THE AZTEC, INCAN AND MAYAN PROPHECIES
- ParrisVstefanow
- Mar 31
- 17 min read
Aztec Prophecies
Prophecies can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused, and they tend to be self-fulfilling. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire is a perfect example of this problem.
Toltec legends tell of Quetzelcoatl, a white-skinned, bearded priest-king who came from the East to establish an enlightened kingdom among the Indians. Eventually he departed by boat to the West. Quetzelcoatl promised to return, and as the appointed day of his second coming approached, heavenly omens indicated that the Aztec culture was about to come to an abrupt and violent end.
Nezhaulcoyotl, a king of Texcoco whose reign bridged the 15th and 16th centuries, also was a great astrologer.
He had an observatory built on the roof of his palace, and invited other astrologers in his kingdom to come to his court. There he disputed with them and taught his wisdom.
When Moctezuma II was elected king of Mexico, Nezhaulcoyotl praised the nation for having chosen a ruler,
"whose deep knowledge of heavenly things insured to his subjects his comprehension of those of an earthly nature." (1)
Nezhaulcoyotl gave Moctezuma II detailed warnings of a new astrological age that was beginning in the Aztec calendar. One of the omens was a famine which developed in 1507. Then an earthquake occurred after the "Lighting of the New Age" ceremony inaugurated by Moctezuma II.
These were sure signs of impending disaster. Each year thereafter until Hernando Cortes invaded Mexico in 1518, a new omen appeared.
A comet with three heads and sparks shooting from its tail was seen flying eastward. In another year, another comet, described as,
"a pyramidal light, which scattered sparks on all sides, rose at midnight from the eastern horizon till the apex reached the zenith, and faded at dawn."
This phenomenon appeared for 40 nights, and was interpreted to presage "wars, famine, pestilence, and mortality among the lords."
In 1508, Moctezuma II visited Tlillancalmecatl ("Place of Heavenly Learning"), where he was given a rare bird. In its shiny crest, he saw the stars in reflection and "fire sticks" (guns). The image changed to show the advance of warriors riding on horses which, since he had never seen them before, he described as deer.
Also in 1508, Moctezuma’s sister Paranazin collapsed into a cataleptic trance that was mistaken for death. She recovered while the funeral procession was taking her to the royal crypt. She said that during her trance she received a vision of great ships from a distant land arriving with men bearing arms, carrying banners, and wearing "metal casque" (helmets).
The foreigners were to become masters of the Aztecs.
For several days in 1519, a comet hung over the capital city of Tenochtitlan. It was described as "a rip in the sky which bleeds celestial influences dropwise onto the Aztec world." After that, a thunderbolt struck and burned down the temple of the deity Huitilopchitli.
The last omen came one night, again to Tenochtitlan. A woman’s voice was heard,
"coming from everywhere and nowhere, crying ’My children, my children, are lost!’"
From these and other signs, the Aztecs understood their doom as originating with celestial powers.
Was it then mere coincidence, or did the hands of the Fates steer Cortes’ ships to land on April 22, 1519, the very day that the Aztec calendar calculated for Quetzelcoatl’s return at the end of the 13th Heaven and the beginning of the 9 Hells?
It was as though the directing forces of the world had staged the drama to be acted out by historical characters.
Anticipating the momentous event of Quetzelcoatl’s return, Moctezuma II had posted watchers on the coast to draw images of the aliens and deliver them to him. The emperor was amazed that the light-skinned, bearded figures matched the traditional descriptions of Quetzelcoatl. This case of mistaken identity caused the Aztecs to put up little resistance to the Spaniards, who soon conquered the empire.
To prevent mutiny among his troops, Cortes burned the ships after they landed. The cavalry-mounted Spanish forces then quickly defeated several local tribes who resisted their invasion. When their chiefs sued for peace, Cortes gave them his helmet and commanded them to take it to the emperor and return it filled with gold.
The helmet itself was an object of wonder to the Aztecs: it was almost identical to that worn by the great deity Huitzilopochtli. Marveling at the similarity, the emperor returned the helmet, filled with gold and accompanied by a warning to come no closer. But the Spaniard’s greed for gold and dominion drew them inexorably toward Tenochtitlan.
Though nearly overwhelmed with superstitious fear of the mythic Quetzelcoatl, Moctezuma II is said to have greeted Cortes (image right) at the city gates with the words:
"O Lord, with what trouble have you journeyed to reach us, have arrived in this land, your own country of Mexico, to sit on your throne, which I have been guarding for you this while; I have been watching for you, for my ancestors told that you would return. Welcome to this land. Rest a while; rest in your palace."
