Religion in Aztec Civilization Essay Sample

Has anyone ever described to you the appalling brutality involved with sacrificial rituals? If not, in case you were wondering, the Aztec tribe fully handed their life and soul to their religion. Thus, explaining their devotion and willingness to voluntarily give their souls away. Just in case that wasn’t enough for you to stop reading now, I will give you the gory details on their most prized possession. Aztec priests would use razor-sharp obsidian blades and slowly slice open the chests of the sacrificial victims, and hand over their beating hearts to the gods. Then, they would throw the victim’s deceased bodies down the steps of the Templo Mayor. This glorified practice summed up the entirety of their tribe, as their  adoration for their religion was so strong and powerful, nothing could break that bond.

The Aztec people were a Native American group who controlled Northern Mexico during the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. This group eventually settled on numerous small islands in Lake Texcoco, to where they later founded the town the Tenochtitlan, to which is modern day Mexico. The Aztec peoples' lives were filled with prayer and holy matrimony, which allowed them to further pursue the idea of rituals. Sacred rituals served to strengthen and stabilize social order within the Aztec tribe, and to further create an all inclusive set of values.

Religion was an exceedingly crucial principle to the Aztec tribe, and their ceremonies deeply installed an overall set of values. The vast majority of their society was built and based on religious ethics, and practices. The foundation of their religion was based on the idea of human sacrifice, as a form to repent their sins to the gods. A central part of Aztec religion was the implementation of gods, this civilization heavily relied on the gods as a form of light and a pathway through life. Human sacrifice served numerous purposes within the expanding Aztec empire. They  carried out exquisite ceremonies involving, feasting, dancing, along with singing of ritual songs involving drums, flutes, whistles, and other wooden instruments. Each ceremony was preceded by a period of multiple days of ritual fastings. The participants were required to eat only one unseasoned meal per day, and to abstain from sexual natuered acts and bathing. A specific ceremony they participated in was the New Fire Ceremony. This ceremony was a ritual celebrated every 52 years when the 260- day ritual and 365-day civil calendars returned to the same positions. The Aztecs heavily prepped for all ceremonies, especially the New Fire Ceremony, as it allowed a rebirth for the rest of their peoples. Preparation for this ceremony began by extinguishing any fires of all kinds, including temples, and household hearths. Following that, an intensive cleaning scheme was undertaken with the streets being swept. Old hearth stones were thrown out, in conjunction with old cooking utensils, old clothing, and even Aztec idols were ceremoniously bathed and cleansed.  The purpose of this ceremony was none other than to renew the sun and ensure another 52-year cycle. The New Fire Ceremony was the most important event in their religious calendar as, if the ceremony failed, then it would lead to the destruction and downfall of the Aztec civilization. 

Priests played a highly influential role in all aspects of Aztec society. The priests were very sacred and important to the Aztec people, these priests held many responsibilities religiously, and socially. Their lives were filled with prayer, pain, and forgiveness. A priest acts as a role model, or teacher of religion, director at festivals, or acts as a living breathing translator for the gods. The priestly class not only were accountable for the state religion and numerous festivals and rituals, but also ran the state education system. A priest was considered as a ‘living god’ to the Aztec people as they not only acted as a translator for the gods, but were able to use hieroglyphics to record them. At the highest point of the religious hierarchy was the living king himself endorsed by two high-priests. Quetzalocoatl totec tlamacazqui, in charge of the Huitzilopochtli cult, and Quetxacoatl tlaloc tlamaczqui, the head of the cult to the rain god Tlaloc. Specifically in preparation for the New Fire Ceremony, all sacred along with domestic fires were allowed to burn out. At the pinnacle of the ceremony, the priests ignited a new sacred fire on one of the breasts of the victim. Thus, the rest of the Aztec people rekindled their hearth fires, allowing the people to begin feasting. Aztec rituals carried profound depth and strong ideologies that highly influenced their fixated behaviorisms. 

