Rituals of Blood - In the Ancient Americas

     In North America, Aztec (Mexica) society regarded death as a 'spectacle of life'. Death was visual and commonly displayed for the public to see. Aztec blood rituals were considered part of a reciprocal relationship between humankind and god. The Aztec approach was that the ultimate gift to the gods could only be blood and the gift of blood was among the highest honour one could pay to the gods. In effect, Aztec blood rituals were an act of reciprocity for the blood the gods sacrificed of themselves in order to create the sun and the cosmos.

     Aztec blood sacrifices ensured the gods would remain helpful and they also ensured that the sun would continue to shine, the fields would grow abundant crops and the wheels of life would continue to turn. The Aztecs had a fatalistic view of the world and the Aztec lifestyle was governed by the need to supply fresh-blooded sacrificial victims to the sun god who required the hearts of men to give life to the world and assist the souls of dead warriors to Aztec heaven. If blood was not sacrificed to the gods, the humans believed they would be punished and endure excessive pain 'more violent than any man could ever endure'.

Aztec Sacrifice/Blood-Letting
(Codex Magliabechiano)

     Within ancient Mesoamerican societies, and especially for the Maya, bloodletting was also ritualized, a self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served both ideological and cultural functions.        Bloodletting, when performed by ruling elites, was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. This spilling of blood was used as a tool to legitimize the ruling lineage's socio-political position and, when enacted, was important to the perceived well-being of a given society or settlement.
     Within their belief system, human blood was partially made up of the blood of the gods, who sacrificed their own divine blood in creating life in humans. Thus, in order to continually maintain the order of their universe, the Maya believed that blood had to be given back to the gods.

     Bloodletting permeated Maya life. Mayan kings performed the act at every major political event - dedication of buildings, burials,marriages, and births all were 'celebrated' with bloodletting.
     Bloodletting in Maya culture was also a means to a vision quest, where fasting, loss of blood, and possibly hallucinogenics lead to visions of ancestors or gods.
The Maya created a ritual that used bloodletting, fasting, and smoking of tobacco as a means to induce hallucinations, allowing them to commune with their gods and ancestors.      

Mayan Smoke Serpent Ritual

     The ancient Mayan smoke serpent ritual would begin with a few days of fasting. Then the participants would prepare a fire in a ceremonial pot. Then they would light the ceremonial pipe and take a few puffs of tobacco. Then the bloodletting would begin. The participants would pierce various parts of their body (some of the most common were the tongue and an important part of the male anatomy) using obsidian blades, sting ray spines or ceremonial jade blades.
     They would allow the blood to soak into ceremonial papers, which they would then burn as an offering to the gods. This would raise a pillar of smoke through which the vision serpent could appear. If they were successful, they would envision a serpent, which would open its mouth, and through the serpent, the gods and ancestors would speak to them.

     All these rituals were spectacles, carried out 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).

Public Bloodletting

     These publicly self-inflicted wounds were usually carried out by a ruling male but prominent females are also known to have performed the act. The El Perú tomb of a female (the 'Queen's Tomb') contains many grave goods but most importantly, a ceremonial stingray spine associated with her genital region.
     One of the best-known lintels from Mesoamerica, shows Lady Xoc drawing a barbed rope through her tongue.

Ceremonial Blood-Letting (Jade) Blade

     There is no representation of actual bloodletting in Olmec art but evidence for its practice does exist in the jade and ceramic replicas of stingray spines and shark teeth as well as representations of such paraphernalia on monuments and stelae and in iconography.

     A translation of the Epi-Olmec culture's La Mojarra Stela 1 (155 CE) tells of the ruler's ritual bloodletting by piercing his penis and his buttocks, as well as the ritual sacrifice of the ruler's brother-in-law.

La Mojarra Stela

     Along the northwestern coastal areas of Peru, the Moche culture flourished between 100–800 CE. Human sacrifice was a significant part of their state religion, aimed at the appeasement of the deity named Ai Apaec. Ai Apaec is depicted in Moche art as fanged, half-human, most often in the shape of a spider, holding in one hand a severed human head and in another the crescent-shaped ceremonial knife called a tumi. In the archeological literature, this deity has come to be called the Decapitator.