Although he was outnumbered militarily by more than 1000 to 1 (Moctezuma’s palace guard alone was larger than Cortes’ expedition), Cortes boldly accepted the offer.
In the course of ensuing events, the Spaniards seized Moctezuma II and displayed the captive king to his subjects. Reacting in anger, the people stoned and fatally wounded him. The Aztec empire fell soon afterwards.
As he lay dying, Moctezuma II had a wondrous vision. He told it to Tula, his favorite daughter.
Later, she told it to the Tezcucan noble Iztlilzochitl, who recorded it:
"To the world I have said farewell. I see its vanities go away from me one by one.. Last in the train and most loved, most glittering is power, and in its hands I see my heart. A shadow creeps over me, darkening all without, but brightening all within, and in the brightness, lo, I see my people and their future!
"The long, long cycles, two, four, eight, pass away, and I see the tribes newly risen, like the trodden grass, and in their midst a Priesthood and a Cross. An age of battle more, and lo! There remains the Cross, but not the priests; in their stead is Freedom and God.
"I know the children of the Aztecs, crushed now, will live, and more after ages of wrong suffered by them, they will rise up, and take their place - a place of splendor - amongst the deathless nations of the earth. What I was given to see was revelation. Cherish these words, O Tula; repeat them often, make them a cry of the people, a sacred tradition; let them go down with the generations, one of which will, at last, understand the meaning of the words FREEDOM And GOD, now dark to my understanding; and then, not till then, will be the new birth and new career."
2. Inca Prophecy
In the 14th century, almost 200 years before Pizzaro arrived to conquer the Incas, a young prince had a dream in which a spirit appeared and identified itself as Viracocha Inca, son of the sun and brother of the first king of the Inca dynasty.
The spirit said that a northern tribe, the Chancas, was preparing a revolution against the monarchy, and serious consequences would follow.
The Chancas did rebel, and the prince subdued them. But rebellion was common, and the Inca priests concluded that a much greater danger was implied in the warning. The priests interpreted another meaning: One day, bearded foreigners who were "masters of the lightning" would arrive from the sea to herald the fall of the empire.
The prince became the eighth Inca king, and the people gave him the name Viracocha. He commissioned the construction of a temple with twelve winding halls leading upward to a statue of a tall, bearded man dressed in a tunic.
He held a chained, ferocious animal that had the claws of a leopard. King Viracocha carved the statue with his own hands in order to create an exact image of the spirit in his veridic dream.
Several omens occurred as the years passed. One day in the sky over the capitol city of Cusco, a condor (the sacred messenger of the sun) was attacked by a swarm of falcons. The wounded condor fell into the city square and was given medical aid by the priests, but it died anyway. The Inca sages were greatly disturbed because they saw it as an omen of bad times to come.
In an audience before Huayna Capac, the 11th Inca king, a soothsayer interpreted an awesome sign that had appeared in the sky: three halos (red, green and brown) encircling the moon.
The sage said:
"The Moon, your Mother, tells you that Pachacamac, the Creator and giver of Life, threatens your Family, your Realm, and subjects. Your sons will wage a cruel War, those of royal Blood will die, and the Empire will disappear."
Since there were only twelve halls in the Temple of Viracocha, and Huayna Capac was the 11th king, he correctly feared that the kingdom would end with its next ruler.
Huayna Capac also worried about a party of light-skinned, bearded foreigners who had come ashore to the north, wielding strange weapons that erupted with fire, as spoken of in earlier prophecies.
On his deathbed, Huayna Capac addressed his priests and officials thus:
"Our father the sun has revealed to me that after a reign of twelve Incas, his own children, there will appear in our country an unknown race of men who will subdue our empire. They doubtless belong to the people whose messengers have appeared on our shores. Be sure of it, these foreigners will reach this country and fulfill the prophecy."
The foreign messengers were Vasco Nuñez de Balboa and company, who arrived at Tumbes in 1511.
The Spaniards returned in 1532, well armed for conquest under the command of Francisco Pizzaro. Within a few years after the death of Huayna Capac from smallpox, his two sons went to war against each other. Atahualpa won and assumed the throne as the 12th Inca, just in time to lose the empire to Pizzaro on November 16, 1532.
The Q’ero (Long-haired ones), the last of the Incas, recently revealed their prophecies of the End of Time to Alberto Villoldo, who has published them. The Q’ero are awaiting the next Pachacuti (He Who Transforms the Earth), and expect it to be the end of the world as we know it. The signs of upheaval have begun, and will last four years.
