Aztec

Origins of the Universe Their creation story is that the dual God Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl created itself. This God then had 4 children which came to represent the 4 directions north, south, east and west. This God represents good and bad, chaos and order and male and female. These 4 Gods began to create water and other Gods.

Origins of the Universe The four God’s created a sea monster called Cipactli. While the God’s were creating the world, creations would fall into the sea and be eaten by Cipactli. The four God’s defeated the creature and pulled it in four directions. From this the universe was created. All the 13 heavens stretched into her head. The earth was created in the middle, and her tail reaches down to the underworld.

Principal Beliefs Aztec beliefs were based in their perception of nature, its time space, and cycles. The beliefs were varied and vast. They believed in heaven and hell, in fact they believed in multiple heavens and hells. They believed that the sun wrestled with darkness each night.

Afterlife Their belief in the afterlife was strong. Their belief was that how you died depended on where you went. For example; If an individual died in a war, they would immediately go to the sun God. If an individual died for a reason that was no specified, they would have to travel through the underworld before reaching the resting place of the dead.

Supernatural powers and deities The Aztecs worshipped nearly 1000 God’s. The most prominent of the Gods was the sun God. The Aztec’s praised their Gods extensively. They would sacrifice tens of thousands of people to please the Gods. One of the most celebrated religious days is the O’Nothing Day where priests would get dressed up as the Gods and go to an extinct volcano and perform human sacrifices.

Aztec Gods Aztec rulers were seen as the embodiment of the Aztec Gods. The three main Gods were Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca. Other Gods include; Atlacoya -- goddess of drought # Chiconahui – a domestic fertility goddess # Citlalicue – a creator of the stars # Cipactonal – god of astrology, sorcery (witchcraft) # Oxomoco – goddess of astrology # Xochiquezal – goddess of female sexuality, prostitutes, pleasure # Patecatl – god of healing and creator of peyote (a hallucinogenic)

Aztec Rituals Each ritual and ceremony helps the Aztecs come closer to the Gods. If rituals aren’t done properly then direct consequences will be enforced. Some rituals include human sacrifices, tongue piercing

fhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvGngrBIkRw Human Sacrifice

Human Sacrifice The process starts with a priest cutting the persons chest and taking out their heart. They put the heart in a vessel and hoped that it please the Gods and that the world would keep on going.

Tongue Piercings Tongue piercings was a traditional Aztec and Mayan ritual The priests would pierce tongues then they would draw blood from it or pass rough cords through the hole to inflict pain This was done to honour the Gods

Influence on the society Cultural and political aspects of Aztecs society is based around their religious rituals Their ruling class was based on both ability and birth, a legal system and a strong moral code that gave great importance to family and community life There are 2 major aspects to the Aztec life cycle

The first, is that they developed sophisticated methods of agriculture They believe that the Gods could ensure them a plentiful harvest if they performed rituals The second, is that they were warring people, seeking victims to sacrifice to their blood-hungry gods. Warriors were among the elite of Aztec society Eagle warriors were adorned with feathers and Jaguar warriors wore the skin of ocelots

The human search for meaning Their religious beliefs justified war and provided unity to their society Religion dominated politics and therefore determined their economy There was a lot of human sacrificing going on so then they had to make sure that they could expand on their empire

fhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-XgOR0pbA Aztecs and their music