I just theorized all over the Aztecs and I’m sorry.

I’ve spent most of my morning attempting to cement My Crazy Lost Theory in creation myth and I’ll be honest, I’ve confused myself even further than I had been already about the notion that I got in my head last season. 

 It was my belief at the end of Season 5 that Jacob and the Man In Black (MIB) were actually the arch rival sibling Gods of the Aztec civilization Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca respectively… and the two were in battle to rule over the island.

Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl

 

It really isn’t too much of a stretch.  There are many cultures that share creation myths involving two rival brothers and the writers threw us a hint of this sibling relationship by giving us the biblical name Jacob.  Lost fans where quick to conclude that this name must refer to the story of Jacob and Esau.  Then they peppered the island landscape with statues and ruins that closely resembled both Aztec and Egyptian origin. These two civilizations have both been linked throughout history to the lost continent of Atlantis, another much speculated theory the fans have been bandying about since Season 1 which the show creators may have even clued us into with the title of the show…  “Lost” as in the “Lost” Continent of Atlantis.

So now, why on earth would I chose to decide that Jacob and MIB are of Aztec origin rather than Egyptian when there is a gigantic statue on the island indicating the contrary? It is possible that Jacob and MIB are a combination of both of these religions but I have just found more evidence to the Aztec side of things than Egyptian and there is one huge smoking gun that cannot be ignored which will be addressed a little later in this post.

 The trail of crumbs that lead my Aztec revelation started with a still photo I ran across of Juliet’s parents from the episode: The Incident: Part 1 & 2.

Note the book on the coffee table: “Mysteries of the Ancient Americas: The New World before Columbus.”

 

THEN there were these blog posts made by the illustrious Lost Theorist John Cabrera:

10 reasons you might not sail off the edge of the world looking for Atlantis

 It was in the above post in which he started talking about Atlantis and mentioning the Mayans.  I started thinking about the Aztecs a bit and looking into any myths they might have about a lost continent. There wasn’t a lot but today I found this photo:

What in actuality is an Aztec drawing of an ancestral migration from an island to the American continent, that is cited as evidence for Atlantean colonization of Mexico, c. 1168. kind of  reminded me of a crude interpretation of Lost’s main island in relation to the Hydra station.

Okay, so… no? I know, it’s a stretch… but try to go with it I’m gonna.  I will come back to this subject of an Aztec Atlantis in my next blog post. 

 Now then, back to the crumb trail. (and by that I totally don’t mean that John is a crumb. Sorry if it sounded that way. Man, I am suckee today.) Anyhoo…  Then there was his podcast about the Lost Civilization of Viracocha and as you can see in the comments that I start throwing out random facts about the Aztecs after hearing John’s musings on the Incans. I pretty much bombarded him.  Sorry J. 

All of these things together sent me on a fact-finding mission about the Aztecs.  I read everything I could find online about Aztec creation myth. Each story featured the infamous rivalry between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca.

A bit on the two from the Myth Encyclopedia:

Quetzalcoatl: Creator God, Quetsal Bird, Feathered Serpent, Creator of civilization and learning.

Tezcatlipoca:  God of the night, the north, temptation, sorcery, beauty and war. He was known by other descriptive names, such as Titlacauan (We His Slaves), Ipalnemoani (He by whom we live), Necocyaotl (Sower of Discord on Both Sides) and Tloque Nahuaque (Lord of the Near and Night)

Their relation to one another was as co-creators of the world. But not just this world, the four other worlds before this one that are detailed in the myth of the Five Suns.

From Wikipedia:   

“In the creation myths preserved by the Aztec and other Nahua peoples, the central tenet was that there had been four worlds, or “Suns”, previous to the present universe. These earlier worlds and their inhabitants had been created, and then destroyed by the catastrophic action of leading deity figures. [These figures being Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca]  The present world is the fifth sun, and the Aztec saw themselves as “the People of the Sun,” whose divine duty is to wage cosmic war in order to provide the sun with his tlaxcaltiliztli (“nourishment”). Without it, the sun would disappear from the heavens. Thus the welfare and the very survival of the universe depend upon the offerings of blood and hearts to the sun.”

Within the Five Sun myth, there are several stories of the rivalry between Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca one of which has to do with Tezcatlipoca tricking his brother to set himself on fire:

Quetzalcoatl preferred his people to make sacrifices of flowers, jade and butterflies to him but Tezcatlipoca enjoyed bloodier sacrifices so he tricked Quetzalcoatl by getting him drunk and then holding up a mirror that showed not his own face but that of Tezcatlipoca. Thinking that what he saw in the mirror was an image of himself, Quetzalcoatl decided to throw himself onto a funeral pyre. So, you can see, Tezcatlipoca seems like kind of a douche.  But actually, in the Aztec way of thinking, neither was good or evil, just light and dark as Locke demonstrated with the backgammon pieces during a game with Walt. 

But why in the Lost World would the Locke’s possessed body instruct Ben to kill Jacob and then finish the job Ben started by tossing his body in a fire?  What could this have to do with a loophole Jacob and the MIB talked about in the finale teaser?

 MIB: Morning.

Jacob: Mornin’.

MIB: Mind if I join you?

Jacob: Please. Want some fish?

MIB: Thank you. I just ate.

Jacob: I take it you’re here ’cause of the ship.

MIB: I am. How did they find the Island?

