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- [00:00]
Host
20,000 people a year were sacrificed in some way by the Aztecs. The Aztecs believed that the gods played a part in everything. According to Aztec mythology, the gods had endured immense suffering and even sacrificed themselves to create the world. Teloke was particularly worshiped during specific months in the Aztec solar calendar. To gain his favor and appease him, it required offerings that were a little bit more sinister. The tears of children. As the crops dried up and the threat of famine grew, Aztec priest would declare that Tayloch required a sacrifice to quench the thirst for moisture. The children would be led into a process adorned with flowers and garments and celebrated not as victims, but as saviors. The more the child was scared or terrified that the more pleased Tailock would be and thus more generous he would be with his reigns. How did these sacrifices actually happen? Why would they eat someone from another tribe? One victim would be chosen and the Aztec priest would remove the heart. So let's find out if that's true. What's up everybody? And welcome back to Religion Camp. That's right, this is the show where I explain the most interesting, controversial and mysterious stories from all the religions from around the world. That's right. And today we're going to central Mesoamerica. I think. I don't even really know what meso is. I'm assuming that's just like south west United States, but all the way into Central and South America to talk about the Aztecs and their ancient sacrificial rituals. Now, a couple things before we start. One, there might be a little bit of noise. They're doing some construction nearby. And who knows, maybe that's the Aztec gods telling us to shut up. So if you hear that, pay it no mind. Secondly, when it comes to the Aztecs, it's quite an interesting thing. I just want to preface this by saying some people have disputed the numbers of Aztec sacrifices for a couple reasons. It's interesting. One, some people believe it's a small minority, that the Aztecs never really sacrificed anyone. No one really believes that, but I've seen that theory floated on the Internet. Now some people believe that the number of people that were sacrificed by the Aztecs and other sort of indigenous Central American civilizations are inflated. Some people believe it was done by the Jesuits and the, you know, conquistors that came in trying to paint these people as savages. Other people believe that it was potentially done by the Aztecs themselves as a way to intimidate their enemies, that they were, you know, fluffing their own numbers perhaps. So I just want to Preface that. That no one really knows the exact number, but we'll talk about a little bit more of that later. So in the world of the Aztecs and many of these Central American, South American tribal groups, the gods ruled supreme. Yeah, they didn't wear supreme, but they ruled it. And the line between life and death was, you know, it was malleable. Sounds crazy. I know. I watched the Road to El Dorado as a kid, and that's kind of really what inspired this whole thing. It was really a sexual awakening for me. Chell was just an absolute piece. Chris says. You ever saw Chell? I know.
- [02:58]
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Chael Sunday.
- [02:59]
Host
That's not Chelsana. That's not who I'm talking about. So now, if you're transported back in time to the heart of the Aztec empire, every aspect of your existence would be woven into this sort of tapestry of divine influence and cosmic balance. So let's go all the way back, shall we, into our time machine. You wake up, you're in your adobe home. You're surrounded by the bustling streets of Tenochtitlan, the great Aztec capital. And as you step outside, you're struck with this overwhelming presence of the gods. The Aztecs believe that the gods played a part in everything. The air you breathe, the ground beneath your feet, and even the beating of your own heart. They saw all of these as gifts from the divine. But the gods were distant. Despite being all around us and, you know, responsible for all of our existences, there were these unknowable entities that played this active role, and their moods and decisions could mean the difference between, you know, having an amazing city with hundreds of thousands of people and utter destruction and famine and death. So as a result, you had a terrifying responsibility, basically, that all of your actions and the way you behaved as a civilization could lead to the, you know, benefit or the destruction of your entire community. Everything from the rain that waters the corn to the sun that, you know, nourishes it to the soil that supports it, are all under the control of various deities. And people would, you know, whisper a prayer to the rain gods, for example, that planted the seeds, hoping that they would bless them with just the amount of. Of right rainfall. Too little spamming for everyone, too much, and it's floods that would destroy everyone that they knew. So in the Aztec worldview, they had, you know, this concept of a divine debt. This is not just a philosophical