Aztec beliefs and ideologies were crucial to their overall polythestitic society. The Aztecs' social structure was built on a syncretistic religion, meaning they were able to absorb elements from other mesoamerican cultures. They also shared deepend  cosmological beliefs with other civilizations, like the Maya. They had numerous beliefs and ideologies that led and contributed to their dominated views on religion. Their ideologies is what led this civilization to partake in the repenting of their sins to a sacrificial higher self. In relation to Aztec cosmology, the god of sun, Huitzilopochtli was waging a never ending war against darkness, and if that darkness won, the world would then end. They kept the sun moving across the sky and preserved their lives, part of the ritual element, as the Aztecs had to feed the god Huitzilopchitli within human hearts and blood.

Furthermore, by removing the hearts of victims, and pouring the blood on the temple altars, they also practiced another form of repentance, that being cannibalism. Inmuarble captured soilders, slaves, and Aztec people willing gave themselfs to the sacrificial reforms. Giving your heart to Huitzilopchtli was a monumental honor and gave the chosen ones a guaranteed ticket to a heavy afterlife. The sacrificial openness to the sun and the moon god. Another common belief was that the universe was unstable, and that death and destruction continually threatened it. The other ideology dramatized  the oblijation of the sacrifice of the gods. Due to  Quetzalćoatl’s self-sacrifice, the ancient bones of Mictlan, “the place of death” gave foundation and birth to men. Following that same aspect, the sun and moon were created. The gods, congregating in the darkness at Teotichuacán, built an enormous fire both Nanahuatzin, a small deity covered with ulcers, and Tecciztécaatl, a bejeweled god. Both deities threw themselves into the flames,  to which the former assembled as the sun and the latter as the moon. The sun refused to move unless one of the gods gave him their blood, they were pressured to sacrifice themselves to further then feed the sun. The Aztecs had deep rooted religious values that led to their strong introspection within sacrificial rituals.

Rituals served a grand purpose within the Aztec society, particularly providing stability within social orders. The Aztecs lived in a classist society, where different members in society were viewed at varied  social statuses. Aztec society  followed a strict hierarchy and their community was divided into diverse classes. Their society was made of eight different social classes made up of rulers, warriors, nobility, priests and priestesses, free poor, slaves, servants, and the middle class. The noble class was made up of government personnel, military leaders, high level priests, and lords. The nobility governed the main positions in the military, for instance, state administration, judiciary, and priesthood. While traders could become extremely wealthy and powerful, even their prosperity was based on their class, and most citizens retained simple farmer jobs.  Aztec rituals provided security, and shielded them from the views of the outside world. In times of loss, disconnection, and depression rituals offered them power from within. Rituals provided an outlet for expression, stability, meditation resources, and emotional support. Most significantly, rituals create a sense of community within the tribe. Specifically, all the tribe members have something in common, they all share the common  emotion of love. The  Aztec peoples' love was so sacred, they would sacrifice their most prized possession. For instance the people of  communities would often sacrifice their children to the gods, as a form of bringing connection with one another on a more diverse level. Intermittently, children were sacrificed to the maize gods in the months of February and April. Oftentimes, children were drowned as a sacrifice to Tlaloc, the rain god. This form of sacrifice was unquestionably one of the most significant sacrifices which took place in the Aztec communal tribes.  This aspect created  a sense of community, and  thus a stronger foundation of connectedness, as this was something most of the tribe shared they could indulge in the religious experience together. 

It is clear that the Aztecs ritualistic ceremonies have evidently been proven to strengthen their social hierarchy and societal conscience. Their constant form of repent through the embodiment of rituals and ceremonies deemed to prove their emotional connection between them and their religion. The Aztecs' introspection into their ideologies, beliefs, and mindset led to creating an inclusive shared mindset within the tribes peoples. Particularly, their forms of ideologies created the idea of monumental Gods, that all of their people could follow and praise as a whole. Most importantly, not only did their rituals provide sactunity and peacefulness at hand of the community, but they gave society hierarchy and forms of power.