Tezcatlipoca Prince of The Underworld

The Smoking Mirror

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"The first men to be created and formed were called the Sorcerer of Fatal Laughter, the Sorcerer of Night, Unkempt, and the Black Sorcerer... They were endowed with intelligence, they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world. When they looked, instantly they saw all that was around them, and they contemplated in turn the arc of heaven and the round face of the earth... (Then the Creator said):  "They know all...what shall we do with them now?  Let their sight reach only to that which is near; let them see only a little of the face of the earth!  ...Are they not by nature simple creatures of our making?  Must they also be gods?"

The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya

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The Book of Mirrors

Source: http://www.arcane-archive.org/religion/satanism/the-book-of-mirrors-1.php 

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Among the Mesoamerican Aztecs, Tezcatlipoca (or Smoking Mirror) was the terrifying deity of the night sky, Black Magic and sorcery, warfare, temptation and treachery. He symbolized the opposite of what most societies (including that of the Aztecs themselves) consider sacred and proper. Yet he was adored instead of reviled, and given a place of highest prominence among the Mexican pantheon. 

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What could have caused the Aztecs to place such value on characteristics that they themselves considered dangerous and unpleasant, and what did their worship of this figure say about themselves? I would propose it was an externalization of an ever-present psychological demiurge, what psychologists would call "the shadow."

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LEGEND AND HISTORY

Tezcatlipoca first left his mark on the Earthly plane by creating the land on which man lives.  Beneath the ocean's waves existed a titanic dragon-monster, whom Tezcatlipoca drew to the surface using his foot as bait. When the monster's jaws snapped closed on his foot, he ripped off her lower jaw to somehow prevent her from sinking again.  It was on her mountainous back that men and animals were created to roam. 

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Like Set, Tezcatlipoca's astrological symbol was the constellation we call the Great Bear, representing his single foot and lopsided circular walk around the North Star. (The North Star being a symbol of sacredness and purity among the Mesoamericans, it was also said that Tezcatlipoca's impure nature prevented him from ever directly approaching it.)

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We first see the appearance of Tezcatlipoca among the Toltecs, who established a far-flung empire that preceded the arrival of the Aztecs by at least 300 years.  His position among the Toltecs was in opposition to the far older Quetzalcoatl literally, "Feathered Serpent," but alternately meaning "Precious Twin"), their chief god of learning, culture, all of the flowers of consciousness. 

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The ancient Mesoamerican religions placed a heavy emphasis on dualism, and believed that everything had a balancing opposite.  The god of the Toltec Tezcatlipoca cult was therefore probably defined by what the chronologically older and more powerful god, Quetzalcoatl (click), was not. 

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It occasionally happens that cults evolve in reaction to, or in violation of, another cult; their power springs from the reversal of the dominant ethic. Examples of this type of belief can be found among certain heretical sects of the Islamic Sufi, and the Kurdish Yezidi tribe, who ascribe their faith to the demonic rebel-angel Iblis. 

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The Christian Gnostics placed an emphasis on creeds that stood as a whole. Rejection of the established Hindu dogma is a fundamental principle of the Indian Tantrics. The Temple of Set's own foundation, the Church of Satan, arose substantially in reaction to the dominant Christian ethic.

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It seldom happens that these "reversal-based" religions grow to overshadow their parent faith. However, it seems that at some point during the reign of the Toltec Empire, this is what occurred. The cult gained the support of the military structure as their patron god of war and conflict.

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According to the legendary history, a specific Toltec king was the earthly incarnation of Quetzalcoatl himself, a brilliant ruler who was highly esteemed by many of the Toltec citizens. Tezcatlipoca could not maintain as much influence over the people so long as Quetzalcoatl remained in power, so he devised a treacherous means by which to dispose of the king.

Read More Quetzalcoatl The Feathered Serpent Venus Alchemy click

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Later, Tezcatlipoca caused the fall of the empire itself by appearing in the marketplace as a naked trader, painted blue and red.  In this form, he seduced the king's daughter, who gave birth to Huemac, the ruler whose reign would cause uprising, civil war, and the total collapse of the Toltec kingdom. When the god was adopted by the Aztecs centuries later, he was placed in a position superior to all other gods, including Quetzalcoatl. 

