Editing Tezcatlipoca (section)

== Aztec religion and reverence ==
According to Aztec belief, Tezcatlipoca had a great many associations: the [[night sky]], night winds, [[hurricanes]], the north, the earth, [[obsidian]], hostility, discord, rulership, [[divination]], temptation, [[Jaguars in Mesoamerican cultures|jaguars]], sorcery, beauty, [[war]], and conflict.

His main temple in [[Tenochtitlan]] was located south of the [[Templo Mayor]]. According to [[Diego Durán]], it was "lofty and magnificently built. Eighty steps led to a landing twelve or fourteen feet wide. Beyond it stood a wide, long chamber the size of a great hall ...".{{Sfn|Olivier|2003|p=166}} There were several smaller temples dedicated to Tezcatlipoca in the city, among them the ones called "Tlacochcalco" and "Huitznahuatl". Tezcatlipoca was also worshipped in many other Nahua cities such as [[Texcoco (altepetl)|Texcoco]], [[Tlaxcala (altepetl)|Tlaxcala]] and [[Chalco (altépetl)|Chalco]]. Each temple had a statue of the god for which [[copal]] incense was burned four times a day.

The [[Codex Magliabechiano]] contains a passage relating Tezcatlipoca with the ''[[Temazcal|temascal]]'', or sweatbath. The text states, "when any sick person went to the bath house, [they] offered incense, which they call ''copal'', to the idol and covered the body in black in veneration of the idol they call Tezcatepocatl [Tezcatlipoca], who is one of their major gods." Despite these references, Mary Miller states that the deity actually depicted in codex illustrations and the one more likely to be associated with the ''temascal'' is [[Tlazōlteōtl|Tlazoteotl]].<ref name=":1" />

=== Toxcatl ===
{{Main|Tōxcatl|l1=Toxcatl}}

Tezcatlipoca's main feast was Toxcatl, which occurred during the eponymous fifth month of the [[Aztec calendar]].{{Efn|For an in depth description and interpretation of the Toxcatl festival see Olivier (2003) Chapter 6.}}  The preparations began a year in advance, when a young man was chosen by priests to become the likeness of Tezcatlipoca. This individual was called the ''[[teixiptla]]'' or "deity impersonator" and was chosen to ceremonially represent the god to the Aztec people.{{Sfn|Smith|2003|p=217}} The ''teixiptla'' was usually selected from among captive warriors, and the chosen individual was bathed and ceremoniously cleansed for the role that he was to undertake.{{Sfn|Smith|2003|p=218}} Sometimes, slaves were purchased for the ceremony. [[Bernardino de Sahagún|Benardino de Sahagún]] describes in the [[Florentine Codex]] how the ''teixiptla'' must possess certain physical qualities in order to be worthy of becoming Tezcatlipoca:

<blockquote>For he who was chosen was of fair countenance, of good understanding and quick, clean body— slender like a reed; long and thin like a stout cane; well-built; not of overfed body, not corpulent, and neither very small nor exceedingly tall. [He was] like something smoothed, like a tomato, or like a pebble, as if hewn of wood ... He who was thus, without flaw, who had no [bodily] defects, who had no blemishes, no moles, who had no lacerations or wrinkles on his body, they then looked well that he be taught to blow the flute ...<ref>{{Cite book |author=Bernardino, de Sahagún |title=Florentine codex: General history of the things of New Spain |date=2012 |publisher=University of Utah Press |isbn=978-1-60781-192-3 |pages=64–65 |oclc=794413026}}</ref></blockquote>

For the duration of Toxcatl's preparation, the ''teixiptla'' lived as a god would, wearing expensive jewelry and having eight attendants.{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=212}} The young man also was dressed in the likeness of the god and people on the streets would worship him as such when encountered.{{Sfn|Smith|2003|p=218}} "For one year he lived a life of honor," the handsome young man "worshipped literally as the embodiment of the deity".{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=212}} During the last 20 days before being sacrificed, the ''teixiptla'' had their appearance transformed back to that of a warrior. "He had been a warrior who was captured, and he ended his life as a warrior."{{Sfn|Heyden|Carrasco|p=199|1991}} He would then be wed to four young women, also chosen in advance and isolated for a full year and treated as goddesses. This marriage, occurring after a full year of abstinence, symbolized a period of fertility which followed the drought.{{Sfn|Smith|2003|p=230}} The young man would spend his last week singing, feasting and dancing. During the feast where he was worshipped as the deity he personified, he climbed the stairs to the top of the temple on his own where the priests seized him, a time in which he proceeded to symbolically crush "one by one the clay flutes on which he had played in his brief moment of glory", and then was sacrificed, his body being eaten later.{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=212}} The young man would approach this sacrifice willingly, as being sacrificed in this manner was a great honor. "Sacrificial victims mounted the bloody steps of the pyramid with dignity and pride."{{Sfn|Smith|2003|p=218}} "The sacrifice itself marked the end of the drought."{{Sfn|Smith|2003|p=230}} Immediately after he died a new victim for the next year's ceremony was chosen. Tezcatlipoca was also honoured during the ceremony of the ninth month, when the ''Miccailhuitontli'' "Little Feast of the Dead" was celebrated to honour the dead, as well as during the ''[[Panquetzaliztli]]'' "Raising of Banners" ceremony in the 15th month.

[[File:066-Tezcatlipoca-Lord_of_the_Night_Winds.jpg#/media/File:066-Tezcatlipoca-Lord_of_the_Night_Winds.jpg|thumb|Tezcatlipoca "Lord of the Night Winds"]]

For Aztec nobility, this "patron deity" is fundamental in the social and natural phenomena justified by religion during this time.{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=201}}  Extreme reverence and respect, characterized by ceremonial proceedings in which priests were "to pay homage" to Tezcatlipoca, or where "citizens waited expectantly" for ceremonial proceedings to start under the low hum of "shell trumpets," were commonplace, especially for this deity.{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=201}} Utter respect from the highest position of Aztec nobility, the king, shown through the figurative and literal nakedness of his presence in front of Tezcatlipoca.{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=201}} The king would stand "naked, emphasizing his utter unworthiness", speaking as nothing but a vessel for the god's will.{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=201}} The new king would claim his spiritual nakedness symbolically through words and physical vulnerability, praising Tezcatlipoca with lines such as:

<blockquote><poem>O master, O our lord, O lord of the near, of the night, O night, O wind ... Poor am I.
In what manner shall I act for thy city? In what manner shall I act for the governed, for the vassals (macehualtin)?
For I am blind, I am deaf, I am an imbecile, and in excrement, in filth hath my lifetime been ...
Perhaps thou mistaketh me for another; perhaps thou seekest another in my stead{{Sfn|Coe|Koontz|2008|p=201}}</poem></blockquote>

For kings, lords, priests, and citizens alike, the cyclical nature they observed every day and every year was portrayed not through science or philosophical debate, but utter reverence and respect for the spiritual beings they believed were the cause of these events.  It was gods like Tezcatlipoca that solidified this notion, representing both the silent wind, and thunderous war.{{Sfn|Olivier|2003|ps= -Tezcatlipoca stories}}