idea. You know, in many religions today, we have this idea of, you know, this. This penance that we have to pay to God. But in that Time, it was a tangible thing that, that shaped their, their, their way of living. Every meal, the safety of their families were seen as gifts from the gods of. Required of repayment. Yeah. The Aztecs believe that their existence hinged on sort of like this cosmic scale. Okay. According to Aztec mythology, the gods had endured immense suffering and even sacrificed themselves to create the world, such as the, the Sun God. And also, let me preface this, I don't know how to pronounce most of these words. Okay. I'm going to just kind of do my best. So the sun God right here, we're going to pull up the name. That way you guys can try it for yourselves. Nana Watsin. And this guy set himself on fire to bring light to the world. But we can explore the Aztec creation myths some other time. Today we're talking about sacrifice and, you know, the response to the Sun God's death. The Aztecs felt compelled to make their own sacrifices to maintain the sun's orbit, the rain's fall, and the earth's fertility. It's fascinating. I mean, sacrifice has been seen in many religions from around the world. Obviously the ancient Jews in the Bible would do sacrifices. They had to sort of pay a penance. Right. Like, as Christians, we see Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind. So while we look at the Aztecs and we're like, dude, these guys were sacrificing, we should acknowledge that sacrifices exist in many of the Abrahamic religions even until today. So on a grand scale, these massive community ceremonies were conducted atop these giant pyramids that we can still see in Central America today. They themselves were monumental offerings to the divine. These events could involve the offerings of goods, animals, and most notably, human beings. Yeah. Every sacrifice, big or small, was considered a literal repayment to the cosmic economy. If you're like me, you probably read a news story and you're like, this is crazy. What is the truth about this? Is this a partisan spin? Is this funded by some media company or some country, by their state sponsored media to try to warp my brain? I genuinely read news articles now with so much skepticism because I have no idea if this is from the right or the left and what the agenda is and why it's being presented in front of me. And that is why I follow and support ground news. That's right. So even before I started working with this company on the podcast, I've been following them on Instagram because I just thought they gave a very, very great, unbiased, nonpartisan approach to media. It's awesome. Basically, you're going to get a headline. And they will show you sort of the different media splits as it comes to understanding the story. They will compare the reporting from different outlets across the political spectrum in one place to show you how the framing and word choice can affect our understanding of a story. I mean, here's a story that my mom sent me from a couple months ago. Robberies, assaults, surge in Central park, leaving New Yorkers and NYC tourists terrified. What is the purpose of this story? Who is writing it? Where is it coming from? Now I can go to Ground News, read this headline, and be able to make an assessment as to whether or not this is predominantly being reported by the right wing or by the left wing and make some type of deduction like, oh, this is actually being used, you know, as some sort of political apparatus. So if you're like me, if you're a truth seeker, if you're trying to find unbiased news, I would absolutely recommend Ground News. It is completely independent, nonpartisan, subscriber funded. It allows readers to think critically about the world around them. And it doesn't tell them what to think, but instead lets them think for themselves. And ultimately it avoids misinformation and tries to heal polarization within our country, which I think is absolutely amazing. So don't let misinformation and sensationalism influence how you think. Save a massive 40% on Ground News's top tier Vantage plan with my link Ground News Gagnon G A G N O N Or scan my QR code right here or go to the description and click on the link. This unlocks access to all of their news analysis features. Something that I think is, I don't know, super important to have. Yeah, make decisions based on facts, not spin. This November. Check them out. Here is a bullet. Imagine this.
- [08:57]
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- [09:57]
Host
So let's talk about the Aztec God of rain water.
- [10:00]
Angel Reese
Huddle up. It's me, Angel Reese. You can't beat the post game burger and fries, right? Know what else you can't beat? The Angel Reese special. Let's break it down. My favorite barbecue American cheese, crispy bacon, pickles, onions and a sesame seed bun, of course. And don't forget the fries and a drink. It's gonna be a high C for me. Sound good? All you have to do to get it is beat me in a one on one. I'm just playing get the Angel Reese special at McDonald's now. Ba da ba ba ba.
- [10:29]
Host
I participate in restaurants for a limited time.
