object
Mirror
A surface that returns a likeness. Water, polished stone, and later glass have all been used to look — and sometimes to ask.
Nahua tradition
Mirror is associated with Obsidian.
Nahua materials include smoking mirrors of obsidian. The reflection is a worked volcanic glass, not a European looking-glass.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Obsidian is used in Mirror.
Nahua materials in the Florentine Codex treat smoking mirrors as worked obsidian: volcanic glass crafted into a reflective surface (tezcatl). A Mesoamerican material use in mirror-making, not European looking-glass silvering and not a license to merge every scrying practice.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
used in · sourced · culturally specific
Mirror is associated with Water.
Still water returns a face. Before glass, water is an ordinary mirror; that fact has been used in many places without becoming one rite.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Mirror is associated with Divination.
Looking into a reflective surface for a sign is a named practice in more than one later European and East Asian setting. Each setting has its own name and should not be merged here.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Mirror is associated with Knowledge.
A mirror shows what is in front of it. Later moralists made that into self-knowledge; the moral is later than the object.
associated with · interpretive · modern interpretation
Mirror is associated with Eye.
A mirror returns a likeness to the eye. Truth here is optical before it is moral.
associated with · interpretive · documented
Mirror is associated with Transformation.
A likeness can be reversed, delayed, or mistaken. Later moralists made mirrors into deception; the optical fact is older than the sermon.
associated with · interpretive · modern interpretation
Mirror is used in Medicine.
Mirror used in Medicine. A surface that returns a likeness. An organized craft of treating the sick. The Atlas keeps their meeting local, without dissolving either into a single meaning.
from SHOE.BLUE · SHOE.BLUE, 2026
used in · interpretive · modern interpretation
Mirror is used in Offerings.
Mirror used in Offerings. A surface that returns a likeness. Gifts given to gods, dead, or powers: fire, food, blood, incense, words. The Atlas keeps their meeting local, without dissolving either into a single meaning.
from SHOE.BLUE · SHOE.BLUE, 2026
used in · interpretive · modern interpretation
Soul is associated with Mirror.
Later moralists treat a mirror as a picture of the self. The moral is later than water and obsidian; keep it interpretive.
associated with · interpretive · modern interpretation
Silver is associated with Mirror.
Glass mirrors were silvered. The metal is a technology of likeness, not a moral of the self.
associated with · interpretive · documented
Crystal is associated with Mirror.
A clear stone can return a likeness. Later scrying is a named, often modern, use of that fact; it is not Nahua obsidian.
associated with · interpretive · modern interpretation
sources
- Florentine Codex · Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators
Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain (Florentine Codex).
- SHOE.BLUE · SHOE.BLUE
SHOE.BLUE, Atlas instrument voice.