Aztec Religion

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The creation

The Aztecs, as most highly organized civilizations, needed a religion of their own. They started forming theirs with the following myth At the beginning, Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl, the only living gods, klived in the World of Darkness where there was only darkness. They used to go for long walks n he dark, where only occasionally they could see the glare of a monster's eyes. Once Tonacacihuatl touched one of these monsters and it became a brilliant point of perfect light. Amazed by this, they started touching the monsters until the sky was full of stars. But they didn't want to be alone anymore. o they went home and created the Four Tezcatlipocas, four brothers with different colours and characteristics

The 4 Tezcatlipocas

TEZCATLIPOCA - Black

God of Night and Sorcery, also known as Smoking Mirror. The most powerful, supreme deity, associated with the notion of destiny. The god of sin and misery. His Nahual (disguise) was that of the Jaguar.

HUITZILOPOCHTLIThe Blue Tezcatlipoca

The God of war and the sun and special guardian of Tenochtitlan. It was Huitzilopochtli who sent the eagle to perch on the cactus to indicate the site of the Mexicas final resting place. His Nahual (disguise) was the hummingbird

QUETZALCOATL The White Tezcatlipoca

The god of civilization and learning, twins and monsters. He discovered corn, and all good aspects of civilization. The Aztec people thought Cortez was an incarnation of Quetzalcoatl returning from the East to retake his lands as told in legend (source). His Nahual was the quetzal bird.

XIPE TOTEC The Red Tezcatlipoca

The god of springtime, regrowth and jewelers. Also known as The Red Mirror. His Nahual was that of the Eagle.

Other important gods

TLALOC the rain god

CHALCHIUHTLICUE The goddess of running Water.

Cult

The Aztec did many things to worship their Gods. They often prayed, punctured their skin in auto-sacrifice. They even sacrificed human lives to their gods

Praying

The above gods, and many more, were praised and revered by the Aztecs as part of

Their everyday activities. Prayer was an integral part of the Aztec culture, and it was usual to pray for anything from health to success at war. Another common prayer was one for life. As odd as that sounds, it was quite logical to the Aztecs. They looked upon general as a sign that their prayers were received. They then continued to pray, with even greater zeal. The most common gods that were prayed

to were Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli. Also many of the agriculture and less important gods were prayed to.

Blood letting

The Aztecs often pricked themselves in an act of self-sacrifice. This originated from the belief that Quetzalcoatl had sprinkled blood from his penis in order to create humanity for the fifth time. The higher one was in the Aztec society, the more blood he had to give.

Sacrifices

Human sacrifices to the gods were very often in the Aztec Culture, with the most possible estimation being 0,000 victims a year. The most famous specific sacrifice took place in 1487 at the dedication of the main pyramid in Tenochtitlan. Many sources give the number of victims as 80,400. What led the Aztecs to this?

Well, the Gods requested these sacrifices to perform particular tasks, which were very important.

Huitzilopochtli needed food (human hearts) to fight the forces of dark every night and the sun could keep rising every day. He was particularly thirsty for blood. The victims were laid on their backs and held by priests, then a priest would cut open the chest with a flint knife and offer the heart to the god and the the victim was pushed down the steps of the temple.

Xipe needed sacrifices to make the earth fertile. The victim was tied to a pole and arrows were shot at them until they died. The blood pouring from the wounds was like the rain from the sky. Most sacrifices took place in his festivals because the people had more fun there. The most grotesque example is of the god Huehueteotl. Sacrificial victims were drugged and then thrown into a fire at the top of the ceremonial platform. Before the fire killed them, they were dragged out with hooks and their living hearts were pulled out and thrown back into the fire.

Most of the times the Aztecs ate the limps of their victims. This may seem disgusting to us but for them it was a normal thing to do. The elite of the Aztecs and the capturer of the victim ate the bodies. The victims were prisoners of war from other tribes. The commoners were not allowed to eat human flesh. This was an incentive for the Aztecs to fight better and capture enemies, so they could eat them afterwards. Some tribes, which the Aztecs captured, were left to live in relative freedom, so the Aztecs didn't have to kill their own people. People at that time did not breed anything for meat, only a limited number of turkeys. So it was important that the royals had a complete diet, and it was a very strong incentive for the people to conquer other tribes.

The Sacrificial Temples

The emperor thought that a special temple should be built for the sacrifices so, the Aztecs built the Sacrificial Temple. The cities of the Aztec empire always wanted to make their sacrificial temple better than any other cities. They decided not to destroy the old temple, but to build over it! They made temples larger, more extravagant, and more pleasing to the eye with each new layer. In addition, the temples had more steps, more decorations, and a larger sacrificial area. These temples look a lot like the great Egyptian pyramids except they do not have a pointed top. In a rare find, archaeologists found a temple, which was built over six times! Each new temple was more magnificent than the others. Other additions are little figures at the ends of the staircases, which look like dragons. They are called stone serpents heads and there is no clear reason as to why they were placed there. They could have been built for decoration, or, as a greeting for the gods, or, to ward off evil spirits.

The legend of the five suns

The Aztecs believed that from the beginning of time, 5 suns have been created by the gods. $ of them had been destroyed and we are now living in the era of the fifth sun. The table below gives information about the suns

Sun By whom was it created How it was destroyed

First By Tezcatlipoca By Jaguars

Second By Quetzalcoatl Hurricanes

Third By Tlaloc Rain of Fire

Fourth Chalchiuhtlicue Water floods

Fifth All of the gods(Nanahuatzin became the sun)

Not yet destroyed-our current sun. Will be destroyed by earthquakes

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