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Trecena 6, Opening on Miquiztli

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Trecena 6, Opening on Miquiztli

Trecena 6 opens on 1 Miquiztli, death, under the patronage of Tecciztecatl, the moon lord, paired in the codices with Tonatiuh the sun, and despite its name the week reads well: 1 Miquiztli itself honoured Tezcatlipoca, and Sahagun records that slaves were shown honour on it, their masters mindful that fortune reverses and that a slave's low standing was not permanent.

Tecciztecatl's own myth, told in the account of the Fifth Sun's creation at Teotihuacan, casts him as the wealthy, richly adorned god who hesitated before the sacrificial fire, so that the poor, plain Nanahuatzin leapt first and rose as the sun, while Tecciztecatl followed and became the moon, its lesser light explained in some tellings by a rabbit thrown at his face by the other gods, the origin of the rabbit shape readers of the moon's surface still find there. That myth of hesitation followed by honour recovered fits the trecena's reversal theme neatly: a death sign whose reading turns favourable, governed by a god whose own story is one of a stumble redeemed. Those born in the week took a favourable augury, Sahagun's informants held, provided they kept the devotions owed to Tezcatlipoca, the smoking mirror god the sign's opening day was consecrated to honour first.

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