Eden Lost

From the moment the apple's flesh touched the lips of Eve, the destiny of Man would never be the same again. Though her corrupter, the fallen angel Satan, suffered even now along his vile brethren in Hell, his evil deed was done. Hope, it seemed, was memory as lost as the Paradise in which it once dwelled...

Adam and Eve in agony
Fresco by Masaccio

As the rift between the Earth and Hell remained open, Sin and Death, the offspring of Satan, seized their chance. Soaring into the as yet still ethereal plains of Earth, Sin spread fear, doubt, envy, anger, sloth, hate, want, pride to ravage the World. Death brings down upon the land the scythe of time, undiscriminating, unbiased and even, bestowing his withering sentence upon all living things. Meanwhile, high above on the highest throne, the Almighty was made aware of this blasphemy. But it was the lot of man, his curse for his breaking the oath of God, to inhabit a lesser World now, until the day cometh when all will be purified. When that day arrives both Sin and Death will be hurled headlong to the dark pit from whence they came. "Then heav'n and earth renewed shall be made pure, to sanctity that shall receive no stain: till then the curse pronounced on both sides precedes". The host gathered sang in jubiliation, wonder at the ways of the Lord, and joyful at the promised time when the blight will be lifted and all will be free. At once the Creator set about making the new world. At his command, the blazing Sun moved, so that the Earth might feel heat and cold, from the south resplendent Summer, from the north Winter scarcely tolerable. To the Moon the Lord set in her place. To the winds he turned next, their way to blast the sea, the air and shore to the symphony of thunder.

Far below in Eden, the first man beheld the coming plight with despair. "O miserable of happy! Is this the end of this new glorious world, and me so late the glory of glory?" The curse of death weighed heavily upon his mind, as his thoughts turned to his descendants. "Who of all ages to succeed, but feeling the evil on him brought by me, will curse my head, I'll fare our ancestor impure, for this we may thank Adam". With anger he railed against the Almighty, anger at his fall for another's sin. Woe that he had been made at all, he declared:


                             " Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
                               To mould me man, did I solicit thee
                               From darkness to promote me, or here place
                               In this delicious Garden? "
                                    - ADAM BEWAILS HIS CREATION

Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden
Engraving by John Baptist Medina

The loss of Paradise was his sentence, but to this grave retribution the Most High added endless woes. Adam considered, wondering at the ways of God. It was then that Eve, matriarch of man and companion to Adam from whose rib she once sprung, came to him. "God made thee of choice his own, and of his own to serve him; thy reward was of his grace; thy punishment then justly is at his will", she spake.  Willingly to her fate does Eve submit, filled with guilt and devouring remorse is she. Both broken hearted and dejected, lament that it is better to end all and return to the Earth from whence they came, for what left now but a life a shade of before? But Eve held one last hope:


   " Yet one doubt pursues me still,
      lest all I cannot die,
      Les that pure breath of life, the spirit of man,
      Which God inspired, cannot together perish,
      With this corporeal clod... "
                                                                       - EVE'S HOPE


How can the Almighty sentence his creation to torment without end? Adam sank deeper still:


                              " Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind
                                For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemned,
                                If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,
                                But all corrupt, both mind and will depraved,
                                Not to do only but to will the same
                                With me? "
                                        - THE DESTINY OF MAN?


Both ponder as to why the scythe of Death has not already struck them, but Death comes not yet. Divine justice it was which slowed her pace, as today, ordered to pronounce her foul sentence without haste. To Adam's restless state Eve sent soothing words which calmed his soul. She remembered suddenly the curse of God. The Almighty spake of a time when the progeny of the first Man and Woman will exact justice upon the Serpent, and righteous retribution will be done by their own seed. Her lowly and newfound humble words touched the anger of Adam, and some small measure of peace returned to him, not known since Eden. No longer could he find it in his heart to look upon Eve with furious eyes. He had eaten of the accursed orb so as to remain with Eve. In this some hope remained. "Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems to argue in thee something more sublime and excellent...". Firm in his resolve, his will restored, Adam declares it is their duty to rid the world of the corruption which their sin brought to the fore. Terrible may be the path along the road to redemption, and long may it be, but at the end of the road redemption remained still. Hope remained. Woman had been cursed to suffer terrible pain in childbirth, but is not such agony soon recompensed by the result? With sweat, toil and grit must man now earn his bread."What harm?", Adam thought, "idleness had been worse". With terrible remorse the first man and woman accepted their fate, hoping upon hope that one day, after their sufferings and prayers, the heart of the Almighty might be moved to pity, and Paradise regained.

