Online ExhibitionsSorcerers of the Fifth Heaven

RITUAL Nahua Prayer

The censer was ritually activated by placing copal, a pine resin incense, under its base. The perfumed smoke then passed up through the chamber of the body and billowed out through the mouth to send a prayer to the Maquiltonal, who was believed to reside along with his four brothers in the fifth of thirteen heavens above. A Dominican guide to Nahua Indian incantations explains that the spirits then descended to invest the hands of the diviner with the power of prophecy in his use of screenfold divinatory books called codices. Colonial accounts record the extensive use of braziers, ladles, and a wide variety of other ceramic implements to make burnt offerings: These priests went back and forth to the idol constantly, offering it incense, and every time the incense was burned, each raised his arm as high as he could. This ceremony was in honor of the god and of the sun who were asked that all these prayers and pleas rise to heaven just as the smoke rose. Lords of the Five Souls According to a Spanish guide to the symbols of Nahua gods, the yellow face band and the white hand painted across his mouth signified one of five gods called the Maquiltonaleque or "Lords of the Five Souls." The Maquiltonaleque were believed to live in the fifth of thirteen heavens. The Maquiltonaleque appear in a Pre-Colombian screenfold book called Codex Borgia as the spirit guides of Nahua palace diviners who used the book to foretell future events, diagnose disease, control weather, determine royal marriages, and predict the best times for making war. Codex Borgia Codex Borgia is preserved in the Apostolic library at the Vatican in Rome, Italy. It was constructed of animal hide and covered with a white plaster-like foundation upon which the figures were painted. It was folded so that it could either be stored compactly or opened to reveal all of the pages of one side. Codex Borgia features a page by page portrayal of the various divisions of the sacred 260 day calendar or tonalpohualli. Pages 61-70 illustrates the division of the calendar into trecenas, twenty "months" of thirteen days. A different god presides over each trecena. Diviners used the calendar to foretell the future of children born under each of the 260 day signs. The supernatural patrons of diviners who used the codices were five male and female couples called the Maquiltonaleque and the Cihuateteo appearing on Borgia 47-48, together they formed part of a larger group of spirit beings called Tzitzimime (Tzitzimitl, sing.) In manipulating the books, male practioners invoked the spirit forces of their patrons through the tips of their fingers which they addressed as the "Maquiltonaleque." Maquil means five, signifying the numeral in each of their names. The Cihuateteo were said to be the spirits of women who had died in child-birth. They were patrons of mid-wives and curers. Diviner's Powers According to an account written sometime between 1617 and 1629 by parish priest Hernando Ruiz de Alarcon, the source of the diviner's powers came from the custom of rubbing the hands together with white powdered lime and tobacco: After being well informed of the case and its circumstances, the diviner carries out his sorcery, for which he prepares himself with tobacco and lime. Taking it up with the right hand, he puts it in his left palm, and there breaks it up with his thumb. Next he adjusts his clothing like someone who is getting himself ready for some important business ... rubbing between his two palms the tobacco with lime which he had previously put on one of them ... he kisses his crossed thumbs, his hands being joined together as in prayer and proceeds: 'For I kiss the Maquiltonal For I have brought them forth My men, the Maquiltonaleque We see that the iconic white hand resulted from the diviner's custom of rubbing powered lime together with tobacco before using the codex. If he sent his prayer through the smoke of the censer into the fifth heaven to call upon the Maquiltonaleque, the diviner believed that the spirit guides then descended into his fingers and to endow him with the gift of prophecy as he moved his hands across the pages of the codex.