Toltec Tripod Vessel (Quetzalcoatl)
Be the first to review this product
$ 190.00
Availability: In stock
Quick Overview
Jesus Christ, the Plumed Aztec Serpent
The shape-shifting ancient Aztec gods lived on long after the Spanish destroyed the Mexican Aztec Empire and imposed Catholic Christian culture and doctrines.
Surprisingly , Spanish monks found that the conquered Aztecs were quick to take to the new religion. The Aztecs saw in the worship of Jesus Christ a similarity to the worship of the Plumed Aztec Serpent Quetzalcoatl. They also saw that Jesus’ teachings on brotherly love were in harmony with the ancient god Quetzalcoatl’s pious and peaceful views on how government should function . And, the Christian idea of the second coming of Christ clearly resonated with the ancient Aztec myth of Quetzalcoatl’s going away and promised return.
so, before the subjugation of the Aztecs, the sighting of white bearded men that arrived from the sea on drifting mountains was believed to be Quetzalcoatl’s return. First hand sightings that were reported to the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II also mentioned that these beings rode on top of giant deer and harnessed thunder and lightning from staffs they carried . Their skin was described as white and hard. What else but gods could fit this description? During the fighting for the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, it became clear that these bearded men were not gods but the religion they imposed clearly requires the worship of a deity that seemed one and the same with Quetzalcoatl. In an unlikely matrimony of faiths, the Plumed Aztec Serpent became intimately connected with Jesus Christ.
The Mexican Aztec also altered Romanist Catholic Christian practices to the old religion and continued to follow aspects of the old religion by cleverly hiding their meaning from the Christian monks priests. Old Aztec gods were joined to Christian saints, Tlaloc the Aztec god of rain was revered under the guise of St. John the Baptist. Traditional practices were also aligned with Christian festivals; the annual visit to the graves of the ancestors was carried out on All Souls’ Day. This holiday now known as the “Day of the Dead” is yet held throughout Mexican Aztec lands.
In 1531, a recent convert known as Juan Diego had a vision of a dark Virgin Mary near a temple to the Earth goddess Tonantzin. There, he supposedly received instructions concerning the construction of a church in her honor. The new temple was to be located on the very spot where Tonantzin’s temple had stood. Under the name of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, this hybrid Mesoamerican-Christian deity became and continues to be Mexico’s patron saint.
The way in which the Aztecs accepted Christian practices while maintaining the ways of the old Aztec gods is typical of the Aztec approach to religion. They were mostly willing to accept that new gods and new practices were an extension of what they already knew, rather than a whole new departure. Aztecs built upon existing practices rather than replacing them.
designed by: intelligent Software Designs