The Gods and Goddesses of the Aztecs

*NOTE: On Gods from cultures where sacrifice is a part of ritual: Where Modern times prohibit the calling of these gods in their original fashion, calling of then is still possible through an understanding of true sacrifice. Sacrifice means to make sacred, thus anything you offer that has been purified, blessed and Offered to them specifically functions the same. Perhaps an object you make to burn during ritual or if you wish to simualte blood for some rituals use strawberries that you crush and let its blood (juice) flow from your hands into a bowl consecrated for that purpose.

Centzon Totochtin
Other Names:  "Four hundred rabbits."
Description:  Moon Gods.  Depicted with black and white faces and moon-shaped nose ornaments.

Chalchihuitlicue
Other Names:  "Precious green lady", "Precious jewel lady", "Precious jade skirt."
Description: Special colors are blue and white.  She loves flowers.  Flowers were offered to her and cotton headdresses made in her honor.  Unpredictable temper.
Rules Over:  Storms, youthful beauty, whirlpools, spring growth, love, flowers, spirits, streams.

Chantico
Description:  Goddess of Fire.  She symbolizes pleasure and pain together.  Her symbols are a red serpent and cactus spikes.
Rules Over:  Fire, wealth and precious stones within the Earth.

Chicomecoatl
Description:  Popular Maize Goddess as maize was considered the giver of life.  She wore a large four-sided headdress and carried a double maize cob.
Rules Over: Maize.

Cihuacoatl
Other Names:  "Woman snake."
Rules Over:  Childbirth.

Cinteotl
Description:  Corn God which also had female forms.  During April festivals done in his honor, reeds were smeared with blood and put at the house doors and an offering.
Rules Over:  Earthly food.

Coatlicue
Other Names:  "Snake Skirt", "Serpent Lady."
Description:  Earth Goddess, Great Mother.  She was both positive and negative, could bless or harm.  She had claws and a skirt of snakes.
Rules Over: All Life, famines and earthquakes.

Coyolxauhqui
Other Names:  "Golden Bells"
Description:  Moon Goddess.  Wore golden bells on her cheeks.

Huehuecoyotl
Other Names:  Ueuecoyotl, "Old, old Coyote."
Description:  Mischievious deity who was an uncontrolled and trickster God.
Rules Over:  Gaiety, physical sex, irrational fun.

Huitzilopochtli
Other Names:  "Hummingbird on the Left (South)", "Left-Handed Humming Bird"
Description:  National god of the Aztecs.  His festival was one of 25 days of a blood orgy with hearts and blood of prisoners dumped on his altar.
Rules Over:  Sun, death, war, young men, warriors, storms, guide for journeys.

Ilamatecuhtli
Description:  Terrible aspect of the mother goddess.  During her winter festival, a female's heart was cut out and her chopped off head carried during a parade.

Itzcoliuhqui
Other Names:  "Twisted obsidian one", "Curved obsidian knife."
Description:  An aspect of the god Tezcatlipoca.
Rules Over:  Darkness, terrible cold, volcanic eruptions, disaster.

Itzpaplotl
Other Names: "Obsidian knife butterfly."
Description:  A very beautiful female goddess with death symbols scrawled on her face.  A mixture of sensuality and death.
Rules Over:  Fate, stars, agriculture.

Mayauel
Description:  She is depicted naked, holding up a bowl of pulque and seated on a throne of a tortoise and snake.  Night was her sacred time and she carried a cord that she used to aid women in child birth.  She is the Goddess who discovered and introduced the Gods to pulque.
Rules Over:  Pulque, Childbirth.

Meztli
Other Names:  Tecciziecatl.
Description:  Represented as an old man with a white shell on his back and sometimes with butterfly wings.  The physical Moon at its height.

Mictlantecuhtli
Other Names: "Lord of the land of the dead."
Description:  God of the Underworld and North.  Depicted as a skeleton with red bones.
Rules Over: The Dead.

Mixcoatl
Other Names: "Cloud serpent."
Description:  National god of the Chichimecs, god of the pole star.  Victims to be sacrificed to him were painted white or red.  It was thought that they turned into stars which were considered food for the Sun.
Rules Over:  Hunting, weapons that strike from a distance (spears, javelins).

Quetzalcoatl
Other Names:  "Most precious twin", "Feathered serpent", "plumed serpent", "Morning Star."
Description:  Great priest, Master of Life.  God of the wind, sea breeze and life-breath.  A creator god who identified with the planet Venus.  He is a 'good' god as he required only one human sacrifice a year.
Rules Over:  Civilization, the arts, metallurgy, fate.

