The Origins of Mexica Metaphysics and Conceptions of Space

The Origins of Mexica Metaphysics and Conceptions of Space

What is a map? One might define a map as something that requires cartographical skill to produce. However, the most central component of a map is the way that it represents a certain conception of space. In this way, we can view systems of ideas that conceive of space as maps of sorts, though rendered through the skills and subjectivities of the members of the societies that produce them. De Certau concerned himself with two different conceptions or practices of space, or “‘…practices, that produce geographies of action’”. Of the two, the tour is of particular note. “‘…the tour represents an itinerary that organizes movements through space…, with emphases on direction, velocities, and time variables’” (City of Sacrifice). If the tour were physically to be a type of society, it would be a nomadic one, characterized by frequent travel from one place to another with no permanent home. Beyond allegories, the life of a society as nomadic does impart unique conceptions of space onto their ideologies. With the Mexica, this is the case even after settlement. The metaphysics of the Mexica and the spatial conceptions contained within bear the mark of the group’s nomadic history pre-arrival at Tenochtitlan. Two metaphysical concepts that illuminate this are ohtli and teotl as reflected through the Tira and poems regarding the same period of the Mexica’s history.

A first Mexican metaphysical concept that considers space in a way uninfluenced by the group’s period of nomadism is ohtli. According to James Maffie in Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion, “The Aztecs’ world is … one without transcendent deities, purpose, truths, norms, or commandments. In such a world, Aztec tlamatinime [“wise people”] asked, what is the correct path (ohtli), the right way of life, for human beings to follow?” The Tira, an illustrated map from circa 1530, was produced by the Nahua as a means of recording the nomadic journey of the Mexica (founders of the Aztec Empire) from their departure from their place of origin, Cuexteca Ichocayan, to their journeying urged on by the god Huitzilopochtli, to their arrival at what was to be established as Tenochtitlan. The Tira does not match modern cartographically-based maps insofar as it does not represent the shapes of land masses and is not based around the measurement of relative distance. What it does represent is the path of travel of the Mexica and each significant relation they engage in. This path is represented in all but the last two pages of the Tira by a pair of footprints traveling from left-to-right through each page, sometimes disappearing behind objects interacted with on the page (Tira). On the last two pages 22 and 23, the Mexica arrive at and establish Tenochtitlan. With the entire scope of the Tira being centered around the Mexica’s travel through space and relations with other objects on the pages, the demonstration of a literal ohtli in the Mexica’s nomadic journeying is represented with the final goal of establishing Tenochtitlan being reached. But what was the system of values applied to the Mexica’s journeying in the Tira that qualifies it as an ohtli metaphysically? Urging the beginning of their nomadic journeying, the god Huitzilopochtli makes appearances in the first four pages of the Tira, illustrated as a human’s head emerging from the beak of a hummingbird speaking (represented by speech scrolls leaving his mouth). As the Mexica leave Cuexteca Ichocayan, they carry Huitzilopochtli with them in a bundle (Tira, pp.2-5). What is illustrated is Huitzilopochtli making the promise of arriving at a fertile land that the Mexica would construct into a prosperous new homeland from which they would rule over many other peoples. This promise is signaled as having been met in legend (though not in the Tira) through the apparition of Huitzilopochtli as an eagle landing in Lake Texcoco.

“According to the revelation of our god when he appeared to me this night, a prickly pear cactus standing on a rock has grown from [Copil’s] heart  and has become so tall and luxuriant that a fine eagle has made his nest there. When we discover it we shall be fortunate, for there we shall find our rest, our comfort, and our grandeur. There our name will be praised and our Aztec nation made great…. We shall conquer nations, near and distant from sea to sea. We shall become lords of gold and silver, of jewels and precious stones, of splendid feathers and of the insignia [that distinguish lords] … We shall rule over those people, their lands, their sons and daughters. They will serve us and be subjects of our tributaries.”

In this more fleshed out quotation from The History of the Indies of New Spain, the Mexica are given a prophecy by Huitzilopochtli on the outset of their journeying which is eventually fulfilled. Though carrying out the god Huitzilopochtli’s will in switching to the nomadic life, the Mexica were following an ohtli in their journeying. Huitzilopochtli’s will gave a scope to the continued travel from one place to another, but because there was no greater teleological purpose to their nomadism outside of an eventual arrival (with associated purposes to carry out at that point), the Mexica maintained a relational view of space like that of the tour, centered around intensities of encounter and their own force as represented through appearances of Huitzilopochtli.

A second Mexican metaphysical concept that considers space in a way influenced by the group’s period of nomadism is teotl. The concept of teotl has manifold definitions based off of its place in Mexican metaphysics as absolutely everything.

At the heart of Nahua philosophy stands the thesis that there exists a single, dynamic, vivifying, eternally self-generating and self-regenerating sacred power, energy or force: what the Nahuas called teotl (see Boone 1994; Burkhart 1989; Klor de Alva 1979; Monaghan 2000; H.B. Nicholson 1971; Read 1998; Townsend 1972) … The multiplicity of god in official, state sanctioned Aztec religion does not gainsay this claim, for this multiplicity was merely the sacred, merely teotl, “separated, as it were by the prism of human sight, into its many attributes” (I. Nicholson 1959:63f)” (Maffie).

In “Beginning of the Songs” from the collection of poems Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs, a disguised allegory for the Mexica’s nomadic journey to Tenochtitlan is presented through the imagery of a narrator following the path of a hummingbird to find flowers that are implied to provide sustenance.