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His savage nature appealed to the Aztecs, whose beliefs centered around their divine mission to keep the sun alive through human sacrifice. The Aztecs had attributed the sun to an aspect of Tezcatlipoca. The sun belonged to whomever ruled over the present age, part of a complex system of cosmological time-keeping to which the Aztecs subscribed.  Tezcatlipoca was the personification of the age of the Aztecs, known as the Fifth Sun, and this special duty to the cosmos seemed to justify their use of violence and cruelty to secure the proper sacrifices.

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THE SHADOW

"Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.  At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meaning intentions." Jung

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In psychological terms, much of the relationship between the Aztecs and their dark god can be described in terms of shadow-projection. The shadow is that hidden half of ourselves that lies lurking beneath our consciousness, largely consisting of those impulses that we reject and struggle to repress.

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"The shadow is the personal unconscious; it is all those uncivilized desires and emotions that are incompatible with social standards and our ideal personality, all that we are ashamed of that we do not want to know about ourselves.  It follows that the narrower and more restrictive the society in which we live, the larger will be our shadow." Fordham 1953

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The Shadow, in part, encompasses the realm of thoughts and action that many in the West consider "evil," and in fact, when our religions attempt to illustrate these impulses in a universal form, it is often identified as an aspect of "the devil."  The Spanish missionary Bernadino Sahagun, from whose records we have learned most of what we know of Aztec theology, made this connection with Tezcatlipoca in no uncertain terms: "This wicked Tezcatlipoca we know is Lucifer, the great devil who there in the midst of Heaven, even in the beginning, began war, vice, and filth."

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We normally struggle to keep from acknowledging these impulses, and yet our refusal to do so means that these driving impulses direct us from directions we cannot or will not see. As the shadow struggles to express itself, we rationalize reasons why it should be able to do so. An example of this may be found in certain forms of religious extremism that dictate a rigid code of conduct, yet will easily advocate such excessive behavior as murder.

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Another way in which the shadow is made manifest is actually a part of our attempt to disassociate ourselves from it; when we encounter someone or something that represents some limb of ourselves that we dislike, we react against it, sometimes violently. These encounters serve as "mirrors," ones that reveal what we struggle to keep hidden. This kind of activity can result in a sense of superiority, and lead to a scapegoating of those on whom the characteristic have been placed.

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It is for these reasons that we instinctually associate the shadow with the night, the dark, and with blackness: the most basic characteristics of the Tezcatlipoca demiurge. Despite its frightening appearance, there is nothing innately "bad" about the shadow, and in fact, much of our sense of humor, creativity, and imagination flows directly from this hidden aspect of ourselves. Tezcatlipoca was credited with bringing drumming, flute-playing, and dancing to mankind, as well as stealing fire from the underworld.

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The shadow allows us a comparison by which to judge ourselves and the world around us, to divide order from chaos.  And since it is always just beneath the surface of our consciousness, it serves as a kind of gatekeeper for our psychological nether-realms.

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SPEAKING WITH THE SHADOW

The name Tezcatlipoca means "Smoking Mirror."  It stems from a device which both represented him and was used in his service:  a circular mirror fashioned of black obsidian. The mirror of Tezcatlipoca himself was used by the god to see directly into the hearts of any mortal, uncovering their innermost thoughts and secrets.  It was with this mirror that he struck a blow against his rival, Quetzalcoatl, by persuading that deity to gaze into it.  The mirror reflected back Quetzalcoatl's image as monstrous and repulsive, causing him to flee in horror. All such devices on Earth were considered special portals for Tezcatlipoca, doorways into his realm.

Read More Quetzalcoatl The Feathered Serpent Venus Alchemy click

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In the hands of the Aztec priest, the mirror, used as a scrying glass, was the most powerful of divination devices.  After ritual preparation, the priest would gaze into its surface until he fell into a trance state. Then the visions would begin: One important Nahuatl (Aztec) text says that [the mirror] "clouds up all over like the shadows on its surface."  (Brundage 1979, p.81)

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On the black mirror's surface, reflected day becomes night. The sun becomes the moon. Colors become indistinguishable, like those of a photographic negative. The face of the person gazing into it appears dark and murky. As the spellbound priest looked into the mirror, his reflected image would become that of the terrible god itself (the projection of the priest's shadow-self would now be complete and visible, often terrifyingly so). 

