History Online - Ancient Aztecs

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Ancient Aztecs

Aztec Religion



Every 52 years fires were put out, cooking implements, hearthstones, and idols were thrown out of the house, individual blood sacrifices were performed and a human sacrifice was performed by priests personifying the deities in a cosmological attempt to renew the universe, avoid darkness and avoid celestial monsters coming down to eat all humans (Berdan 1982:119). The cyclical conception of time, mythological foundation of rituals, and "active, rather than passive, posture in relating to the supernatural" and preserving the universe were typically Aztec ( Id.). Human fate was influenced by actively performing rituals, and omens, divination, and astrology were important (Id. at 120).

Deities were plentiful, diverse, and like Aztec society were arranged hierarchically. The majority were anthropomorphic or human-like (Id. at 124). Space was also hierarchically ordered in horizontal and vertical dimensions (Id. at 122-3). There were five directions (which included the center) and 13 tiers above the earthe and 9 below (Id.). Ometecutli ("Lord of Duality") and Omecihuatl ("Lady of Duality") initially created all life and produced four sons named Tezcatlipoca who represented different cardinal directions and who were associated with different colors. Two of the sons, Quetzacoatl and Huitzilopochtli created fire, the first humans, the calendar, the underworld and its gods, the heavens, water and its gods, and the earth (Id. at 120) . Four ages, periods, or "suns" of 2028 years ensued and were terminated with cataclysms. Different humans in each period were destroyed or transformed. In the fifth or current "sun" Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl recreated heaven, earth, and the inhabitants (Id. at 121). Some deities required human blood for nourishment such as Tonatiuh, the sun god, and Huitzilopochtli, patron of the Mexica, and so war to obtain captives was undertaken and blood sacrifices including heart extraction were performed (Id. at 128).

Maya-like murals have been found that indicate blood sacrifices related to religious beliefs as well as battle murals. The Codex Mendoza is an example of a codex that survived the book burning of the Spaniards.

As in the other Mesoamerican societies, religion served to give authority to the rulers and elites, justify war, and provided social unity.

The desire to obtain captives for human sacrifice justified expansion of the Aztec state and eventually led to the downfall of the Aztecs who made many enemies among the people they subjugated. One controversial theory also holds that the Aztecs misinterpreted the appearance of the Spaniards in mythico-religious terms, thinking they fit descriptions in mythology, and the Emperor’s belief in the appearance of a comet as a bad omen signaling the fate of the Aztec empire, also probably did not contribute to an early spirit of resistance to the conquistadors. Religion and the priestly class were thus intertwined with the political, military, and economic institutions that led to both the rise and fall of the Aztec empire.

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