Achillita said:

Human sacrifice wasn't about the glory of killing other humans, it was about keeping the universe in balance and protecting the humans on earth. In aztec mythology, the gods ripped their own hearts out to keep the world alive. Humans are the beings who rule over this "world", while in other times other creatures were the top beings.

Also, if a person was sacrificed, they didn't have to go through the 13 levels of the underworld to reach the afterlife. They would instantly be taken to the realm of the gods, where they might be reincarnated as sacred creatures like the hummingbird.

But every person also took part in blood letting, as it was seen as even more sacred then the death of humans. Because it was giving your own life force to the gods.

Death was an ingrained aspect of aztec life. They didn't see it as cruel or an end. Aztecs were not a heartless society. I know many people who still practice a modern version of the aztec religion, and I know much about old aztec religion.

Aztecs would trade places with slaves they owned, and themselves would become slaves for 1 week a year. They were not supposed to treat their slaves or their children badly or could be punished severely. If an aztec man became a drunk, they could take away his wealth completely and disperse it to their children.

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... thanks Achillita!

cube talk said:

What in the hell made these people do such ridiculously evil acts while having access to such an astonishing substance?

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not like this very second


oh wait - shit


why is it so hard to point my finger

....

cube talk said:

I think almost all of us can agree than mushrooms can or flat out do lead us to a higher way of living. I know personally I was going down the wrong path, even began to steal at one point and then it hit me like a bomb on my trips. I needed to straighten my life up permanently. My dad honestly thought I had two choices at one point in my life and that was either military or prison

What happened? I went to college lol. I can honestly say that if it wasn't for my mushrooms trips, I highly doubt that it would have ever happened.

There's studies out there where people have called just one trip one of the if not THE most significant event in their lives. One can truly understand why they are known as the great teachers, even one strain being flat out called, "golden teachers"

So, with that being said. Let's go back hundreds of years to south and central america. It's pretty well known the aztecs would slaughter thousands of people in sacrifice. Without googling it I believe the maya did somewhat similar things as well.

They both had access to what we now know as teonanacatl, and which we know is of course.. magic mushrooms. It's in their paintings, it's a way of life in a way for them so what gives?

What in the hell made these people do such ridiculously evil acts while having access to such an astonishing substance? I mean if they were smoking crack and doing meth, yeah I could understand it

Theories?

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There was nothing "evil" about it for them - it was just part of their religion and way of life.  Don't practice cultutral relativism.

Human sacrifice, as well as symbolic bloodletting, is common throughout history...the highest form of tribute to your "gods".

Mayan rulers did some amazingly strange numbers on themselves as well, check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting_in_Mesoamerica

This is a closeup of "Lintel 24 at Yaxchilan, depicting Lady Xoc drawing a barbed rope through her tongue"

Quote:

Ritualized bloodletting was typically performed by elites, settlement leaders, and religious figures (e.g., shamans) within contexts visible to the public. The rituals were enacted on the summits of pyramids or on elevated platforms that were usually associated with broad and open plazas or courtyards (where the masses could congregate and view the bloodletting). This was done so as to demonstrate the connection the person performing the auto-sacrifice had with the sacred sphere and, as such, a method used to maintain political power by legitimizing their prominent social, political, and/or ideological position.

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Do you suspect psychedelics (and other) drugs played a major role in the religion and ceremonies?

LogicaL Chaos said:

Maybe they took the teachings of shroom experiences too literal.

I mean to sacrafice people to appease their God is far out there and pretty damn twisted if u ask me.

The Aztec and Mayan had some strange practices, but human blood letting was by far the strangest.

They were super obsessed with time, maybe even paranoid about time and how things were going to evolve over time.

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endogenous said:

The Aztecs were barbarians who invaded the Toltecs.

When the Aztecs, a nomadic and primitive group, arrived in the Mexican Valley, the Nahuas were already there.  The last of the Toltec civilization, the Nahuas were much more advanced than the Aztecs and had a religion based on the spiritual values of Quetzalcoatl.

A Spaniard, Sahagun, who studied the Mexican culture in the 16th century had this to say regarding the Toltecs:  "They had great experience and knowledge: They knew the quality and virtues of the herbs, and they left marked and known those that nowadays are used for healing, because they were also physicians and essentially the first in this art ... They invented the art of interpretation of dreams, and were so learned and wise that they knew the stars of the sky, had named them and knew their influences and qualities ... The said Toltecs were lovers of virtue..."

The Nahua tribe of Mexico had a religious belief in Psilocybin Mushrooms.  The word used for Them was "Teonanacatl" which meant "God's Flesh".  -- http://psychede.tripod.com/Flesh

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....very cool

Achillita said:

You do know the toltecs did human sacrifice and were warriors just as mch as the aztecs right? The Aztecs were a tribe that traveled from the north and formed a city at tenochitlan.

A lot of aztec technology/ culture/ religion were all influenced from the toltecs. Toltecs did just as much sacrificing as the aztecs.

Although it was said that there was a period of time that the Toltecs were ruled by Quetzalcoatl. There was 1 emperor of the Toltecs who eventualy banned Human Sacrifice(not blood letting though) but the kingdom did not like him and he was forced to leave the capital city.

Tbh OP, you seem skewed about the knowledge of these cultures with a strong cultural bias towards how these society worked and WHY they did these things.

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Quote:

One thing about Bolon Yokte’s presence in the 2012 text should be emphasized.
Apart from symbolizing war, conflict, and the underworld, Bolon Yokte is a god that is often present during Creation events, often referring to the Creation event of 13.0.0.0.0 in 3114 BC, and most notably on the Vase of the Seven Lords.
So, what does it mean that a Creation Lord is present on the next 13.0.0.0.0, the one that falls in 2012 AD?
Although some scholars have commented that the incomplete text on Tortuguero Monument 6 doesn’t tell us much, they have overlooked the obvious: Bolon Yokte’s mere presence suggests that 2012 was thought of as a

Creation, a world renewal that, after all, makes perfect sense in the context of a World Age doctrine that sequences forward in intervals of 13 baktuns. This may seem to go without saying, but in fact my work has been criticized for characterizing 2012 as a “cosmogenesis.”
Here the scholars are one step closer to understanding 2012 for what the Maya knew it to a be: a rebirth and the beginning of a new World Age.

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History was written by the victors unfortunately for us the victors were basically savages when it came to spiritual understanding where the native peoples were super enlightened but dumb when it came to technology.
This is what planet of the apes is really about.
We are the apes.

LogicaL Chaos said:

I mean to sacrafice people to appease their God is far out there and pretty damn twisted if u ask me.

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Or MAYBE..just maybe...they have a whole different view of death. What if death is legit instant transcendence to heaven? If it is, then being sacrificed is a pretty good thing



but that's ridiculous and so are they for killing people. killing=bad