Jacob: You’ll have to ask ‘em when they get here.

MIB: I don’t have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?

Jacob: You are wrong.

MIB: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.

Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.

MIB: Do you have any idea how badly I wanna kill you?

Jacob: Yes.

MIB: One of these days, sooner or later… I’m going to find a loophole, my friend.

Jacob: Well, when you do, I’ll be right here.

MIB: Always nice talking to you, Jacob.

Jacob: Nice talking to you, too.

 Confusing, No?  I mean, if the MIB is so bad, why wouldn’t he want anything to do with a boat full of silly humans sailing toward his shores? Wouldn’t a bad guy think messing with a bunch of humans be fun? Isn’t this why we humans watch TV and read books? You know, for the drama? 

Okay, how many people are confused?  I know I my brain is a bit mushy. I have more to my theory and I can’t wait to share it but I’ve been working on this since 9 AM and it’s 5PM now so I’m beat. Until then, I’ll be thinking about Comic books and JJ Abrams as a boy, perhaps wondering what types of marvelous things he liked to read back in the day.  I might also like to contemplate a floating island and perhaps the notion of pocket dimensions. I’m also going to rent the movie Freaky Friday (the Jody Foster version of course!). 

Please, if you have a moment, tell me what you thought.  Do you have a theory that would chink some of my Aztec armor?  I will try to put another post up before the premiere on Tuesday evening.  I look forward to seeing this final season of Lost and watching my theory crumble to bits like a Sphinx face in a sandstorm as the ending to the story unfolds. I also look forward to some lively discourse with some gentle readers. The quicker we all disprove my theory… the quicker we will be to finding out what the heck is really going on. So thanks for stopping by! 

Until Next Time, “That douch is my dad.”

Where Are We Again?

We are nearing the beginning of the final season of Lost… that is where we are. Avidly awaiting and some of us praying for not only a satisfying conclusion but some explanation of what all of this stuff means. It’s like reaching our final moment of life and realizing that soon we will find out what happens after death, perhaps finding out if there is a god and if so, maybe we can meet her. Personally, I’m hoping for more of an explanation of who is pulling the strings on the Lost Island than we got at the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Season 6 when Buffy described her experience being dead to Spike saying,

“I was happy. Wherever I was, I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time didn’t mean anything. Nothing had form. But I was still me, you know? And I was warm,and I was loved, and I was finished. Complete. I don’t understand about theology or dimensions, or any of it, really, but I think I was in heaven. And now I’m not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out… by my friends.”

That’s all fine and good in the context of Spillow talk (Pillow talk with Spike… get it? I crack me up) but personally, I would have preferred more detail. Though, I guess you can hardly blame Joss, he knew that his audience was much more touchy feely than say we Losties are. We are a bunch of hard nose theorists who need concrete answers that will either support or decimate our well crafted theories.

So that is what this place is; a place of theories… specifically mine. I’ve been hiding out in the comments section of John Cabrera’s blog, debating ideas and theories and often hinting to this big theory that has been brewing in my head over the last season. But after his most recent blog post:

http://www.johncabrera.com/general/subway-map-exposed.html#more-3252

where he described how much time and effort he’d put into brushing up on past seasons so he could put together this bitchin’ Subway Map of the Lost Island:

http://www.johncabrera.com/general/lost-on-the-subway.html#more-3230

I knew I needed to become more proactive in my Lostie ways. I had spent some time last week brushing off my theory. I got it some new shoes, a nice haircut and one of those super indulgent facials with the flower essences of endangered plants form the amazon and the tears of 1,000 virgins. And now, I finally feel like my theory is up to snuff. So, with the recent events, especially John talking about how great it is to put your ideas out there and watch them crumble or take flight, I decided that it would just be wrong to spend the last season of this thought provoking show sitting on the sidelines and occasionally hijacking John’s comments section. No. This year, I stand on my own.

What I intend to do in the next couple days is to write up my theory and post it here where hopefully some gentle readers will will see it, contemplate it and rip it a new one or perhaps even think it is kind of cool and start researching it on their own.

I will keep adding posts about my theory after each episode and see where it either holds water or is found to be wanting. When there are episodes where my theory isn’t even touched upon, and I’m sure that will happen quite a bit, I will post on more entertaining topics, like how Charlie Pace is the new Charlie Brown, why Miles and Hurley are the island’s cutest couple and most importatly, why the non-love triangle of Jack Tripper, Chrissy Snow and Janet Wood was much more dramatic and emotionally satisfying than the whole Jack/Kate/Sawyer ordeal has been. (Oh… and if you don’t know who Jack, Chrissy and Janet are… please don’t talk to me.)

Teaser:

With my theory, I hope to answer the questions

Upon which mythical island is Lost based?

Who are Jacob and The Man in Black (and no, he’s not Johnny Cash. I checked) in the context of world creation myth?

Why did Oceanic flight 815 crash on the island with these specific people on it?

Who is the character of Ben modeled after in the context of world myth?

And that is that. I hope that I’m able to gain some readers and hope if that comes to pass that we shall have some fun with this blog and that you guys don’t make me cry too many times. Though, I do hope to make a few of you people cry! What? With laughter of course. So get your thinking caps on, bookmark John Cabrera’s Blog, Lostpedia and www.oneloveforchi.com (because Chi is a close friend and still needs funds for his medical costs!)

Until next time… “That douche is my dad.”