{"id":2395,"date":"2018-08-18T23:26:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2026-02-26T07:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:40:24","slug":"aztec-omens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/aztec-omens\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec Omens: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aztec omens played an important role in the history and development of the Aztec Empire<\/a>. The Aztecs believed in omens as signs from the gods<\/a>, predicting future events, especially concerning their empire\u2019s fate. This article summarizes the history and significance of Aztec omens and offers insights into the 8 Aztec omens that were related to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WHO WERE THE AZTEC?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Aztec Empire\u00a0was a civilization in central Mexico that thrived in the time before the arrival of European explorers during the\u00a0Age of Exploration<\/a>.\u00a0 Throughout its history as a civilization the Aztec Empire expanded across much of central Mexico and other surrounding areas, to become the most dominant and powerful people in the region.\u00a0\u00a0Tenochtitlan<\/a>, the main Aztec city (or altepetl), was the center of this vast empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Map of the Aztec Empire and Aztec Triple Alliance by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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AZTEC OMENS – SUMMARY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An important aspect of the Aztec understanding of the world was their views on omens.\u00a0 These are events which are said to have significance on future events or occurrences.\u00a0 For instance, one of the roles of high priests in the\u00a0Aztec religion<\/a>\u00a0was to interpret significant events to predict their impact on the\u00a0huey tlatoani<\/a>\u00a0and the Aztec Empire.\u00a0 This is best exemplified by the series of omens that are related to the\u00a0Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire\u00a0in 1521.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, in the years before the arrival of the Spanish there were a series of events which some have suggested that the Aztec interpreted as bad omens.\u00a0 In fact, the record of the these omens come from Franciscan Bernardino de Sahag\u00fan and Dominican Diego Dur\u00e1n in the late 16th century.\u00a0 Sahag\u00fan was a Franciscan friar who went to New Spain (modern Mexico) in 1529, following the conquest of the Aztec Empire.\u00a0 He spent several decades in the Spanish colony studying Aztec history and mythology, including the supposed omens that Moctezuma II<\/a> received before the arrival of the Spanish.\u00a0 Dur\u00e1n was a Dominican friar who studied the Aztec throughout much of his life and wrote one of the first accounts on Aztec history titled \u2018The History of the Indies of New Spain\u2019.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In regards to these omens, Moctezuma II (the heuy tlatoani of the Aztec when the Spanish arrived) was visited in 1510 by Nezahualpilli, the tlatoani of the Mesoamerican city-state of Texcoco.  Nezahualpilli, warned Moctezuma II of the downfall of the Aztec Empire and told Moctezuma II to be on guard for bad omens.  As the account goes, there were said to be eight omens in total that foretold the arrival of the Spanish and the collapse of the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moctezuma
Moctezuma II illustration from 1892.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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8 OMENS ON THE CONQUEST OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first omen was supposedly a fire that burned in the night sky every night for just over a year.  Supposedly, the fire was wide at its base and more pointed at the top, and seemed to \u2018bleed\u2019 fire across the sky.  Some accounts of this omen refer to it as an ear of corn burning in the sky.  Most historians interpret this as the appearance of a comet.  It is believed that the event occurred in the decade before the arrival of Hern\u00e1n Cortes and the other Spanish conquistadors.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe second omen was when the temple of Huitzilopochtli<\/a> in Tenochtitlan was destroyed by fire.\u00a0 Supposedly, the temple ignited into flames for no known reason and attempts by the Aztec to put out the fire failed.\u00a0 As a result the entire temple was burned to the ground.\u00a0\u00a0Huitzilopochtli, whose name means \u2018left-handed hummingbird\u2019 or \u2018southern hummingbird\u2019 was one of the main gods of the Aztec and likely the most prominent.\u00a0 For instance, he was considered the national god of the \u2018Mexica\u2019 which is the term the Aztec used to refer to themselves.\u00a0 As well, he was the patron god of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan<\/a>.\u00a0 Huitzilopochtli represented several different things for the Aztecs, including: the sun and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlan (Templo Mayor can be seen in the center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u200bThe third omen was when a bolt of lightning apparently hit the temple for the Aztec god Xiuhtecuhtli.  The account tells that the temple was destroyed by a fire that resulted from the lighting strike.  However, for the Aztec the event was significant because they reported that the bolt of lighting had no thunder associated with it.  As well, despite it raining a bit at the time, the fire overcame the temple and destroyed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe fourth omen was when a streak of fire was viewed in the sky during the day time.  Supposedly, the fire began in the western sky and spread east.  Along this path it divided into three pieces and sparks flew from the trails of the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fifth omen is related to a flood that occurred on Lake Texcoco, which was the lake upon which Tenochtitlan was built.  According to the account, the Aztec believed that the water in the lake had appeared to begin to boil and became very choppy despite the presence of much of any wind.  Then, the waters of the lake apparently rose to such levels that the waves crashed into the city and flooded homes and other buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe sixth omen was the sound of a woman who people who crying out to them in the night.  She apparently called out to them in distress and told them they needed to flee the area.  For example, she is reported to have said \u201cMy children, we must leave\u201d and \u201cMy children, where will you go?\u201d  The Aztec supposedly heard her cries over a period of several nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe seventh omen is related to a bird that was caught by a hunter on Lake Texcoco.\u00a0 The bird was gray in color and apparently had a black mirror-like object on its forehead.\u00a0 The hunters reported seeing the stars and the night sky in the mirror.\u00a0 They took it to the Aztec leader, Moctezuma II<\/a>, and when he looked into the mirror he reportedly saw a large number of warriors riding on animals that appeared to be large deer.\u00a0 Moctezuma II then gave the bird to his high priests who were told to view the mirror and interpret its meaning.\u00a0 However, when the priests looked into the mirror they saw nothing and were unable to offered their advice to the Aztec leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe eighth and final omen was when a two-headed monster was discovered in the city of Tenochtitlan.\u00a0 The Aztec people were terrified of it and took it to Moctezuma II.\u00a0 However, when the Aztec leader looked at the monster it is said to have disappeared.\u00a0 Apparently this occurred just before the arrival of the Spanish<\/a>.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spanish
Entrance of Hernan Cortes into the Aztec Empire. It shows the meeting between Hernan Cortes and Moctezuma II.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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For the Aztec these omens were important events that predicted danger of the empire.\u00a0 For instance, some believe that the omens impacted Moctezuma II and his decision making during the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.\u00a0 It has been suggested that Moctezuma II was unsure of how to respond to Hernan Cort\u00e9s<\/a> and the other Spanish conquistadors when they\u00a0arrived in the Aztec territory.\u00a0 This is because the Spanish\u2019s arrival into the Aztec territory apparently coincided with an important Aztec prophecy in relation to the Mesoamerican god\u00a0Quetzalcoatl<\/a>.\u00a0 The prophecy spoke of Quetzalcoatl\u2019s arrival at the same time as the Spanish, and Quetzalcoatl was said to have white skin.\u00a0 Unsure of whether or not Cort\u00e9s was the god, Moctezuma II responded by greeting him with honor and giving him many gifts.\u00a0 Cort\u00e9s then used this uncertainty by Moctezuma II to overthrow the Aztec Empire.\u00a0 Regardless, omens played an important role in the\u00a0life of the Aztec\u00a0and impacted how they viewed the world and the events that occurred around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hernan
‘Portrait of Hernan Cortes’ by an unknown artist. (1525)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aztec omens were events that occurred in Aztec history, which the Aztec people interpreted to have importance on future events. These omens were important to the overall history and culture of the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":36,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,80],"tags":[77,15,79],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","category-mesoamerica","tag-aztec-empire","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5780,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions\/5780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}