- [10:31]
Angel Reese
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- [11:00]
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Enlightening. That's Tayloch. He was one of the most feared and powerful deities in the Aztec pantheon. In the creation myth, Talok ruled the third sun. It was associated with Mazatil. This is known as like a deer. He's represented on the seventh day. He's known as the God of the seventh day. His calendar day was 9o Silodl or the jaguar. Or the jaguar. For some of my Mexican friends that are watching this, he was the 8th of the 13th Lords of the day and the 9th Lord of the night with the eagle as his animal sign. The name Tayloq derives from the Natul word Tali, meaning earth and you know, the akh, obviously meaning something on the surface. Together it means he who makes things sprout. Talok was depicted with four giant jars, each symbolizing a cardinal direction. From the eastern jar, he provided a life sustaining rain while the other jars unleashed drought, disease and frost. Rain was obviously essential to survival. Without it, the crops wouldn't grow and the vegetation would begin to dry up. And in these massive cities that the Aztecs and many of the other groups had built up. You need some corn to be moving. So the Aztecs believed that when it thundered, it was Telok ordering other beings to smash the water jars inside the mountains to cause rain. Who are these other beings? Let's talk about them. We got talokes or the rain dwarves. And they lived on the mountains. These were like little munchkins that would be, you know, they'd be going around making a rain on motherf ckers. But they were not gods. They were a group of four representing the cardinal points. And the Teloks gathered the water for Tayloch, and upon his orders, they broke the jugs and produced thunder and rain. So the jug of Talok, let's take a look at it. Right at the Aztec capital, two twin temples were set up on the Templo Mayor pyramid, one dedicated to the great God Watsi Lo Pakli. I mean, these names are tough, dude. And, you know, this great God representing the dry season, and the other Talok representing the wet season. The steps inside Talok's temple were painted blue and white, representing water. And inside the pyramid, offerings have been found that connected back to the sea, such as, you know, coral shells and sea animals. Telok also had a mountain temple outside the capital that sat upon over 400 meters on Mount Teilok. I mean, here's a picture that you can see. This is like a representation of the two temples atop the pyramid that are just massive. I mean, you would walk up to these things and you'd be like, what the heck? I mean, it's. It would be insane to just be kicking it in this city at this time. Tayloke was particularly worshiped during specific months in the Aztec solar cap calendar. And during this specific time in the calendar, people would offer flowers and they would offer, you know, more, you know, sort of smaller sacrifices. But to gain his favor and appease him, it required offerings that were a little bit more sinister. That's right. Some people have speculated the tears of children. Yeah, it's a little morbid. The tears of these children were considered favorable, believed to be symbolic of the raindrops of Tayloch himself, reflecting his influence as the rain deity. Aztecs believe that they, you know, had these innocent tears and that they were the purest form of water potent enough to replenish the divine reservoirs that came from the clouds. So as the crops dried up and the threat of famine grew, Aztec priests would declare that Tayloch required a sacrifice to quench the thirst for moisture. It's one thing to understand that, you know, this as a historical fact. But it's another thing to visualize standing in the Aztec marketplace, looking at your children and wrestling with the notion that their tears could mean the difference between life and death for everyone that you knew. That's the thing that I think, to keep in mind. You know, if these sacrifices occurred at the scale that some people believe, these people wouldn't see these sacrifices as, you know, necessarily, you know, sad. They would see it almost as like a triumph that they were actually helping people to live. It was kind of almost seen as a beautiful thing to do. Wild, right? The rituals dedicated to Taylor were intricate and laden with symbolism. So the children chosen for the sacrifice were those who had already, you know, been born. And they had, you know, potential signs of, you know, abnormality or illness, and they believed to be, you know, potentially marked by the gods themselves for this, this type of fate. The children would be led into a process adorned with flowers and garments and celebrated not as victims, but as saviors. And the culmination of these ceremonies were as dramatic as they were tragic. Some of these kids and, you know, the other men and women that were potentially sacrificed were brought to the edges of a sacred lake or like a mountaintop, places thought to be closer to Tayloc's domain in the sky. And they would sort of recite prayers and chants, and the tears would be induced