see and be seen_ (‘smoking’) mirrors
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7/23/2019 See and Be Seen_ (Smoking) Mirrors
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GENERAL AZTECS MAYA T OCUARO KIDS CONTACT 29 Aug 2015/10 Alligator
Pic 1: Pyrite mirror, Xochicalco, AD700900. Pitt Rivers Museum,
Oxford (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 2: The original divine couple,Cipactonal and Oxomoco, castingmaize kernels. Florentine Codex
Book 4 (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 3: Aztec obsidian mirrors inEuropean museums: in modern
wooden frame, Museo de la Amricas,Madrid (L), British Museum (including
Dr. John Dees, top) (R) (Click onimage to enlarge)
Pic 4: The symbols of mirror andwater couldnt be more closely
linked: part of Tezcatlipocas apparel,detail from Codex Borgia, fol
17 (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 5: Speech, music or smokescrolls? Details from: painting of
Tezcatlipoca, National Museum ofAnthropology, Mexico City (top L)
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Welcome
Throne
Xicolli
Birthing Figure
Stone jaguars head
Chocolate whisk
Pine torch
See and Be Seen: (Smoking) Mirrors
Personified knivesAncient metate at the V&A
Clay stamps
Atlatl
Aztec pottery
Carrying frame
Molcajete
Study the... PETATE
Study the... DIGGING STICK
Study the... FAMILY CHEST
Study the... HEARTH
Aztec high-chair?
Baby basket
Maquahuitl
UictliTzictli (part 1)
Tzictli (part 2)
The Chewing Gum Tree
Chewing Gum used for other Purposes
Chimalli
Teponaztli
Metate
A family of deities?
U-tube
Aztec microphone?
Host figurines
Pre-Hispanic marbles, or jacks?
Artefacts in the Spotlight
Whole Archive at a Glance
Xiuhmolpilli
Personified flint knife
Pottery stamp
Dancing monkey
Aztec pitchers
Water monster plaque
Xipe Totec warrior
Aztec fertility goddess
Toad
Deified warrior
Atlatl
Huehueteotl
Altar of nocturnal animals
Mictlantecuhtli
Chacmool
Detail from turquoise disk
Quetzalcatl-EhcatlUrn with image of Mictlantecuhtli
Huaxtec female deities
Cihuateotl
Solar disc
Gold ingot
Man with cacao pod
Head with lip-plug
Eagle cuauh xicalli
Greenstone Huitzilopochtli
Turquoise Mask
Censer
Stone cactus fragment
Gold pendant
Jaguar warrior sculpture
Cactus boundary marker
Teponaztli
Codex DurnHead of an Eagle Warrior
Teocalli of sacred warfare
Statue of Xiuhtecuhtli
Greenstone heart
Rattlesnake fragment
Grasshopper
Gold disc
See and Be Seen: (Smoking)
Mirrors
The obsidian mirror in the Mexico galleryof the British
Museum (right) never fails to fascinate v isitors, and the
name of the god with which the mirror is commonly
associated - Tezcatlipoca - never fails to fascinate those
who study the Mexica (Aztecs), for it means Smoking
Mirror. The Conquistadors - as well as th e Aztecs - prized
obsidian mirrors highly. What was so special about them? And did they really
smoke? (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
The use of mirrors in general is ancient in Mesoamerica. Priorto obsidian, thematerial most commonly used was (iron)pyrite (see pic 1), sometimes formed into mosaics with a slatebacking unfortunately, iron pyrite rusts easily and most ofthe dozen or so still kept today in museums have poorlypreserved surfaces. Even older (metallic stone Olmec) mirrorshad finely polished concave surfaces found with holes in theback (as in pic 1), its most likely they were worn as pendants,perhaps by priests.Examples of the more common pyritemirrors have been found throughout the heart of thecontinent, from SW United States down to Central America.Whilst the more ancient mirrors could well have produced fire,obsidian mirrors, easier to make, didnt have this ability, didntbecome common until the Late Postclassic period (around the
time of the Aztecs), and have been found in fewer places - Michoacn, Mexicos central valley,and Oaxaca.
