Catholic converts drew stories to colonial priests
The Aztec religion is a polytheistic and monistic pantheism in which the Nahua (Nahuatl, the indigenous language of Mexico) concept of teotl was construed as the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature [1].
The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, and the Aztec Empire's state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies [2].
The codices were made by Catholic priests
The most important deities were worshiped by priests in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), particularly Tlaloc and the god of the Mexica (the tribe from which the word "Mexico" derives), Huitzilopochtli, whose shrines were located on the Templo Mayor ("Main Temple").
Their priests would receive special dispensation from the empire. When other states were conquered the empire would often incorporate practices from its new territories into the mainstream religion [3].
The Great Pyramid of Cholula, also known as Tlachihualtepetl (Nahuatl/Mexicano for "Constructed Mountain"), is a complex located in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is the world's largest pyramid (by volume) and archeological site of a pyramid (temple) in the world confirmed to exist on Earth today [1, 2], not counting massive artificial "mountains" in Bosnia, Buddhist Indonesia, Cambodia, and China, California (not lake but possibly on Colorado), Missouri (Cahokia), dark Alaska, which is four times larger than Giza, and Pyramid Peak. The adobe brick pyramid stands 82 feet (25 meters) [3] above the surrounding plain, which is significantly shorter than the Great Pyramid of Giza's height of 481 feet (146.6 meters), but much wider, measuring 984 by 1,033 feet (300 by 315 meters) in its final form [3], compared to the Great Pyramid's base dimensions of 756 by 756 feet (230.3 by 230.3 meters) [4]. This holy pyramid is a temple that traditionally has been viewed as having been dedicated to the feathered serpent (naga) god Quetzalcoatl [5]. The architectural style of the building was linked closely to that of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, with influence from the Gulf Coast evident as well, especially from El Tajín [6]. More
In common with many other indigenous Mesoamerican civilizations, the Aztecs put great ritual emphasis on calendrics, and scheduled festivals, government ceremonies, and even war around key transition dates in the Aztec calendar [4].
Public ritual practices could involve food, storytelling, and dance, as well as ceremonial warfare, the Mesoamerican ballgame (precursor of football, soccer, and basketball), and human sacrifice (a tribute to appease bloodthirsty gods of military service and slaughter) [5].
The cosmology of Aztec religion divides the world into 13 heavens and nine earthly layers or netherworlds [6]. The first heaven overlaps with the first terrestrial layer, so that heaven and the terrestrial layers meet at the surface of the Earth, where we are.
The celestial entities of "shining ones" (sky devas)
Each level is associated with a specific set of deities and astronomical objects. The most important celestial entities in Aztec religion are the Sun, the Moon, and the planet Venus (as both "Morning Star" and "Evening Star") [7].
Convert or die: Become Catholic
After Conquest by Spain, Aztec people were forced to convert to Catholicism, and the two religions syncretized.
In this religion, your black magic blood sacrifice will come from a scapegoat, who is the God Himself disguised as a human to pay Himself a ransom for your eternal soul washed in blood: You have to accept it, or we'll kill you. And let our priests molest your kids because they don't have wives. The Vatican orders it. Don't worry. His Mom is very nice and will do lots of favors for you.
Dr. Gabor Mate distinguishes "drugs" that obtund(like alcohol) and substances that elevate consciousness; yet, we call both of these opposite experiences getting "high"
In the city-states that gave birth to Western civilization, drugs were an everyday element of a free society.
Often, they were not just available but vitally necessary for use in medicine, spiritual-religious ceremonies, and war campaigns.
Their proponents and users existed in all classes, from common soldiers to emperors. Citing examples in myths, medicine, and literature, Dr. Hillman, Ph.D., shows how drugs have influenced and inspired the artists, philosophers, and even politicians whose ideas have formed the basis for civilization as we know it.
Many of these ancient texts may seem well-known, but Dr. Hillman shows how timid, prudish translations have left scholars and readers in the dark about the reality of drug use in the Classical world.
Dr. Hillman's argument is not simply "pro-drug." Instead, he appeals to intellectual honesty to acknowledge the use of drugs in ancient societies despite today's conflicting social mores.
In the modern world, where academia and university life are often politically charged, The Chemical Muse offers a unique and long overdue perspective on the contentious topic of drug use and freedom of thought. More
Bailey Sarian, Dec. 22, 2022; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
A very Krampus Christmas: The Dark Spirits of Christmas Past | Dark History
European Xmas madness
(Bailey Sarian) ✨ Dark History ✨
Friends, happy day!
