Rituals
The ancient aztec religion was based solely around pleasing their gods and gaining rewards in return for this. The aztec people believed that in order to sustain the smooth running of the universe, they needed to offer human blood to the gods. They believed that the sun would not rise each day without the offering of blood. The main way in which they would do this was through an ancient ritual whereby the human sacrifice would be taken to the top of a temple and laid backwards over a stone by four priests. A fifth priest would then take a ceremonial knife, made of flint stone and slice open the abdomen of the sacrifice, through their exposed diaphragm. The priest would then grab the heart and tear it out of the body, still beating, and place it in a bowl held by a statue of the honoured god. The body would then be thrown down the temple stairs, landing at the base of the pyramid. Whilst this ritual took place, the audience to the ceremony would stab, pierce and bleed themselves as a means of auto-sacrifice, therefore further worship to the gods was obtained. The Aztecs were one of the first organised civilisations to practice these rituals; so that is why their meaning of life is seen as a rather primitive and extreme belief system.
Another important aspect of Aztec ritual was the impersonation of deities. Priests or otherwise specially elected individuals would be dressed up to represent a specific deity. A person with the honourable charge of impersonating a god was called "ixiptlatli" and was regarded as an actual physical depiction of the god until the inevitable end when the god's likeness had to be killed as the ultimate sacrifice under great circumstance and festivities.
As with the impersonation of gods, Aztec ritual was often a reenactment of a mythical event which at once served to remind the Aztecs of their myths but also served to preserve the world by repeating the important events of the creation.
Another important aspect of Aztec ritual was the impersonation of deities. Priests or otherwise specially elected individuals would be dressed up to represent a specific deity. A person with the honourable charge of impersonating a god was called "ixiptlatli" and was regarded as an actual physical depiction of the god until the inevitable end when the god's likeness had to be killed as the ultimate sacrifice under great circumstance and festivities.
As with the impersonation of gods, Aztec ritual was often a reenactment of a mythical event which at once served to remind the Aztecs of their myths but also served to preserve the world by repeating the important events of the creation.