Some more interesting facts:
"Xolotl" doesn't just refer to the god himself. "In sum, 'Xolotl' names a specific cluster of processes that serves cyclical completion, renewal, and hence, transformation," according to James Maffie, the author of Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion. "These processes help complete existing life-death cycles, and help initiate new life-death cycles, and thus aid in the transformation of death into life. Susan Gillespie and Kay Read correctly argue [that] the Aztecs were obsessed with beginnings and endings."
Xolotl (Nahuatl, "water dog") was the twin brother of Quetzalcoatl, (Nahuatl, "the feathered serpent"). Quetzalcoatl was the god of wind, wisdom, and learning; however, he, and likely Xolotl, were worshipped by the Mayans even before the Aztecs. They were both children of the virgin Coatlicue, the goddess of earth [and, sometimes, the sons of the sun]. Xolotl represents the Underworld, or death; Quetzalcoatl represents the mortal world, or life. Likewise, it is said that Xolotl's residence in the Underworld "is due to his unwillingness to die".
In contrast, despite his twin brother, Quetzalcoatl, being "fair-skinned", Xolotl himself was often times depicted as a skeleton, or an animalistic monster: a hairless, canine, or canid-human figure (based on the Mexican Hairless Dog, or Xoloitzcuintli), who walked on reversed legs and feet. Due to this, he was also the god of monsters and deformities.
Xolotl is also a "master shape-shifter" who can change his form at will. Despite being depicted as male, he also carries "feminine" energy to offset, and complement, his brother's "masculine" energy, not unlike Stanford, in comparison to Stanley, in Gravity Falls. (Or Loki, in comparison to Thor, in Norse mythology.)
Despite this, Xolotl is not an explicitly "evil" figure, as Bill is portrayed in Gravity Falls. According to Mayan and Aztec mythology, sometimes, Xolotl is depicted as sacrificing himself for the good of all (despite the legend of his "changing forms to escape death"); in others, he is depicted as, with the help of his twin brother, helping to bring humanity into existence. Xolotl is also instrumental in guiding the dead, and returning some of the dead (i.e. the Sun) to "rebirth".
Xolotl was the patron of the Mesoamerican ballgame, along with his twin brother.
Xolotl, along with Quetzalcoatl, and one other Aztec and Mayan deity, represent the planet (star) of Venus. Quetzalcoatl represents the "morning star" aspect; Xolotl represents the "evening star" aspect. They are meant to illustrate the cycle of "rebirth and death". Xolotl "returns the sun to life" each night to morning.
In Judeo-Christian mythology, Lucifer ("morning star"), sometimes regarded as one and the same with Satan (the Devil), also represents the planet (star) of Venus. Xolotl is also analogous to Hades (Pluto) in Greco-Roman mythology, with the added role of Charon, the ferryman who guides souls in Underworld; and Loki (trickster role) in Norse mythology; and, with his twin brother, Prometheus ("bringer of fire") in Greco-Roman mythology (the latter, along with Quetzalcoatl).
Last but not least:
Because of a wide spread of religious propaganda over the centuries, Lucifer is often equated with Satan or the Devil. However, they are not the same.
In Isaiah 14:12 of the King James Version of the Bible, Lucifer is described as a proud, extraterrestrial, godlike king of Babylon. He was a being who may have possessed cosmic powers, thus causing him to have supernatural abilities to dwell in the sky and in space. Lucifer also had dictatorship over the nations of the world.
Because he slayed his own people, and destroyed his land, his children and descendants were not to be renowned, rise, possess the land, or fill the face of the world with cities.
In a modern translation from the original Hebrew, the passage in which the phrase "Lucifer" or "morning star" occurs begins with the statement: "On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labour forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!"
After describing the death of the king, the taunt continues:
"How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: 'Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?'"
J. Carl Laney has pointed out that in the final verses here quoted, the king of Babylon is described, not as a god or an angel, but as a man.
Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer. The tradition, influenced by Gnosticism, usually reveres Lucifer not as the devil, but as a liberator, a guardian or guiding spirit, or even the true god, as opposed to Jehovah (God).
In Anton LaVey's The Satanic Bible, Lucifer is one of the four crown princes of hell, particularly that of the East, the 'lord of the air', and is called the bringer of light, the morning star, intellectualism, and enlightenment.
In ancient Canaanite mythology, the morning star is pictured as a god, Attar, who attempted to occupy the throne of Ba'al and, finding he was unable to do so, descended and ruled the underworld. (Wikipedia)
Likewise, the term "signs of the zodiac" has been associated with Lucifer in the New Testament.