Mirrors had been used for centuries in ancient Mexico - notjust among th e Aztecs - as a medium for divination. Theirsmooth, reflective surfaces, similar to water contained ingourd bowls or small pools, lent themselves to looking intopast, present and future worlds. Indeed, the Aztecs hadinherited several means of divination prior to the use of(obsidian) mirrors and sacred almanacs: peering intocontainers of water, tying and untying knots in pieces ofcloth, and throwing kernels of maize onto mats (pic 2).Tellingly, the Aztec tonalpouhqui (interpreter of destinies)
would refer to his tonalamatl (book of fates) as a mirrorand would greet his customers with the words You havecome to see yourself in the mirror you have come toconsult the book.
Obsidian (itztli in Nhuatl) - a naturally occurring volcanicglass formed from its parent material, cooled lava - quicklyproved to be a valuable resource to the Mexica, used formaking tools, decorative artefacts, weapon blades... andmirrors. Polished with abrasive sand, glued together withbats poo, framed in wood, and decorated with feathers,obsidian mirrors were fine works of art, owned and used byrulers, and they became sought-after, exotic objects amongthe aristocracy of Europe. One found its way into the handsof Dr. John Dee, astrologer, mathematician, consultant toElizabeth I - and, significantly, magician - and is now onview, with the case he made for it, in the British Museum(pic 3, top right).
Its bright reflective powerand its paradoxical ability to
allow its user to gaze into other worlds but not to passthrough them, endowed the obsidian mirror with strongassociations with a fiery hearth, the sun, the human eye, acave (long seen as an entrance to the underworld), and withthe surface of still water (pic 4). In this context, at least oneAztec chronicler symbolically refers to both mythical place ofAztec origin (Aztlan) and Mexica capital city (Tenochtitlan) interms of the great water mirror that surrounds the greatcity.
All Aztec diviners called thetools of their trade - book,maize kernel, piece of cloth- a tezcatl or mirror, and the word in Nhuatl for to predict(itzpopolhuia) is formed from two words, itztli(obsidian)
andpopolhuia (to cast a spell). Little wonder, then, thatthe Mexica referred to obsidian as the talking stone. Anobsidian mirror could reflect images and fates, and asmoking obsidian mirror, with its extended associationswith flames, luminosity, divine breath and in turn music andspeech (note the similarity between the glyphs forspeech/singing and smoke: pic 5) could communicate sacredmessages to human beings. Just as sound can be cast backand announced audibly in the form of echo, images could be
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li-part-1http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/grasshopperhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/u-tubehttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/chimallihttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/images-6/627_01_2.jpghttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/gold-pendanthttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/gold-dischttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/aztec-potteryhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/greenstone-hearthttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/toadhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/family-of-deitieshttp://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/flora-and-fauna/http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/atlatlhttp://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztec-life/http://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztefacts/http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/molcajetehttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/gold-ingothttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/study-the-digging-stickhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/deified-warriorhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/los-cuchillos-personificadoreshttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/stone-cactus-fragmenthttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/images-6/627_05_2.jpghttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/mictlantecuhtlihttp://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/moctezuma/http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/codex-duranhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/tzictli-part-2http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/study-the-petatehttp://