Tezcatlipoca
Other Names:  "Mirror that smokes", "The Shadow", "He who is at the shoulder."
Description:  One of two most known about gods of Mexico, he was a local deity of the Toltecs who was later adopted by the Aztecs.  The dark aspect of Quetzalcoatl, his symbol was the jaguar.  Evil God of warriors, magicians and sorcerers.
Rules Over:  Divination (especially black mirrors), drought, harvest, dancing, music, warriors, magick, cold, north, night.

Tialoc
Other Names:  "The One who mankes things sproud", "Lord of the sources of water", "Lord of the waters."
Description:  An ancient Nature and fertility god who required constant human sacrifice.  Shown holding four pitchers from which he pours the rain.
Rules Over:  Thunder, mountains, rains, hail, fertility, water, clouds, thunder, lightning.

Tlauixcalpantecuhtli
Other Names:  "Lord of the house of dawn."
Description:  The morning star Venus.  An aspect of Quetzalcoatl.
Rules Over:  Dawn.

Tlazolteotl
Other Names:  "Goddess of Filth", "Dirt Goddess", "Earth Goddess", "Lady of Witches."
Description: Goddess of the cresented moon.  Terrible aspect of the Goddess.  She rode naked on a broom holding a red snake and blood-smeared rope.
Rules Over:  Physical love, fertility, death.

Tonatiuh
Other Names:  Pilzintecutli, "Royal Lord."
Description:  Sun God who received daily sacrifices of human hearts and blood.
Rules Over:  Fate, warriors who die in battle, women who die in childbirth.

Tozi
Other Names:  Teteoinnan, "Our grandmother."
Description:  Mother of the Gods, personification of all the aspects of Nature.  She had a festival; in August which honored midwives and women healers.
Rules Over:  Healing, sweat baths.

Xipe Totec
Other Names:  "The flayed one."
Description:  The Aztecs celebrated his festival on February 22 by skinning prisoners alive to help the growing corn.
Rules Over:  Agriculture, west, goldsmiths, self-torture to give penance.

Xochiquetzal
Other Names: "Flower Plume", "Flower Feather."
Description:  Mother of the maize god.  Goddess of the underworld and flowers.
Rules Over:  Underworld, flowers (especially marigolds which are laid on graves), sexual love, twins, children, craftsmen.

Xolotl
Other Names: "The Animal", Lord of the Evening Star, Lord of the Underworld.
Description:  A monster animal with its feet on reversed.  The evil form of Venus and adversary of the Sun.  He did bring humankind and fire
from the underworld, though.
Rules Over:  Fire, Bad luck.

Yacatecuhtli
Other Names: "Lord Nose", "He who goes before."
Rules Over: Merchants and traders.

Chasca
Other Names: "The long-haired Star (Venus)."
Description: Goddess who cared for princesses, girls and flowers.

Illapa
Description:  Storm and weather god, shown as a man with war club and sling.
Rules Over: Thunder and lightning.

Inti
Other Names: Apu Punchaur.
Description:  Sun God.  Represented by a great golden disk with a face, but in the Incan mind he was thought to have a human form.  His annual festival was to celebrate the harvest of maize.  Chanting lasted from sunrise to sunset with continual animal sacrifices.
Rules Over:  Fertility, crops.

Mama Cocha
Other Names:  "Mother Sea."
Description:  Worshipped especially on the Peruvian coast.
Rules Over: Fishing.

Mama Quilla
Other Names:  "Mother Moon."
Description:  Moon Goddess.  She was depicted as a silverdisk with a human face.  Wife of Inti.  She was not worshipped by many, and was connected with the calendar and festivals.
Rules Over:  Protectress of women, the calendar, religious festivals.

Manco Capac
Description:  Sun god.  Youngest son of the Sun.  Founder of Cuzco.
Rules Over:  Magick.

Pachacamac
Other Names:  "Lord of the Earth."
Description:  Pictured as a tall white man who worked miracles, also said to create earthquakes.  Sacrifices of animals and humans were performed every year to him.
Rules Over:  The arts, occupations and oracles.

Supai
Description:  God of the Underworld and death.  One-hundred children were sacrificed every year to him.  He was considered a greedy god, always wanting to increase the number of his followers.
Rules Over: Death.

Urcaguary
Description:  God of underground treasures.  Represented as a snake with a deers head and a tail decorated with gold chains.
Rules Over: Treasure.

Viracocha
Other Names:  Huiracocha.
Description:  Great God without beginning or end.  Inca legend said he lived in heaven and maintained the world, however, they also believed he left many futions of the universe and humankind to the lesser gods.  He was thought of in human form.  Giver of the arts of civilization.
Rules Over:  Sun, storm, lightning, oracles, languages, moral codes, rain, water, fertility.