43
See also: Created for a purpose 32 ■ A lifelong bond with the gods 39 ■ The burden of observance 50
■ Renewing life through ritual 51 ■ Beliefs for new societies 56–57
the first stars being born from
blood flowing from Quetzalcoatl’s
tongue after he had pierced it.
Most notably, the creation of the
fifth sun required one of the gods to
cast himself into a funeral pyre.
Two gods, Tecuciztecatl and
Nanahuatzin, vied for the honor,
both immolating themselves;
Nanahuatzin became the sun and
Tecuciztecatl the moon. The other
gods then offered their hearts in
order to make the new sun move
across the sky (the offering of
hearts is a recurring theme in
Mesoamerican myth and ritual).
Humanity’s gruesome debt
Both the Mayans and the Aztecs
were bound to their gods by a blood
debt from these acts of creation that
could never be repaid. After
Quetzalcoatl descended to the
underworld and retrieved the bones
of former humans (remains from the
four previous eras), the gods ground
them into a fine meal flour. They
let their own blood drip onto the
flour to animate it and created
a new race of people—people
whose hearts could in turn satisfy
the gods’ own need for blood.
In Mesoamerican myth,
each period of 52 years was seen
as a cycle, the end of which could
spell the end of the world. Human
sacrifice could be used to appease
the gods and persuade them not
to bring an end to the present
age—that of the fifth sun. The
Mayans believed that blood
sacrifice was necessary for the sun
to rise in the sky every morning.
The Aztecs’ sun god,
Huitzilopochtli, was locked in
an ongoing struggle with darknessPRIMAL BELIEFS
and needed to be fortified by
blood in order for the sun to
continue in its cycle. Thus
the continued existence of
the Mesoamerican world was
seen as extremely tenuous, and
in need of constant support
through acts of sacrifice.
Bloodletting for the gods
took two forms: autosacrifice
(self-inflicted bloodletting) and
human sacrifice. Both Mayans and
Aztecs took part in autosacrifice.
Mesoamerican nobles had what
was seen as the privilege and
responsibility to shed their own
blood for the gods. This involved
piercing their flesh with stingray
spines, obsidian knives, and, most
often, with the sharp spines of the
maguey (agave) plant. Blood was
drawn from the ear, shin, knee, elbow,
tongue, or foreskin. Autosacrifice ❯❯You have yet
to take care of bleeding
your ears and passing a
cord through your elbows.
You must worship. This
is your way of giving
thanks before your god.
Tohil, Maya godVictims of Aztec human sacrifice
were typically prisoners of war, and,
when in combat, Aztec warriors sought
to capture rather than kill in order to
ensure plentiful offerings for the gods.