2.  Very religious  Many gods  Represented natural phenomena and human existence

3.  Discussion Questions:  Name a religion that has only one god.  Name a religion that has more than one god.  Religions can be divided in monotheistic, and polytheistic. Which one do you think has many gods? Why? Hint: Think about poly-juice from Harry Potter.  How do you explain natural phenomena without gods?

8.  Discussion Questions:  What is the difference between phenomena and phenomenon?  What should a god of fire look like?  What other natural phenomena might a religion connect to a god?

9.  Recognize their power  Keep them happy  Build monuments/ceremonial centres  Rites  Human sacrifice  Ritual of bearing pain  Discussion questions:  In Christianity, what is a ceremonial centre?  In traditional Indigenous spiritual belief, what is a ceremonial centre?  What do you think an Aztec ceremonial centre might look like?

15.  The priests would cut out the heart  Blood would feed the gods  Without blood, the world would end  Wars were fought to gain prisoners to sacrifice

16.  As much as possible, I have taken pictures from scans of codices (singular=codex).  These are copies of books that the Aztecs wrote before contact with the Spanish.  The Spanish thought that the Aztecs books were a crime against God.  They burned everything they could.  There are no Aztec books that survived, only these copies.  They are the best pictures we’ve got.

20.  Pronounced: whets-eel-oh-Poch-tlee  Tribal god  Warlike  Encouraged Aztecs to seek Valley of Mexico  Needed blood to overcome night’s darkness  Discussion Questions:  What other god encouraged people to leave one place, wander through the desert, and settle somewhere else?  What were the people called?  How is Huitzilopochtli like Blade?

22.  Pronounced: tez-cah-tlee-POH-kah  Most powerful god  Name means “smoking mirror”  Mirror used for see visions of the future  a.k.a. Lord of the Night Sky  Eternal struggle with Huitzilopochtli  Discussion Questions:  What was the name of the most powerful of the Greek gods?  If he was the most powerful god, then why didn’t he ever win his struggle with Huitzilopochtli?

24.  God of wind  Name means “Feathered Serpent”  Priests offered him:  Flowers  Incense  Birds  Lost a fight to Tezcatlipoca  Sailed east on a snakeskin raft  Priests prophesized he would return to destroy the Aztec empire

25.  Discussion Questions:  How can you connect his name “Feathered Serpent” with his story?  Can you compare this story to another one that you know?  Hint: Think about a powerful being, or god, that was defeated, exiled, and threatened to come back to destroy a civilization.

27.  God of rain  Unleash floods or hold back rain  He was feared  Discussion Questions:  If he were a geographical feature, what would he be?  Hint: Think about holding back the rain, and causing floods.

29.  Name the four gods that we discussed.  What were they associated with?  What was the purpose of human sacrifice?  Discuss how Christianity is similar.  Hint: think about: wandering in the desert blood Sacrifice  Discuss how traditional Indigenous spirituality is similar.  Hint: Think about connections to natural phenomena.