potentially through fear or pain or just the overwhelming nature of the ceremony. And the Aztec belief was a little bit dark. Okay. It's literally, this is basically Monsters Inc. Is kind of, I think, where Monsters Inc. Came from that, like, the more the child was scared or, you know, terrified that the more pleased Taylor would be and thus more generous he would be with his reigns. So the priest would sometimes, you know, try to make sure that the kids cried by any means necessary, you know, trying to scare him. It's a little sad, right? And archaeologists have even found the remains of at least 42 children that were sacrificed to telok at the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan, many of which had suffered, you know, some type of injury before their death so as to ensure that the rains would come. But this was not the only God that wanted some type of human sacrifice. This is where we meet Chalchi ut li kue. This is a tough one, okay? This is also known as she of the jade skirt, according to some myths. I'm just going to call her child Chi, okay? Because it's a little shorter and way easier for my gringo ass to pronounce. Apparently, according to this, Che Chi once ate the sun and the moon. She's often associated with serpents, as are many of the other Aztec water deities. And it's thought that her association with water and fertility refers to the Aztec associations of, you know, like the womb and sort of the water, the amniotic fluid that would, you know, be within a woman as she was, you know, carrying a child. So she's often, you know, kind of had, like, a dual role as both like a life giver, but also a life ender. So in the creation myth of the five sons, Chi presided over the fourth sun and the fourth creation of the world. And it's believed that she retaliated against Taylor's mistreatment of her by releasing 52 years of rain, causing, like, giant floods which would, you know, cause the fourth sun to be destroyed. So then she built a bridge linking heaven to the earth, and those that were under her good graces were allowed to traverse it, while others were turned into fish. So following the flood, the fifth sun deployed, and the fifth sun is the world in which we occupy today. So in the Aztec culture, Che Chi stands as the goddess of the flowing waters and is almost like a counterpart to Telok, the rain God. She's said to influence the rivers and the streams and the lakes, shaping the landscape and the life of Aztec civilization. She also played a central role in childbirth. Mothers and babies, you know, oftentimes, as you can imagine throughout history, sometimes died in the process of childbirth. So the role of the midwife was like the most important job or one of the most important jobs that during labor, the midwife, literally the woman, like, you know, helping the woman give birth, spoke to the newborn and asked the gods of the baby's birth, ensure a prime place amongst them. So after cutting the umbilical cord, the midwife would wash the new baby with customary greetings to Che Chi. And then four days after the birth, the child was given a second bath and a name. Now, there's this missionary who actually visited the Aztecs, this guy, Bernardino de Sahaguin, and he witnessed one of these childbirth rituals, and he said himself in one of his journals that these two gods who realm in the 9th and 10th heavens have begotten you in this light and brought you to this world full of calamity and pain. And pain. Take this water which will protect your life in the name of the goddesses. It's almost like a baptism, in a way. It's kind of interesting to see that, you know, even in these sort of disparate, you know, separate cultures from a lot of the Abrahamic religions, they still had like this water purifying ceremony. So as we can see from these beautiful sort of like birth and baptismal stories, that children weren't just obviously thought of as sacrifices, that they still obviously valued the beauty of new and innocent life. And the Aztecs understood that they were a divine gift, but they also thought that sometimes the gift needed to be, you know, returned. Sometimes gifts have to come with a receipt. Okay, so similar to Tayloch, Che Chi demanded sacrifices, but her focus was not on the tears, but the life force rather. The Aztecs believed that by offering the lives of children and sometimes adults to Che Che, they were feeding the rivers and lakes with vital energy, ensuring that these water sources and the rivers, you know, remained flourishing and capable of supporting their lives. These rituals took place typically near bodies of water such as the shores of Lake Texcoco or along the banks of different rivers in the area. And children were, you know, sort of chosen and often adorned with blue garments symbolizing water and led through the majestic celebration on the way to these sites. And the believes that, you know, the children as they were sacrificed, that they were then put into the water and that their spirit merged with the rivers, imbuing it with this new life. Now this isn't already freaking you out enough? How did these sacrifices actually happen? You know, how do you. How do you.