A new humanity will emerge from the chaos. The prophecies announce the beginning of a new "millenium of gold", and speak of "a rip in the fabric of time", through which will come a luminous being.
The signs of the times include: the drying-up of high mountain cochas (lagoons), the near-extinction of the condor, and great solar heat. Afterwards, we shall emerge into the fifth Sun.
3. Mayan Prophecy
Anthropologist Christian Ratsch translated the following sad prophecy of the end of the world according to the religious tradition of the peaceful Lacandone Maya of southern Mexico:
"The End of the World will come, so it is said, so it was told. Our end will come when there are no more trees. Then, when all are cut down, when people are everywhere, when there is no more forest. So it is said, so it was told by the ancient habo-people. They said this:
"Kaxon bake xen, well, if it is true, if the forest is overcrowded by people, if there are settlements all over, built up by the kah-people, which are settling close together, when all the trees are cut down, when there are no more mahogany trees, when all trees are destroyed, when only the hills remain, then the end of the world will come. Not now, but very soon. The end will reach us. This is said. Our end will come. Nothing will be left of us.
"It is said, but who really knows, if it will be a storm or if it will be the sun, which will burn us, which will destroy us. Fast, very fast the end will reach us. It is said, it will only last as long as dawn lasts, as long as the sun needs to reach the treetops. Fast it will be. And nothing will be left of us. One hour and we are all gone
"Perhaps a great coldness will come or something else. Hachykum, Our True Lord, will get our blood. He will gather all of us there in Yaxchilan (at the center of the universe)... The gods will bring us to Yaxchilan. All the people with good blood will be gathered. When they arrive there, their necks will be cut. So it is said.
"Then when the world’s end is coming nothing will remain. Everything will find its end. There will be no thorns and spines, no flies, no bloodsucking bugs - nothing. But then the souls will come, the souls of the ancients, the souls of the deceased. They will inhabit the earth. They will stay together with the gods."
Another eschatological Mayan vision proclaims:
"Eat, eat, so long as there is bread; Drink, drink, so long as there is water; A day will come, when dust will darken the sky, when a stench of pestilence will cause the land to wither, when a cloud will rise, when a mountain will be raised, when a strong man will seize the city, when all things will fall into ruin, when the tender leaf will be destroyed, when eyes will close in death."
4. The Eagle Bowl Calendar
The sacred Aztec calendar is properly called the Eagle Bowl. It represents the solar deity Tonatiuh. The amazingly accurate calendar has been in use in various forms for more than 2,000 years.
A Zapotec prophecy, based on the Eagle Bowl, states:
"After Thirteen Heavens of Decreasing Choice, and Nine Hells of Increasing Doom, the Tree of Life shall blossom with a fruit never before known in the creation, and that fruit shall be the New Spirit of Men."
The 13 Heavens and 9 Hells were each 52 years long (1,144 years total).
Each of the 9 Hells were to be worse than the last. On the final day of the last Hell (August 17, 1987), Tezcatlipoca, god of death, would remove his mask of jade to reveal himself as Quetzelcoatl, god of peace.
In the mythology of the Aztec, the first age of mankind ended with the animals devouring humans. The second age was finished by wind, the third by fire, and the fourth by water. The present fifth epoch is called Nahui-Olin (Sun of Earthquake), which began in 3113 BC and will end on December 24, 2011.
It will be the last destruction of human existence on Earth. The date coincides closely with that determined by the brothers McKenna in The Invisible Landscape as “the end of history” indicated by their computer analysis of the ancient Chinese oracle-calendar, the I Ching.
The Mayan calendar is divided into Seven Ages of Man. The fourth epoch ended in August 1987. The Mayan calendar comes to an end on Sunday, December 23, 2012. Only a few people will survive the catastrophe that ensues.
In the fifth age, humanity will realize its spiritual destiny. In the sixth age, we will realize God within ourselves, and in the seventh age we will become so spiritual that we will be telepathic.
5. Quetzelcoatl
Hundreds of North and South American Indian and South Pacific legends tell of a white-skinned, bearded lord who traveled among the many tribes to bring peace about 2,000 years ago. This spiritual hero was best known as Quetzelcoatl.
