Cozauism
 | |
| Founder | |
|---|---|
| Mysterious Oracle Centlatoani Cozauh | |
| Scriptures | |
| Teocuezalin | |
| Languages | |
| Nahuatl |
Cozauism is a monotheistic faith and religious movement originating as an offshoot of traditional Tlateotoca. The foundational text and holy book to the Cozauists is the Teocuezalin, a text that preaches the worship of the Turquoise Lord of fire and time, Xiuhtecuhtli, as the supreme being and origin of all things. The deities of many indigenous pantheons of ancient Zacapican are reinterpreted as the earliest children of Xiuhtecuhtli, some of whom are portrayed as benevolent beings who serve as loyal intermediaries between Xiuhtecutli and humanity while others have become jealous of their father's love for humanity and become treasonous entities acting against the divine will. The origins of the Teocuezalin are relatively obscure, as the identity of its author or authors and the precise date of its writing remain a mystery. Nevertheless, the text would be popularized by the priest-king Cozauh Tlecoyani in the 10th century, a great conqueror who styled himself Centlatoani or universal ruler and adopted the Teocuezalin as his personal guiding text in religious matters. Cozauh would go on to establish a clerical hierarchy and militant temple institution which facilitated the conversion to many polytheists across his territory to the singular worship of Xiuhtecuhtli and aided in the administration of the empire. The Cozauist temple would outlive the fall of Cozauh's empire, which splintered shortly after his death, and would be propagated across Zacapican and the wider world by the empire of Aztapamatlan. Today, Cozauism is a global faith with many millions of followers across the Oxidentale, Malaio and the Ozeros region.
Fire is sacred to the Cozauists as the embodiment and manifestation of their Lord, making the practice of Cozauism an organized form of pyrolatry. Ritual fire is the focus of daily worship and many rites, religious festivals, and other practices, and the pyrolatric theme can be found across many examples of Cozauist writings, music, songs, dances, architecture, and visual arts. Cozauist congregations are overseen by a Teopixqui, a religious minister of Xiuhtecuhtli. Regional networks of many small Teopixcalli single-fire shrines or an individual large temple complex may be overseen by a superior Hueteopixqui, the head priest and regional administrator for a subdivision of the temple organization. Ultimately all Teopixqui and Hueteopixqui are beholden to the Tlatocateopixqui, also known as the Holy Speaker, who serves as the head of faith and ceremonial successor to the Centlatoani Cozauh himself. Succession disputes over the office of Tlatocateopixqui have historically been the cause of religious schisms and the origin of Cozauist heresies, including the Tlaloc sect established in Pulacan. The temporal possesions and political influence of the Cozauist temple in its place of origin has declined significantly since the Zacapine Revolution, although it remains an important spiritual and social institution.
Precepts
Singularity of God
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The first and most fundamental precept of Cozauism and the fulcrum of its departure from its polytheistic precursors is the affirmation of a singular supreme God who is without equal. The God of Cozauism is known by many names, the first of which is Xiuhtecuhtli, carrying a double meaning as the Turquoise Lord and the Lord Fire, although in daily religious contexts he is often named Totecuiyo or "Our Lord God". In other languages, his name is usually the translation of "Lord of Fire". Although Xiuhtecuhtli is traditionally gendered male, Cozauist doctrine incorporates many male and female aspects of the God making the essence of the supreme divine genderless.
The essence of God is that of primordial fire. God is the first flame which was kindled from nothing, the only thing which may emerge from nothing and become the cause of itself. He is the Living Flame whose energy and heat causes things to be and which gives shape and essence to living things, that the heat fades causing things to cool and to become dead, so that they may be bathed in fire and rejoin the Living Flame in its heat. The purpose of existence is to know the radiance of the burning God, to heed his lessons and his will for his living creations, and to rejoin with him having borne the gift of his life into the world. God is the substance of all things and is therefore omnipresent and omniscient, able to respond to a community and to an individual in their time of need no matter where they may be.
The Cozauist concept of God is built on the foundation of the earlier polytheist interpretation of the deity Xiuhtecuhtli, but it also incorporates the roles and attributes of other deities and entities that had been associated with Xiuhtecuhtli in the pantheon. In his capacity as the god of fire, Xiuhtecuhtli is not only associated with the element of fire and the heat of the day but also with the passage of time. The day and year are linked to Xiuhtecuhtli and his cyclical recreation of the universe in the Cozauist conception through the allegory of a flame which at first grows brighter and hotter before waning to the point of extinguishing but being metaphorically reborn to repeat the cycle ad infinitum. Through this concept, Xiuhtecuhtli embodies the passage of time and the substance of the year and the day as well as that of the material world. The Cozauist god also embodies Huehueteotl, the elder god strongly associated with Xiuhtecuhtli, but also many divine aspects that had never been associated with the fire god, such as fatherhood, motherhood, fertility and agriculture linked with a multitude of the polytheistic figures preceding the foundation of Cozauism and ascribed to the one God in Cozausim as extensions of the power of the Living Fire as the universal progenitor. The way Xiuhtecuhtli is repeatedly reborn from nothing, effectively creating himself out of the void, is an incorporation of the twin deity Ometeotl and their role in creating the universe.