Welcome to the Dark History podcast. Is there anything as cozy as a Christmas tree? When one looks at it, what does one think? Family, holidays, presents, hot cocoa, singing carols, good times, and so on. But ever look at a Christmas tree and think about a chopped off d*ngle? It turns out we should. In today’s episode we get into the dark history of four of our favorite holiday traditions: Christmas trees, gingerbread, Christmas cards, and Krampus.
Trust me when I tell you, some of this information really jingled my bells.
I appreciate everyone for coming by. Tune in next week for more Dark History.
Want some cool Bailey merch?
Shop Season 2 Dark History merch: www.baileysarian.com
Find the Dark History Podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever one listens to podcasts, and every Thursday on YouTube for the visual side of things.
(John Barn) The USA is only a small part of America. Native Americans had many magnificent cities. BBC Four looks at Lost Kingdoms of South America, like Bolivia in the Andes Mountains.
After being re-elected for a second term, Bolivian President Evo
Morales, accompanied by indigenous leaders, holds the staff of command
during an Aymara indigenous ceremony at the ancient Kalasasaya Palace
at Tiwanaku, 1-21-10. The Kalasasaya Palace is believed to be
used to observe the location of the sun and influenced the Aymara
calendar that Pres. Morales has proposed for Bolivia (Mariana Bazo/Reuters).
The Native Aymara on the shores of Lake Titicaca in the Andes view the future as behind us. We can't see it, but we can see the past and are constantly looking at it. Maybe clocks should run counterclockwise, as Evo Morales demonstrated. In any case, we should return to a pre-Columbian time in the future. It is now 5524 because at least 5,000 years of Incan culture preceded the rapist-imperialist-capitalist Columbus arrived 524 years ago.
Bolivia's president wants to go back to indigenous calendar
Let's go back to the future for change.
It's the year 2016, but it's not really 2016. Planet Earth has been around for about 4.5 billion years, and modern humans about 200,000 years [Buddhist and Vedic sources and Michael Cremo can show that it has been much longer, but that is "forbidden archeology"].
The current year, 2016, is based on a Christian [Gregorian] calendar, thus the meager 2,000-plus years. Bolivia's Pres. Evo Morales says it's time for his country to adopt a calendar that's more culturally relevant to his people. And according to that calendar, it's the year 5524.
(MG) Tiwanaku: Forbidden History, Part 1: Arthur Posnansky spent much of his life in Bolivia, where he conducted 50 years research on Tiwanaku. Based on surveying of sight lines within the Kalasasaya
before its reconstruction, that is, based on the angles created by the
standing stones, he thought that the Kalasasaya dated to around 15,000 BCE, far older than Jericho, which is thought in the West to be the world's oldest city.
Modern radio carbon dating suggests that the Kalasasaya might date to
around 800 to 400 BCE, while the Akapana and Puma Punku may date to around
500 to 600 AD. If Tiwanaku was indeed built around 15,000 BCE then
it's the world's oldest known city. Should the Americas then be renamed the
Old World?
Aymara girl, 2012 (David Mercado/Reuters)
Evo Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous president and he's Aymara, which is the country's largest indigenous group, numbering about 2 million. Paul Goldstein, an anthropologist at the University of California at San Diego, says Morales is basing his proposed calendar on the Tiwanaku civilization, the ancient ancestors of the Aymara.
"With Evo Morales, there's been a huge waive of popularity for things ancient, things Tiwanaku, things Aymara," Goldstein says. "It's a very big part of Bolivian nationalism, which we could call an almost archaeological nationalism."
Waving the Andes' rainbow flag, the Wiphala*
Morales' calendar has 13 months, uses a beginning date of 1492 and adds 5,000 years before that, a somewhat arbitrary estimate of how long pre-Columbian people have lived in Bolivia.
"In a sense it's part and parcel of this sort of larger awakening of Aymara identity as a very important part of Bolivian nationalism," says Goldstein. "And this calendar sort of fits into this idea of setting themselves apart from the 500 years of oppression since the advent of Columbus, hence the 1492 year is a particularly telling part of this calendar."
Each month has 28 days. Morales says that makes it simpler than the Gregorian calendar, with its varied month lengths and leap year. But there's a larger goal. When Morales suggested the new calendar he denounced the Gregorian as a "colonial imposition" and said his country must "reclaim our ancestral calendar as part of the rebuilding of our identity."
*PHOTO: A Bolivian woman waves the colorful Wiphala, the flag of native Andeans, who live on the shores of Lake Titicaca,
while awaiting the arrival of Pres. Morales to enact the new
constitution in a public gathering of thousands of his supporters, in El
Alto on the outskirts of La Paz, Feb. 7, 2009 (David Mercado/Reuters).
