Jesus Christ, The Plumed Aztec Serpent

Cleverly, the shape-shifting ancient Aztec gods lived on long after the conquistadors destroyed the Mexican Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and imposed Catholic Christian culture and doctrines.

To their surprise, Spanish priests found that the Aztecs were quick to take to the new faith. The Aztecs appear to have seen in the worship of Jesus Christ a similarity to the worship of the Plumed Aztec Serpent Quetzalcoatl. They also saw that Jesus' teachings on brotherly love were in harmony with the ancient god Quetzalcoatl's pious and peaceful views on how government should function. And, the Christian idea of the second coming of Christ clearly resonated with the ancient Aztec myth of Quetzalcoatl's departure and promised return.

Indeed, before the conquest of the Aztecs, the sighting of white bearded men that arrived from the sea on floating mountains was believed to be Quetzalcoatl's return. First hand sightings that were reported to the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II also mentioned that these beings rode on top of giant deer and harnessed thunder and lightning from staffs they carried. Their skin was described as shiny and impregnable. What else but gods could fit this description? During the battle for the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, it became clear that these bearded men were not gods but the religion they imposed clearly requires the worship of a deity that seemed one and the same with Quetzalcoatl. In an unlikely union of faiths, Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Aztec Serpent became closely associated with Jesus Christ.

The Mexican Aztec also adapted Roman Catholic Christian practices to the old religion and continued to follow aspects of the old religion by cleverly disguising their meaning from the Christian monks. Old Aztec gods were linked to Christian saints, Tlaloc the Aztec god of rain was revered under the guise of St. John the Baptist.

Traditional practices were also aligned with Christian festivals; the yearly visit to the graves of the ancestors was carried out on All Souls' Day. This holiday now known as the "Day of the Dead" is still practiced throughout Mexican Aztec lands.

In 1531, a recent convert named Juan Diego had a vision of a dark-skinned Virgin Mary near a temple to the Earth goddess Tonantzin. There, he supposedly received instructions concerning the construction of a temple in her honor. The new church was to be located on the very spot where Tonantzin's temple had stood. Under the name of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, this hybrid Mesoamerican-Christian deity became and continues to be Mexico's patron saint.

The way in which the Aztecs accepted Christian practices while maintaining the ways of the old Aztec gods is typical of the Aztec approach to religion. They were generally willing to accept that new gods and new practices were an extension of what they already knew, rather than a completely new departure. Aztecs built upon existing practices rather than replacing them.