My presentation on Aztec magick jumped around a lot and covered many more topics than I had planned and I can't really recreate it here. However I hope these brief notes will help make them stand on their own at least a little better I have included some material that I didn't have time to address during my talk.

The handouts from class don't include this sheet the figure is Mictlantecuhtli Meektlahntoyktlee approximately the lord of the underworld keeper of bones and souls the name of his realm Mictlan literally means "Belowplace."

Slide 2 maps the three maps zoom in on Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztec empire. The classic pronunciation of this name is Tehnoachteetlahn, but nearly all modern Mexicans following a Spanish model of emphasis say Taynoach Teetlahn. Given that their ancestors built the place I think either pronunciation is fine.

On the center map notice how Tenochtitlan is linked to the lakeshore cities by three long causeways. These made the city very difficult to attack when the enraged Mexica at last turned on Cortez and his small party in Tenochtitlan.

The Spaniards fought a desperate retreat down the southern causeway an event known as the "Noche Triste" or "Sad Night." Later Cortez and his native allies dragged tree trunks down from the surrounding mountains and built small warships to allow attack from the lake rather than just along the causeways.

Many of the placenames on the map are poetic and beautiful. Some examples:

Tenochtitlan, "cactus rock," city capital of the mexica empire

Xochimilco, "flower fields," prime farmland on the upland lake of the same name.

Citlaltepec, "hill of the star," this is where the new fire ceremony was conducted every 52 years

Teotihuacan, "birthplace of the gods," longabandoned ruined temple complex in Aztec times legendary site of the creation of the fifth sun

Chapultepec, "grasshopper hill," site of the spring that fed the aquaduct which supplied most of Tenochtitlan's
fresh water the lake being slightly brackish popotlan smokeville okay so not all of them sound like prime real estate.

The sunstone the famous Aztec calendar originally placed at the top of the great pyramid in Tenochtitlan. The photograph on the left shows the entire stone the painting on the right is a modern artist's interpretation of how it may have looked when brightly painted, which is how the Spanish soldiers described it. The central figure is Tonatiuh the sun god of the fifth sun, a sacrificial dagger emerging from his mouth and eagle claws to his sides clutching hearts.

Around him are four tilted rectangular panels each depicting one of the previous four suns. Counterclockwise from upper right earth wind fire water the entire assembly of images forms the glyph for the day-sign of the current fifth sun, that of movement Ollin.

Anybody interested in sigil creation should have a great time with this. Around the diagram of the suns is an unbroken wheel of the daysign glyphs running counterclockwise from the top. Just left of the top is Cipactli alligator and just right of it is Xochitl flower.

You can see the Ollin glyph by going three glyphs further to the right from Xochitl the yearbearer signs are at the cross quarter positions calli house is pretty easy to spot two left of Cipactli for example by the way for magickal reasons the entire sunstone weighing around three tons was carved in place on the mountainside where suitable rock was found and only then chiseled away from the mountain for transport to the temple.

We know this because archaelogists found the fragments of an earlier attempt at the project in the rubble below the quarry site. Its face was completely carved, but it had apparently cracked into multiple pieces while being removed. I picture Aztec construction supervisor homer simptzin letting loose a very loud tloh when that happened!

The Aztecs had a very large and untidy pantheon so I didn't even attempt to be complete on this page instead I listed a few gods and goddesses who are especially important or interesting should you choose to go exploring further you'll no doubt be furiously demanding
to know why I didn't include Xochipilli or Omecihautl or Xipe Totec or Tlazelteotl or one of a thousand other possibilities soon name pronunciation translation notes.

Quetzalcoatl Ketz Ahlkohaht plumed snake one of the oldest of Mesoamerican gods known to the maya as Kukulkan often seen as a promethean god of civilization
learning and innovation.

Tezcatlipoca Tez Kahtleepohkah smoking mirror usually Quetzalcoatl's enemy, though they also worked together. At times perhaps the god closest to the daily lives of the people of Tenochtitlan, an advocate of the status quo an inspirer of war, but also of art and oratory.

Tlaloc Tlahlohk archaic perhaps derived from he who is upon the earth the oldest god with a large following among the Aztecs a god of rain and thus of the harvest he also had dominion over anything else that came out of the sky which made him very powerful in a valley only a few dozen miles from a very active volcano.

Huitzilopochtli Hwee Tzilohpohchtlee hummingbird on the left the warrior god of the Mexica tribe since before they entered the valley of Mexico his shrine shared the summit of the great pyramid with that of Tlaloc Coatlicue Koh Ahtleekway, "snake skirt" one of the
most powerful and worshipped goddess she combined the functions of generation and of destruction much like Kali.

Chalchiuhtlicue Chal Cheeootleekway jade skirt the goddess of fresh water either the daughter or wife of Tlaloc the rain god depending on which version of the legends you follow.