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/inspiration/http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/study-the-family-chesthttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/calendar/welcome-to-a-new-maya-long-counthttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/head-of-an-eagle-warriorhttp://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/spotlight/water-monster-plaquehttp://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/stories/http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/calendar/welcome-to-a-new-maya-long-counthttp://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/getting-involved/http://mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/reviews/ 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Codex Borbonicus, fol 26 (bottom L) &5 (top R) Codex Mendoza fol 16
(bottom R) (Click on image toenlarge)
Pic 6: A sacred bundle carried bya Mexica deity-bearer contains a
smoking mirror the four smallballs surrounding the mirror areballs of eagle down, symbols ofsacrifice. Codex Azcatitlan, fol7b (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 7: Just two guises of Tezcatlipoca: asjaguar and as turkey - both noble animals:
its likely that both were associated withmeting out punishments to sinners drawn
from the Codex Borbonicus (spot the smokingmirrors!) (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 8: The glyph for smoking mirror, drawn (L) byAbel Mendoza from the Codex Borgia (folio 17,detail, R) (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 9: Smoking mirror glyphs: onTezcatlipocas head (L) and the date 1-Flint
(R) - neither shows the end of the humanbone visible in Pic 8 (Click on image to
enlarge)
Pic 10: Tezcatlipoca bearing all twentycalendar signs, and with a smoking
mirror in place of one foot painting,National Museum of Anthropology,
Mexico City (Click on image to enlarge)
Feathered serpent 1-Reed
Bundle of years (side view)
4-hole ceramic flute
Greenstone beads
Ear-spools
Teotihuacn shell trumpet
Macehualli(commoner)
Pato loco
Squash (pumpkin) with its flower
Head of Quetzalcatl, Feathered Serpent
Head of a youth
Ballgame offering
Funeral casket
Chalchihuitl glyphDedication stone from the Templo Mayor
Reproduction chalice cover
Fire serpent
Wind god mirror
Staghorn sceptre
Miniature chac mool
Stone teponaztli sculpture
Stone bust of Quetzalcatl
Skull goblets
Stone altar of skulls
Skull and crossbones dish
Woman with child
Giant shell sculpture
Olmec altar with two small humanfigures
Eagle and Jaguar talking
ChicahuaztliAltar with the date 10 Rabbit
Head of a feathered serpent
Hourglass-shaped goblets
Fragment of a stone frieze
Woman in festive attire with a child
Funerary urn with lid
Coiled Fire Serpent
Altar of the warriors
Gold objects from the Templo Mayor
Maya Stone Lintel
Wooden ceremonial shield with inlay
Maya jadeite plaque
Incense burner with Chicomecoatl
Large stone serpent head
Coiled rattlesnake
Turquoise mosaic helmet
Seated Mictlantecuhtli figureMixtec jug with butterfly
Golden eagle bas relief
Turquoise mosaic animal head
Jaguar-head pendant
Two-toned drum (teponaztli)
Artefact of the Week
Whole Archive at a Glance
Cholula Temple
Snake Sculpture
Cuauhxicalli
Featherwork Shield
Xipe Totec mask
Coyolxauhqui
Quetzalcatl maskRattlesnake
Ometecuhtli
Twin-headed snake
Quetzalcatl/Venus
Tezcatlipoca mask
Stone statues
Incense burner
Feathered Serpent Relief
Dancers whistles
Tonatiuh relief
Turquoise encrusted shield
Red Temple excavation
Conch shell adornment
Eagle bowl
Domestic pottery
Palace ruins
Pottery dishCocoa vessel
Macaw ocarina
Small Aztec flutes
Pottery stamps
Tongue drum
Spear throwers
Mixtec gold pectoral
cast back and reflected visibly in the form of smoke andmirrors.
Mirrors represented wisdom,knowledge and power. A wise man and elder was a large mirror,a mirror pierced on both sides. Parents and ancestors wereoften compared with mirrors (and torches). Each Aztec ruler(Great Speaker) owned a mirror with which to observe hissubjects - and their transgressions or sins. In this sense heacted on behalf of one of the greatest deities of all, the patron ofsorcerers and magicians, the giver of life and death, of all fatesgood and bad, Lord Smoking Mirror, Tezcatlipoca. Just as theMexica had been guided on their legendary travels from Aztlanby a smoking mirror (carried in a sacred bundle by a deity-
bearer - pic 6), Tezcatlipoca guided the tlatoani on the rightpath, that of his predecessors. He above all others had the duty,in Guilhem Oliviers words, to perpetuate the communitysheritage, and the mirror was a powerful symbol of this...
