Definitions for "Tlazolteotl"
Keywords:  filth, confessed, eater, sins, goddess
Eater of filth, devourer of sins, goddess of witches and witchcraft. Tlazolteotl has power over all forms of unclean behavior, usually sexual. Confessing sins to Tlazolteotl, one is cleansed. The goddess has four forms or aspects, corresponding to the phases of the moon: a young and carefree temptress, the lover of Quetzalcoatl; the Goddess of gambling and uncertainty; the Great Priestess who consumes and destroys the sins of mankind; and frightful old crone, persecutor and destroyer of youth.
In Aztec mythology, Tlazolteotl was an earth, sex, childbirth and a mother goddess. She was referred to as "the eater of filth" because she visited people at the end of their lives who confessed their sins to her; she then ate the person's "filth" (sins).