Many people are horrified when they read about the ancient Aztec ritual of large-scale human sacrifice, especially the practice of removing and wearing the skins of sacrificed victims for ceremonial purposes. The Spanish Conquistadors and the priests who followed them into Mexico in the 16th century were so horrified that they used this as one of the God-given "reasons" for totally destroying Aztec civilization. However, there is another side to the story.
There were three great themes of the Aztec pantheon, the second of which features the deities responsible for rain, moisture, agriculture, and fertility. This complex includes such deities as Tlaloc, Xochiquetzal and others associated with rain, maize, the earth-mother, sexual desire, etc. Of particular importance in this complex is Xipe Totec, the "Flayed God," one of the most ancient gods of Mexico, a symbol of regeneration. Some scholars say he was part of an agricultural cult in which the wearing of the human skin represented an ear of corn about to ripen, hence the idea of life out of death. Xipe's sculptured image was dressed in the skin of a sacrificed man. In his right hand he carried a staff with rattles and in his left a shield of yellow and red feathers. A red headdress and an elaborate breechcloth completed his insignia.
Closely associated with this deity is ixiptla, a key concept in Mesoamerican religious thought that lay behind the practice of human sacrifice. Ixiptla, as opposed to nahualli (a double), is the direct "image" or "replica" of the god on earth. The statues of the god and the priests themselves (tlamacazqui) were ixiptlas, images or stand-ins for the god. The god's literal human "image" was chosen once a year to impersonate the god at his major fiesta. The skin of the flayed victim presented a kind of "mask" of the god, which, when worn by the priest, became the god in person. When the priest danced about wearing the flayed skin of the sacrificial victim, it was believed that the god was literally present (not unlike transubstantiation in the Catholic mass).
The 2nd month of the Aztec ritual calendar was called Tlacaxipehualiztli ("The Flaying of Men"). This was Xipe's special ceremony, which lasted some forty days and featured the sacrifice of captives in the usual fashion followed by the flaying of the bodies. It ended with a ritual gladiatorial contest in which an unarmed slave fettered to a stone tried to defend himself against an armed professional warrior.
In The Book of Gods and Rites, Diego Durán tells us that the ceremony was held in front of the main temple of the god, where the two sacrificial stones stood, one of which was probably the famous Stone of Tizoc now in the National Museum in Mexico City. Although one of our primary sources of information on ancient Aztec society, Durán never wavered from his determination to destroy every vestige of pre-Hispanic sculpture or other reminder of the native religion. He wanted the stone and all other reminders of the past destroyed, hoping fervently that the old people who still came to weep over these relics of their destroyed temple were really worshiping his god (I think not).
The many similarities between Aztec religion and Christianity confounded the Spanish missionary friars, who attributed the native beliefs and rituals to the work of the Devil. Although Durán may have exaggerated the similarity between the Christian Trinity and the Aztec concept, he was greatly disturbed by it. After their "conversion" the Aztecs revered the "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" as "Tota, Topiltzin, and Yolometl ("Our Father, Our Son, Heart of Both"). But the Aztec "Trinity" was also known as Totec ("Our Cut One, i.e. the Flayed God"), Xipe ("man who has been flayed and ill-treated"), and Tlatlauhquitezcatl ("Mirror of Fiery Brightness"). This association between Xipe Totec and the Christian Trinity perplexed Durán.
At the conclusion of the ceremony of Tlacaxip-ehualiztli, one of the dignitaries preached an elegant sermon. Durán professed to be astounded at the message of the speech, which extolled all the virtues of reverence, modesty, and the like and condemned all the vices, such as theft, fornication, adultery. Sinners would go to Hell, the good would receive their reward in Heaven, etc. Durán was so impressed that he concluded that the Aztecs knew "the Divine Law, the Holy Gospel, and the Beatitudes." He believed that an evangelist must have come among them, even before the arrival of the Spaniards, and that the Indian religion was somehow connected with Juda-ism and Christianity.
In Christianity the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and his Resurrection symbolize life out of death. The Aztecs had the same idea, only they carried it to extremes in the rites of Xipe Totec. In Christianity one man paid the price for all;, in Aztec society everybody paid.
