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Introuction to the five suns

The Five Suns is an Aztec creation myth that explained the origin of life, the Sun, the Earth, and the Universe. One of the first physical copies of the story is in the Codex Borgia, created in the sixteenth century, though it would have been passed down verbally long before that. The story also explains why human sacrifice is important to the Aztec people. I’ve also added information in relation to how one would act ethically when faced with particular problems. The first is a problem of state: What does a moral king do in order to alleviate a severe drought threatening the very existence of the Aztec Nation temporarily entrusted to his care? The second was a problem of family: What does a moral Aztec royal parent do in order to raise children who will become responsible and willing participants in and leaders of that ultimately doomed nation of the Fifth Sun.

The Earth was created but without light life could not grow. To give light, they needed a god to become the sun and the Black Tezcatlipoca was chosen, but either because he had lost a leg or because he was god of the night, he only managed to become half a sun. The world continued on in this way for some time, but a sibling rivalry grew between Quetzalcoatl and his brother the mighty sun, who Quetzalcoatl knocked from the sky with a stone club. With no sun, the world was totally black and in his anger, Tezcatlipoca commanded his jaguars to eat all the people.

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The gods created humans who were of normal stature, with Quetzalcoatl serving as the sun for the new civilization, as an attempt to bring balance to the world, but their attempts ultimately failed as humans began to drift away from the beliefs and teachings of the gods and instead embraced greed and corruption. As a consequence, Tezcatlipoca showcased his dominance and strength as a god of magic and justice by transforming the human-like people into monkeys. Quetzalcoatl, who had held the flawed people in great regard, was greatly distressed and sent away the monkeys with a powerful hurricane.

Tlaloc was crowned the new sun, but Tezcatlipoca, the mischievous god, tricked and deceived him, snatching away the love of his life, Xochiquetzal. Tlaloc had become so consumed by his own grief and sorrow that he was no longer able to fulfil his duties as the sun; therefore, a great drought befell the people of the world. People desperately prayed for rain and begged for mercy, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. In a fit of rage, Tlaloc unleashed a rain of fire upon the earth, completely destroying it and leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

The next sun and also Tlaloc’s new wife, was Chalchiuhtlicue. She was very loving towards the people of earth, but Tezcatlipoca was not. Both the people and Chalchiuhtlicue felt his judgement when he told the water goddess that she was not truly loving and only faked kindness out of selfishness to gain the people’s praise. Chalchiuhtlicue was so crushed by these words that she cried blood for the next fifty-two years, causing a horrific flood that drowned everyone on Earth. Humans became fish in order to survive.

The gods convened in darkness to choose a new sun, who was to sacrifice himself by jumping into a gigantic bonfire. The two volunteers were the young son of Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, Tecuciztecatl, and the old Nanauatzin. It was believed that Nanauatzin was too old to make a good sun, but both were given the opportunity to jump into the bonfire. Tecuciztecatl tried first but was not brave enough to walk through the heat near the flames and turned around. Nanauatzin then walked slowly towards and then into the flames and was consumed. Tecuciztecatl then followed. The braver Nanauatzin became what is now the sun and Tecuciztecatl became the much less spectacular moon. Although the new sun had now been created, it would not move and so all of the gods decided that they would sacrifice themselves so that the sun and moon would move across the sky.

The sacrifice of the gods made life in this fifth creation possible. We have a choice today. We may follow their examples and give up ourselves for the continued existence of this sun of this age of movement or we can ignore their sacrifices and this creation, too, will end.

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