- [21:01]
Angel Reese
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- [21:32]
Host
Is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. When it's time for you to ditch the blacktop and head off road, do it in a truck that says no to nothing. The Chevy Silverado Trail boss get the rugged capability of its Z71 suspension and 2 inch factory lift, plus impressive torque and towing capacity thanks to an available Duramax 3 liter turbo diesel engine. Where other trucks call it quits, you'll just be getting started. Visit chevy.com to learn more. How you get rid of someone how do you kill someone that's not seen as vulgar in some way? Well, you can't really. So sometimes these Aztec priests would climb to the top of the Mountains or the temples that surrounded the capital with, you know, some of the people that had to be sacrificed and sometimes they would have to remove their hearts or they would kill them by drowning, which again, was mentioned to, you know, be symbolic, you know, of the rain that they were supposed to bring. And again, some of these sacrifices have actually been witnessed by, you know, some of the Spanish explorers that went down there. And again, let me just note that it's possible that some of these accounts by these Spanish explorers might be a little biased, okay? But this is what Bernal Diaz wrote in his work, the Conquest of the New Spain. Not a biased title at all, the Conquest of New Spain. So I'm sure this will be an even keeled take. This is what he said. Every day we saw sacrifices before us three, four or five natives whose hearts were offered to the idols and their blood plastered on the walls and their feet, arms and legs of the victims were oftentimes removed and potentially even eaten. Just as in our country we might eat beef from the butcher. I even believe that they sell it to retain in the markets. So it's not great. And we even have some accounts of an anonymous conquistador who accompanied Hernan Cortez, obviously infamous for his travels in Mexico. He basically says that they would take him to the temple where they would dance and carry on joyously. And then the man who's about to be sacrificed dances and carries on with the rest. At length, the man who offers the sacrifice strips him naked and leads him at once to the stairway of the tower where the stone idol is. Here they stretch him on his back, tying his hands to his sides, fastening his legs. And then comes the sacrificing priest, and this is no small office among them, armed with a stone knife that, you know, cuts like steel and, you know, is as big as one of our large knives. He takes the knife, puts it into the the chest, opens it, takes the heart out. And as quickly as one might cross himself at this point, the chief priest of the temple takes it and anoints the mouth of the principal idol with the blood. Then, filling his hand with it, he flings it towards the sun and towards some stars, if it be night. Then he anoints the mouth of all, the mouth of all the other idols of wood and stone that sprinkles blood on the cornice of the chapel of the principal idol. Afterwards, they burn the heart, preserving the ashes as a relic of this great sacrifice. And likewise, they burn the body of the sacrifice. But these ashes are kept apart from those of the hearts in different vases. So, yeah, not great. I mean, I wouldn't want that to happen again. When I watched Road to El Dorado, they didn't really show all these parts. And as you can see in some time in some places of some of these Aztec empires, life was wild, clearly. But these sacrifices weren't, you know, just about, you know, the kids or people, sometimes men, prisoners and even, you know, prisoners of war from surrounding tribes. Some of the Spanish explorers even recalled the, you know, cannibalistic nature of some of the people in these communities. Again, there's skepticism around this topic. Some scholars claim that the cannibalism was simply for survival. Some people believe that it didn't even happen at all and it was just sort of exaggerated. And they say this is not, you know, that they were just in some way trying to fill the void potentially. But some have a more mystical approach. Some people suggest that these cannibalistic sacrifices were done on prisoners of other tribes. Okay. Which of course, some people are staunch that it did happen. But the argument is why? Why would they eat someone from another tribe? Let's say they weren't starving, you know, they certainly had food around them. They had agrarian societies. And some people think that the depictions of Aztecs eating people survival were pun. Were pushed by Spanish explorers trying to tarnish the image. But of course, we do have some visuals. We have like, actual, you know, etchings and paintings of some of these sacrifices. We can see an image of one here. Now, of course, you know, eating someone isn't a good thing, right? It's not great, it's not ideal. So what is the role of cannibalism amongst the Aztecs? Right.
- [26:19]
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- [27:17]
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World.
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- [27:23]
Host