The Messiah intercedes
Painting by William Blake

Their repentance, and prayers of humility winged their way to Heaven more swiftly than the loudest acclamation, dampened by no gale until the throne of the Almighty they reached. But it was not God himself who was moved so at hearing their pleas, but his Son the Messiah. Turning to the Father, he spoke with heartfelt words of the pity he felt for the first man and woman. So the intercession of the Messiah was begun, and the destiny of the World set in motion. Hearing the words of Adam and Eve, he spake them anew, and with enchanting charisma, and the will of the Lord began to move. Allow me to stand for him and interpret for him, the Son said. It was then that he made his startling revelation which turned many an angelic head in Heaven:


                    " All his works on me,
                      Good or not good ingraft; my merit those
                      Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.
                      Accept me, and in me from these receive
                      The smell of peace toward mankind, let him live
                      Before thee reconciled, at least his days
                      Numbered, though sad, till death, his doom
                      To better life shall yield him, where with me
                      All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss,
                      Made one with me as I with thee am one "
                               - THE MESSIAH INTERCEDES FOR MAN


Upon deaf ears the Great Redeemer's words fell not. With calm serenity the Father relented, "All thy request for man, accepted Son". However, no longer may man dwell in the place called Eden, a Garden too pure for man corrupted now with Satan's malevolent touch. Hope remains, in the words of the Lord:


                   " I at first with two fair gifts
                     Created him endowed, with happiness,
                     And immortality: that fondly lost,
                     This other served but to eternize woe;
                     Till I provided Death; so death becomes
                     His final remedy, and after life
                     Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined
                     By faith and faithful works, to second life,
                     Waked in the renovation of the just,
                     Resigns him up with heav'n and earth renewed... "
                              - WHY MEN DIE


But now came the time for man to enter his new abode, to leave his lost Paradise, but forever no more. With a deafening blast the heralds of Heaven rallied the angelic host to the throne of the Almighty, there to await the will of the Divine...



United Kingdom

Penguin Classics
Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)
(The raw poem in original verse with the commentary at the back)

Oxford World's Classics
Paradise Lost (Oxford World's Classics)
(The raw poem with a commentary on the same page)

United States

Penguin Classics

Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)

(The raw poem in original verse with the commentary at the back)

Oxford World's Classics

Paradise Lost (Oxford World's Classics)
The raw poem with a commentary on the same page)

The Nightmare of Eve

Here it was at last. After an arduous journey across the cosmos (for the previous episode in this story, please click here), Satan looked hungrily down upon the Garden of Eden. Once the brightest of all angels, the Morning Star, thrown down from the fold of the Most High for daring to seize the Heavenly throne, Satan had resolved upon means other than open war to defy his Creator. Alone of the Fallen Angels, it had been he who first had spoken treacherous words in Heaven, and who now ventured to humble God by tearing down his most dearest Creation - Man.

Satan enters the Garden of Eden
Engraving by Gustave Doré

As he soared forth into the world of Men, and the light of the Sun touched his proud face, Satan was shaken. Not since he had served the Lord in Heaven had he felt such warmth, such invigoration, such happiness. For though treacherous, proud and deceitful, he remained an angel still, and here was a land to which he should belong:

    " O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams
       That bring to my remembrance
       from what state I fell,
       how glorious once above thy sphere;
       Till pride and worse ambition
       threw me down... "
                      - SATAN'S REMORSE

Wracked with guilt and remorse, Satan dreamt in vain that he were created a lesser being, devoid of ambition and immune to temptation. There was a moment, as the Morning Star touched upon the grass, that he even wondered whether he could know redemption, whether pardon could yet be his. Should he repent, would God forgive him of his crimes? Imagining himself, on bent knee before the Lord, surrounded by the Heavenly array, in his pride Satan thought only of the humiliation of it. Intolerable! Thinking too, of the horrors of the infernal prison from whence he had come and to where he must return, inflamed with rage once more, Satan focused his mind on the fell task he had volunteered to undertake. But his moment of inner conflict had gone not unnoticed. For there behind stood Uriel still, the angel Satan had deceived by disguise. Suspicious of seeing a pained expression in a place so pure, Uriel made haste to his brethren upon the Mount.

