RELIGION of the Toltecs and main GODS

One of the many mythologies that make up the mesoamerican culture It is the Toltec, this being a civilization marked by the importance of the military and that held important positions of relevance before the arrival of the Aztecs. To talk about their mythology and understand their relationship with other beliefs in the area in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we must talk about the Toltec religion.

Toltec culture was an important mesoamerican culture which had its heyday during the so-called Postclassic Period, occupying between the years 950 d. C. to 1150 AD. C. a zone of influence similar to that which the Aztecs took years later, its main headquarters being the areas of Huapalcalco and Tollan-Xicocotitlan.

The Toltec culture was one of the great military cultures of the Mesoamerican zone, being one of the first peoples to focus its power for the most part on the military aspect than in the religious one, being for this interesting to understand what its religious aspect was like since it was not such a priority.

To begin this lesson we must talk about the main characteristics of the Toltec religion, to quickly understand its main elements and this being the key to understanding the relevance of this religion. The main characteristics of the Toltec religion are the following:

• It was one polytheistic religion, that is, it was a mythology in which there are several gods that made up a huge pantheon.
• The central figures of the religion were the so-called shamans, being a kind of priests who performed their acts and offerings in the open air.
• They related their deities to the natural media, existing gods to represent elements such as the Sun, the moon, water or the earth.
• As in other Mesoamerican religions there was a kind of duality among the gods of the region, most deities having a god who was their antagonist and rival.
• The Toltecs considered that human lives depended on their gods and that is why it was very common for them to be carried out human sacrifices to honor the gods or as a way to communicate with them.
• Performed religious burials, so we must consider that death and life in the afterlife were closely related to the Toltec religion.
• Performed buildings to honor the gods, but wars and looting make it very difficult to know all the elements of these infrastructures.
• They were a very mysterious town and that is why many of their beliefs and religions are kept secret and have not survived to this day.

To finish this lesson on the religion of the Toltecs we must talk about their main gods and what were their abilities and relevance within the religion of the Toltecs. Among the main Toltec gods we can find the following:

• Quetzalcoatl: Called the feathered serpent, it is one of the few deities that appears in almost all the pantheons of the Mesoamerican cultures, his figure being key to mark a relationship between all the religions of the zone. He is considered one of the creators of the world, but he also possesses other attributes such as fertility or creativity.
• Tezcatlipoca: Related to the earth and the sky, but also the night and the darkness, thereby demonstrating the principle of duality existing in the Toltec religion, since it is still the evil counterpart from Quetzalcoatl. He was considered the darkest god of all those who made up the Toltec pantheon, and his figure was used to scare children.
• Tlaloc: Another of the gods that we find in numerous religions of the Mesoamerican area, being the deity that represents rain and fertility, and that in general is closely related to water. Agriculture was a key sector of the Toltecs, and therefore the existence of a deity to whom sacrifices could be made to make it rain was essential.
• Centeotl: God of corn, since in Mesoamerican mythology it was very common for all pantheons to have a deity related to that food. Corn was the predominant crop in all Mesoamerican cultures, and that is why this deity was so relevant to the Toltecs.
• Mixcoatl: Deity of the hunt is a very interesting god, since in some areas of the Toltecs the cult of him is related to that of the Way Lactea, being a kind of representation of this, and therefore demonstrating the knowledge about the universe that the Toltecs They had. In some sources he also appears as the god of war, although the reality is that in Toltec mythology there are a huge number of deities that have war as a secondary attribute.
• Itztlacoliuhqui: God of both the Aztecs and the Toltecs is the representative of justice, sacrifice and the objects created with obsidian, especially knives created with this material and used in the sacrifices. He was considered the god who took part in the judgments, being therefore also the deity in charge of the punishments.
• Xipe Totec: God among many other things life, death, and agriculture, he is known by a legend according to which he took off his own skin to feed those who needed it. In other legends it is said that the death of him and the removal of the skin is what made the corn grow.

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