Bolivian Pres. Morales (L) blessed by Aymara priest Valentin Mejillones
during ceremony at Tiawanaku, a pre-Columbian archaeological site
about 40 miles west of La Paz, in 2006. The Aymara people, of which
Morales is a member, are the descendants of the Tiwanaku whose
civilization flourished from around 400 BC to AD 1000
(Stringer/Files/Reuters).
"You could call this a case of the invention of traditions," says Gary Urton, a Harvard University professor and specialist in pre-Columbian Andean cultures. He's done extensive research at the ruins in Tiwanaku, a UNESCO heritage site about 40 miles west of Bolivia's capital La Paz.
"Tiwanaku is the iconic site in Bolivia. It's the one celebrated by the people of the linguistic and ethnic group [Morales] belongs to, the Aymara. It's their homeland. Their mother culture."
Like the ancient Tiwanaku, Morales' calendar is based on the passage of the sun, a way to time harvests and plantings, a practice still used by modern Aymara, says Urton.
"If you go to an average Aymara village in the high Andes of Bolivia, they're still planting some of the same crops as their ancestors, like potatoes, other tuber crops and quinoa," Urton says. "They're speaking Aymara. They're using coca. More
A stream winds through part of an unexplored valley in Mosquitia in eastern Honduras, a region long rumored to contain a legendary “White City,” Cuidad Blanca, also called the City of the Monkey God (Dave Yoder/natgeo.com).
Holy Hanuman in Honduras, it was true! The fabled lost City of the Monkey God has been located and visited in the virgin rainforests of Honduras. Cuidad Blanca, a "White City" of stone in pristine jungle, was rediscovered by a European explorer hundreds of years ago. The locals spoke of a buried Monkey God statue in the area. But even the indigenous "Indians," the Mosquitia, who are pre-Columbian Native Hondurans, no longer knew its location in the dense, nearly impenetrable forest. The civilization is so new it has no name yet.
Map of Honduras in Mesoamerica/South America (courtesy of the murderers at the CIA/wiki)
Lost City Discovered in Honduran Rain Forest
National Geographic writer Douglas Preston, photographer Dave Yoder (natgeo.com)
A “were-jaguar” effigy, likely representing a combination of a human and spirit animal, is part of a still-buried ceremonial seat, or metate, one of many artifacts discovered in a cache in ruins deep in the Honduran jungle (Dave Yoder/nategeo.com).
In search for legendary “City of the Monkey God,” explorers find the untouched ruins of a vanished culture An [American] expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with dramatic news of the discovery of a mysterious culture’s lost city, never before explored. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied “White City,” also referred to in legend as the “City of the Monkey God.”
[U.S. and Honduran] archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, [burial] mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago and then vanished. The team, which returned from the site last Wednesday, also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned.
Honduran troops lead a convoy through a town that served as the base for helicopters ferrying members of the expedition to a location in the Mosquitia rain forest where they examined ruins of an ancient city (Dave Yoder/natgeo.com).
In contrast to the nearby Maya [Mayans], this vanished culture has scarcely been studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists do not even have a name for it.
Christopher Fisher, a Mesoamerican archaeologist on the team from Colorado State University, said the pristine, unlooted condition of the site was “incredibly rare.” He speculated that the cache, found at the base of the pyramid, may have been an offering.
“The undisturbed context is unique,” Fisher said. “This is a powerful ritual display, to take wealth objects like this out of circulation.”
The tops of 52 artifacts were peeking from the earth. Many more evidently lie below ground, with possible burials. They include stone ceremonial seats (called metates) and finely carved vessels decorated with snakes, zoomorphic figures, and vultures.
Frequent rains turned the expedition camp into a sea of mud (Dave Yoder/natgeo.com).
The most striking object emerging from the ground is the head of what Fisher speculated might be “a were-jaguar,” possibly depicting a shaman in a transformed, spirit state. Alternatively, the artifact might be related to ritualized ball games that were a feature of pre-Columbian life in Mesoamerica.
“The figure seems to be wearing a helmet,” said Fisher. Team member Oscar Neil Cruz, head archaeologist at the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), believes the artifacts date to A.D. 1000 to 1400.
The objects were documented but left unexcavated. To protect the site from looters, its location is not being revealed.
Stories of “Cuidad Blanca” and a Monkey God
Former British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers prepare a helicopter pilot for liftoff from a landing zone cleared for a team of scientists surveying a secret location in the Mosquitia jungle. The helicopter ferried people and supplies from its base (Dave Yoder/natgeo.com).