The Garden of Eden
Painting by Wenzel Peter

Not even the fiery heart of the Fallen One was hard to the beauty of the place he now saw. Such a verdant, sylvan scene there never was in all the cosmos! Boundless wilderness of cedar, pine and fir, towering high with the mightiest saplings groaning under the burden of their glorious fruit. The colour too! Regal golds glowing from the bounty of fruit, rich blossoms flourishing upon their boughs, bathed in the radiant glow of the high Sun. A soft breeze, a showering in the perfumed scents of the trees.  A place devoid of all sadness yet for the despair of what was to come. Not even he, that impious fiend, could hide his marvel. With a mighty leap, such as had broken the lines of Heaven in his doomed War, Satan broke through the undergrowth and penetrated to the Garden's core. His wings flared, he came to rest upon the highest tree at the very heart of the Garden, the Tree of Life, where in irony his thoughts were of nothing but death. Such a vista from that place there was no equal. The blissful fields of Paradise stretched yonder, in all their verdant glory. Nearby rose the Tree of Knowledge, from whose seed man would fall, astride a great azure river that channelled life across the Garden's plains. There, in a grove not far, laden with grapes of the deepest purple and flowers worthy only of Heaven, they lay:

                      " In naked majesty seemed lords of all,
                         And worthy seemed, for in their looks divine
                         The image of their glorious maker shone... "
                                              - ADAM AND EVE

There in regal splendour stood Adam, formed by God's own hand. Woven from Adam's own flesh, there too stood Eve, wondrous to behold. There was no flaw to be seen in the first man and woman, for they were crafted in God's own image, and here in Eden they were lord and lady to all the beasts, masters of this land in perfect innocence. Though they were unclad, there was no shame, no guilty thought of nature's wonder. Around them played all the beasts in harmony; lions, tigers, kids, bears, birds, horses all gathered in blissful serenity. Even the serpent here gave no heed of suspicion of what he would soon do. Envy and jealously raw blazed in the heart of Satan as a world in flames. Even he, the father of sin, was loath to bring such calamity upon such a scene. Pity for Adam and Eve struck him then, pity that they should suffer so much pain, when another was his foe. "Thank him who puts me to this loath revenge", he thought, "to do what else though damned I should abhor". So the proud angel justified his fell deed.

Adam and Eve
Engraving by by Gustave Doré

To learn more of this land, so that he might overturn it, Satan shifted his form once more. Now he was a lion, fierce and strong, then a tiger, stalking without sound. Approaching softly, he listened intently to the voice of Adam, noble yet oblivious. The First Man spoke in praise of the Lord, who in his benevolence had granted so much. The only sign of their obedience to God that remained was honour his command not to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, for it would bring death, "whate'er death is, some dreadful thing no doubt". To grant them both dominion over Earth, Sea and Air for such a little price, Adam raised his hands in prayer, as Eve did too, to give praise to the Lord. Jubliant, Eve embraced Adam:




                             " Aside the Devil turned,
                               For envy, yet with jealous leer malign,                         
                               Eyed them askance, and to himself thus plained.                               
                               Sight hateful, sight tormenting! Thus these two,                         
                               Imparadised in one another's arms,
                               The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill,
                               Of bliss on bliss, while I to Hell am thrust! "
                                                    - THE ENVY OF SATAN

Blind to all other gifts, Satan thought only of God's command not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Seething once more, the Fallen one could reason nothing more than they too were but slaves to God. They were not to receive this Knowledge? "Why should their Lord envy them that? Can it be sin to know, Can it be death?", he thought. As night fell on the Garden of Eden, a dark night brought on by the presence of a spirit who was welcome not there, Satan saw at last how he could defy the Most High. He would turn God's own Creation against him.