Some of his many other names were:
Kate-Zahl (Toltec),
Kul-kul-kan (Maya),
Tah-co-mah (NW America),
Waicomak (Dakota),
Wakea (Cheyenne, Hawaiian and Polynesian),
Waikano (Orinoco),
Hurakan,
the Mighty Mexico,
E-See-Co-Wah (Lord of Wind and Water),
Chee-Zoos,
the Dawn God (Puan, Mississippi),
Hea-Wah-Sah (Seneca),
Taiowa, Ahunt Azoma,
E-See-Cotl (New Guinea),
Itza-Matul (Yucatan),
Zac-Mutul (Mayan),
Wakon-Tah (Navajo),
Wakona (Algonquin), etc.
When he left the Toltecs and sailed away to the East, Kate-Zahl promised to return to them after several cycles of their calendar. He made a prophecy about the destiny of the sacred city Tula (now identified with Teotihuacan in Mexico) through two millennia.
The Toltecs would be conquered first by the Sacrificers of Men (the Aztecs), then by white-skinned, bearded men of the East carrying fatal “thunder-rods” - the Spaniards and their guns:
"Further off there is another invasion. In ships many bearded men are coming from across the Sunrise Ocean... I see these men taking the Broad Land... They do not respect our trees of cedar. They are but hungry, unenlightened children...
"Would that I could speak to these bearded farmers. I have tried. They do not hear me. They go on their way like spoiled children.
"Stand with me in the Year of Te-Tac-patl. Look across the Sunrise Ocean. Three ships come like great birds flying. They land. Out come men in metal garments, carrying rods which speak with thunder and kill at a distance. These men are bearded and pale of feature.
"They come ashore and I see them kneeling. Above them I see a Great Cross standing. That is well. If these men are true to the symbol they carry, you need have no fear of them, for no one who is true to that symbol will ever carry it into battle.
"Therefore hold aloft your Great Cross (T), and go forth to meet them. They cannot fail to know that symbol, and would not fire their rods upon it, nor upon those who stand in its shadow. Well they know that what is done to my people is done also to me.
"When the years have come to their full binding, the metal-tipped boots of the strangers will be heard in all the bloody temples. Then throughout the Broad Land has begun the Third Cycle. As yet, I cannot see beyond it.
"Once I had great hope for these people, for I saw them kneel and kiss the sweet earth, and I saw the shadow of the Great Cross which they carried with them. Now I must warn you against them.
"Carry your great books into the jungles. Place your histories deeply in caverns where none of these men can find them. Nor do you bring them back to the sunlight until the War-Cycle is over. For these bearded strangers are the children of War.
They speak my precepts, but their ears do not listen. They have but one love and that is for weapons. Ever more horrible are these weapons, until they reach for the one which is ultimate.
Should they use that, there will be no forgiveness in that vale where there is no turning. Using such a weapon to make man over, is reaching into the heavens for the Godhead. These things are not for man’s decision, nor should man presume to think for all things, and thus mock the Almighty. Woe to those who do not listen!
There are lamps beyond that which you are burning; roads beyond this which you are treading; worlds beyond the one you are seeing. Be humble before the might of the Great Hand which guides the stars within their places.
There are many lodges within my Father’s Kingdom for it is more vast than time, and more eternal.
"Keep hidden your books, my children, all during the Cycle of Warring Strangers. The day will come when they will be precious.
"For five full Cycles of the Dawn Star, the rule of the Warring Strangers will go on to greater and greater destruction. Hearken well to all I have taught you. Do not return to the Sacrificers. Their path leads to the last Destruction. Know that the end will come in five full cycles, for five, the difference between the Earth’s number and that of the Gleaming Dawn Star, is the number of these children of War.
As a sign to you that the end is nearing, my Father’s Temple will be uncovered. Remember this in the days which are coming."
Tula-Teotihuacan was found and excavated by archaeologists only in recent years.
In another prophecy, Kate-Zahl described the city as it will be rebuilt in the future:
"Then the heavens spoke in a crash of thunder, and the lightning flashed above the valley. The Man turned to look again on Tula, his most beloved city. Behold! It was naught but a mass of rubble.
"He wept there with great sorrow. He clung to the rocks, staring back toward Tula. Then the heavens roared again and shook the mountain. A flash of light struck beside Him and cracked the darkness. Behold! The old heaven and earth were vanished, and He looked into another cycle.
"The heavens parted and a rising sun shone down on another Tula. Plainly he could see the valley, but the city was one He knew not. Magnificent was this Golden Tula!
"The Man was lifted beyond the earth. No longer He saw the Age of Destruction. Gone was the horrible Age of Warfare. He was looking beyond the Age of Carnage!
"Walk with me through this Age of the Future. Tula shines in all its glory, but the metals are of types we know not. Loving hands have rebuilt the parkways, have paved the streets, have rebuilt the temples. There is a great building where books are kept for the scholars, and many are those who come to read them. Tula is a great Center of Culture.
