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Description

Watercolour, ink, and acrylics

Happy Summer Solstice and Solar eclipse everyone!

Xiuhtecuhtli is the Mexica Teotl of fire, light, heat, and volcanoes. He personifies light in the darkness and warmth in the cold. [1] He goes by many names, Xiuhtecuhtli meaning ‘Turquoise Lord’ or ‘Lord of Fire’, and Cuezaltzin, meaning ‘Flame’ [2]and sometimes he is even linked with the deity Huehueteotl, one of the oldest and most revered in the Nahua pantheon (though Xiuhtecuhtli is usually shown as a young deity). [3]

Despite being a fire deity, he also possesses aquatic qualities. He rules over the day of Atl (water) in the Mexica calendar and he dwells in the turquoise enclosure in the centre of earth – a place usually linked with water in the Nahua worldview. [4]

His face is painted with black and red pigment and adorned with turquoise, symbolising rulership. [5] He wears a crown of green feathers on his head, imitating the flames of a fire. His principal symbols are the tecpatl (flint) and the mamalhuatzin, the two sticks that were rubbed together to light ceremonial fires, which are depicted in his headdress.

In Tenochtitlan, stone sculptures of Xiuhtecuhtli were ritually buried as offerings and a small fire was permanently kept alive in the temples in his honour. [6] Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated often but especially at the end of every 52-year period. This was the time the 365-day solar and the 260-day sacred calendars ended on the same day and the Mexica celebrated the Binding of the Years with the New Fire Ceremony. In order to perform the ritual, priests marched in solemn procession up the Hill of the Star on a peninsula near Culhuacán to wait for the star Yohualtecuhtli (either Aldebaran in the Taurus constellation or the Pleiades as a whole) to get past its zenith. Having ascertained this, they would tear out the heart of a sacrificial victim and kindle a flame in a small wooden hearth they placed inside the hole left in his chest. Priests used a drill method to generate this sacred flame. It was then carried on pine sticks to light the fires anew in every hearth, including the sacred braziers of perpetual fire, that numbered over 600 in the capital alone. [7]

[1] Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo; Felipe Solis Olguín. 2002. Aztecs. London: Royal Academy of Arts.

[2] Sahagún, Bernadino de. 1577. Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España.

[3] Fernández, Adela. 1992. Dioses Prehispánicos de México. Mexico City: Panorama Editorial

[4] López Luján, Leonardo. 2005. The Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. University of New Mexico Press.

[5] Miller, Mary; Karl Taube. 1993. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson.

[6] Bingham, Ann. 2010. South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z. revised by Jeremy Roberts. Infobase Publishing

[7] Roy, Christian. 2005. Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, Incorporated.

Description

Watercolour, ink, and acrylics

Happy Summer Solstice and Solar eclipse everyone!

Xiuhtecuhtli is the Mexica Teotl of fire, light, heat, and volcanoes. He personifies light in the darkness and warmth in the cold. [1] He goes by many names, Xiuhtecuhtli meaning ‘Turquoise Lord’ or ‘Lord of Fire’, and Cuezaltzin, meaning ‘Flame’ [2]and sometimes he is even linked with the deity Huehueteotl, one of the oldest and most revered in the Nahua pantheon (though Xiuhtecuhtli is usually shown as a young deity). [3]

Despite being a fire deity, he also possesses aquatic qualities. He rules over the day of Atl (water) in the Mexica calendar and he dwells in the turquoise enclosure in the centre of earth – a place usually linked with water in the Nahua worldview. [4]

His face is painted with black and red pigment and adorned with turquoise, symbolising rulership. [5] He wears a crown of green feathers on his head, imitating the flames of a fire. His principal symbols are the tecpatl (flint) and the mamalhuatzin, the two sticks that were rubbed together to light ceremonial fires, which are depicted in his headdress.

In Tenochtitlan, stone sculptures of Xiuhtecuhtli were ritually buried as offerings and a small fire was permanently kept alive in the temples in his honour. [6] Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated often but especially at the end of every 52-year period. This was the time the 365-day solar and the 260-day sacred calendars ended on the same day and the Mexica celebrated the Binding of the Years with the New Fire Ceremony. In order to perform the ritual, priests marched in solemn procession up the Hill of the Star on a peninsula near Culhuacán to wait for the star Yohualtecuhtli (either Aldebaran in the Taurus constellation or the Pleiades as a whole) to get past its zenith. Having ascertained this, they would tear out the heart of a sacrificial victim and kindle a flame in a small wooden hearth they placed inside the hole left in his chest. Priests used a drill method to generate this sacred flame. It was then carried on pine sticks to light the fires anew in every hearth, including the sacred braziers of perpetual fire, that numbered over 600 in the capital alone. [7]

[1] Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo; Felipe Solis Olguín. 2002. Aztecs. London: Royal Academy of Arts.

[2] Sahagún, Bernadino de. 1577. Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España.

[3] Fernández, Adela. 1992. Dioses Prehispánicos de México. Mexico City: Panorama Editorial

[4] López Luján, Leonardo. 2005. The Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. University of New Mexico Press.

[5] Miller, Mary; Karl Taube. 1993. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson.

[6] Bingham, Ann. 2010. South and Meso-American Mythology A to Z. revised by Jeremy Roberts. Infobase Publishing

[7] Roy, Christian. 2005. Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO, Incorporated.