The Nightmare of Eve
Engraving by Gustave Doré

Meanwhile, high overhead, as the rays of the setting Sun levelled against the sky, the Archangel Gabriel sat enthroned upon the Mount. All around him the youth of Heaven exercised in divine sport, gilded helms, shields and spears glinting in the warm glow. Soaring through the evening rays, Uriel at last arrived. Urgently pouring out his suspicions, the Archangel confessed to Gabriel that he had granted passage to this dark newcomer, his foul thoughts veiled in fair disguise. Word too, had already reached Gabriel's ear of a breakout from Hell. But who was this stranger in their midst? The Archangel immediately sent forth the swiftest angels to find the source of this new disturbance. Far below, the night closed in, and the First Man and First Woman marvelled in the beauty of the stars and gave thanks to God, before laying down to sleep on their laurel bed. As Eve lay in slumber, little could she know as the Fallen Angel crept silently up to her, careful not to rouse Adam as he moved. Lying beside her peaceful body, Satan bent low and whispered fell incantations into her ear, channelling all manner of ghastly apparitions into her mind. As the venomed words flowed on, Eve convulsed violently in her nightmare. Soon Satan was no longer able to maintain his disguise, as no form but his true one could contain the grim phantasms within. Every doubt, every suspicion, every curious thought now gripped Eve's mind such that never again would she know innocence. Satan's senses heightened, his hour of glory approached at last.

Satan is banished from the Garden of Eden
Engraving by Gustave Doré

Just as he was about to implant the idea of eating from the Tree of Knowledge, however, the scene was suddenly interrupted. Ithuriel and Zephon, two loyal angels of Gabriel, drawn to the dark power emanating from that grove, appeared suddenly. Both spirits stood stunned, aghast to see an accursed angel here, in Paradise so very far from Hell. Recovering quickly, they demanded him to reveal his identity. Torn abruptly from his foul deed, Satan rounded on them, with a baleful gaze that would break the soul of any man. "Know ye not me?" he scornfully mocked, "Ye knew me once...". The terrible truth dawning upon them at last, Zephon valiantly rebuked Satan for his base treachery, swearing to bind him in chains if he had to. Taken aback by the young angel's boldness, Satan's anger grew greater still, anger that this young spirit clung to a virtue he never could. No bonds would be necessary, for the Morning Star flew to confront Gabriel without restraint. Recognising at once the stature of the Prince of Hell, Gabriel ordered Satan to reveal his purpose in Eden, a dwelling "God hath planted here in bliss". Both spirits , who had once held the other in great esteem, eyed each other warily. Who would not break free of Hell if they could, the Fallen One replied, what being willingly undergoes pain and torture? He simply came to admire the beauty of the place, a thing his own quarters lacked. Certain of deceit, Gabriel grew frustrated, unable to discover Satan's true intent as he was. Relentless, however, he demanded why he had come alone, why not the rest of his foul horde? For if there was pain in Hell, why had the rest not come. "Courageous chief, the first in flight from pain", Gabriel mocked. Taken aback by this insult, Satan angrily retorted that he alone had volunteered to undertake this enterprise, and he had hoped to settle here on Earth in peace.


But the Archangel Gabriel was wise to Satan's lies. "Thou sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem Patron of Liberty, who more than thou once fawneded, and servilely adored Heav'n's awful Monarch?" Gabriel angrily spat. For whilst Satan might claim to be seeking freedom for himself and his kin, his true purpose to seize God's throne was laid bare before all. The angelic host raised their glittering weapons in defiance, as Gabriel chastised him one final time, vowing to personally cast Satan back to Hell. With a shout of all his pent up guilt, rage and secret hopes of redemption now truly lost, Satan advanced on the loyal spirit. But just then, a flash of light, and bolt of thunder shook the cosmos. Sensing the gaze of the Lord, Satan turned his back on the Heavenly crew, as the angel of the Lord banished him from the Garden. Little could Gabriel see, however, the smile on the Morning Star's face. For his foul stratagem remained veiled to Heaven, and the seeds of discord had been sown. All he now needed was to complete what the angels had interrupted. He would not be able to break into the Garden personally again, that much was sure. Spying a nearby serpent however, Satan suddenly had an idea. Far away, meanwhile, Eve awoke with a pang of terror, distraught at the monstrous visions of her dreams...

United Kingdom

Penguin Classics:
Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)
(Paradise Lost is written in English, so text choice is personal preference)

Oxford World's Classics:
Paradise Lost (Oxford World's Classics)
(Paradise Lost is written in English, so text choice is personal preference)

United States

Penguin Classics:
Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)
(Paradise Lost is written in English, so text choice is personal preference)

Oxford World's Classics:
Paradise Lost (Oxford World's Classics)
(Paradise Lost is written in English, so text choice is personal preference)

The Forbidden Tree

One of the most curious things about the myths and legends of the past is how strikingly similar they can be, even when arising in total isolation from others. When all other traditions of culture seem alien, our stories unite us all. One such story from Aztec lore holds this particularly true. For on first reckoning there seems never to have been two more unlikely faiths to have common ground as Christianity and the religion of the Aztecs, but common ground there is aplenty.

