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

Image of Spanish priest writting at a desk.

A recreation of the temple and effigy as it may have originally looked. Animation by Sam Koren and Domingo Monet.

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.

Contemporary Rituals (read more...)

Smoke was thought to carry prayers to heaven.

Copal is a pine resin incense. Censers of burning copal were the essential tools for blessing the household, cleansing the patient, and propitiating spirit forces. Photography by Domingo Monet.