Knowra Tezcatlipoca Tezcatlipoca Tezcatlipoca is a major Aztec deity associated with night, sorcery, conflict, rulership, and change. Often depicted with a smoking mirror and a missing foot, he could grant or overturn power and fate.
Smoking Mirror : A divinatory mirror associated with Tezcatlipoca, commonly shown as a black, smoking surface. The mirror gives visual form to his links with divination, hidden knowledge, and his name.
Toxcatl : The fifth month of the Mexica calendar, marked by a festival honoring Tezcatlipoca. Its ceremonies centered on a year-long divine impersonation that ended in sacrifice.
Aztec calendar : The interlocking solar and ritual calendars used by the Mexica and other Mesoamerican peoples. Toxcatl and the 52-year cycle locate his rites within Mexica sacred time.
Quetzalcoatl : A major Mesoamerican deity associated with wind, learning, creation, and the feathered serpent. His myths often cast Quetzalcoatl as Tezcatlipoca’s rival and counterpart.
Aztec religion : The religious traditions and practices of the Mexica and other Nahua peoples of central Mexico. Tezcatlipoca’s varied powers make sense within a pantheon of interdependent deities and rituals.
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl : A mythic pairing of rival deities in accounts of creation and the history of Tollan. Their rivalry dramatizes the conflict and transformation associated with Tezcatlipoca.
Tonalpohualli : A 260-day ritual calendar used by Nahua peoples to interpret days and destinies. Day signs and divination belonged to the same religious system that assigned him power over fate.
Huitzilopochtli : The Mexica patron deity associated with the sun, war, and the founding of Tenochtitlan. His focus on Mexica martial identity contrasts with Tezcatlipoca’s broader reach over fate and rulership.
Aztec human sacrifice : Ritual killing practiced in several forms by the Mexica and other Mesoamerican societies. His annual festival included a chosen impersonator whose death renewed the deity’s presence.
Codex Borgia : A pre-Columbian Mesoamerican ritual manuscript painted on folded animal skin. Its imagery preserves ritual and divinatory traditions relevant to his religious world.
Show all 20