I wonder where I can get some good sweet flowers. Who will I ask? Let me ask the quetzal hummingbird, the jade hummingbird… They’re the ones who know: they know where the good sweet flowers bloom. Let me wander through this needle grove where the trogons are, let me wander through this flower grove of roseate swans. That’s where they’re bending with sunstruck dew. That’s where they blossom in beauty. Perhaps I’ll find them there. If they showed them to me, I’d gather a cloakful, and with these I’d greet the princes, with these I’d entertain the lords…

In these few lines of poetry, the classic motif of the hummingbird (representing Huitzilopochtli) as a leader of followers onto a path of ohtli is utilized, which emphasizes velocity and direction in the hummingbird being a catalyst for heading towards the direction of the flowers.

Ah, here’s where they live! I hear their flower songs. It’s as though mountains were echoing them. Ah, the plume water, the cotinga spring, is flowing in their midst. And there the mockingbird is throbbing with song, reverberating with song. The bellbird echoes these precious ones, these sundry songbirds: they’re rattle shrilling: they’re eulogizing World Owner there. They’re the very ones who fill our throats (Bierhorst).

In this excerpt, the narrator describes the flowers almost as if they were human, having a place where “they live”, and singing “flower songs”. As the narrator continues, they describe “plume water, the cotinga spring… flowing in their midst.” Both of the terms used here describe something related to a bird, whether it be a “plume” (like a feather) or a “cotinga” (the name of a species of bird), and then something related to flowing water like the word “water” directly or the word “spring”. The word spring likens the idea of bird to a sort of something flowing from the ground, a sort of energy, movement, or teotl. This association between birds and energy continues through the next section, in which birds singing are described as “throbbing”, “reverberating”, and “rattle-shrilling”, all words with both physical and sonic connotations in which there is an interaction between the two different elements. The effect becomes more profound than simply hearing. This effect is shown in the way that the particular energy of one bird spreads as the “…bellbird echoes these precious ones, these sundry songbirds who are the origin of the songs being described as “precious ones”. It is also notable that the idea of “flower songs” from the first line of this excerpt refers to the songs of the birds who are drawn by the flowers. The emphasis on the movement of energy from and through different things creates a situation of uncertainty of origin of any of these energies. They relate in such an interconnected way that any one focus, like the flowers, is hard to distinguish from the thing that engages in a consumptive and pollinating relationship with them, the birds. This everything as one through relation is teotl. 

Looking to the Tira as well, there are many natural symbols that are considered as being fundamentally tied to certain groups of people and the places they live that the Mexica took refuge with on their nomadic journeying. Take for instance the symbol that stands to represent a city in the Tira. Mountains with water flowing forth are typically drawn to indicate cities, many with naturalistic symbols placed atop such as in the instances of Cuexteca Ichocayan symbolized by a serpent head atop the mountain, Huixachtitlan with a tree of thorns atop, Chapultépec with a grasshopper, or Tecpayocan with a piece of flint. The significance of each symbol is also ingrained in the name of each city, with Huixachtitlan being named after the huixachin tree and Chapultépec literally meaning “grasshopper mountain”. Each of these cities is noted by the Mexica for their unique relation with each of these naturalistic things. Whether it be something that acts as a sort of landmark or the kind of flora or fauna common to that area, we don’t know. But the names and images associated with each of the places of power were also associated with these naturalistic things. The experience of the unique interactions and exchanges of teotl between each of these cities and their environments is what made them them in the eyes of the then-nomadic Mexica, with these naturalistic things taking on as much power as the city similarly demonstrating their understanding of everything as teotl and functioning as one. With the experience of each of these different cities and peoples, these differences in environment and exchanges were made clear to the Mexica. With the emphasis of teotl being placed on the intensity of interactions and the flows of energy between certain objects in space and given environments, the Mexica embraced the idea of space as one thing always moving and developing in a very similar respect to that of the outlook of the tour conception of space. This was attained through their following of of Huitzilopochtli in their nomadic journeying and observation of material plentifulness as something with an energy that pulled other things to the space in which it exists and their creation of symbols for cities that were associated with the type of material plentifulness they had and were influenced by.

Systems of ideas containing conceptions of space are ultimately informed by the influence of the societies the contributors to those systems were a part of. For the Mexica, their society’s period of nomadism imparted unique conceptions of space onto their ideologies, specifically their system of metaphysics. All in all, the metaphysics of the Mexica and the spatial conceptions contained within bear the mark of the group’s nomadic history pre-arrival at Tenochtitlan. Three metaphysical concepts — reflected through the Tira and poems regarding the same period of the Mexica’s history — that illuminate this history are ohtli and teotl. As we consider the way that other societies’ ideologies have been shaped by their historical relations with space, be inspired to experiment with the Mexica’s ideas and their possible applications to breaking down current situations in today’s time.

Bibliography

• Bierhorst, John, translator. “Beginning of the Songs.” Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1985, pp. 135–135.

• Carrasco, David. City of Sacrifice, The Aztec City and the Role of Violence in Civilization, Beacon Press, Boston, 1999, p. 18.

• Carrasco, David. The Aztecs : A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central,       https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/reed/detail.action?docID=800807.

• Duran, Diego, and Doris Heyden. The History of the Indies of New Spain, University of Oklahoma Press, 2009, pp. 42–43.

• Maffie, James. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Aztec Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Its Authors, https://iep.utm.edu/aztec-philosophy/#H2.

• Maffie, J. (2023, January). Mexica (Aztec) Philosophy at the Time of Conquest. Online.

• “Tira De La Peregrinación.” Reed Digital Collections, Reed College, https://rdc.reed.edu/workspace/12596/lightbox?p=1&pp=100.