The Templo Mayor

Engineering the Templo Mayor in Tenochitlan is demanding our best effort and is uniting our powerful Aztec empire together. In a unique way, the gods have given my life foundational meaning because I was chosen by our community leaders as a worker in the first construction stage of the Templo Mayor: creating a stone carving articulating the fallen god Coyolxauhqui. My name is Chirico and I am a Mexica master of stone carving, and the year is 1469 during the rule of Motecuhzoma I. Through the collaboration and hard work of us workers, together we are pursuing a destiny of good life, nourishing our gods by paying tributes in the form of goods, sacrifices, respect and dedication they deserve in order for them to be good to us through the natural
I was working as an independent stoner carver for quite some time until the king’s messenger delivered a message to my sanctuary located on the outskirts of the capital Tenochitlan and requested that I participate in the construction of the Templo Mayor. I couldn’t believe that I was actually chosen, for I had never had a connection to an elite...how were they even aware of my existence? Possibly through the gods, which the king directly communicates with. I had to participate, for my grandfather Palochi advised me once that the war god Huitzilipotchli directed our civilization to this exact location that the Templo Mayor is being constructed upon -- where the eagle stood on the nopal. We believe that this precise location of the Templo Mayor is an axis mundi, or a center of the vertical and horizontal universes, connecting the underworlds, the terrestrial world, and the heavens. Other points of axis mundis are caves, representing the different levels of underworlds, and mountains, representing the different levels of heavens. But at the Templo Mayor, our king is able to directly
Stone carving is a skill that my family has mastered and passed down for generations. In my opinion, stones are valuable because of their durability, which is proved since the world has died various times before and stones still remain substantial on our Earth. I began my project with a large stone picked off the coast of the waters, I had to travel hours for various days making round trips bringing the stone closer to my worksite. Once I prepared various flint knives, designed with wood handles and fine, sharp points, I was ready to work. Coyolxauhqui is a malicious and embarrassed god, for she attempted murdering her younger brother and mother, Huitzilipotchli and Coatlicue, when Huitzilipotchli was born. Huitzilipotchli was born ready for war with a sword and a shield and decapitated Coyolxauhqui’s body from her legs, arms, and head at the mountain of Coatepec, and then threw her remains down the mountain. That is exactly how I designed the stone encompassing Coyolxauhqui: with severed legs and arms torn from her body (and I made sure to show the bones sticking out of her open wounds to represent defeat), and her head facing upwards representing her beg for mercy to Huitzilipochtli when he was severing her body with his godly weapon and strong power. Coyolxauhqui’s defeat