Xochiquetzal
Image taken from the Codex Rios

" Hail to our Mother, from whose hand
  the yellow flowers blossomed,
  the seeds of the maguey were scattered,
  as she came forth from Paradise...

  Hail to the goddess,
  radiant as the bright butterfly
  in the bush of thorns.... "
        - HYMN TO THE ALL MOTHER

Long ago in the most ancient times, when the gods were at constant war with one another, each yearning for mastery over the cosmos, there lived a fair goddess in a fair land. Xochiquetzal, as she was called, was a youthful deity, and a sight of wonder to behold. With flowers in her hair, and a soothing, songlike voice, she reigned in a lost age of innocence, an age of dance and laughter. The land within which she dwelled was a Paradise worthy of her beauty. For this was Tamoanchán, the fairest of all the Thirteen Heavens. Vast, sweeping fields rolled away for eternity, towering peaks soared into the sky, topped with a snow which did not melt. The boughs of the trees bowed under the abundance of fruits and blossoms, as the eternal rays of the sun shone through to the soft grass below. One tree above all others stood in the very centre of this land, towering above all others in stature and in splendour. When the golden rays of the radiant sun fell upon its leaves, the Tree released the most alluring perfume into the air, which the breeze would soon carry to the four corners of this idyllic land. It was said that the birds which roosted in its branches serenaded Tamoanchán with the most enchanting evensong the Thirteen Heavens ever heard. This was a land of the purest tranquillity. The Great Creator, Ometeotl (for his role in the Creation, please click here), had gifted this land to Xochiquetzal with but one command - that she never eat from the fruit of the Tree.

Mictlantecuhtli
Statue in the National Museum
of Anthropology, Veracruz

Meanwhile in the cosmos, it was the dawn of the fifth age of the Sun. The hopes of an at last peaceful era were high, in the wake of the terrible destruction unleashed in the first four incarnations, the last ending in a cataclysmic flood at the hands of the goddess Chalchiúhtlicue (for the story of these struggles, please click here). Now Quetzalcóatl, the Plumed Serpent, and Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Smoking Mirror, united to build the world anew (two friends who would one day become the most terrible of foes, in a story told here). From the body of the Earth Monster Tlaltecuhtli they wove the new land, and from her skin and bones they fashioned new gods. But the infant world was barren and lifeless, for all had been destroyed in Chalchiúhtlicue's wrath. It was Quetzalcóatl who reasoned that only from the bones of the previous races of man to walk the earth could a new one rise. The gods agreed, and the Plumed Serpent set off in search of the bones, held in the grim world of Mictlán - the Underworld. For while all else on Earth may change, the land of the dead never shows a new face. No less stubborn was the grisly lord of the dead, the god Mictlantecuhtli, who personally tore the souls of men from their mortal forms, and ruled Mictlán with his consort Mictecacíhuatl. No one, not even a god, could enter Mictlán whilst alive. With no other god eager to venture into that dark realm, Quetzalcóatl resolved to embark on the grim quest. Raising a pyre high, and setting in its heart a flame, Quetzalcóatl faced death with valour, and stepped into the roaring conflagration.

Isla Bay - the furthest corner of the Aztec World
Photograph taken by 'Intersofia'

The pain at last subsiding, Quetzalcóatl awoke with a start. The darkness was heavy here, and a ghastly smell of rotting corpses poisoned the air. Turning north, the air grew fouler still, in a world so far away from idyllic Tamoanchán. After a while, when the stench of death choked even the Plumed Serpent, Quetzalcóatl at last found he who no other dares to seek - Mictlantecuhtli. Sitting upon a high throne, skeletal, emaciated and grimacing, Mictlantecuhtli gazed upon the intruder with unblinking, baleful eyes. The Plumed Serpent bowed before Death, and asked for the bones of the extinct animals, fish and men who had once walked the Earth. The dark god, who resented the other gods for residing in the sunlit lands, had no desire to grant Quetzalcóatl's request. Glowing with malice, he agreed to relinquish the bones on the condition that Quetzalcóatl travel four times around Mictlán whilst trumpeting on a holeless conch shell, a feat he deemed impossible, and indeed would at once make a fool of the god. Quetzalcóatl, however, was unfazed. Looking around him, he saw the worms and carrion that feasted upon the decaying corpses of Mictlán, and hatched a plan. Summoning the dark creatures to him, he commanded the worms to burrow through the shell, and the swarm of bees to enter it. The buzzing of the bees, amplified by the shell, became a pleasant music, such that had never been heard in Mictlán before. Mictlantecuhtli, furious that he had been outwitted, caused the very ground to quake and rend asunder in his rage.


