What were the Aztecs religious beliefs?
Fear of the nature and fear of the apocalypse were the main preoccupations of the Aztec religion. Aztec religion also focused on the interconnection of gods, humans and nature, with a strong emphasis on the worship of Huitzilopochtli.
Cosmology and Ritual
The Aztec believed the world to be consisted of three main parts: the earth world on which humans lived, an underworld which belonged to the dead and the upper plane in the sky. The earth and the underworld were both open for humans to enter, whereas the upper plane in the sky, of 13 layers, was impenetrable.
The sun was believed to dwell in the underworld at night to rise reborn in the morning, and so the human and divine existence was envisioned as being cyclical. In ancient Aztec religion, the afterlife of a person depended mostly on how they died. Some, such as those sacrificed to Huitzilopochtli, would join the battle against the darkness. Others would be, for a time, disembodied spirits roaming the earth to eventually be reincarnated as birds or butterflies and eventually humans. Most, at some point, would have to make the long journey through the nine levels of the underworld inhabited by different deities and mythical beings. Many would be buried in a squatting position, with items that would help them in their journey. The Aztec underworld was called ‘Mictlan’ ("place of death").The Aztec idea of the afterlife for fallen warriors and women who died in childbirth was that their souls would be transformed into hummingbirds that would follow the sun on its journey through the sky. Souls of people who died from less glorious causes would go to Mictlan - place of the dead. Those who drowned would go to Tlalocan. The largest of the Aztec festivals was the Xiuhmolpilli, which meant "new fire". It was held once every 52 years in order to prevent the world coming to an end. The Aztecs believed they were living under the fifth, or final, sun. They feared the day when the fifth sun would die and the world would come to an end. |
Creation
According to ancient Aztec religion, there were five attempts made by the gods in creating the world. These attempts were hindered due to infighting among the gods themselves. After the first creator, Tezcatlipoca, was dispossessed from his exalted position by rivals, he transformed into a jaguar and destroyed the world. Under similar circumstances, the world was created and then destroyed with wind, and then two floods.
Each time the creator-gods would interchange roles as being the sun. Eventually, the gods had a council, and decided one of them would have to sacrifice himself to be the new sun. Nanauatl, a humble god became the sun, although there was a concern, he was not moving. The gods concluded that they were each required to sacrifice themselves in order for humans to live. The god Ehecatl sacrificed the others, and a mighty wind arose to move the sun at last. However, the world remained in a precarious position, not only would the people have to help this weak sun to keep moving, they would also be responsible to repay the sacrifice. Quetzalcoatl, meaning feathered serpent, would revive the humans as they had been created several times before in the attempts of creating the world. Quetzalcoatl descended into the underworld to retrieve their bones. He tripped as he fled, and the bones shattered into different sized pieces, hence why people vary in sizes. By adding his own blood to the mix, people came to life. The Aztec peoples believed the conqueror Hernan Cortes to be the god-hero Quetzalcoatl, who had been banished. Above: Human sacrifice to the sun god Huitzilopochtli Below: Mictlan (Place of death) |