Both for the Maya andthe Mexica the veryword mirror wassynonymous with ruler.And the mirror - pierced on both sides - had twofaces and hence two functions: to revealTezcatlipocas will to the people, and to reveal toTezcatlipoca the (mis)doings of the Aztec people. Itwas very much both a receiver and a communicatorof divine force, a means - similar to a human eye -with which to see and to be seen. In order to revealfates, Tezcatlipoca had to make his (smoking) mirrorshine, and with its magical power Tezcatlipoca could
play tricks, confusing young with old, guilty withinnocent (in this way he deceived his younger brotherQuetzalcatl at Tula), dark with light... If (Black, male)
Tezcatlipoca represented darkness, the night wind, the jaguar, the waning and night sun, itwas in his brighter guise, as Tezcatlanextia (The Mirror That Shines), representing the daysun, that the deity could make appear, ie reveal, the sins and fates of human beings. If wetell you that Tezcatlipoca had around 130 different names and guises, you get some idea ofhow complicated it can be to fathom this Trickster deity out...!
In Picture 7 you can see the smoking mirrorglyph in Tezcatlipocas headgear in all its glory(and even clearer in Picture 8), though there aredifferences (can you spot them?) Though thenumber of eagle feather down balls surroundingthe mirrors varies (from two to seven -interesting, because we find exactly the samerange of player numbers in the ritual ballgame!),down balls are always present when one of
Tezcatlipocas animal doubles is being depicted -such as jaguar (Ts favourite, also known asTepeyollotl or Mountain Heart). In the centre ofsome versions of the smoking mirror glyph, andforming the axis, is a dead mans bone Laurette Sjourn suggests that the starry volutesrepresenting Venus symbolize the spiritual life engendered by the sacrifice of perishablematter [the bone], and that this reference, redolent with the doctrine of life-giverQuetzalcatl, points once again to Tezcatlipoca as being the representative of the humanrace.
The splendid mask of Tezcatlipoca held at DumbartonOaks Research Library in Washington (USA) (pic 9,left) is one example of the smoking mirror symbolappearing on the deitys temple, but without the endof the human bone showing in the centre. The sameapplies to the date sign 1-Flint (pic 9, right) - alsovisible in the great Aztec Sunstone, beside the glyphfor the first world era or Sun, ruled by Tezcatlipoca.(Calendar signs 1-Flint and 1-Death were sometimesshown with smoking mirror symbols attached). Muchmore well known, when it comes to bits missing,however, is the frequent - but not universal -depiction of Tezcatlipoca with a smoking mirrorreplacing his left foot (see pic 10). Much has beenwritten of this by scholars, suggesting that it forms
part of an astronomic code, that it is symbolic of Ts past sins, that it relates to mythicalconnections between the foot and the creation of fire (via lightning)...
The Mexica conceived of a black mirror placed in themiddle of the sky, attracting, reflecting back - andpositively contributing to - the weakening rays of thesetting sun in the afternoon, directing the celestial bodyand its light/heat down to the earth. This downward,nocturnal energy force - so clearly visible in the power oflightning (fire-serpents), but also represented by the tornfoot, and by the presence of flint knives penetrating theearths surface - symbolized the impregnation of the
earth, the procreative fire central to the nature ofTezcatlipoca.
Its beensuggestedthat atmidday the sun itself returns home, and it isits reflection in the mirror, a kind of fake
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7/23/2019 See and Be Seen_ (Smoking) Mirrors
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Pic 11: The seventh omen, Florentine Codex Book8 (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 12: Illustration by KeithHenderson, from The Conquest ofMexico by W.H. Prescott note the
smoking mirror in Moctezumasheadgear, symbol of rulership and
power... (Click on image to enlarge)
Pic 13: A father and daughter visitthe Templo Mayor Museum inMexico City note the obsidian
mirror! (Click on image to enlarge)
Q. Which modern blockbuster film was inspired by Aztec
obsidian mirrors?
