Huehueteotl

Emblem of the Acta Mexicana de Fenomenología

Teotihuacán, Mural de Tepantitla, Classical Period (200-900)

Huehueteotl, the God of Fire, is among the oldest divinities in Mesoamérica. Its worship has been archeologicaly located in Pre-classic sites (2500 b. C.-200 d. C) as Cuicuilco (the first city in the American continent) or Montealbán. Its more comon iconographic representation is that of an old man in a sitting position, with an arched back, and a very aged face. Up to the Classical period, Huehueteotl was represented carrying a brazier on the back, however, this fire symbol disappeared in the fifteenth century. The fact of being such an ancient deity gives Huehueteotl as many advocations as the numerous societies that adopted its worship, although we find may common features with similar signifiers among them. Within this signifiers, perhaps one of the most appealing and meaningful to us (SEBFT) is the association of fire with wisdom and renovation.

Old age represented by a wrinkled skin and an arched back symbolizes experience, ages of wisdom: the knowledge of human beings, and of time itself. The Old God is also known (mainly in Mexica societies) as Father of Time and Grandfather of Men.

In the cyclic or circular cosmogony of time within traditional societies, Huehueteotl occupies a central place within creation, it is the cosmic center, the domestic burner or tecuil. Fire is at the center of the house, it tames people and animals, helps cooking food, it must never extinguish, for it is vital for the survival of men and, at the same time, a means to renovation.

Within Pre-Columbiane cosmology, fire represents renovation, rebirth of time and ages. Renovation meets the origins, but it is not an absolute new beginning starting in nothingness: the precedent of renovation is the purifying destruction through fire. Cosmic resurgence is new beginning from eternal principles.

Temporal cycles within Post-classic Mexica societies (900/1000-1521) lasted 52 years (according to the Gregorian Calendar). At the end, everything, with Huehueteotlˈs igneous wisdom at its center, reappeared again renewed.

This interpretation of the relations between wisdom, time and fire, associated to the possibility of human renovation, is what we consider emblematic in relation to one of the main ambitions of the SEBFT: to carry out a renovated lecture and practice of phenomenology and philosophy.