"Come with me to the New Colula. Shining again is My Father’s Temple! Once more the city is filled with fountains and the parkways are wire-netted for the birds of rare plumage, and those who sing to enchant the listener. Cross through the parkway to My Father’s Temple. You will see again the inscriptions which today your eyes are seeing, but now all people can read them.
"Come to the city of the future. Here are the buildings unlike those we build, yet they have a breathless beauty. Here people dress in materials we know not, travel in manners beyond our knowledge, but more important than all these differences are the faces of the people. Gone is the shadow of fear and suffering, for man no longer sacrifices, and he has outgrown the wars of his childhood. Now he walks in full stature towards his destiny --- into the Golden Age of Learning.
"Carry this vision on through the Ages, and remember Kate-Zahl, the Prophet."
In Book X of his History, the 16th century chronicler Fray Bernardino de Sahagun described the departure of the "wise men" who had been the attendant priests of Kate-Zahl at Teotihuacan:
"The wise men remained not long; soon they went. Once again, they embarked and carried off the writing, the books, the paintings; they carried away all the crafts, the castings of metals. And when they departed, they summoned all those they left behind. They said to them: "Our lord, the protector of all, the wind, the night, saith you shall remain. We go leaving you here.
Our lord goeth bequesting you this land; it is your merit, your lot. Our lord, the master of all, goeth still farther, and we go with him. Whither the lord, the night, the wind, our lord, the master of all, goeth, we go accompanying him. He goeth, he goeth back, but he will come, he will come to do his duty, he will come to acknowledge you.
When the world is become oppressed, when it is the end of the world, at the time of its ending, he will come to bring it to an end. But you shall dwell here; you shall stand guard here..."
A surviving Toltec legend includes this prophecy:
"Ce Acatl [Quetzelcoatl] spent a night with a Huiteca family. They fed him and played music for him. The father, a strong Indian farmer, showed Ce Acatl a stone carving he had and told him, "This carving tells of the coming of the Lord of the Dawn. it says he will come in the Year One Reed. It says he will build a city and change the world."
"The farmer had no idea who he was talking to. He continued. "Now," he said, "many people say he will not come. Many people say it is a long time from now that he will come. Some people say he will come from the East and he will bring a great book of words and numbers. Other people say he will come from a tree and count the Last twenty Days of the Creation. What do you say about this?"
"Ce Acatl grew gray with the depth of his answer. "If I told you of my thought, of what I know of the Spirit of the Lord of the Dawn, if I told you of what I think will happen, you would laugh and think me crazy. So I say only this: One day a race shall walk upon this earth, a race of men whose spirits are so great, whose wisdom is so complete, whose powers to commune with the Creator are so keen they will dwarf the doings of the Lord of the Dawn of our day. When that day comes the Creator will send forth a manifestation that will in turn amaze the wisest men of that unbelievable age. And even then the greatest brains on earth will wonder, has he come? Will he come? Or has he been here?"
When he departed, Ce Acatl promised to close the Thirteenth Heaven and open the First of the Nine Hells, and he vowed to destroy the man-made gods. He set the year and date of his birth (260 years later on Day One Reed in year One Reed) and said, "I shall return. I shall come from the east like the Morning Star, and I will fulfill that part of the prophecy.”
It is said that when Ce Acatl passed away at the age of 52, "A hush fell over the entire planet, and burning bright in the heavens directly above the great tree, the Tree of Life [El Tule], glowed the planet Venus, the Morning Star.”"
Quetzelcoatl also foretold the following:
"In time, white men will come out of the eastern sea in great canoes with white wings like a big bird. The white men will be like a bird with two different kinds of feet. One foot will be that of a dove [Christianity], the other of an eagle [predator]. A few hundred years after the arrival of the first white men, other white men would arrive with both feet as a dove."
Quetzelcoatl himself or his spirit would come in the form of a white dove at that time.
A Zapotec prophecy, transmitted by Joseph Jochmans, also announced the recent return of Quetzelcoatl:
"One of the incarnations of Quetzelcoatl is buried beneath the roots of the sacred El Tule Tree near Oaxaca, and as the first rays of the dawning sun of the new heaven cycle [August 17, 1987] sink into the depths of the Earth, billions of tiny spirits will burst from the heart of Quetzelcoatl.
They will slowly rise through the trunk, through the limbs and branches, appearing as sparkles of light, finally erupting from limbs and branches, to circle the globe, each spirit to implant itself within the heart of a human being, and plant a crystal of peace and love."
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