     At the archeological site called Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon), still used by local shamans who refer to the site as El Brujo (the Sorceror), archeologists have found the remains of more than forty men, ranging in age from fifteen to thirty years old. The bones are scattered, the bodies thrown over the edge of a rocky outcrop, embedded in layers of sediment.
     The bodies all have the markings of human sacrifice - cut marks on their neck vertebrae indicating their throats had been slit; several bodies had been decapitated and their jaws removed.

The Decapitator

     Some of the skeletons were splayed, as if they had been tied to stakes. Many victims had their femurs forcibly torn from their pelvic sockets. Many victims had multiple healed fractures to ribs, shoulder blades, and arms, suggesting regular participation in combat.        
     Were these men the losers in ritual combat among elite Moche warriors or prisoners of war captured in territorial combat with other societies?

     Sacrifices are frequently depicted in Moche art, on ceramics and on the walls of the pyramid sites themselves. The sacrifice is portrayed as an elaborate blood-letting ritual in which naked bound victims — often shown, surprisingly, with erect penises — have their throats cut with atumi, and the spurting blood caught in gold goblets to be drunk by high priests.
     Often depicted in these sacrificial scenes is a sort of seed pod floating in the air over flying priests or bound victims marching off to be sacrificed —a grooved, comma-shaped fruit with an enlarged calyx. Because of its shape, archeologists have generally called the plant ulluchu, a Quechua term meaning penis pepper.

Sacrificial Throat Slitting
(Ulluchu Floating Overhead)

     It has been suggested that a concentrated dosage of ulluchu seeds, if ingested, would increase heart rate, elevate blood pressure, and widen blood vessels, making make it easier to extract sacrificial blood...and cause penile erections.
     Some believe that a ground preparation of these seeds, when inhaled, may have been used as a hallucinogen. A ceramic figurine shows a seated male with ulluchu plants on his headdress holding a gourd and pestle, possibly containing ground ulluchu seeds, with his nostrils flared, as is often seen in people inhaling hallucinogenic snuffs.

 Priest Drinking Blood and Ulluchu

     Drugs have been used in religious rituals both in the 'Old World' and the 'New World'(see posts: Drugs Used in Religion-The 'Old World'; Drugs Used in Religion-The 'New World'). In the art of the Moches, there is a painting showing a winged runner or flying priest with ulluchu seeds floating above his head, and an instrument in his hand that closely resembles a typical double snuff tube of the sort used to inhale powdered hallucinogens. When inhaled by priests, some components could have a psychoactive effect, which would not necessarily lead to high levels of toxicity, and could induce very rapid, short-term hallucinations.

     In North America, before the arrival of Europeans, ceremonial body piercing (with blood letting) was practiced as part of the sun dance, a religious ceremony carried out by a number of Native American and First Nations Peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Even today, each tribe has its own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols. Many of the ceremonies have features in common, including dances and songs passed down through many generations, the use of a traditional drum, praying with the pipe, offerings, fasting, and in some cases the ceremonial piercing of skin.

Native North American Sun Dance

     Although not all sun dance ceremonies include dancers being ritually pierced, the object of the sun dance is to offer personal sacrifice as a prayer for the benefit of one's family and community.

     *Blood Rituals: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Rituals of Blood - In the Ancient World

     

     The color red - bright, memorable and often shocking. In the ‘ancient’ religions, the colors of mankind were blue for the spirit, yellow for the mind and red for the body. These colors corresponded to the blue of heaven, the yellow of the earth and the red of hell.
     In the Greek Mysteries, red was taken to signify the 'irrational, where consciousness was enslaved by lust and the passion of lower nature'.

The Greek Mysteries

    

     In the times of the early Christian Church, red stood for suffering and the death of Christ.
     In the Americas, the Zuni culture considered the red feather as associated with death.

