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Codex Chapman

New Fire in the Temples

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1. New Fire in the Temples
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Tonatiuh's Radiance: Nahua Sun Worship
Introduction
The sun held profound symbolism in Nahua culture, serving as a source of life, energy, and cosmic balance. As the embodiment of the sun deity, Tonatiuh, the sun was a symbol of strength, vitality, and creation. The Nahua believed that Tonatiuh's journey across the sky represented the daily cycle of life, death, and rebirth. This journey mirrored their own lives and the cycles of nature, emphasizing the sun's role as a life-giving force and a guide in their understanding of the natural world. The sun's symbolism was also intertwined with Nahua rituals and ceremonies, which centered around honoring and sustaining Tonatiuh. Through offerings, bloodletting, and sacrifices, the Nahua aimed to support the sun's strength and ensure its continued journey. The sun's symbolism extended to their mythology, where it played a key role in creation stories and tales of cosmic struggle. This reverence for the sun deity permeated their society, influencing their art, religious practices, and calendar, as well as shaping their view of the universe and their place within it.
The Sun Deity and Its Origin
The Nahua people believed that the sun was a powerful deity essential for maintaining cosmic order and balance, providing the life-giving force that ultimately controlled the definitive balance that sustained the universe. According to their creation myths, the universe comprised several eras or "suns," each representing a cycle of creation and destruction. The current era was considered the Fifth Sun, which emerged after the previous four suns had perished (Aguilar-Moreno).

