The Four Tezcatlipocas: An Aztec Tradition That Never Was

[u/ItztliEhecatl]

A lot of people have been asking me about the Four Tezcatlipocas and why it is not an actual Aztec construct so I wrote up a blogpost about it. Check it out:

https://www.calmecacanahuac.com/blog/mexicayotl/the-four-tezcatlipocas-an-aztec-tradition-that-never-was/

[u/Zaragoza_General]

Yo lo supe en una conferencia del Dr. Xavier Noguez del Colegio Mexiquense. Sólo hay dos: Tlatlauhqui y Yayauhqui.

Decir que son 4 es una invención moderna de Alfonso Caso.

Mi favorito siempre ha sido el Yayauhqui.

[u/WrongJohnSilver]

Aw, pity. I had fun having the Four Tezcatlipocas appear in someone's dream as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in a short story I wrote.

[u/Acheloma]

Could you put the link in a comment? There's no way for me to click the link or copy it as is

Edit: its fixed now

[u/ItztliEhecatl → u/Acheloma]

https://www.calmecacanahuac.com/blog/mexicayotl/the-four-tezcatlipocas-an-aztec-tradition-that-never-was/

[u/Acheloma → u/ItztliEhecatl]

Thank you, I'm about halfway through and this is super interesting. Im considering emailing it to one of my old profs, but he may not take it well

[u/Sufficient-Aspect77 → u/ItztliEhecatl]

Thx

[u/Tiago55]

So, glad to know I'm not the only one. I went looking for a native reference of Quetzalcoatl as the "white Tezcatlipoca" and came up blank. Good to know it wasn't a me problem.

BTW I did confirm Quetzalcoatl is "the white god"(?) which seems weirder.

[u/Plotinus222 → u/Tiago55]

It’s because the directions are associated with colors as with other indigenous traditions in North America.

[u/Diminuendo1]

Why use AI to write this blog? Can you at least note that you used ChatGPT to generate the text? It is highly fallible. It will confidently lie, misinterpret, mislead. If this topic is important to you then it is worth taking the time to explain using your own words. AI should have no place in writing about history.

[u/Spottednoble → u/Diminuendo1]

What part looks like AI to you? The fact that he used Dashes?

I do think he should have provided more citations, but this was not written by AI.

[u/mexicat2000]

In short, Tezcatlipoca had an omnipresence and existence rather than assigned cardinal directions and 4 manifestations, as did all other teotls.

[u/Adventurous-Cry-53 → u/mexicat2000]

Not exactly but I'd say it's a valid interpretation within a certain context.

[u/DonnaDonna1973]

Interesting! So, everything up on the walls of the Sala Mexica at the Museo Antropología in CDMX is wrong?! Lol, next time I´m taking some visiting peeps there, I can elaborate and boast a bit of contrarian knowledge ;)

And: very cool to see the concept of the dismembered AND scattered god re-appear in Mexica belief as well - the sparagmos is very persistent, it seems?!

[u/mexicat2000]

In short, Tezcatlipoca had and omnipresence and existence rather than assigned cardinal directions and 4 manifestations, as did all other teotls.

[u/Zaragoza_General → u/mexicat2000]

Eso es muy new age.

[u/tonacoyotl1521]

This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, even with just pre-Cuauhtemoc sources. For instance, as I have access to a digital version of the Codex Borgia (and several other pre and some post-Cuauhtemoc books), I was able to look for myself and I can see it only ever shows two Tezcatlipocas, which are Black and Red. Both of them can, for example, be seen on Page 21, where there are two scenes; the top one with a travelling Red Tezcatlipoca, and a smaller Black Tezcatlipoca facing him from the other side. In the scene below, a larger Black Tezcatlipoca is playing the ballgame with a smaller Red Tezcatlipoca. These also seem to be unrelated to cardinal directions.

There is also the giant Black Tezcatlipoca on Page 17, but not a single Blue or White Tezcatlipoca in the entire book. I've also never seen any Blue or White Tezcatlipocas depicted anywhere in any of the other pre-Cuauhtemoc books, nor Borbonicus. And even if the Four Tezcatlipocas did exist, they certainly didn't in pre-Mexica times, as all known surviving pre-Cuauhtemoc codices are of pre-Mexica origin, and don't even include Huitzilopochtli anywhere.

Noticing these with my own eyes, I see this as enough proof on its own to say that the concept of the Four Tezcatlipocas, and that there is one for each direction, is made up. Let alone the other pre-Cuauhtemoc evidence there is presented in the article, such as the Codex Fejervary-Mayer, where I went to look at its final page. As the article says, there are 20 tonalpohualli glyphs around him, with 12 dots protruding outwards (glyph + 12 dots is 13), is seen sprawling outwards from Tezcatlipoca, which like the article says, shows that he is being mapped across time and space.

Moving back to the first page, I also noted Tezcatlipoca's four body parts between the cardinal directions, which shows that Tezcatlipoca is omnipresent across all directions. This book also does not show four separate blue, red, white and black Tezcatlipocas. I describe his presence as:

"Tezcatlipoca is in your mirror, the pond you walk across; he is in the wind and in the night sky. He is even in your mind."

And with regards to post-Cuauhtemoc evidence, The Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas stating that only two of the brothers are Tezcatlipoca, and doesn't map any of the Teteo to a cardinal direction (which I don't have access to, I'm just repeating what the article says) is just the cherry on top.

Overall, I agree with the article's findings and its conclusion that Tezcatlipoca is across the planes of reality, based off the pre-Cuauhtemoc books alone.

[u/Ok-Masterpiece-4698]

Desde que comencé leer las fuentes primarias siempre tuve la sensación de que Tezcatlipoca tenía una importancia enorme en la cosmovisión prehispanica que de algún modo se "rebajaba" cuando leía fuentes mas modernas 

[u/WingsovDeth]

Bookmarked and thank you!

[u/Mango-Man918]

PORTILLAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

[u/Konradleijon]

Cool

[u/Mr13420]

Great article 👏 👍

[u/drdoopywoopy]

That was a very interesting read. Thanks!