Some people believe that it was done, you know, almost as like a, a, a ritual that, you know, that they would, you know, consume the flesh of a rival tribe. Obviously it would scare the, the rivals and that they'd be like, yo, these guys are crazy. We're not going to go to war with them. They're going to literally eat us. And some people within some of these tribal groups that were consuming believe that they would grow, grow stronger by taking the energy of another warrior. And, yeah, this is crazy. Apparently it's, you know, proven that in specific places at specific times that they would do this as a way to try to gain their mystical power. Like an adrenochrome, you can imagine, you know, they would drink the blood of the, of the enemies to gain their power. One specific sacrifice was the, the Chipe Totec, also known as the Lord of the flayed one. Yeah, it's possible. This might be the most gruesome sacrifice that the Aztecs did. The gods hold, again, a central place in the Aztec pantheon. But this one specifically, Chipe Totec, he was the God of rebirth, agriculture in the seasons, and craftsmanship. His worship was deeply intertwined with the cycles of renewal and decay. And he was depicted as having flayed skin, representing the shedding of the old to give way to the new, almost like a serpent. The primary festival dedicated to Chipe Totec, again, was, was called after him, and it means the, the flaying of men. You can see an image of him here sort of, you know, shedding his skin. The culmination of this big festival occurred at Chipe Toltec's temple in the heart of the capital. For 40 days prior to the sacrifice, one victim would be chosen from each ward of the city to act as a, you know, a sacrifice. And they would act as a, as a God. They would dress them up and live as Chipe Toltec until it was time for their sacrifice. When the time came, the victim was taken to an altar and the Aztec priest once again would remove the heart and he would offer it up to the gods, after which their bodies were then dismembered limb by limb. The skin of then the sacrifice victim that was then living as a God prior to this was carefully removed. Should we say, again, this is pretty morbid, but they would literally remove the skin and it would be worn by the priests and other participants basically to embody Chipe Totec himself. Again, this guy was acting as a God, and he was, you know, sort of paraded almost in this symbolic act. And again, the act of removing the skin was seen as, you know, this new life. It was the ending of the old life. And you're able to adorn the wardrobe of the gods themselves. You can see here a statue of Cipe Totec looking, you know, he's got his, you got his, he's got his nuts on there and stuff. It seems pretty wild. So again, this is a lot of, this is kind of put together and speculated, right? No one really knows, no one is really there. And, and we're just trying to draw, by we, I mean scholars are just trying to draw some type of story to really understand what the, the power of these gods were and what the importance of these, you know, sacrifices were to these people. So following this specific ritual where they're wearing the drape, the skin of a guy that they just sacrificed, you know, one participant would put on the pieces of the skin and they paraded through the city, engaging in symbolic battles and collecting tributes from the citizens. And they would all throw tributes in. And these acts again reinforced the community's connection with the deity. Again, everyone was a part of this. They were ensuring this agricultural prosperity and this renewal. And then the body parts were then distributed amongst the elites, potentially for ritual consumption or as a relic of their sacrifice to the gods. Now, again, it's important and interesting to note that many of the Aztecs did these sacrifices as a way to please the gods. And they look so much at this death and rebirth of life that they didn't see death necessarily as the end, that they thought, you know, these people were going to go on and, and live with the gods in some type of afterlife. So they weren't necessarily so concerned with the sacrifice in that exact specific moment. And they were, you know, looking at the cyclical nature of life and death. It's interesting to note that a lot of these Mesoamerican cultures had this obsession with the number 52. They saw, you know, that, you know, Che Chi, that God I mentioned before, had sent a 52 year flood and that they had this fear that the universe would collapse after a cycle of 52 years if the gods were not strong enough. So every 52 years there was a special ceremony performed that they called the new Fire ceremony. In preparation for the ceremony, all fires across the empire were extinguished, symbolizing the end of the old cycle. The Aztecs destroyed old household items. They fasted, they performed rituals to cleanse themselves spiritually and darkness would cover the empire, amplifying the tension and the Fear awaiting the gods verdict. The ceremony itself took place on the hill of the star. This is a place where the priests would prepare the sacrificial altar. Then again, they would, would choose a captive. Typically this was a warrior of great status. And they offered themselves or sometimes were chosen as an offering for this sacrifice. At the precise alignment of the pleas constellation, also known as the seven Sisters, the ritual would begin. The victim was laid on this sacrificial stone and the priest would use obsidian. That's like a very hard, you know, like almost like a glass type material that they would form into a blade that then they would remove the heart from the chest while it was still beating and then offer it to the gods as an act of renewal and gratitude. I mean these guys were hardcore. Dude, that's brutal. Then they would basically, you know, take a fire, like, you know, piece of metal and they would, they would get it like super hot and they would place it into the open chest cavity of the sacrificed warrior. And the priest then would ignite a fire directly within it. This act symbolized the rebirth of this cosmic energy. Some people believe through this offering. You can see an image here of, you know, some. The fire ceremony and this sort of, you know, igniting the fire within the hearts of one of their most feared warriors. And this would again hopefully sustain the universe for another 52 years. But they didn't just let the body sit there and burn. That'd be wasteful. So once the fire was lit, it was then carried to temples, households across the empire to then ignite the flames that had been extinguished. So they would take it through and from that same fire, then they would relight the entire city. This act of spreading the new fire again was another symbolic, you know, element to kind of give this rebirth and this continuation of life. And this ritual