Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

174 Mesoamerica
called “high” cultures of Mexico and Peru, areas
that encompassed a series of civilizations, such as
the Mayans on the Yucatan Peninsula, the Incas in
the highlands of Peru, and the Aztecs (and their
predecessors) in central Mexico. These cultures,
unlike the other, smaller-scale societies of the
Americans, built cities and made written records.
Although the Aztec and Incan societies were for
the most part destroyed by Spanish conquistadors,
their less-than-extensive writings in combination
with the observations of their conquerors allow us
to partially reconstruct their worldview and religious
beliefs.
The Mayans, who were the oldest of these
three, were remarkable for their development of
mathematics, the calendar, and astronomy—
developments in which they exceeded even the
ancient Mesopotamians. Although the Mayans
postulated an underworld, Xibalba, existing documents
do not contain developed notions of this
realm. There are, however, other indications, such
as certain written documents, like the Popol Vuh,
as well as evidence from burial chambers, that
point to a more developed idea of the afterlife.
In Mayan funeral practices three categories of
the dead are distinguished. The highest category
seems to have been constituted by departed priests,
warriors who die in combat, women who die
during childbirth, and those who commit suicide
by hanging. Members of this category, if not the
others, become immortal and reside in the paradise
that is beneath the sacred celestial tree at the
juncture of earth and heaven. (This cosmic tree,
with its roots in the underworld and its leaves and
branches in the heavens, is the Mayan version of a
universal symbol found in every area of the world.)
Various demons were responsible for the
ailments of humankind. Part three of the Popol
Vuh, one of the few Mesoamerican works to
escape the general destruction carried out by the
Spanish, describes a number of them:
Next are the lordships of Demon of Pus and
Demon of Jaundice. And this is their
domain: to make people swell up, to make
pus come out of their legs, to make their
faces yellow, to cause jaundice, as it is called.
Such is the domain of Demon of Pus and
Demon of Jaundice. ...
Next are the lords named Demon of Filth
and Demon of Woe. This is their
commission: just to give people a sudden
fright whenever they have filth or grime in
the doorway of the house, the patio of the
house. Then they’re struck, they’re just
punctured till they crawl on the ground, then
die. And this is the domain of Demon of
Filth and Demon of Woe.
The Aztec were a people from the north who
conquered the earlier peoples inhabiting central
Mexico. The society encountered by the Spanish
embodied the influences of these earlier cultures,
as well as the culture of the Mayans. The Aztecs left
behind records of a far more elaborate conception
of the postmortem realm than the other societies
of Mesoamerica, which is largely the result of the
Aztecs’ greater interest in death. The greater interest
in death, in turn, seems to have been the result
of the centrality of sacrifice—including human
sacrifice—in Aztec religion.
The Aztec postulated four different realms,
corresponding to the four directions, to which the
soul could go following death. Warriors who die
in battle, sacrificial victims, and tradesman who
had died during their journeys are cremated, go
to the eastern paradise, and become companions
of the sun. Women who have died in childbirth
(the female equivalent of dying in battle) also
become companions of the sun, although they go
to the west.
People who have died by lightning, drowning,
and marsh fevers (all having to do with water or
rain) were buried and went to Tlaloc’s southern
paradise. This realm was said to be free of
sorrow, and the souls there enjoyed a luxurious
tropical garden. Although there was apparently
no notion of an afterlife retribution, the northern
land of the dead and ultimate destiny of the
majority of people, Mictlan, was distinctly
unpleasant. The deceased took four years to
traverse nine intervening, subterranean realms
containing mountains, ferocious beasts, and
chilling winds. The dead were buried with
amulets and cremated dogs to help them during
their journey.