The Aztec Civilization: Aztec Religion

Chris Cravey

World Civ./The America Group/Aztec Culture/Religious Aspects of Aztec Culture

The Aztec people practiced their religion through many different ways including human sacrifice, building great temples to worship in and also through their arts. The religious center of the Aztec capitol, Tenochtitlan, was a walled worshipping structure or city that housed several smaller temples. Within this larger worshipping structure, there was a vast temple in the shape of a pyramid built called the Great Temple. On the top of this pyramid there was two separate sanctuaries built atop the Great Temple. One of the sanctuaries belonged to Huitzilopochtli, the tutelary god of the Mexica; while the other sanctuary belonged to Tlaloc, the God of Rain.[1]

Within this religious or worshipping structure or city, there was over seventy-eight temples and religious facilities.[2]

As the Aztec empire grew into an enormous power, they overtook several societies during their expansion. However, when they would overtake societies, they would allow the conquered peoples to continue worshipping their god(s). Many deities of the Aztecs have their origins in Mesoamerican past. Charles Phillips writes that the Aztec cult of the earth mother worshipped as Tonantzin (‘Our Sacred Mother’), might have grown from ancient rites in honor of figures of fertility goddesses, which have been found in many parts of the Mesoamerican region and dating back as far as 2000BC.[3]

Ometeotl Tonacacihuatl

Phillips also explains that one Aztec myth told of a supreme creator named Ometeotl, who brought the Earth into being and had dual male-female aspects. Ometeotl was known as ‘Lord of Duality’ and could manifest as separate deities, Tonacatecuhtli (Lord of Our Sustenance) and Tonacacihuatl (Lady of Our Sustenance).[4] Each of the Aztec months of the year was sacred to one god and the god would change every month. One Aztec ritual called for an individual to dress as the god who was worshipped that month and they would be sacrificed respectfully, for they would then die as the god they were honoring and in return would be treated with the greatest reverence and ceremony in the afterlife.

The Aztecs have been thought to be brutal in their rituals and rites, and people to always think about how they would rip the heart out of the chests of individuals for brutality. However, this ritual is revered among the Aztecs as a very sacred worship for their Gods. On the final day of the month, a child would be led to the steps of the Great Temple and was placed over a sacrificial stone and his heart would be pulled from his chest. His dead body would be cooked and served to the most important people in the society and military elite. Within the group of people who feasted on the young man’s flesh was the young boy who would be sacrificed twenty months later on the same day for the same god.[5] The Aztecs had a system of rituals and rite they followed for the worshipping of all their gods.

[1] Brumfiel, Elizabeth M., Gary M. Feinman. The Aztec World. New York, New York. 2008. 73.

[2] Brumfiel, Elizabeth M., Gary M. Feinman. The Aztec World. New York, New York. 2008. 73.

[3] Phillips, Charles. The Lost History of Aztec & Maya. London. 2007. 62.

[4] Phillips, Charles. The Lost History of Aztec & Maya. London. 2007. 63.

[5] Phillips, Charles. The Lost History of Aztec & Maya. London. 2007. 64.