sort of underscored the Aztec worldview, right. Which sacrifice is essential, it's necessary and it's good and we will nourish the gods and nourish our people. And while the gods required human hearts and blood sometime to sustain the cosmos, the fire represented this divine connection between humanity and the celestial realm. But as always, there's even more to the story. You can't exactly just cover up all the bodies from the sacrifice. So what do they do with some of these bodies? Right. If some of the numbers are so high, what did they do with them? Well, some of those bodies were, you know, they would be eaten ostensibly. Some would. Some people believe. Again, I don't know if I necessarily believe that. It seems like crazy that you would do that for, you know, just famine reasons. But who knows? They would sometimes make, you know, they would. They would dismember the bodies, and the priests would then cut away sort of like the. Some of the fleshy parts and just have the skull. And then they would carve large holes into both sides of the skull, and they would put a wooden post through it, and they would build like a rack almost. This is a depiction of this rack of skulls, almost like an abacus. And they would put it in front of the temple of all the sacrificed victims. Just sort of, you know, showcase their dedication. They even would do this with Spanish soldiers, allegedly. This is what some of the Spaniards had said from their captured soldiers, that, you know, they would take them and sometimes even their horses, and they would display them in front of the temple. These skulls in this giant rack of heads would stay there for weeks, months, and sometimes even years. Over time, the skulls would then break down, and members of the tribes would use these skulls that had been sort of eroded through sun and rain, and they would take them down and wear them sometimes as masks. And the masks are wild. I mean, look at some of these. They look just crazy. And they were even decorated to match whatever ritual was being worn at that time to represent that specific God. So they would decorate these masks with jewels and other stones from around the area. And, yeah, I mean, just look at some of these here. I mean, they're, like, so ornate. And they believe that they were used as masks just by the way that they were sort of, you know, cut and that some people believe that they have sort of almost like, you know, like, leather straps behind them that have obviously eroded away. So one researcher has even pointed out that they found that the skull masks were all made from men between the ages of, like, 30 and 45, and that these people had no evidence of, you know, dental disease or other nutritional stress. So, oddly enough, they were, you know, potentially, you know, healthy or, you know, of, you know, even supreme health. Of all the people, right? They live to a good age, 30, 45 old, if you ask me. And some people suggest that, you know, this could be that the skull masks were mostly of the warriors who had been sacrificed. Scholars claim that the masks appear to have been a special fate reserved for only the most elite warriors and people with notable status. These people would most likely have had a nutritional diet. They would have had access to food, given that they were, you know, doing the ones that were, you know, doing the hunting and, you know, and that they've relied on them for survival. Some historical sources suggest that at least 20,000 people a year were sacrificed in some way by the Aztecs. That's a lot. 20,000 a year. But the accounts of the Spanish explorers claim that during the dedication of the templo mayor in 1487, that there were 4,000 to 20,000 individuals sacrificed over the span of four days and up to 80,000 a year. Again, some of these numbers may have been inflated, but, you know, if you're saying that the bottom end is, you know, 20,000, I mean, that's. That's an insane amount in a year. So as we can see, these human sacrifices were common in many parts of the Aztec empire. And then, just to end where we began, let's talk a little bit about the famous ball game that's noted in, you know, the Rotel Dorado, which began my sort of interest in this. I've always been told as a kid that these, after the end of this sort of like, hoop and ball game, that they would play that the. The winning team was actually the ones that were sacrificed, and it was seen as a great honor. So let's find out if that's true. So this Mesoamerican ball game is fascinating. Again, it's depicted in the Road Tal Dorado, obviously a great historical documentary. And this was a sport with ritual associations to be played out. At least some people put it at 1600 BC pre Columbian game of the people of ancient Mesoamerica. The sport had some different versions in different places during the millennia. And a modernized version of the game, ulama, is still played by the indigenous populations in some places. The rules of this game were not really known, but judging by its descendants, the ulama, it was probably similar to, like, racquetball, where the game was basically, you know, you had to keep the ball in play. And this stone, you know, ball court goals were, some people believe, a late addition to the game. And the most common theory of the game is that the players struck the ball with their hips, you know, if you'll remember, the hip. Although some versions allowed them to use forearms, rackets, bats, or even hand stones. The ball was made of like this solid rubber and weighed as much as nine pounds, although obviously the size of the ball differed over time and place. And the game had a ton of ritual aspects. The most, you know, major formal games were seen as ritual events. Late in the history of the game, some cultures associated that they had this combined competition of sport, war, but also religious human sacrifice. The sport was also played casually for recreation by children and Maybe was even played by women as well. So the association with human sacrifice and these ball