Seizing his chance, Quetzalcóatl dived for the bones and made his escape. Just as he neared the mouth of Mictlán, however, he tripped on a fissure the dark god's anger had torn in the ground. Slamming into the bones, with a sickening crunch many of them broke, but the Plumed Serpent recovered and stole away. Coming to Tamoanchán, the gods resolved to create a new human race, to populate this perfect land. Taking blood from each god, Quetzalcóatl prepared the rites necessary to craft a man. Upon opening the pouch which contained the bones, however, the Plumed Serpent saw that they were broken, and knew not how they should be. It is for this reason that mankind has such infinite variety.

Pico de Orizaba
Photograph taken by 'Marte'

For a time, the harmony in Xochiquetzal's domain was absolute, and it seemed that the serenity would endure for all time. But soon, Xochiquetzal, distracted by her new company, began to forget the warning Ometeotl had decreed. One day, when the sun rose, and the perfume of the Forbidden Tree rose hhigh into the sky, Xochiquetzal could resist the temptation no longer. The other gods, and first humans, who had not known of their true nature, encouraged her to seek out the fruits of the Tree. There were so many fruits hanging from its leafy, blossomed boughs, that no one would notice if just one went missing? Tentatively, she edged towards the tree, entranced by its beauty. The Great Creator would not notice if she were to just pick one, she thought. Stretching out her hand, her fingers clasped a ripe, blood red fruit, and gently, she pulled it free. From the moment her fingers touched the fruit, however, a ripple of foreboding thundered through her. Blood dripped from the branch from whence the fruit came. With a scream, she backed away, as the Tree split clean in two, blasted apart by some unseen power. Lightning arced through the sky, and darkness rolled across the land. Spirited away to a lonely mountainside, Xochiquetzal wept, and Ometeotl condemned her for her actions. Since she had disobeyed the Creator's command, she would henceforth be banished from Tamoanchán, never to return. She, along with mankind, would be sent down to the dry, dusty plains of the Earth, and would know suffering. For ever after, Xochiquetzal would never be able to enjoy the beauty of flowers around her, for her eyes would ever stream with tears, tears at her Paradise lost...

The story of Xochiquetzal's exile was a shameful event to the Aztecs, as the reason why they lived in a world of peril. But what must have been equally, if not more, shocking, was the realisation in the minds of the Spanish conquistadores when they heard this tale from their newfound subjects. The parallel between this story and the events in the Garden of Eden are striking, yet the Aztecs had never before known the ways of the Old World. Perhaps the Aztecs were not the aliens they had first appeared after all...

United Kingdom

Aztec Prayers:
Rig Veda Americanus
(A small collection of prayers and hymns to the pagan gods, translated from the Nahuatl language)

Spanish account of the Conquest of Mexico:
The Conquest of New Spain
(A written account of the conquest given by a soldier who actually served under Cortés himself)

Mythology:
Mythology of the Aztec and Maya
(A colourful and nicely presented introduction to Aztec and Mayan Mythology, and an excellent choice for 'getting into it'. The actual cover is different from the one Amazon displays, and the book itself has many high quality photographs in it)

United States

Aztec Prayers:
Rig Veda Americanus
(A small collection of prayers and hymns to the pagan gods, translated from the Nahuatl language)

Spanish account of the Conquest of Mexico:
The Conquest of New Spain
(A written account of the conquest given by a soldier who actually served under Cortés himself)

Mythology:
Mythology of the Aztec and Maya
(A colourful and nicely presented introduction to Aztec and Mayan Mythology, and an excellent choice for 'getting into it'. The actual cover is different from the one Amazon displays, and the book itself has many high quality photographs in it)