     In Aztec religion, there were 4 'Directions of the Aztec Gods', the East (associated with the rising of the sun) was created by the god Red Tezcatlipoca. Even in secular society, emotions are linked with color - 'red with rage' (see post: The Colors of Faith).
     Besides the sunset and, perhaps, fire, human beings, in their ceremonies and rituals, focus on the red of blood. In fact, the ritual of blood sacrifice is probably the oldest ritual in the world.

Zuni Pueblo

    
     Sacrifice of a human being for the purpose of his/her blood, including the ritual of self injury in order to cause blood loss has been the primary domain of worship of the Mother Goddess for nearly ten thousand years.
     Some blood rituals involve two or more parties cutting themselves or each other followed by consumption of the blood. The participants may regard the release or consumption of blood as producing energy useful as a sexual, healing, or mental stimulus. In other cases, blood is a primary component as the sacrifice, or material component for a spell. Human beings (and their blood) were essential in many of the early religions of the middle east:


                      God/Goddess                     Region                                  Era
                       Attis, Cybele                  Turkey/Anatolia                   2100 BCE

                    Tammuz, Inaana, Ishtar      Mesopotamia                      2000 BCE

                    Shamgar, Anat, Mari              Syria                               2000 BCE

                      Horus, Isis                         Egypt                                1900 BCE

                   Horon, Astarte, Ashtoreth     Phoenecia, Syria                1500 BCE

Mother Goddess

     Ancient ceremony celebrated blood as the food of the gods or as the seat of the soul, the source of wisdom and duty and, at times, opportunity for atonement.

     One of the oldest beliefs is one in which the Mother Goddess was thought to fertilize the lands and life. In return, she would be nourished by the sacrificed pure blood of innocents.
     In Greek mythology, the word ambrosia is used in replacement for blood. There are however, numerous stories in which fresh living blood from a slain innocent is deemed necessary as an offering to the goddess in order to maintain her favour.

In the case of Cybele, (the goddess often depicted as the black meteorite) is an example of ancient religions trying to make sense of disaster and death, in Cybele's case, caused by 'heavenly fire' (see post: Calamity (from Space) in the Holy Records)

     One of the secret mysteries in many Eastern and Western religions there exist beliefs that blood, especially the blood of a recently slain victim contains the seat of their soul and the source of their wisdom.

Ambrosia-the Food of the Gods

     
     Some beliefs hold that the fresh blood of innocent victims is an elixer that can return youth to those who consume it. In Rome, the day for the worship of Attis (also known as the 'Good Sheperd') as the son of Cybele, the Queen of Heaven (also known as Magna Mater) was called Dies Sanguinis (the Day of Blood). This event took place on or around March 25, nine months before the festival of his birth on the winter solstice, December 25

     Cybele, also called Magna Mater ("Great Mother"), was an eastern goddess of nature and fertility. Cybele was the a goddess of victory, from Pessina, Asia Minor,brought to Rome in 204 BCE from Pessina, Asia Minor. Cybele was revered in association with a large black meteorite and she quickly became the Protector of Rome. But along with Cybele, came the ceremonies and rituals of her shepherd son, Attis as well.

Attis

   

     Of all the ceremonies and festivals associated with Attis, the most important was known as Black Friday and Dies Sanguinis (the Day of Blood) on or around the 25th of March, nine months before the solstice festival of his birth on 25th December. On Black Friday, Attis, the saviour god died from self-castration, was buried, descended into the underworld and then, on the third day (Sunday), rose from the dead. The worshippers of Attis were taught: 'The god is saved; and for you also will come salvation from your trials.'   

     Christians ever afterward kept Easter Sunday with carnival processions derived from the mysteries of Attis. Like Christ, Attis arose when "the sun makes the day for the first time longer than the night."
     In the Roman version, on the Day of Blood, the High Priest playing the part of Attis would draw blood from his arm and offer it as a substitute for a human sacrifice. Initiates were baptized in bull's blood at the to wash away their sins whereupon they were 'born again'. They then became ecstatic and frenzied and these recruits to the priesthood would castrate themselves in imitation of the god. Those who castrated themselves became Galli—cocks—dressed in women's clothes and wore perfumed oils.