games appear a little bit later in the archaeological record, no earlier than sort of the classical era. So the association was particularly strong within classical Veracruz and the Mayan cultures, where the most explicit depictions of human sacrifice have been seen on ball court panels. You know, they would show sometimes decapitated ball players from the Veracruz sites. And even in the post classical Maya religions and sort of the quasi historical narratives, they also link human sacrifice to the games. The captives were also, you know, often shown Mayan art. And it was assumed that these captives were sacrificed after losing a rigged ritual ball game. In this one specific depiction, you know, rather than nearly nude and sometimes battered captives, the ball court at El Tajin and Chechen Itza showed the sacrifice of practitional ball players. Perhaps the captain of the team. Decapitation is particularly associated with the ball game. Severed heads are. Are featured in much of the late classical ball game art and appear repeatedly in many of the temples and ball courts surrounding the area. There's also been speculations that the heads and the skulls were used as the balls. Yeah, some people even believe that's like an early version of soccer. Imagine that. It's interesting because the games also had this religious element in it. Some people and scholars believe that there's like an astronomy associated with it. The bouncing ball represented the sun. The stone scoring rings were supposed to signify the sunrise and the sunset or the equinoxes. There's a very clear connection with war. We even see that to this day with different sports, that the most obvious symbolic aspect was a proxy for warfare. Among the Mayas, the ball represented the vanquished enemy. Both in a lot of late classical kingdoms such as Jax Chilan, other people believed that it was associated with fertility and that formative period. Ballplayer figurines, most likely females, often wear maze icons, which, again, is associated with fertility and life. And the ballplayer sacrifice ensured the renewal of what they call pulque, an alcoholic beverage. And there's also seen this cosmic duality. The game has this struggle between day and night or a battle of life in the underworld. The courts were considered portals to the underworld and were built on key locations within central ceremonial precincts. So there you have it. It should be noted that there's very little evidence to support the idea that the winners of these ball games were the ones that were actually sacrificed. That typically, in most of the icons and depictions around these ball courts and even the temples, that it was typically the Losers. And, you know, according to some scholars, that in the specific, you know, ritual elements of the games, where the games were very high stakes, you know, in the ritual context, the losers were then sacrificed, sometimes through decapitation immediately thereafter. So again, it's not exactly perfectly clear. Some people, you know, obviously these ball courts are very real and we've seen people playing these games through many parts of Mesoamerica and Central America. And obviously human sacrifice was, was seen and understood to have existed. And it's not perfectly clear that the two were associated, although we have seen depictions that after losing the games, the losers would be decapitated. Some people say this is purely a symbol of what it means to be a loser and that by losing the games, you know, they would, you know, have lost honor or something to that effect. It's also worth noting that many, like kings and rulers of, you know, some of these areas, they would also play the games for fun. And we have records that even the kings that would lose these games, they would still live on. So perhaps they were immune from the punishment. It was just the captain of the team that was taken out. So it's pretty high stakes game. You can imagine that, right? Imagine at the end of the super bowl, they just went out and took, you know, took him to pasture. It's pretty wild, if you can imagine. So there you have it, folks. That is a brief sort of overview of some of these sacrificial and ritual properties of the ancient Aztec and, you know, some of the other Mesoamerican tribal groups in, in that time in history. I mean, it's pretty brutal, right? Like, you read about this, you're like, oh man, you gotta sacrifice kids. That's, that's tough. But we see that in the Bible, right? Like, you know, Abraham had to go sacrifice Isaac and then he didn't have to, he had you killed a ram instead. Which is. But you know, there's plenty of child sacrifice that occurs in the Bible, right? There's, you know, killing of the firstborn and, you know, the, the destroyer, the angel destroyer coming through and killing all those during Passover. So it's, it's, you know, we can look at some of these Aztec, Aztec stories and say, wow, these people were barbarians. But I think it's worth noting that sacrifice is tied with almost every culture and almost every religion from around the world. So I mean, once you, when you see the depictions, you're like, all right, that's pretty brutal. But I don't know if there's a way to sacrifice someone In a non brutal way. But let me know what you think. I'm curious if you are an expert in Mesoamerican history. I'm curious, what did I miss? What's missing in sort of this explanation? And what do you think? I mean, some people, obviously some of my conspiracy folks are like, dude, there's sacrifices going on today. The elites are sacrificing. I don't know if that's true. We gotta, I gotta see more evidence of that. I mean, I've seen Eyes Wide Shut and some people say that's what was cut out of there. But anyway, I'm curious what y'all think. But as always, this has been an episode of Religion Camp. Thank you so much for tuning in. And as always, this is happening every Sunday. All right, I'll see you there. Peace be with you. If you've made it to the end.
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