Quetzacoatl

That old time religion:

I John 4:1-5

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. ⁴ Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

The ancient Aztecs were a well ordered, prosperous and successful people. By the time Cortez arrived they had conquered most of what we now know as Mexico (Mexica – pronounced Me-shí-ka – in the original Aztec language). When Cortez and his men were at the top of the pass between the mountains Popcatepetl and Iztaccíhuatl on the way to the capital of the Mexica Empire, Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), they looked down into the valley and in the middle of Lake Texcoco they saw the city for the first time. They were utterly amazed at its grandeur and beauty. Cortez said that it looked like a jewel shining brightly in the middle of the lake and, after he had entered the city and saw its well-ordered canals, its glorious temples and palaces and its industrious people he claimed that there was not another city in all of Europe that could compare to it.

Cortez and his men also found a highly organized religion being practiced by the Aztecs, one that revolved around a variety of gods, the main ones being Tlaloc the rain god, Huitzilpochtli the war god, Quetzalcoatl the god of wisdom and Coatlicue the Earth mother god. You might call the Aztecs pantheistic New Agers. Of course, they weren’t New Agers in their day since all the surrounding tribes held the same or similar beliefs. But, as there is nothing new under the sun, if we happened upon them in today’s world we would be inclined to think of them in that way mainly because the word “Pagan” is out of style.

They were very close to the earth and their deities reflected that. They depended on the fertility of the earth for sustenance so they would sacrifice and pay homage to Tlaloc and Coatlicue, that he would bless her with rain and she would bless the crops with fertility. They would do the same for Quetzalcoatl to guide them in the planting and harvesting and Huitzilpochtli to stir up the passions of the young men and give them victory in battle.

Like the New Agers, the Aztecs were very ego-centric. They believed it necessary to appease their gods in order to attain the material blessings they needed and wanted from them. There was neither salvation nor justice, only capricious gods to entertain in the hope of attracting their attention and impressing them with sacrifice. And the sacrifices were grand.

It was common practice for the Aztecs and other tribes to capture prisoners of war in their battles. In fact, capturing the enemy was more important than killing him for captured enemies were the primary source of their sacrifices, and the more the better. It was reported by the priests who traveled with the conquistadores that the sacrificial celebrations would sometimes go on for days and the sacrifices would number in the hundreds and sometimes even the thousands. The victim would be drugged, led up the steps of the temple, stretched out on a stone and have his living heart pulled from his chest.

I don’t think the Aztecs started out with human sacrifice but devolved to that depraved state by worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. I wonder where New Age beliefs will lead people as they worship Gaya, Nature and the same gods by different names that the Aztecs worshipped.