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The Nahua Hidden World Part 2: Mirrors, Plants, Altered States & Death
Published 1 week ago
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Links For The Occult Rejects
https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects
Occult Research Institute
https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/
Substack
https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Cash App
https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects
Venmo
@TheOccultRejects
Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects
Primary Source
Sahagún, Bernardino de, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex). Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, 1577. Digital Florentine Codex / Códice Florentino Digital, Getty Research Institute, 2023.
Primary source throughout this episode, especially Book 1 for Tezcatlipoca, Book 2 for festivals and sacrifice, and Book 11 for medicinal and psychoactive plants. Pasted markdown
Nahua Performance, Ritual & Manuscripts
Brylak, Agnieszka. “Some Remarks on the Teponazcuicatl of the Pre-Hispanic Nahua.” Ancient Mesoamerica 27, no. 2 (2016).
Used for Nahua song, drumming, movement, and embodied ritual performance.
Morado Hernández, Elías Israel. “Una aproximación al Códice florentino desde la escucha.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 47, no. 127 (2025).
Explores the audible, oral, rhythmic, and performative world preserved beneath the written Florentine Codex.
Dupey García, Élodie. “Rethinking the Reverse of the Codex Cospi: Ritual Offerings to Divine Effigies in Temples.” Ancient Mesoamerica (2026).
Important to the discussion of divinatory manuscripts as ritual technologies connecting interpretation with prescribed ritual action. Pasted markdown
Tezcatlipoca, Obsidian Mirrors & John Dee
Campbell, Stuart, Elizabeth Healey, Yaroslav Kuzmin, and Michael D. Glascock. “The Mirror, the Magus and More: Reflections on John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror.” Antiquity 95, no. 384 (2021): 1547–1564.
doi: 10.15184/aqy.2021.132
Geochemical analysis connecting John Dee’s obsidian mirror with Mexican obsidian from the Pachuca source.
Getty Research Institute. “Through the Mirror.” Obsidian Mirror-Travels: Refracting Ancient Mexican Art and Archaeology.
Background on Indigenous Mexican obsidian mirrors, divination, supernatural vision, and Tezcatlipoca.
Caputo, Giovanni B. “Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion.” Perception 39, no. 7 (2010): 1007–1008.
doi: 10.1068/p6466
Experimental study showing striking facial distortions during prolonged mirror gazing under dim illumination.
Mash, Joanna, Paul M. Jenkinson, Charlotte E. Dean, and Keith R. Laws. “Strange Face Illusions: A Systematic Review and Quality Analysis.” Consciousness and Cognition 109 (2023): 103480.
doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103480
Systematic review of strange-face illusions and the methodological limits of earlier mirror-gazing research. Pasted markdown
Ololiuhqui & Ergoline Chemistry
Meira, Marilena, Eliezer Pereira da Silva, Jorge M. David, and Juceni P. David. “Review of the Genus Ipomoea: Traditional Uses, Chemistry and Biological Activities.” Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia 22, no. 3 (2012).
doi: 10.1590/S0102-695X2012005000025
Reviews morning-glory chemistry, including ergoline alkaloids such as ergine/LSA.
Steiner, Ulrike, and Eckhard Leistner. “Ergoline Alkaloids in Convolvulaceous Host Plants Originate from Epibiotic Clavicipitaceous Fungi of the Genus Periglandula.” Fungal Ecology 5, no. 3 (2012): 316–321.
doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2011.04.004
Important for the plant–fungus symbiosis involved in ergoline production associated with Turbina corymbosa. Pasted markdown
Peyote & Mescaline
Dinis-Oliveira, Ricardo Jorge, Carolina Lança Pereira, and Diana Dias da Silva. “Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Aspects of Peyote and Mescaline: Clinical and Forensic Repercussions.” Current Molecular Pharmacology 12, no. 3 (2019): 184–194.
doi: 10.2174/1874467211666181010154139
https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects
Occult Research Institute
https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/
Substack
https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Cash App
https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects
Venmo
@TheOccultRejects
Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects
Primary Source
Sahagún, Bernardino de, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex). Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, 1577. Digital Florentine Codex / Códice Florentino Digital, Getty Research Institute, 2023.
Primary source throughout this episode, especially Book 1 for Tezcatlipoca, Book 2 for festivals and sacrifice, and Book 11 for medicinal and psychoactive plants. Pasted markdown
Nahua Performance, Ritual & Manuscripts
Brylak, Agnieszka. “Some Remarks on the Teponazcuicatl of the Pre-Hispanic Nahua.” Ancient Mesoamerica 27, no. 2 (2016).
Used for Nahua song, drumming, movement, and embodied ritual performance.
Morado Hernández, Elías Israel. “Una aproximación al Códice florentino desde la escucha.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 47, no. 127 (2025).
Explores the audible, oral, rhythmic, and performative world preserved beneath the written Florentine Codex.
Dupey García, Élodie. “Rethinking the Reverse of the Codex Cospi: Ritual Offerings to Divine Effigies in Temples.” Ancient Mesoamerica (2026).
Important to the discussion of divinatory manuscripts as ritual technologies connecting interpretation with prescribed ritual action. Pasted markdown
Tezcatlipoca, Obsidian Mirrors & John Dee
Campbell, Stuart, Elizabeth Healey, Yaroslav Kuzmin, and Michael D. Glascock. “The Mirror, the Magus and More: Reflections on John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror.” Antiquity 95, no. 384 (2021): 1547–1564.
doi: 10.15184/aqy.2021.132
Geochemical analysis connecting John Dee’s obsidian mirror with Mexican obsidian from the Pachuca source.
Getty Research Institute. “Through the Mirror.” Obsidian Mirror-Travels: Refracting Ancient Mexican Art and Archaeology.
Background on Indigenous Mexican obsidian mirrors, divination, supernatural vision, and Tezcatlipoca.
Caputo, Giovanni B. “Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion.” Perception 39, no. 7 (2010): 1007–1008.
doi: 10.1068/p6466
Experimental study showing striking facial distortions during prolonged mirror gazing under dim illumination.
Mash, Joanna, Paul M. Jenkinson, Charlotte E. Dean, and Keith R. Laws. “Strange Face Illusions: A Systematic Review and Quality Analysis.” Consciousness and Cognition 109 (2023): 103480.
doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103480
Systematic review of strange-face illusions and the methodological limits of earlier mirror-gazing research. Pasted markdown
Ololiuhqui & Ergoline Chemistry
Meira, Marilena, Eliezer Pereira da Silva, Jorge M. David, and Juceni P. David. “Review of the Genus Ipomoea: Traditional Uses, Chemistry and Biological Activities.” Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia 22, no. 3 (2012).
doi: 10.1590/S0102-695X2012005000025
Reviews morning-glory chemistry, including ergoline alkaloids such as ergine/LSA.
Steiner, Ulrike, and Eckhard Leistner. “Ergoline Alkaloids in Convolvulaceous Host Plants Originate from Epibiotic Clavicipitaceous Fungi of the Genus Periglandula.” Fungal Ecology 5, no. 3 (2012): 316–321.
doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2011.04.004
Important for the plant–fungus symbiosis involved in ergoline production associated with Turbina corymbosa. Pasted markdown
Peyote & Mescaline
Dinis-Oliveira, Ricardo Jorge, Carolina Lança Pereira, and Diana Dias da Silva. “Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Aspects of Peyote and Mescaline: Clinical and Forensic Repercussions.” Current Molecular Pharmacology 12, no. 3 (2019): 184–194.
doi: 10.2174/1874467211666181010154139