Almost overnight it seemed the jungle-dwelling Olmec went from being simple farmers to the architects of modern society. They established complex structures and extensive ceremonial centers. They were the first in Mesoamerica to record events. They originated the ancient ball game, and created great public works of art, which included the famous Olmec Heads-monolithic skulls fashioned from basalt, many of which weigh nearly thirty tons.
The bearded one’s presence soon became known throughout the region. To the Maya and Toltec he was the great teacher, Kukulcan, to the Aztecs he was Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent. And though he promised his people he would one day return, the god-king’s eventual departure around A.D. 1000 left Mesoamerica in utter disarray. Many peoples, like the Maya, turned to human sacrifice, their actions meant to appease Kukulcan and lure him back from the great beyond.
Five hundred years later, the first ‘official’ Caucasians would make their way into Central America from Europe, bringing with them tyranny and death, and something more – the Devil.
Hernan Cortez was a Spaniard who had earned his reputation as both explorer and Conquistador. In 1519 the governor of Cuba, Diego de Velazquez, commissioned Cortez and his forces to invade and conquer Montezuma’s Aztec empire. Armed with eleven ships and five hundred men, Cortez set sail for the Yucatan Peninsula, homeland of the Maya. Making his way north along the Gulf coastline, he founded the first Spanish settlement, La Villa Rica de Vera Cruz (modern-day Veracruz). As his men realized the daunting odds facing them, Cortez ordered his ships burned, fearing desertion. The vastly outnumbered Spanish would either win their battle or die trying.
What Cortez never suspected was that the outcome of the war would be decided by something else entirely-a case of mistaken identity.
When Montezuma, the Aztec leader, received word that a bearded white man had arrived from the sea, he believed Cortez to be none other than Quetzalcoatl, returning as he had promised from the grave. Ignoring a series of foreboding omens from his Nagual (witches), the Aztec leader sent emissaries to escort the Spaniard and his army directly into the capital city of Tenochtitlan, a near-impregnable island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The stunned Spanish, impressed by the size of the city and its numerous temples and canals, were treated like gods. Feigning friendship, Cortez waited until the right moment, then ordered his army to attack, the bloody slaughter becoming the opening blow of an all-out war that would last more than two years.
Cortez eventually secured Mesoamerica for Spain, but it would take far longer for the Spanish priests to ‘conquer’ the peoples of Central America. To the Spanish, the Maya and Aztec were godless pagans who worshiped deities that could only be allies of the Devil. Kukulcan’s codices (and their warnings of impending doom) were burned, his followers converted to Christianity-under penalty of torture.
In reality, the dichotomy between good and evil, God and the Devil was completely alien to Mesoamerican Indians. Before the Spanish invasion, the closest divine being comparable to Satan was Tezcatilpoca, considered to be the god of night and patron of witches. The ‘mirror that smokes’ was the lord of sin and suffering and the inventor of fire, but he was not the Devil.
At least, not until the Spanish priests arrived.
To promulgate Christianity in Mesoamerica, the priests had to teach their ‘ignorant pupils’ that the universe was divided into forces of good (God) and forces of evil (Satan). Any act deemed unacceptable was naturally considered evil. Evildoers thought to have conspired with the Devil were branded witches, and witchcraft in New Spain would not be tolerated.
The Holy Office of the Inquisition in New Spain was quickly established, and soon thereafter Mesoamerican tribal members were brought to trial and convicted of being witches.
By bringing the Devil and witchcraft to the forefront, the Catholics inadvertently helped it to flourish. Secret societies formed among the conquered Mesoamericans, with the larger cities becoming centers of sex and sin. Satan (appearing in the form of a goat) played host to witch parties. Pacts were made with the Devil. Black magic was introduced and passed from one generation to the next.
Where there was once innocence, sorcery now thrived. Thanks to the invading white man, fear of the Devil had become a real thing.
Etienne Rafelo arrived in Mexico in the fall of 1533, his mission: To spread the seeds of the ‘dark forces’ throughout the New World. His travels would lead him to Tecospa, a small Nahuatl Indian village situated across the mountains from Morelos. Here he would meet an Aztec leader named Motecuma, whose maternal ancestors were direct descendants of Quetzalcoatl, a member of the brotherhood of the Guardian.
Etienne would fall in love with Motecuma’s oldest daughter, Quetzalli, an azure-eyed beauty who possessed the Guardian’s Hunahpu bloodline. The couple would raise eight children in the southernmost part of the Valley of Mexico, a land the mighty Aztecs had once ruled.
Like her father, Quetzalli was a Nagual witch. Mesoamerican witches dated back a thousand years. They had counseled kings and could forecast events. It was said a Nagual could cause sickness by sucking the blood of his victim or by giving him the ‘evil eye.’ It was believed the more powerful witches could even capture a man’s soul.
Twenty-seven generations after the Rafelo-Quetzalcoatl bloodline began, Don Alejandro Rafelo was born. Like his ancestor, Andre, Don Rafelo sought a different path.
The villagers of Morelos both despised and feared Don Rafelo. They said his ojo made him powerful, that his K’az-al t’an-ob (curses) caused serious and painful diseases.
Blessed with intelligence and a feverish lust for power, Don Rafelo made it his life’s calling to learn the truth behind the power of the Nagual. Unlike the superstitious locals, he knew the witches gained their insight-not from spells and incantations, but from their bloodline. The Olmec, Aztec, Toltec, and Maya had risen to power under the tutelage of two great Nagual, Kukulcan and Quetzalcoatl. Don Rafelo knew these men had sired dozens of children, and that his own family’s spiritual abilities could be traced back to Quetzalcoatl. What Don Rafelo needed to increase the power of his lineage was a descendant of Kukulcan’s bloodline.
He would find his genetic link in Cecilia Meztli, a Mayan woman whose maternal ancestors were raised in the city of Chichen Itza, sired by the great Kukulcan himself.
Too old to have children, Don Rafelo selected his sister’s son, Miguel Aurelia-Rafelo, to wed Cecilia. The curanandero warned the girl’s family to stay away from Don Rafelo, but the Meztlis owed Don Rafelo money, and the arranged marriage would pay off the debt.
The azure-blue-eyed Madelina Aurelia was born seventeen months later, and Don Rafelo had the minion he had long sought. The Nagual conspired against the infant’s parents, intent on raising the child himself. Following a series of tragedies, the family secretly fled Morelos and headed for America.
Seventeen years later, Don Rafelo’s prized apprentice died after giving birth to Lilith Eve Robinson.
Lilith finishes mowing the backyard lawn as Quenton returns home from church. Hearing him enter the house, she quickly positions the frayed lounge chair so it faces the sun, her heart racing. She removes her bikini top just as Don Rafelo had instructed, then lies back on the chair, rubbing oil over her exposed breasts, moaning just loud enough for her legal guardian to hear.
Quenton is in the bathroom urinating. Hearing the noise, he peeks between the curtains of the open window and stares at the topless teenager.
‘Sweet Jesus…’
Over the years, Quenton Morehead had convinced himself that his molestation of Lilith had been a necessary part of her ‘exorcism.’ He had already asked Jesus for forgiveness, and if the Lord could forgive him, then surely Lilith would. Now in his late sixties, he had eased up on the child’s ‘treatments,’ fearing the emboldened teenager might speak out against his acts.