Ancient Nordic Blood Brothers

     The term 'blood brother' has been used in reference to one of two circumstances: a male related by birth, or two or more men not related by birth but who have sworn loyalty to each other. This swearing of loyalty is usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where the blood of each man is mingled with the blood of the others. The point of the process is to provide each participant with a heightened symbolic sense of attachment with the other participants.

     Among the Scythians, the participants would allow their blood to drip into a cup. The blood was subsequently mixed with wine and drunk by both participants. 

Scythians Shooting with Bows

   
     Each man was limited to having at most three blood brotherhoods at any one time, lest his loyalties be distrusted. Because of this,blood brotherhood was highly sought after and often preceded by a lengthy period of affiliation and friendship.
     In Romania, the haiducs had a similar ceremony, though the wine was often replaced with milk so that the blood would be more visible.
     In Asian cultures, the ceremony of becoming blood brothers was generally seen as a tribal relationship, bringing about alliance between tribes.

Haiduc

    Blood alliances were practiced most commonly among the Mongols and early Chinese.
     Blood brothers were also common in ancient Mediterranean Europe where, for example, whole companies of Greek soldiers would swear an alliance and fight as one family. The tradition of intertwining arms and drinking wine in Greece and elsewhere is believed to be a representation of becoming blood brothers.
     This ritual was most prevalent in the Balkan Peninsula during the Ottoman era, providing a sense of tribal unity which helped the oppressed people to fight the enemy more effectively. Blood brothers were also common in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria.
     Christianity also recognized sworn brotherhood in a ceremony known as adelphopoiesis (in the Eastern Orthodox church). 
     Adelphopoiesis (adelphopoiia) from the Greek, literally 'brother-making' is a ceremony practiced historically in some eastern Christian traditions to unite together two people of the same sex (normally men) in church-recognized friendship. Thsi practice is well documented in Byzantine manuscripts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, prayers established participants as 'spiritual brothers' (pneumatikous adelphous) and contained references to sainted pairs, including Sergius and Bacchus, who were famous for their friendship.

Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus

     A similar ritual was followed in the Roman Catholic Church called fratres faciendum.
     In modern times, a common blood-brother ceremony, often among members of a gang, includes having each person make a small cut, usually on a finger, hand or the forearm, and then the two cuts are pressed together and bound, the idea being that each person's blood now flows in the other participant's veins.

Native American Sun Dance

     Blood rituals frequently involve a symbolic death and rebirth. This thought to reflect the real bleeding which takes place at the 'beginning of life' during literal bodily birth. Blood is typically seen as very powerful, and sometimes as unclean. Blood sacrifice is sometimes considered by the practitioners of prayer, ritual magic, and spell casting to intensify the power of such activities. The Native American Sun Dance is often accompanied by blood sacrifice (see post: Rituals of Blood - In the Ancient Americas).


     *Blood Rituals: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

The Tao of the Thirteenth God

Chapter One

At what hellish auction

Can I sell my soul?

To what devil dealer

Will the hammer fall?

Mid-Winter – East London

East London

              “Amadeus.” The limp body turned over onto its side and retched into the bowl on the floor. Spittle dripped from the corner of his mouth and he tried to wipe the moisture off the note pad he had placed at his side. The man opened his eyes then quickly shut them tight. “That’s all…That’s my name, the name she knows. Please! Please don’t ask me anymore.” The man could sense the question but could hear no voice. He turned back and buried his face in his hands.

            The clang of a street car bell echoed from a distance then the whole room shook as the machine lumbered past the small house. For a brief moment, a headlight filled the dark, empty space - empty, except for the man on the sofa and two wide bowls – one for the vomit, the other half-filled with a murky, brown liquid. His last gasps had filled the larger vessel and the acidy contents had breached the rim, spilling over onto the wool carpet.

            Amadeus opened his eyes and spoke to his teacher, a gray shadow, a vague silhouette in the darkness. “No…I can’t drink anymore. No more… Just…Just let me see her again. One last time, please…Just once more.”

