To begin with I’d like to say that Tezcatlipoca is by far one of my favorite pagan deities to learn about, at a tie with Nergal and Sin from good ol’ Mesopotamia. And it always fascinated me how complex and contradictory his portrayal is within the mythos. He’s multi-faceted and has more than a couple of forms that he can and will reveal himself in. As such I’ve decided to write a bit about his mysterious nature.
Now, Tezcatlipoca is weird. He’s a trickster {you’ll recognize this Jungian archetype} and tends to love changing shapes. Of course, colonization and Christianity ruined the reverence he had within Mesoamerica. There is paltry evidence to suggest that he was hated or considered to be evil by his followers/worshippers. Rather it was his dynamic with Quetzalcoatl {or more precisely the Feathered Serpent} that led to him being thought of as evil. Consider it this way. On one end you have this enigmatic, chthonic, trickster, and dark god of war {Tezcatlipoca}, and on the other is a solar deity associated with the elements, life, color, civilization, and the sky {Quetzalcoatl}. To the European conquerors, the basic knowledge they went by was dark = bad and light = good.
This judgment, based on how they saw the Biblical God and Satan, forced them to write Tezcatlipoca off as bad. A similar treatment as the one the Greek Hades faced, but one that since the advent of the 21st Century has been turned around. Another thing that factors into this, is not only the fact that Tez {this will act as the abbreviated form of his name} was already ambiguous, but, the burning of most of the sources {surrounding the Aztec religion}. Nonetheless, take a look at this excerpt:
“And when the great Tezcatlipoca, the god of the nocturnal sky, came to be worshipped, then did they soon become proud and quarrelsome, for he was a deity who could not be appeased, nor was it possible to offer him sacrifice.”
Source: Florentine Codex
We already see a contradiction here. It claims that Tezcatlipoca could never be appeased and that it was impossible to sacrifice anything to him. Let’s take a look at some more proof of his complex characterization:
“Tezcatlipoca was a god who could change his form at will, and he was known for his ability to deceive and trick mortals. He could appear as a handsome youth or an old man, a jaguar or a serpent, a bird or a butterfly. He was a god of many faces, and his followers believed that he could help them in all aspects of their lives.”
Source: Florentine Codex
“Tezcatlipoca is a very strange god. He is a god of war, but he is also a god of peace. He is a god of life, but he is also a god of death. He can be cruel and destructive, but he can also be kind and generous. He is a god of paradoxes, and his mysteries are many.”
Source: Codex Chimalpopoca
“Tezcatlipoca is a god who demands sacrifice, but he is also a god who cannot be satisfied. He is a god of destiny, but his own destiny is uncertain. He is a god of rulership, but he is also a god of rebellion. He is a god who can bring both blessings and curses, and his power is feared and respected by all.”
Source: Florentine Codex
“Tezcatlipoca is a god of the night, but he is also a god of the day. He is a god of the sky, but he is also a god of the earth. He is a god of illusion, but he is also a god of truth. He is a god of change, but he is also a god of stability. He is a god of contradictions, and his nature is difficult to understand.”
Source: Codex Telleriano-Remensis
“Tezcatlipoca is the lord of all life, and he demands that we offer him the blood of our enemies and the hearts of our captives. Only through this sacrifice can we gain his favor and protection.”
Source: Florentine Codex
“Tezcatlipoca is the god of rulership and the source of all life. He demands sacrifice from his followers, but in return he grants them power and prosperity.”
Source: Codex Chimalpopoca
“Tezcatlipoca is a god of life and death, and his power is felt in all aspects of our existence. We must honor him with sacrifice, or else we risk his wrath and the destruction of our people.”
Source: Codex Telleriano-Remensis
A large portion of them also calls him out for being so fluid. Tez represented both life and death for them. The point is that none of this affected how the people revered and venerated him. To them, Tezcatlipoca was wild and unpredictable. He was the harsh nature of the lands they dwelled in, of the reality they lived in. In a sense he was fate. He might have represented the way the future is so ambiguous and out of human control.
He was both Chthonic and Ouranic {not so different from the Greek Dionysus}. Tezcatlipoca was sort of a paradox in and out of himself. Let’s consider how Fate/Grand Order portrays him. They showcase him as this impartial deity, who would do all that pleases him. And even during a battle, he would take no one side. If he’s going to side against humanity, he’d also side with it {using an aspect of his greater being}. I know not if this was intended to be a nod to the contradictory figure he is or whether it was just an act of creative liberty.
Within FGO it is also said that he ruled a realm of the dead where the unnamed fighter, the one who loses goes to. The one who refuses to give up but inevitably succumbs to destiny. This could be a reference to the following part of the Florentine Codex:
“And when it was time to make offerings to the gods, Moctezuma would take the knife and cut his own flesh, and the flesh of his sons and daughters, and offer it to the gods. But when he made an offering to Tezcatlipoca, the god refused it, and said that he did not want the blood of cowards and traitors.”
However, many believe this to be a corrupted portion due to the Spaniards wanting to portray Aztec {and the much larger Mesoamerican} culture as a demonic cult. Coming back to the topic at hand, Tezcatlipoca’s mysteriousness is also referenced in his gender and/or identity:
“Tezcatlipoca is a god of many faces and many genders. Sometimes he is a mighty warrior, and sometimes she is a beautiful maiden. Sometimes he is both at once, and sometimes neither at all. Tezcatlipoca is a god of mystery, and his true nature is known only to those who are initiated into his secrets.”
Source: Codex Chimalpopoca
“Tezcatlipoca is often depicted as a man, but he can also take on the form of a woman or an androgynous figure. His gender and appearance are fluid and changeable, reflecting the many different aspects of his nature.”
Source: Codex Borgia
“Tezcatlipoca is a god of shape-shifting and transformation, and his gender is no exception. He can be male or female, young or old, human or animal. He is a god of paradoxes, and his mysteries are many.”
Source: Codex Telleriano-Remensis
The one thing that has stuck with me throughout all of this is that Tezcatlipoca at its root is a “god of mysteries” or a “god of paradoxes”. Who or what he is doesn’t matter. OSP painted the Feathered Serpent as a common staple of Mesoamerican culture. Something so public and well-known that they didn’t consider writing about it. Tezcatlipoca is the antithesis of that. They wrote about him because they themselves were not sure of his whimsical nature. He was shrouded in mystery and his origins {even his character} were so cultic and contradictory that they thought it better to jot all of it down.
He in a sense is all that is Eldritch to the Aztecs, something that they cannot define or put a handle on. Sort of ineffable to the core. But that changed nothing. For, no matter how he was, or even what he was, he was always the same. He was Tezcatlipoca.
So how was it? I do hope I properly explained it and that you enjoyed it. Have a nice day!