Huitzilopochtli, the Nahua god of war, sun, and human sacrifice, was a major deity distinct from Tonatiuh, the sun deity. While both gods were associated with the sun, their roles and attributes varied significantly. Huitzilopochtli represented the sun in its more aggressive and martial aspect, embodying the strength and ferocity necessary for victory in battle and conquest. His worship involved significant focus on military prowess and expansion, and he was seen as a patron of the Nahua people, guiding them to establish their empire. In contrast, Tonatiuh was associated with the daily journey of the sun across the sky and its life-giving force, emphasizing cosmic order and balance. In Nahua mythology, Tonatiuh's daily journey across the sky was perilous as he traversed the sky and the underworld, battling the forces of darkness. This journey symbolized the cycle of day and night and the ongoing struggle between order and chaos. The sun's successful completion of its daily journey was vital for sustaining life on Earth and was a critical aspect of the Nahua belief system.
The image titled "Tonatiuh: Book 7, Folio 1v" visually represents the dual nature of the sun deity in Nahua cosmology. The first depiction shows the sun's bright and powerful state, representing its vitality and life-giving properties. The second image portrays the sun in a weakened state, possibly obscured by fog or clouds, reflecting the Nahua's concern for the sun's vulnerability and their desire to keep it solid and steady. During annual festivals held under the sign of Nahui Ollin, the Nahua honored Tonatiuh with fasting, rituals, and offerings of incense and blood from their ears throughout the day. They revered and admired the sun's daily cycle, acknowledging its work in maintaining cosmic order. However, fear and uncertainty also marked their relationship with the sun deity. As the sun rose, they would ask, "Now the sun is beginning its work. What will it be? What will happen today?" and as it set, they would observe, "The sun finished its work or its task" (Book 7, Folio 1v).
The Nahua's profound reverence for the sun god and their commitment to maintaining its favor through rituals and sacrifices reveal the depth of their connection to the deity. They perceived the sun as a divine force central to their survival, and their cultural practices were centered around ensuring its continued presence and strength. Their mythology emphasized the importance of the sun's journey across the sky as the sun deity's ongoing labor to sustain life on Earth.
Ritualistic Sacrifices
The Nahua belief system surrounding the sun greatly emphasized ritualistic sacrifices, considering them vital to maintaining the sun's strength and ensuring the continuation of the world. Sacrifices, often involving human victims, were central to their cosmology, as the Nahua believed that without these offerings, the sun might not rise or complete its daily journey, potentially leading to catastrophic consequences for humanity and the cosmic order.
The image from "Tlamictiliztli: Book 2, Folio 121v" of the Florentine Codex illustrates the ritual of bloodshed and offerings in Nahua religious practices. It depicts a group of men leading a sacrificial victim to the temple steps, where he is laid across the sacrificial stone. The accompanying text provides a detailed account of the ritual, stating, "And he who was known as the arranger [of victims], this one laid him out on the sacrificial stone. And when he had laid him upon it, four men each pulled on his arms, his legs" (Book 2, Folio 121v). The fire priest played a central role in these sacrifices. The priest would use a flint knife to cut open the victim's chest and remove his heart, raising it in dedication to the sun deity. The text emphasizes that the victim "whose breast he laid open lay quite alive" and that the priest "at once seized his heart from him" (Book 2, Folio 121v). This suggests the intensity of the ritual, as the sacrifice was performed while the victim was still alive.
Offering the heart to the sun symbolizes the Nahua's belief in the necessity of sacrifice to sustain the sun's journey and ensure its continued favor. This act represents the connection between the human and divine realms and the desire to maintain harmony with cosmic forces. Additionally, sacrificial victims, often captives and enslaved people, were seen as the "divine dead" whose deaths were sacred offerings aimed at sustaining the world's balance and ensuring the sun's ability to rise each day. These ritualistic sacrifices also extended to bloodletting, where priests, warriors, and even ordinary citizens would draw blood from their bodies using tools such as maguey thorns. This blood was offered to the sun directly or as part of more significant ceremonies. Bloodletting was viewed as an act of devotion and a means of strengthening the sun for its daily journey.
Furthermore, sacrifices were not limited to human offerings alone. Animals, particularly quails, were also sacrificed, and their blood was offered to the sun. These ceremonies took place at specific times of the day, often coinciding with the sun's journey across the sky, to honor and strengthen Tonatiuh, the sun deity. The Nahua's dedication to ritualistic sacrifices reveals their profound reverence for the sun and their belief in its central role in maintaining the universe's balance. These practices were integral to their culture and religion, shaping their worldview and daily lives. Through their ritualistic sacrifices, the Nahua demonstrated their unwavering commitment to honoring the sun's deity and ensuring its daily presence.
Ceremonies to Ensure Cosmic Order
The Nahua culture's profound reverence for the sun deity, Tonatiuh, and their religious practices centered on ensuring the sun's continued journey across the sky to maintain cosmic order and sustain their world. This profound spiritual connection is evident in their rituals, including the New Fire ceremony, daily offerings of blood and incense, and specific ceremonies during eclipses.
The New Fire ceremony, conducted every 52 years to mark the completion of a complete cycle of the Nahua calendar, was a critical event in Nahua society. This ritual represented the sun's renewal and the world's rebirth. All fires in the city were extinguished, and the new fire was ignited on the sacred mountain of Huixachtlan. The priests observed strict protocols, dressing in the ornaments of their gods and carrying the tools necessary to create the new fire. In "Drilling New Fire on the Breast of a Sacrificial Victim: Book 7, Folio 19v," the Nahua priests walked in silence and solemnity, resembling their gods, as they journeyed to the mountain. "They would begin to walk little by little, very slowly, very stately, and in silence. And this is why they would say teonenemi, which means, 'They walk like gods'" (Florentine Codex, Book 7, Folio 19v). The image depicts a group of priests covered in black body paint carrying a man through the city as they brand his chest with a fire drill, demonstrating the ritual's intense and transformative impact. It is also important to note that within the article titled "Coloring the Sacred in Sixteenth-Century Central Mexico," Molly Harbour Bassett and Janette Favrot Peterson explore how the Nahua viewed the use of black body paint as a powerful visual representation of their connection to the gods. Black was considered a sacred color with the ability to reflect and emanate divinity, emphasizing the priests' status as divine intermediaries. During the New Fire ceremony, the use of black paint on the priests’ bodies elevated their roles as living embodiments of the deities, while also instilling a sense of reverence and solemnity in the ritual. This transformation of the priests into gods mirrored the intense and transformative impact of the ceremony itself, such as the dramatic branding of the sacrificial victim's chest with a fire drill. The use of black paint highlighted the ceremonial importance of the priests and the profound spiritual power of the ritual (Bassett and Peterson 53).
Once the New Fire was established, it was distributed throughout the city. "New Fire in the Temples: Book 7, Folio 20r" shows the use of a pine torch to spread the fire to every town. The illustration reveals two buildings, one entirely in flames and the temple of Huitzilopochtli. The ceremony involved burning possessions and participants themselves to appease the sun deity and maintain cosmic balance. "And the multitude of fires in every town, which made it look like daytime, was something to see" (Florentine Codex, Book 7, Folio 20r). This image reflects the widespread impact of the ceremony on the, with fire spreading through the city and illuminating the night.
Daily offerings of blood and incense also played a crucial role in sustaining the sun. "Tlenamacaliztli: Book 2, Folio 135r" describes the Nahua offering blood from their ears and quails' blood at sunrise, noon, and sunset to strengthen the sun for its daily journey and ensure its safe passage. The image depicts several men standing around the effigy of Tonatiuh, which resembles a man with the body of the sun, engaging in offerings such as bloodletting from their ears and poking straw through their ears. "After tearing off their heads and with the blood flowing, they would raise [the quails] up to the sun, as if offering that blood to it" (Florentine Codex, Book 2, Folio 135r). These rituals included daily incense offerings and bloodletting ceremonies involving children.
Conclusion
It is entirely evident that the Nahua not only gave a greater significance to something as modernly simple as the sun's journey across the sky, but managed to give their own existence profound meaning through their relationship with it, securing their place in the grand cosmic narrative. Their mythology was a brilliant testament to the ceaseless struggle between order and chaos, a vivid illustration of their relentless efforts to uphold cosmic balance. By doing so, they didn't merely cultivate a worldview. They intertwined their lives with the universe's enigmatic cycles and mysteries, providing them with an unshakeable sense of purpose and continuity within a grander cosmic framework.

Works Cited
Alicia Maria Houtrouw and Kim Richter. 2024. Introducing the Florentine Codex (1575–77) and Its Three Narratives. Kim N. Richter, Getty Research Institute; Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Getty Research Institute.
Manuel Aguilar-Moreno. 2006. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Forward: John Pohl. New York, Facts on File.
Bassett, Molly Harbour, and Janette Favrot Peterson. "Coloring the Sacred in Sixteenth-Century Central Mexico." Journal of Latin American Art, vol. 17, no. 2, 2024, pp. 23-45.