The Aztec carving is usually referred to as the Calendar Stone is not a calendar. Instead, this carved stone represents the creation of the world from caos. Thus it represents the Méxica (Aztec) view of the cosmos—their cosmovision.
The stone is designed as a series of concentric rings. The outer ring is composed of two fire serpents. In the mythology, serpents symbolize the primal caos from which the gods created an ordered world and human beings to inhabit it.
At the bottom of the stone, the serpents' heads face each other. Their tails are at the top of the stone and between their tails is the glyph for the date of creation. Most scholars set that date at August 11, 3114 B.C.
Inside the serpent circle is a solar disc with rays (elongated triangles) that mark not only the four cardinal directions of the created world, but four intermediate points as well, thus refining even more the ordering of caos.
Inside the serpent circle is a solar disc with rays (elongated triangles) that mark not only the four cardinal directions of the created world, but four intermediate points as well, thus refining even more the ordering of caos.
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| Aztec carving: Calendar Stone perhaps more accurately described as a Sun Stone. Left click to enlarge. |
Divinatory Calendar
Inside the solar disc is a circle of the twenty day-signs or day-names for the Divinatory Calendar of 260 days, which was created by combining the twenty day-names with thirteen numbers in rotation. At birth, the Divinatory Calendar was used to foretell the fate of individuals. Newborns were often named by taking the day-name of their birth.
Inside the solar disc is a circle of the twenty day-signs or day-names for the Divinatory Calendar of 260 days, which was created by combining the twenty day-names with thirteen numbers in rotation. At birth, the Divinatory Calendar was used to foretell the fate of individuals. Newborns were often named by taking the day-name of their birth.
Priests consulted the Divinatory Calendar in advance of actions to be taken—to wage war, for example, or to celebrate a royal wedding—in order to determine the day's balance of favorable and unfavorable energy. When a date was characterized by unfavorable energy, the energy balance could be ritually addressed to assure a more favorable destiny.
Aztec Creation Myth
According to the myth, the gods needed five tries before they succeeded in producing creatures who could talk and thereby offer suitable praise to their creators. Four of the five worlds are named by the forces that brought them to an end:
- First Sun: Jaguar (form of the sun as it travels nightly through the underworld)
- Second Sun: Wind (cyclones from the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes from the Atlantic)
- Third Sun: Fire ('Rain of Fire', or volcanic eruptions)
- Fourth Sun: Water (floods, droughts)
- Fifth Sun: Created after the gods made the present people and their life-sustaining maíz (corn).
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| Signs for the four suns (Jaguar, upper right; Wind, lower right; Fire, lower left; Water, upper left) At the center is the fifth sun, the Devouring God |
The outline encircling the five suns is set alternately with symbols representing the four cardinal directions:
Contemporary Mexicans name enterprises after ollín—cultural centers, theater groups, design firms, even junk food. The symbol itself is widely used in Mexican graphic designs.
- North is represented by the triangle at the top;
- South is represented by the small disk at the base of a trapezoid;
- East is represented by a circle with a figure;
- West is represented by a circle with a figure.
Contemporary Mexicans name enterprises after ollín—cultural centers, theater groups, design firms, even junk food. The symbol itself is widely used in Mexican graphic designs.
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| Classic Design: Ollín |
The central depiction of the Five Suns or 'worlds' created in sequence by the gods of Mexica (Aztec) mythology suggests that this carved stone might more accurately be named Stone of the Five Suns.
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