Aztec Religion

The religion at the Aztèques is mainly astral and is characterized by a unlimited Polythéisme. It is indeed about a strictly functionalist religion i.e. the gods, dedicated to the conservation of the world, are assigned to precise spots of assistance to the men. However, there exists a worship dominating, that of the god Sun, Huitzilopochtli. The Aztèques are considered indeed as the elected people of the Sun charged to ensure walk of it by nourishing it. This feeling is reinforced by the social and religious reform of Tlacaelel under the reign of the emperors Itzcoatl, Moctezuma I {{er}} and Axayacatl in the middle of the 15th century. The Mythe of the creation of the world at the Aztec ones clarifies this idea.

Aztec Cosmogony

According to this myth, at the beginning of the world, all was black, without life, dead. The gods met in Teotihuacan by putting the question of which would have the responsibility of light the world. Two gods propose their candidature then one of them, called Tecciztecatl (that of the conche), moves back in front of the blazing inferno where it was necessary to be thrown: it became the the Moon. The second, a small humble and poor god called Nanahuatl (the bubonneux one), undoubtedly is necessary it to see there a metaphor of the Aztec people at his beginnings, throws himself without hesitating in the blazing inferno and becomes the Sun. But the two stars remain inert in the sky it is essential to nourish them. Then the other gods decide to sacrifice and give the “invaluable water” (chalchiuatl) which is necessary, namely blood. The men are constrained consequently to reiterate the original divine sacrifice eternally.

Aztec gods

Tonatiuh: god sun

Tlaloc: god of the rain

Huizipochtli: god of the war

Tezcatlipoca: god of the night and the war

Quetzalcoatl: god of the civilized man

Tititl: god of the short days

Xochiquetzal: goddess of the love and the flowers

Chantico: goddess associated with the lord with deaths, like the god of fire Chicomecoat Tlazolteotl: goddess who gave fished dying men Coatlicue: mother of the Gods

Uixtocihualtiouh: goddess of salt

Xochipilli: god of the beauty, the love, the flowers of the festivals and the music

Yacatecuhtli: god commercial

Xipe Totec: god of the vegetation

Ehecatl: god of the wind

Atlaua: primitive god of the Mexicans

Centeotl: god of but

Chalchihuitlicue: partner of Tlaloc, goddess of the rivers, lakes and rivers

Chihuacoatl: goddess of the ground

Coyaulxauhqui: goddess of the night

Ometeotl: father of the men

Xutexulte: god of fishing

Xolotl: twin of Quetzalcoatl

Macuilxochtl: god of adolescence

Xilonen: goddess of adolescence

Mayavel: god of the sisal plant

Coyolxauhlqui: goddess of the moon

Sacrifices

This blood, they are primarily prisoners of war who provide it, sometimes in great quantity as for the advent of Ahuitzotl where undoubtedly several thousands of prisoners are sacrificed. That explains the perpetual wars of the successive sovereigns, impressing it “river of blood” in which the populations subjected to the Aztec ones bathe. The forms of Sacrifice S are varied - hangings, cremation - but the most frequent form is the wrenching of the heart on a still alive victim on the stone of the sacrifice (a stone 2,5 meters in diameter on 70 cm thickness with a depression in its medium at the place where were placed the human hearts). More surprising is until the many Aztec ones are also voluntary because according to their Croyance the life which waits them in the other world depends not on their actions on ground but of their demise and two dead the most glorious is the sacrifice or death with the combat.

Human sacrifice described by Aztec: The Indian took his small load of the gifts that the knights of the sun took along, as well as the stick and the shield, and started to go up step by step to the top of the temple, which represented the race of the sun of is in west. When it reached the top and was drawn up in the center of the large solar stone, which was there to indicate midday, the sacrificateurs arrived and sacrificed to it, by opening to him the chest by the medium with a flint knife. One left the heart to him and one offered it to the sun, by throwing blood towards him. After, to represent the descent of the sun towards the west, they let roll the corpse to the bottom of the steps.

Assimilation of foreign gods

The multiple forms of sacrifices correspond to various gods, of which most powerful and more assoiffé of blood is Huitzilopochtli. Indeed the Aztec religion assimilates all the gods of the overcome people which enter the Pantheon of the winners. Either its personality is in agreement and coincides with that of the one their gods or they return a worship in a reserved temple to him to these foreign gods.

Clergy

Priests, which exerted the authority when the Aztec ones were people migrating, see this one being reduced with the profit of the warlike aristocracy but they remain exempted taxes. Moreover their number with tendency to increase in the last years of the empire. With the head of the clergy one finds the priests of the two gods, Huitzilopochtli, the tribal god of the Aztèques and Tlaloc, the god of the rain.

See too

Human sacrifice described by Aztec:

The Indian took his small load of the gifts which the knights of the sun took along, as well as the stick and the shield, and started to go up step by step to the top of the temple, which represented the race of the sun of is in west. When it reached the top and drew up themselves in the center of the large solar stone, which was there to indicate midday, the sacrificateurs arrived and sacrificed to it, by opening to him the chest by the medium with an obsidian knife. One left the heart to him and one offered it to the sun, by throwing blood towards him. After, to represent the descent of the sun towards the west, they let roll the corpse to the bottom of the steps.

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