Personal Note: Sometimes you can find diferent myths related to the same subject in this culture. The Mexicas or Aztecs, when conquered their neighbors, they also added some of the conquered myths to their own pantheon, possibly to make the transition and incorporation to the Empire easier. So, in the myth of the Rabbit on the Moon, we have a specified god raising to take the place of Sun, though it does not negate that this same star will be later linked to other deities.
Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the Lord and the Lady are the double creative force, feminine and masculine principle. They had four children, who created other Gods, the world, and humankind.
Xipe, or Camaxtle, callked Red Tezcatlipoca, represents the East.
Tezcatlipoca, the Black Tezcatlipoca, is the North.
Quetzalcoatl, the White Tezcatlipoca, is the West.
Huitzilopocthli, the Blue Tezcatlipoca, is the South.
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Tezcatlipoca, the nocturnal (represented by the Ursa Major, which for the Aztecs resembles a jaguar), turned into the Sun and started the first cycle. The men, created by the Gods, do not need to seed nor to cultivate the Earth. They fed on acorns, fruits and roots.
Quetzalcoatl striked the sun with his cane and threw it off of the firmament. The constelattion turned into a live jaguar that devoured all men, leaving the world without inhabitants and without Sun. This was the First Sun, also called Sun 4-Tiger.
Quetzalcoatl transforms himself into a Sun and creating new men. But Tezcatlipoca, the jaguar, throws him down with a swpe of his claws and because of that, a great wind arises that drags all trees and kills most of the new inhabitants. The survivors became apes. Thus ends the Second Sun, called 4-Wind.
After this, the Gods suddenly choose Tlaloc as the new Sun. But from the sky fell a rain of fire that killed the men and those that did not die were transformed into birds. This third Sun is called 4-Rain.
Quetzalcoatl then puts the sister of Tlaloc, Chalchicuitle (the one of the jade skirt)as new Sun. But torrential rains floods the Earth and the men were drowned or became fish. The fourth Sun is called 4-Water.
Due the neccesity of a Sun, the Gods have a summit and they decide that one of them must be sacrificed (see the legend "The Rabbit on the Moon") to become Sun.
But this Sun would not move. When the Gods asked for the reason, it said that they also should be sacrificed to appease the star. Venus fired an arrow but it's catched by the Sun and who returns it, killing Venus. Thusy, Venus is the first star of the evening. All the present Gods undergo this destiny, each transforming into a star. The last one to perish is Xolotl. He flees and hides transforming himself into an axolotl under whose form finally is discovered and sacrificed. Together, Venus and Xolotl are first and last star.
This it is the Fifth Sun, called Movement, and it will end on a day called 4-Quake after a 52 years cycle. (Natives calendar).
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In order to create the humankind that will live under the Fifth Sun, Quetzalcoatl and his twin brother descends to Mictlan the Infraworld. After passing many tests, Quetzalcoatl asks the Lord, Mictlantecuhtli, for the bones of the men who have lived previously.
Knowing that Mictlantecuhtli is slick, Quetzalcoatl flees as soon as he obtains the bones. Mictlantecuthli takes offense and orders quails to persue both brothers. Under the attack, Quetzalcoatl stubmles and falls, breaking the bones. He hardly had time to pickup the fragments and leave the infraworld. Quetzalcoatl's brother is retained for a time as he was caught prisoner.
After the brothers argue because they did not obtain the bones asd they had planned, Quetzalcoatl opens his veins and his covers the bones. With that a new humanity is created. As the bone pieces were different, so are the men and women who inhabit this new world.
Quetzalcoatl is honoured as creator and giver of life. Not only he has created the men but he also discovers the corn, teaching its way to men. He teaches arts and science, to work the jade and other metals, to weave beautiful fabrics and to dye them. He teached astrology and he is the creator of the Calendar. That is why the quails became sacrifice for his temples, because they attacked the creation God.
The Ceremony of the New Fire is a ritual performed to detect the arrival of that feared date, 4-Quake. In the supposed date of the occurrance, all the fires of the city are extinguished and the priests lead the people in procession until they reach Hill Star, in Ixtapalapa. There they wait for midnight. If then, the star (it is presumed that they looked forAldebaran of Taurus or possibly the set of Pleyades), touched the hill top, all the stars and planets of the sky would fall to Earth and turned into fierce animals, they will devour men before the tremors finishes with this Age. If not, the Sun would raise the next morning.
Great joy filled the heart of the people when the stars indicated the end of the world would not arrive. A great fire was started and was taken and distributed to the temples, and form there to the homes, as the cycle ws not at its end and the world would keep existing.
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