7 dark and disturbing aspects of Aztec religion you need to know

Perhaps the most well-known aspect of Aztec religion is their practice of human sacrifice.

They believed that the gods needed human blood to sustain them. In fact, the gods themselves were supposed to have asked humans for a regular supply.

Most of the time, this meant that powerful members of the community would bleed themselves.

Sometimes, the death of a person was considered to be necessary. So, rather than losing a member of their own town or city, the Aztec would capture people from neighboring tribes and offer them as sacrifices.

In fact, every month of the calendar required some kind of sacrificial victim. The priests would usually drug the victims and tie them down on the altar in preparation.

These sacrifices were often elaborate and gruesome, involving the removal of the victim's heart while they were still alive. Any remains were then burned. 

The Aztec believed that if the gods ever stopped receiving blood offerings, they would lose their divine powers and the universe would collapse.

In addition to human sacrifice, the Aztecs also practiced cannibalism.

They believed that by consuming the flesh of their enemies, they could gain their strength and power.

Some accounts suggest that they would even eat the hearts of their sacrificial victims.

By the reign of Moctezuma II, so many people were being sacrificed in the capital city of Tenochtitlan that a whole army of priests were required.

After each ceremony, the priests would clean the victim's skulls and place them into great tzompantlis (skull racks). 

These were massive structures made from the skulls of sacrificial victims, arranged in rows and columns.

Some estimates suggest that one skull rack in Tenochtitlan contained as many as 60,000 skulls.

Bloodletting was another common practice in Aztec religion.

Priests and nobles would pierce their tongues, ears, and other body parts with sharp objects to draw blood as an offering to the gods.

Some even went so far as to offer their own children's blood as a sacrifice.

For the Aztecs, war was not just a means of gaining territory or resources – it was also a religious duty.

They believed that their gods required them to engage in constant warfare in order to capture sacrificial victims.

As a result, they were highly skilled warriors who dominated their neighbors through force.

However, not all people captured in war were killed. In fact, often capture some of the enemy men and bring them back to Tenochtitlan and make them watch the sacrifices take place.

They were then released back to their home regions, where they were expected to bring spread word of what fate would await them if they did not submit willingly to the Aztecs.

The Aztec pantheon was filled with gods and goddesses of death and destruction.

The most fearsome of these was Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun, who was said to require a constant supply of human blood to keep him strong.

Other deities, such as Xipe Totec and Tlaloc, were associated with human sacrifice and cannibalism.

In particular, in the month of Tlacaxipeualtli, captured warriors were forced to fight for their lives in a kind of gladiatorial sacrifice ceremony. 

Regardless of which warrior won the contest, the participants were killed anyway, in order to appease the gods.

While the Aztecs are often associated with the sacrifice of adult prisoners of war, they also practiced child sacrifice.

Children were believed to be especially pure and innocent, making them the ideal offerings to the gods.

Some accounts suggest that they were sacrificed in large numbers during the dedication of new temples or during times of crisis.

While the Aztecs were undoubtedly a sophisticated and advanced civilization, their religious practices were deeply disturbing by modern standards.

Human sacrifice, cannibalism, and child sacrifice were all commonplace, and the constant state of war and violence that characterized their society was driven by religious beliefs.

While it is important to understand and appreciate the achievements of ancient civilizations, we must also acknowledge the darker aspects of their history in order to fully comprehend the complexities of the human experience.