Cyclical Apocalypse
The Teocuezalin teaches that the world is created from and will return to God in the apocalypse, and that this has happened many times. The exact number of worlds created by God, referred to as Suns, is considered by custom to be an unknowable and possibly infinite number despite the Teocuezalin provides the number of five on the basis of the existing doctrine of the time. The duration of a Sun is predetermined at the moment of creation, with the time of the apocalypse being a fixed and inevitable occurrence. Although it does not figure in the Teocuezalin, subsequent Cozauist doctrine establishes that the timing of the apocalypse and other inner details surrounding the lifespan and nature of the Sun are inscruitable and cannot be understood by humans. Cozauists believe that all life what abides by the creed of fire set forth in the Teocuezalin will rejoin the essence of God in death and attain a lasting salvation from the doomed Sun. Only that which has become too corrupt and distant from his essence is left behind to become a cold ash after the current Sun is extinguished, while all who are among the worthy are preserved through the substance of Xiuhtecuhtli when the next Sun begins.
The eschatology of Cozauism draws heavily from the conception of a world which is repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt by divine forces as a form of cyclic reincarnation applied on a universal scale, a theme which can be found across many polytheistic religions in Oxidentale including the traditional Tlateotoca practices in ancient Zacapican or the Mutulese Sakbe religion. The pre-existing doctrine taught of many different deities becoming the Sun, the central body and radiant source of energy and divine substance, to the successive iterations of the universe each of which is populated by different life depending on the deity who has become the Sun. In the Cozauist view, Xiuhtecuhtli is the eternal Sun to every successive world and embodies the span of each world's existence as it is formed, ages, is destroyed and then reborn just as he embodies the span and reoccurrence of each day and year.
Acts of Worship
Renunciation
Tlatlaztli Iztlacatlatolli or the Renunciation of Falsehood is the first tenet laid out by the Teocuezalin and its most fundemental point of dogma regarding worship. The text states that the truths of the world are laid out by Xiuhtecuhtli across all of time, therefore to know and speak the truth is to hold the works of the Lord in regard and to tell a lie is disrespect what the Lord has set forth. Another aspect of Renunciation is to denounce false beliefs, including those previously held by oneself. This applies in particular to religious beliefs such as foreign religions, heresies and polytheism. Renuncuation is the first stage in the induction of a religious convert although it is also a common practice during prayer for most practicing Cozauists, in which one's former false beliefs, beliefs held in ignorance or one's former lies are ritually denounced and rejected in a symbolic affirmation of a primordial truth.
Incineration
Tlazocamatior Thanksgiving is the burning of sacrificial materials to give thanks to Xiuhtecuhtli for the gift of life and for the intercessions and valuable lessons bestowed upon an individual or a community through the course of their existence. The element of fire wherever it can be found in the world is believed to be the divine made manifest, allowing tokens of gratitude to be offered to the flames nearly anywhere. Traditionally, the fire maintained at the center of the home for cooking and heating would also be used as the ritual fire for giving thanks to God with the common practice in pre-modern times being to throw the first portion of every meal onto the fire as token of thanks to God for providing the bounty of the meal. However, the Cozauist temple maintains fire shrines built to safely and cleanly burn through a wide vareity of offerings which have become a larger part of the Tlazocamati rituals since the decline of fireplaces and fire pits for heating and cooking in houses. Huentlatlatilli is the term for any burned sacrifice that is not a living or deceased body, with the most common type of huentlatlatilli being paper banners known as pamitl that are decorated with colorful motifs. Sacrificial carvings cut into lengths of wood specifically for burning are also common, especially in monastic and clerical settings. The meaning of thanksgiving is to offer up a portion of the bounty of God as thanks for what has been bestowed, and so more personalized special offerings are encouraged. However, it is considered taboo to make an offering that is too great in value for many reasons, including the appearance of decadence in flaunting good fortune as well as the belief that depriving oneself of the gifts of God disrespects his love.
Veneration
Tleteotlatia, the worship of fire as the manifestation of God, is among the most common and well known of the Cozauist practices and among the most varied. Veneration of a divine flame importantly does not feature any ritual burning or sacrificial items and occurs under different circumstances to the Thanksgiving rituals.