Aztecs
Location:
Cosmology:
Creation began
with two deities: Omerecuhtli (Lord of Duality) and Omecihuatl (Lady of
Duality) who then had four sons Xipe Totec, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and
Huitzilopochtli. Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtil then created the world with
fire and a half-sun being first, then the first man and woman, then the lord
and lady of the underworld, then the calendar, then the heavens, waters, and
land, and then Tlaloc(rain god) and his wife. The Aztecs also believe
that there were four ages before this one, each with its own sun: the Jaguar
Sun, the Wind Sun, the Rain Sun, the Water Sun, and the Earthquake Sun. The
name of each sun names what would or did destroy that age. Sacrifices of hearts
and blood are used to nourish the sun. They also believed in there being nine
levels of the underworld that the soul had to go through: river, clashing high
mountains, obsidian mountain, icy winds, flapping flags, arrows, ferocious
beasts, narrow passages between hard rocks, and darkness and rest. They
believed in many gods and each had a certain thing that he/she controlled and
looked after.
Sacred Symbols:
The only sacred
symbols that the Aztecs use are the symbols used to tell the dates on their
sacred calendar. It is a 260-day calendar called tonalpohualli and consists of
two parallel and interlocking cycles. One cycle has 20 days (day signs) and the
other has 13 days (coefficients). A date in the calendar has one day sign and
one coefficient. The Aztecs had two other calendars but they were not sacred
and not a commonly used. These are the day signs:
Sacred Locations:
Aztec sacred
locations were their temples though sometimes they had entire cities dedicated
to religious activities. They called them Teocalli (God houses). The priests
went there to worship and pray and make sacrifices. The temples were commonly
giant pyramids with stairs on one side and a flat top. One of these temples is
the Templo Mayor with was built to honor Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. It was the
main temple of their capital city and had two shrines on top. Human sacrifices
were the most common rituals done at this temple.
Major Gods:
The biggest major
gods were Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl who were the parents of a lot of the other
major gods. The represented the primordial forces of nature and duality. The
next major god is Quetzalcoatl who was believed to be the creator of the humans
though he was not the first. He simply recreated the humans each time an age
ended and a new one began. He is represented be a feathered serpent. The next
god is Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird of the South/Left) who was a warrior sun
god. Many human sacrifices were made to him to help him fight the darkness and
wars were fought with other peoples especially for their need to capture
sacrifices. He was the most revered of the Aztecs. The next god is Xipe Totec
(Flayed one) who was the god of the seasons and growing things and the patron
of the gold workers. He was believed to have flayed himself to give humans food
so sacrifices to him were flayed as well. The last major god was Tláloc who was
the god of rain and water. He often had goggle eyes, fangs, and a curled nose.
Children sacrifices were made to him since it was believed that children tears
brought rain.
Totems:
The Aztecs used
art to pay tribute to their gods through pottery, sculptures, pictographs,
masks, and warrior art.
Fetishes:
The Aztecs got
their protection from their sacrifices. The sacrifices were done to both please
and replenish the gods. Anyone could give blood but there were different
processes for each god for the sacrifices. For the maize goddess, young girls
were decapitated. For the fire god, people were scorched then sacrifices. Every
sacrifice had a purpose and was needed for the god to live. Victims were
usually chosen a long time in advance and it was estimated that the Aztecs
sacrificed 10,000 to 50,000 people a year.
Taboos:
The Aztecs had
many taboos but the most they had were for pregnant women. Pregnant women were
forbidden to lift heavy objects, take excessive sweat-baths, engage in
excessive sex (fetus would be glued to the womb), and have abortions since
pregnancy was seen as a favor from the gods. The women were told not to go out
at night without spreading ash, a pebble, or wormwood on her chest so women
that died in childbirth would not haunt her child. They also should not look at
a hanged person (fetus would be strangled by umbilical cord), should not look
at an eclipse or rising moon (child would become hair-lipped), and in the last
months she was not allowed to sleep during the day or look at anything
frightening, offending, or red. There were also some for children like if you
one-stepped over a child you had to step backward over them or their growth
would be stunted.
Role of Shaman:
The priests were
treated as nobles but their lives were stressful and hard. They had to watch
the planets and stars to prophesize and sound the time, keep track of the
eclipses and other events, name certain constellations, read the calendar,
divine the incantations to the gods and horoscopes, divine horoscopes for newborns,
check the horoscopes of engaged couples, make offerings and sacrifices to the
gods, sacrifice victims on the sacrificial stone, and draw blood. The
priestesses had many of these responsibilities as well.
Rituals:
Two Aztec rituals
were the New Fire Ceremony and the Etzalqualiztli. The New Fire Ceremony
occurred every 52 years and was their most important ritual since if it failed,
the fifth age would end and everything would die. Every fire was put out and
everyone would climb to the roof of their houses. The priests would dress as
deities and climb the sacred mountain, Uixachtlan and make a sacrifice. After
they removed the heart of the person they would light a fire in the chest and then
light torches that would light every school, temple, and house. Etzalqualiztli
begins with the priests going to Citlaltepec for reeds that they then use to
decorate the temple. People avoided them while they were on their way back to
the temple because they had a right to rob you of everything you had if you
were caught by the priest. On this day the priests would beat any servant that
did something wrong at the edge of the lake. This ritual was performed for the
god Tlaloc to try to bring more rain and a better harvest.
Art:
I don't know why it does that. Sorry
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