Aztec Religion between Christianity and New Age Spirituality: “Mana” and Spiritual Energies in James Maffie’s Concept of Teotl

Abstract Since the turn of the twenty-first century, Mesoamerican studies have witnessed a turn toward reinterpreting precolonial pantheons as sets of impersonal principles, sometimes even reducing them to one general underlying concept of impersonal energy. This article explores the impersonal rendering of Aztec teotl in the work of Aztec philosophy scholar James Maffie. It offers a detailed source analysis, arguing that there is little basis for Maffie’s conclusions in the primary or secondary material. Moreover, Maffie’s teotl fully matches the concept of “energy” typical for Alternative (New Age) Spirituality (the ideas of which are disseminated by the vastly influential “occultural” phenomena). Maffie’s interpretation of teotl can thus be seen as a product of a Western bias. As such, the implications of the situation surpass the narrow confines of Mesoamerican studies: all of academia needs to be just as aware of possible New Age biases as it is of the Christian ones.