A. Black to the Future!
Gold jewellery
Colonial chalice cover
Household figures
Model temple
Eagle-head pipe
Xipe Totec stone figure
Xiuhtecuhtli
Tonatiuh and movement
Xochipilli or Xochiquetzal
Xiuhcatl at Tenayuca
Head of Xochiquetzal
Ozomatli (monkey)
Coyolxauhqui
Coatlicue (1)Coatlicue (2)
Snake wall, Templo Mayor
Small pottery idol
Pottery dishes
More Aztec pottery
Spear throwers (back)
Mixtec gold sun pendant
Detail of Moctezumas headdress
Xipe Totec head
Xochiquetzal
Mictlanchuatl
Xolotl
Wind god/porter
Small pottery idol
Seated figure
Household Gods
Collapsed skullrack
sun, a lunar or nocturnal sun, whichdescends to the earth as it sets, presaging(announcing) its eventual disappearance andit is precisely this idea of the black mirrorheralding, predicting, foreseeing, in the formof an omen, a fateful end (to the day) thathas been closely linked to one of thenotorious omens said to have been witnessedby the Aztecs shortly before the arrival of the
Spanish in 1519. According to the Florentine Codex (see pic 11), Moctezuma II was shockedone day to see, brought to him by some fishermen, a strange crane-like bird with a mirror onits head showing the sky and stars - even though it was midday. Moctezuma saw reflected inthe mirror large numbers of warriors astride giant deer, approaching from a distance. Just asthe deeply troubled emperor consulted his astrologers regarding the meaning, the bird and
the vision vanished...
Superstitious to the core, the Mexica believed that differenttypes of bird could reveal their fates to whoever capturedthem. Not surprisingly, Moctezuma saw in this sign the endof the Aztec world at the hands of the advancing Spanish. Ina vain attempt to turn them back, he sent to meet Corts,at San Juan de Ulua, a lookalike, Quintalbor, who even theSpanish admitted resembled Corts. Mindful of the wayTezcatlipoca had deceived Quetzalcatl with a mirror at Tula,Moctezuma perhaps hoped that, by seeing his imagereflected in this human mirror, Corts would take flight(and fright), imagining himself somehow diminished (like awaning sun) by the vision. Sadly, some would say, Cortsdidnt get the message...Ironically, as Guilhem Olivier so eloquently puts it, the nightabruptly appearing at noon in Motecuhzomas mirror, on thehead of the bird, presages the fall of his empire and
counterbalances the light that appeared at midnight in theeast, a representation of the nascent sun of the Spaniards...And the rest, of course, is history.
Sources (special thanks to Guilhem Olivier):-
Olivier, G. (2003): Mockeries and Metamorphoses of anAztec God - Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Smoking Mirror,University Press of Colorado, Boulder, USA Sjourn, L. (1957): Burning Water: Thought and Religionin Ancient Mexico, Thames & Hudson, London McEwan, C. and Lpez Lujn, L. (Eds.) (2009): Moctezuma,
Aztec Ruler, The British Museum Press, London Pasztory, E. (1983):Aztec Art, Harry N. Abrams, New York Miller, M. and Taube, K. (1993): The Gods and Symbols of
Ancient Mexico and the Maya, Thames & Hudson, London.
Picture sources:-
Main picture: photo courtesy The Trustees of the British
Museum Pic 1: photo courtesy The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Pix 2 & 11: images from the Florentine Codex (original inthe Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence) scanned from
our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994 Pic 3: photo L, from Wikipedia photos R by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore Pix 4 & 8 R: images from the Codex Borgia scanned from our own copy of the 1976 ADEVAfacsimile edition, Graz, Austria Pic 5: top L: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore bottom L & top R: images from the CodexBorbonicus scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1974bottom R: image from the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) - imagescanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition, London Pic 6: image from the Codex Azcatitlan - public domain Pix 7 & 8 L: illustrations by Abel Mendoza, scanned from our own copy of Burning Water(see above) Pic 9 L: photo courtesy of and Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington,DC, USA R: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore Pic 10 & 13: photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
Pic 12: image scanned from our own copy of The Conquest of Mexico by W. H. Prescott (vol.2), London, Chatto & Windus, 1922.
Learn more about Tezcatlipoca...
Mirrors in Mesoamerican Culture (Wikipedia)
Here's what others have said:
1 At 11.20pm on Tuesday April 16 2013, Adrian wrote:
this has been one of my favourite articles , besides the one about the masks. I also like that it talksabout magic , I wasnt sure they believed or ha a name for this practice besides nahualism. and also
because so many people now a day use black scrying mirrors and dont know where it came fromthey think Dr dee made it up! really I learned so much as usual and I am really glad you are here toteach us.
Mexicolore replies: Cheers, Adrian, its feedback like yours that keeps us going!
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