Despite the Spanish Conquest, in the 16th century, which tried to erase Aztec knowledge, it has survived to our days thanks to the memory of our grandparents, and some Codex that escape to the Holocaust an Aztec Tarot, painted by the artists, masters of "ink black and red color", still allows us to discover the enormous symbolic wealth of the divinatory knowledge of the ancient Mexicans, which can be easily compared with the Western Tarot, of obscure Egyptian origin. The Aztec Tarot is not the only "card game", for divinatory purposes, that emerged outside of the Western tradition. Antoine mentions an "ancient Chinese Tarot" of 77 cards, and a "Persian Tarot" of 50 cards.
The basis of this thousand-year-old Aztec Tarot, composed by 52 cards, rest in the wheels of time of the ancient Toltecs, who gather in their widest circle the Suns or creations that have existed in the world: the first Sun, Nahui Ocelotl (Jaguar), was populated by giants, who were destroyed by jaguars; the second Sun, Nahui Ehécatl (Wind), was swept away by a hurricane; the third Sun or Nahui Quiahuitl (Fire) fell under a rain of fire; the fourth Sun, Nahui Atl (Water) perished by a deluge; the fifth Sun, Nahui Ollin (Movement), in which we live, will be destroyed by earthquakes.
The Nagualista priestly elite kept secret their belief in a unique god, Ometeotl (the One in two), the harmonious union of the masculine and the feminine, creator of the Universe, and placed this "invisible god and creator of all things" in the last of the 13 heavens. For this reason, in their Tarot or "game of figures", painted on maguey paper, they placed to Ometeotl (Arcanum I) as the principle and, at last, without number, to the Tonal or spiritual representation of man. They also painted cards with other gods, expressions of the multiple heterogeneity in which natural and spiritual forces manifest themselves; these main gods (drawn by the scribes of the Florentine Codex) complete the 22 cards of the Major Arcana. These Major Arcana point out the main tensions, the emphasis and the essentials of the destinations during the consultation. Another 9 cards, with figures of gods or natural forces, make up the Ruling Arcana, which indicate singular events and intense changes -Hyleg points- of the consultant's destiny. The Minor Arcana, of less lasting influence, but of great relevance, are made up with 20 cards corresponding to the days of Tonalamatl, and 1 card called nemontemi (symbol of 5 waste days, of waiting and meditation, when Aztecs lit the New Fire, without knowing if the Sun would rise again on the horizon). Each of these cards enclose a particular divinatory and symbolic meaning.