Omecihuatl- Aztec PrimordialPrimordial"Lady of Duality"
Also known as: Ōmecīhuātl
Description
Mother of the four creator gods who dwelt with Ometecuhtli in Omeyocan, the thirteenth and highest heaven. She needed no temples or sacrifices. She was the source itself.
Mythology & Lore
The Thirteenth Heaven
Omecihuatl, "Two Lady" or "Lady of Duality," was the feminine half of the primordial creator pair. She dwelt with Ometecuhtli, "Two Lord," in Omeyocan, the thirteenth and highest level of the heavens, a realm so remote from the human world that no temples were built to them and no sacrifices offered.
From their union came four sons, each assigned a cardinal direction: Tezcatlipoca in the north and Quetzalcoatl in the west, Huitzilopochtli in the south and Xipe Totec in the east. These four created and destroyed the world through four successive suns, taking turns as the ruling deity, until the Fifth Sun was established. Through them the cosmos took shape. Every god and every human that followed descended from the pair in the thirteenth heaven.
One and Two
Ome means two. Whether Omecihuatl and Ometecuhtli were two beings or one was a question embedded in their names. The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas presents them as a divine couple whose union created all things. Other traditions describe a single being, Ometeotl, who appeared as duality: male and female, giving and receiving.
The prayers recorded by Sahagún in the Florentine Codex address the creator in Omeyocan as both mother and father in the same invocation. The duality folded into a single act of worship.