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Aztecs Gods

The Underworld

Mictlantecutli

     It was said that if you died and were doomed to the underworld that a person traveled four years and cross nine rivers on the back of a dog. When the corpse was buried a dog would be sacrificed and laid besides the victim's body. The dog would be useful in aiding his master across the wide stretch of water called the chicunauhapan ("ninefold stream") that flows around the final abode of the dead. To entrance to Mictlan was said to be to be through a cave conceived as the gaping jaws of a reptilian  Earth monster.Their are nine levels to the underworld with each level the soul is challenged on its way to the ninth layer. When it reached Mictlan it would rest their for eternity. (Neumann 1975)


Levels of Heaven

  1. The Earth
  2. The Moon
  3. The Stars
  4. The Sun
  5. The Planet Venus or birds
  6. Comets and Fire Serpents
  7. The Color Black or the winds
  8. The Color Blue of, or dust
  9. Storms
  10. White God
  11. Yellow God
  12. Red God
  13. Omeyocan- the place of duality where the creators the lord and lady of duality live.

Levels of the Underworld


  1. Earth

 

All other levels are unpleasant and hazardous places. To the reowned soul, each layer was a challenge on the soul's long journey to the ninth layer.


9. Mictlan- the place of the dead, where the soul would rest for eternity.