In North America, mystical and occult beliefs can be chiefly traced back to Old World influences. South of the border, however, the occult traditions of Mexico are an interesting mix of Old World Catholicism and Pre-Columbian Indian beliefs.
Excerpt:
When we look beyond the influence of recent invaders to Central America, the religious, magical and philosophical beliefs of the aboriginal Native American cultures that evolved in Meso-America are both unique and strangely similar to magical practices from Europe, Africa and Asia. Even though these Old World mystical traditions supposedly arose under isolation from the other side of the world, it is obvious that when it comes to human spirituality in any form, they all seem to radiate out from one universal source.
History says that the Mayan civilization arose in Central America around 250 CE, influenced by the culture and religion of the Olmecs. The Mayan urban culture especially flourished until about 900 CE, but continued to thrive in various places until the Spanish conquest.
During this first 650 years, which scholars call the Classic Period, the Mayan civilization consisted of more than 40 large cities spread across modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize.
From the Preface
This, the first effort to include in one volume all that is known regarding the arcane knowledge and occult lore of the ancient Mexican peoples and their neighbors, the Maya of Central America and Yucatan, is the result of more than thirty-five years of research in a sphere which has richly repaid the writer by the companionship of its fascination, and which he hopes will prove equally absorbing to the reader who seeks passing amusement and to the serious student.
The book is so compiled as to be useful to both, popular in its general treatment, yet sufficiently authoritative in its sources and data to be of avail either to the practical anthropologist or the student of Mysticism. The historical passages essential to the introduction of the main subject are necessarily sketchy, but embody sufficient information to permit the reader ignorant of Central American chronicles to approach the consideration of the curious knowledge of the more enlightened peoples of Isthmian America in the fields of pure Magic, Astrology, Witchcraft, Demonology and Symbolism.
The magic of ancient Mexico and the mysteries which accompanied it have been somewhat neglected owing to the extraordinary difficulties attending the consideration of the Mexican past. Only within the last generation has it been made possible to comprehend even dimly the civilization of ancient Mexico as a whole and that has been accomplished merely in a provisional manner. It is therefore not surprising that the occult side of Mexican life has been dealt with only in a fragmentary way, and chiefly in connection with the religious beliefs of the Aztecs and Maya.
The writings of the Spanish missionary friars who labored in Mexico subsequent to the period of its conquest by Cortes frequently touch in the passing on the question of the arcane beliefs of the Indians to whom they ministered, but in no very illuminating manner. Indeed, their notices of occult beliefs are confused and exhibit a not incomprehensible terror of the dark knowledge which they conceived it their duty to extirpate. It is therefore not easy to arrive at the facts and discover the principles underlying Mexican arcane science.
In the following pages I shall essay the task, aided, I hope, by a long acquaintance with the writings of the Spanish conquistadores and the missionary friars, and with practically all that has been penned within our times on the subject of old Mexico. And it may be that a strong personal predilection towards the mysterious may further assist me to make the dark places plain to the wayfaring reader.
Mexico possessed a magic of her own as mystical in its essence and as grimly romantic as that of any land, European or Asiatic. Yet its secrets are to be gauged only by treading many obscure and difficult pathways.
If those who follow me in the quest find any of these corridors too dark or too difficult of access they must not blame me, but rather the tortuous nature of the study. I would advise them to "skip" the obscure passages and to turn to those pages which retain more of the atmosphere of that purely dramatic interest which must ever cleave to the occult lore of Mexico and Central America. But the magic and sorcery of ancient Mexico cannot well be understood unless the somewhat shadowy path which leads to them is rendered more clear by a brief account of the general circumstances of Mexican life and custom in the past.
When Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico in 1519 he found it occupied by several races of people of Indian stock, who possessed a common culture, although they differed in language and to some extent in religious outlook. In the eastern regions the Nahua race, to which the Aztecs belonged, was in the ascendant, but the coastline was occupied by immigrant tribes of Maya or southern stock from Central America.
In the south-west the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, races which had embraced civilization before the Nahua, formed the bulk of the population, though Nahua elements were also largely present in that region. In the centre of the country dwelt the Otomi, the Zacatecs, and other long-settled tribes, whilst the northern pampas were the possession of nomadic bands. To the south-east of Mexico lived the Maya of Guatemala, Yucatan, and Central America, whose civilization greatly pre-dated that of Mexico proper, as we shall see when we come to consider their special conditions.
The Nahua, or Aztecs, with whom we are principally concerned, were a people of much later establishment in the country than most of the other races. They occupied a sphere extending from the present site of Tlascala, no great distance from Mexico City, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the south, and were divided into tribes, most of whom owed allegiance to the Emperor of Mexico, although they were governed by their own immediate kings or chiefs. Research has established the distant relationship of the Nahua tribes with the Indians of British Columbia, whose language, customs, religion and art bear a close resemblance to those of the Mexicans, who, in all likelihood, migrated at various periods to the region in which they are presently situated.
At the time of the Spanish Conquest we find several Nahua tribes grouped round the lakes in the Valley of Mexico, the most notable being those which occupied the borders of the Lake of Tezcuco. The tribes composing these groups had entered the plateau of Mexico about the tenth century A.D., but had been preceded there by a much older civilization, the Toltec. Legend said that the Toltecs had settled there in the year 7 Tecpatl, or A.D. 387, coming from the north by way of the coast and then striking inland, a journey which occupied one hundred and four years. But the myth which recounts this exodus is almost certainly of artificial origin.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER I
A GLANCE AT ANCIENT MEXICO
CHAPTER II
THE MAGICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF MEXICAN RELIGION
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CHAPTER III
MEXICAN MAGIC
CHAPTER IV
MEXICAN MAGIC (continued)
CHAPTER V
THE DEMONOLOGY OF MEXICO
CHAPTER VI
WITCHCRAFT IN MEXICO
CHAPTER VII
MEXICAN ASTROLOGY
CHAPTER VIII
THE MYSTERIES OF NAGUALISM
CHAPTER IX
THE MAGICAL BOOKS OF THE AZTECS
CHAPTER X
THE MAYA PEOPLE
CHAPTER XI
MAYA RELIGION
CHAPTER XII
THE MAGIC OF THE MAYA
CHAPTER XIII
MYSTICAL BOOKS OF THE MAYA
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CHAPTER XIV
ARCANE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MEXICANS AND MAYA
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