Aztec Religion
The Aztec Empire stretched throughout North America, which is now today modern-day southern Mexico. The Empire’s power was at its peek around the 1400’s and 1500’s, which lead to a rise in their culture and most importantly, their religion. The Aztecs were well known for being religiously united in every inch of the Empire’s boundaries (The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 1). In 1520, the Spanish explorer named Hernando Cortez landed on Mexico’s shores. He had heard a little about an empire growing in the area, and he had set out to colonize it. As soon as Cortez had made contact with the Aztecs, he quickly defeated their army and destroyed their empire (Aztec Religion, 1)
The Aztec’s religion commonly revolved around death and other death related topics. They performed many death rituals, funerals, prayers for the dead, and even human sacrifice. They believed that each human’s soul has an afterlife, and the destiny of the soul was determined by the social status and religious faith of that person. The Aztecs highly believed in the necessary balance of the forces of nature for a successful harvest, new discoveries in medicine, and any other important practices in the Aztec Empire. In order for that balance to be achieved, they believed that it required human blood. "To the Aztec, cosmic balance and therefore life would not be possible without offering sacrificial blood to forces of life and fertility, such as the sun, rain, and the earth... Aside from sacrificial offerings, death itself was also a means of feeding and balancing cosmic forces... scenes illustrate burial as an act of the feeding the earth" (The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 1).
The Aztecs regarded the deceit with the utmost importance in their religion. They had many different rituals and practices that dealt with the dead, each which has its own meaning. People who died of an illness or old age were regarded poorly in the Aztec religion. They were wrapped clothing and paper vestments to prepare them for their journey ahead to the underworld. They would also sacrifice a dog to be buried with the citizen that died of illness because thee Aztecs believed that dogs were guides to Mictlan, the hellish underworld. Mictlan was hell, a place of no escape, and eternal misery. Citizens that died of old age or illness were seen as cowards or unfaithful to their religion, therefore they were punished in their afterlife (The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 1).
Aztecs who died from a sudden, unforeseeable, or very agonizing cause were treated with more respect than others in death rituals. Some examples of these types of causes may be: died a lightning bolt, drowning, or a very contagious and deadly disease at a young age. These deceit bodies were rapped with clothing with pictures or symbols of the god Tlaloc and blessed for their journey to Tlalocan. Tlalocan is a sanctuary for souls in the afterlife to be with the god of rain and water, Tlaloc. Tlalocan is a place of eternal, abundance in happiness and wealth. The Aztec religion believed that those who died of a sufferable and sudden death deserved to have a good afterlife (The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 1).
Finally Aztecs lords, warriors that died in battle, or citizen that were killed in a human sacrifice are awarded with the highest honor in the afterlife. Human sacrifices were largely directed towards the sun god Tonalith. In an Aztec myth Tonalith was born into power by sacrificing himself into a fire. Afterwards, he was rewarded for his bravery and became the sun god. Thus, it is fitting that those who died in human sacrifice are sent to the most heavenly sanctuary possible, in which resides the god Tonalith. Warriors, lords, and human sacrifices are greeted at the highest heaven called the Celestial Paradise by female warriors. In the Aztec culture, females that die due to giving birth to a baby are viewed as a different kind of warrior because of the great pain they endured while laboring (Aztec Religion, 1).
Every year the Aztecs have a two-month-back-to-back religious ceremony for their dead ancestors and each month is a different ceremony. The first month of ceremony is to honor any Aztecs that died as children and the second month was to honor the others that died as adults. During the second month of ceremony, the Aztecs’ ceremony emphasizes on praying to the deceit warriors that protected their kingdom.
In addition to maintaining balance in nature, a large portion of Aztec religion was focused to avoid destruction of all kinds. The majority of the ceremonies they conducted were in order to please the dead spirits and the gods so that they would not wreak havoc upon them. They divided their entire history into five eras, each of which predicts a certain kind of destruction. So far the Aztecs believe that they have avoided the destruction of the other four eras through multiple rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices. But the fifth era, present day, is predicted to be the end of the world. They believe that it will end with thousands and thousands of earthquakes and eventually time itself will stop (Aztec Religion, 1).
By: Elliot Rosen