January 25th, 2013

Good afternoon, one and all! I am inordinately happy that it is the weekend. This week was pretty jam-packed so a day or two of a breather is going to be great. I finished Judika Illes' Encyclopedia of Spirits the other day, and am so glad to own it. The sheer volume of material it contains is staggering, not only about the deities themselves, but also about how and when to honor them, what offerings they like, and some even had full rituals described. Next on my list-to-read is a book I bought a few weeks back: Scott Cunningham's The Magical Household. I also found a book about Hummingbird mythology at the library, and just had to bring it home. I was amused to find that one of the Aztec deities, Huitzilopochtli, discussed in Illes' book was also in the Hummingbird book I checked out.

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Huitzilopochtli, Aztec for "Hummingbird from the Left", is the lord of war and spirit of the sun. According to the book I checked out (Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas), the Aztecs were led in a battle against invaders by Huitzilopochtli, who was then killed, insomuch as a god can be. Afterwards, the Aztec warriors discovered their god had transformed into a Hummingbird. Thereafter, it was believed that Hummingbirds were the spirits of fallen warriors and were given great honor. Hummingbirds' long beaks are perceived as looking like weapons, and they are often fierce defenders of their mates and territory.