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In this form Tezcatlipoca was known as Tezcatlanextia, or He Who Causes Things to be Seen in the Mirror.  Having thus contacted the darker realms of his subconscious, the priest's shadow-self would now guide his entranced consciousness beneath the surface.  He would now encounter visions and portents, reportedly seeing the future and revealing the hidden thoughts and deeds of others. 

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The Aztecs were firm believers in fate, and those things envisioned in the mirror were accepted as actual glimpses into a predetermined future. More likely these revelations were the unspoken impulses and intuitions of the priest's hidden inner self. In fact, the legendary history tells us that it was with the aid of such a mirror that the doomed Motecuhzoma (commonly known as "Montezuma") foretold the coming of Cortes and the subsequent fall of the Aztec civilization, years before the Spaniards arrived in the New World. 

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As an interesting side note:  a century later this mirror may have played a role in destroying the Spanish themselves (they who built a war machine on pillaged Aztec gold), when an original Aztec mirror of black obsidian came into the possession of Dr. John Dee chief occult advisor and spy for Queen Elizabeth of England, who destroyed the Spanish Armada and crippled that nation's empire.

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THE RETURN OF TEZCATLIPOCA

Source: http://orderoftheblacksun.com/2018/04/08/the-return-of-tezcatlipoca/

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Today I’d like to offer my latest epiphany to fellow travelers in the Way of the Shadow, which is simply this: Tezcatlipoca is returning! What fresh insanity is this? It’s simple really; I have identified the source of both my dark inspiration and the larger currents of chaos in the world with the same entity: the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca, one of the myriad avatars of the Black Sun which appear throughout recorded history.

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I would be interested in hearing from psychoanalysts on this matter, because I suspect that what is happening to me and many others is closely analogous to Carl Jung’s observation in the 1930’s of the appearance of the Norse war god Wotan in the dreams of his patients.

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As whole regions of Mexico succumb to brutal organized violence and strife, and the chaos surges over its northern borders with destabilizing effects, I would speculate that we are witnessing a similar manifestation of Tezcatlipoca in the minds of modern Mesoamericans. How this spirit could possess me, a gringo a thousand miles to the north, is anyone’s guess, but perhaps like Henry Anthony Wilcox I am unusually sensitive to the cosmic machinations of the dark gods. In any case, I believe the chaos of Tezcatlipoca’s reign is coming to us all.

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Who is Tezcatlicopa? Per Wikipedia, he is the Aztec god of sorcery, strife, chaos, war, rulership and darkness, the embodiment of “change through conflict” – precisely the things with which I am obsessed, and which have inspired me to create this cult. (Dark ChamberZ)

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“Change through conflict”, or “progress through conflict” – this is a succinct way of stating Howard Bloom’s “Lucifer Principle,” but it could just as well be called the “Tezcatlipoca Principle.” Consider, for example, the great era of post-World War II prosperity that is now ending with a resounding crash, all the technological innovations, the optimism, the relatively stable and peaceful world order, the founding of Israel – all things which disciples of Tezcatlicopa’s arch-enemy, Quetzalcoatl, identify with progress.

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Would any of these developments have been possible if the world had not been roused from its Great Depression by the dark energies unleashed during the last great outbreak of Black Sun consciousness, in the 1930’s, under the banners of the fascists and the imperialists? I think not.

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This is the eternal power of the Black Sun: whenever man or any other species becomes steeped in the light of the White Sun, and thereby becomes weak, complacent, merciful and “good,” the black light manifests in force and seeks to overthrow them. The Western mind, blinded by the white light teachings of Judaism, Christianity and the religion of progress, has great difficulty accepting this duality except in terms of “good” and “evil.”

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But what is good? According to Christ, it is meekness, mercy and subservience to God’s will. According to Nietzsche, it is all that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. Which prophet do you prefer? In which sun’s light do you choose to walk?

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Beyond all shallow politics, philosophy and psychology, I believe this question determines the nature of a man and his society. It is an eternal cosmic struggle, which the Aztecs personified in the struggle between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, the Egyptians in Osiris and Set, the Christians in God and Lucifer, the Nazis in the Jews and the Aryans, and so forth.

Read More Quetzalcoatl The Feathered Serpent Venus Alchemy click

Read More Mictlantecuhtli God of The Underworld click