            A bare-chested, muscular African stood up and shook his head, his dark eyes wide, angry. In one hand he held a sheaf of grass, in the other, the twisted root of a small tree.

            Another car rumbled past and its headlamp lit up the room again, revealing its stark, barren emptiness.

           But the man on the sofa could see him. In the dark, he could see the muscles of his shoulders, smooth, sinewy, rippled. The African stepped forwards and shook both fists.

            Amadeus nodded, reached down and, with trembling hands, lifted the smaller bowl to his lips. He sipped on the acrid fluid then gagged.

             The shaman’s eyes became narrow slits and his jaw clenched.

            The man on the sofa sat upright and nodded again. He looked past the dark figure, took a deep breath and poured the rest of the liquid down his throat.

            Amadeus felt the trickle pass his tongue then slide into his chest. At first, there was a flush, rising from his shoulders, up the sides of his neck and over his face, two warm hands gently caressing his cheeks. But with each swallow and with the bowl finally empty, the ache in his stomach grew, each sip of poison adding, drop by drop to the visions he knew he was about to see.

          The view grew foggy, the image of the tall black man cast behind a pane of translucent glass. Amadeus fumbled between the pillows then closed his eyes and, blinded to his world, positioned his glasses across his nose. And with his eyes closed he could see. He could see, far in the distance a man, a priest, white robes flowing in the breeze, railing at the crush of people - his flock - that sat, silent in the grass at his feet.

             Amadeus scanned the crowd, his eyes shut tight, not wanting to miss one moment, one small clue that would show him where she was. He knew that she had to be there, one small face in the crowd of a thousand – one innocent little girl entranced by the preacher, their messiah, their god.

             He shuddered, opened his eyes then stared straight ahead. The man, the priest had disappeared but the cloudy image was still there. He tried again but, eyes open or eyes closed, the hazy shadow of the African loomed over him. The walls, the floor, even the windows of the small house had transformed into stone. No light from the street, no clamor of the trolley. The two men, student and teacher, stared at each other, locked in the bowels of the deep earth.

            Amadeus stood up and looked past the African. A crowd had gathered - noiseless shadows lingering behind his black teacher, stepping forwards then back, always present but never fully real, something…Someone he could feel but could not touch.

            The parade of shadows continued for what seemed to him hours, perhaps days and, all the while, he could sense his name being called - a soft serenade, a sweet collection of numbers…Like a song, chanting out his name.

            “Sophia! Sophia!” Amadeus jumped to his feet and pushed the African to the side. His arms passed through the tall man like a warm breath through a cold, dense fog.

            The shadows behind the man vibrated, shifted then spoke without saying a word. “Amadeus. I’m here. I’m here for you, Amadeus.”

            Amadeus stared into the mist. The shadows had lifted. The teacher was gone. A lone figure stood before him, her head bowed, fingers clasped at her waist, her long fair hair draped across her slight shoulders.

            She looked up and, for the first time since she had died, he could see her, his one sister, his only sister. “Sophia…I have one…One last chance.”

            Sophia looked up, her deep, blue eyes hollow with sadness. She whispered soundless thoughts – thoughts only for her brother’s ears. “Westward…Westward, Amadeus…To the land-“

            “Speak words to me! Let me hear your voice!” He stepped forwards then stopped as she held up her hand. “This time…This time I will stop him, Sophia! And he won’t ever…Ever do to anyone else…What he did to you!”

            His sister nodded, the sadness still in her eyes, and she repeated the message. “Westward…Westward. To the land of the justice. I am-“

            “Sophia!” The man rushed forwards and clutched at the image. He felt her soft touch, breathed in her gentle warmth then he hesitated and gagged. He could smell the distance, the death that separated the two of them. Amadeus groaned. His arms fell through dust and his sister disappeared into the blackness.

            He stumbled then blindly grabbed at the note pad on the sofa and tried to wipe the vomit from the paper. Amadeus groaned again, felt the loss pierce his heart and collapsed to the ground.

The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle