Aztec Story of Creation

The tribes from the areas of central Mexico were referred to as the Aztecs. The term also includes the seven Chichimec tribes and all the inhabitants of Tenochititlan's city states. The culture actually originated in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. This civilization was advanced in many ways as they built cities based on intricate detailing. Religion was the most important thing for the Aztecs. They worshiped different Gods and Goddesses. According to their belief, every God represented a different aspect of life. They even performed sacrifices in temples.

The Aztec creation stories have their own theories to the way the world began. With time, there were many versions of the original creation myth. Creation myths are stories about how the world and entire mankind came into existence and every race has some very interesting versions to add to it. Let's read about the Aztec story of creation.

Basically, the story revolves around birth, followed by death and then rebirth. The Aztec story revolves around the birth of the five worlds. As per the Aztecs, the universe had its own beginning. The Aztecs believed that the opposites in the universe always had to unite. For example, the union of a male and female was required to bear children. The Aztecs also believed in giving importance to direction, thus came into being, the four important Gods, Huizilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl. These four Gods that represented North, South, East and West came together and created water and other Gods as well. They also created a sea demon known as Cipactli. It was believed Cipactli was the main source of the cosmos.

Since all the Gods were creating things, they realized that their creations may be harmed by the sea demon. So, they decided to attack Cipactli. The monster gave a tough fight but the Gods pulled it in 4 different directions. Cipactli was finally destroyed but before doing so, Tezcatlipoca's foot was torn off. It was believed that the universe was created from this huge sea monster with the earth in the middle.

The sun came into being through the sacrifice of the God, Tezcatlipoca. This gave a new source of energy. Meanwhile, there was a fight between the Gods, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca as the latter only became one part of the sun. The fight resulted in the destruction of the sun which angered Tezcatlipoca. Meanwhile, Quetzalcoatl decided to become the sun. This was time when humans came into being. This was the creation of the second sun. However, Tezcatlipoca turned some humans into monkeys which caused a furious Quetzalcoatl to blow them away with the help of a hurricane.

Then came the existence of the third sun. This was taken over by Tlaloc, a creation of the Gods. However, Tezcatlipoca caused problems for Tlaloc and a grief stricken Tlaloc burnt brightly as the sun without the chance of rain for the humans. His anger finally resulted in self destruction.

After the destruction of the fourth sun, the Aztec story mentions that Tlaloc's sister soon became the next sun. This angered Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. While destroying her, she fell down which caused the sky to open and release water that flooded earth and caused destruction once again.

At last the Gods came together for the creation of another sun. This is when Tecuciztecatl wanted to become the sun but the Gods preferred Nanahuatzin. When a fire was built, Nanahuatzin jumped in followed by an angry Tecuciztecatl. Suddenly, two suns rose up on the horizon in the east. A God threw a rabbit at the brightest sun in an effort to reduce the brightness of the sun. This however, turned into the moon. Meanwhile, Nanahuatzin needed energy as the sun, as he was not bright enough. The Gods thus gave Nanahuatzin blood for the creation of more energy. So, in this manner, the world was formed according to the Aztec creation myth. Over the ages, the Aztecs worshiped many sun Gods.

Today, the Aztec culture and civilization is an interesting subject and the recent archaeological excavations offer crucial evidence about this ethnic group. This civilization is also one of the most documented of all, by historians, linguists and ethnologists.