.
The ruins were first identified in May 2012, during an aerial survey of a remote valley in La Mosquitia, a vast region of swamps, rivers, and mountains containing some of the last scientifically unexplored places on earth.
For a hundred years, explorers and prospectors told tales of the white ramparts of a lost city glimpsed above the jungle foliage. Indigenous stories speak of a “white house” or a “place of cacao” [cacao is chocolate's actual and original name, Theobroma cacao, "cocoa, the food of the gods"] where Indians took refuge from Spanish Conquistadores -- a mystical, Eden-like paradise from which no one ever returned. The European "discovery"
Since the 1920s, several expeditions had searched for the White City, or Ciudad Blanca. The eccentric explorer Theodore Morde mounted the most famous of these in 1940, under the aegis of the Museum of the American Indian (now part of the Smithsonian Institution ).
[The "Smithsonian" is not one institution as the name suggests. It is a flexible set of hand-selected institutions that hide away some of the best artifacts and skeletons of giants, extraterrestrials, monsters, and other inexplicable discoveries that call into question the consensus reality "respectable science" feeds us through the mainstream media and academic journals. See the work of Michael Cremo (mcremo.com) called "forbidden archeology."]
Morde returned from Mosquitia with thousands of artifacts, claiming to have entered the City. According to Morde, the indigenous people there said it contained a giant, buried statue of a monkey god. He refused to divulge the location out of fear, he said, that the site would be looted. He later committed suicide and his site -- if it existed at all -- was never identified.
More recently, documentary filmmakers Steve Elkins and Bill Benenson launched a search for the lost city.
They identified a crater-shaped valley, encircled by steep mountains, as a possible location.
To survey it, in 2012 they enlisted the help of the Center for Airborne Laser Mapping at the University of Houston. A Cessna Skymaster, carrying a million-dollar lidar scanner, flew over the valley, probing the jungle canopy with laser light. Lidar -- “Light Detection and Ranging” -- is able to map the ground even through dense rain forest, delineating any archaeological features that might be present.
When the images were processed, they revealed unnatural features stretching for more than a mile through the valley. When Fisher analyzed the images, he found that the terrain along the river had been almost entirely reshaped by human hands.
Archaeologist Oscar Neil Cruz of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History examines a building stone discovered during a foray to a location identified by lidar as a place of interest. Several such construction stones, apparently shaped by hand, were found in a row at the top of what appears to be an ancient plaza (Dave Yoder/natgeo.com).
The evidence of public and ceremonial architecture, giant earthworks and house mounds, possible irrigation canals and reservoirs, all led Fisher to conclude that the settlement was, indeed, a pre-Columbian city. Threatened by Deforestation
Anna
Cohen, a University of Washington anthropology grad student, documents a
cache of more than 50 artifacts discovered in the jungle. Following
scientific protocol, no objects were removed from the site. The
scientists hope to mount an expedition soon to further document and
excavate the site before it can be found by looters (Dave
Yoder/natgeo.com).
An archaeological discovery isn’t confirmed until it has been “ground-truthed.” The ground exploration team consisted of American and Honduran archaeologists, a lidar engineer, an anthropologist, an ethnobotanist [expert on plant and human relationship], documentary filmmakers, and support personnel. Sixteen Honduran Special Forces soldiers provided security. The National Geographic Society sent a photographer and a writer.
The expedition confirmed on the ground all the features seen in the lidar images, along with much more. It was indeed an ancient city. Archaeologists, however, no longer believe in the existence of a single “lost city,” or Ciudad Blanca, as described in the legends. They believe Mosquitia harbors many such “lost cities,” which taken together represent something far more important -- a lost civilization.
Former
British SAS commando Steve “Sully” Sullivan (right) waits while the
scientific team puzzles over a construction stone that they believe was
carved by members of a vanished civilization yet to be identified (Dave
Yoder/natgeo.com).
The valley is densely carpeted in a rain forest so primeval that the animals appear never to have seen humans before. An advance team clearing a landing zone for helicopters supplying the expedition noted spider monkeys peering down curiously from the trees above, and guinea hen and a tapir wandering into camp, unafraid of the human visitors.
"This is clearly the most undisturbed rain forest in Central America. The importance of this place can’t be overestimated." - Mark Plotkin, ethnobotanist
“This is clearly the most undisturbed rain forest in Central America,” said the expedition’s ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, who spent 30 years in Amazonia. “The importance of this place can’t be overestimated.” The region also is gravely threatened. Deforestation for ranching has checkerboarded the jungle to within a dozen miles of the valley. Huge swaths of virgin rain forest are being cut illegally and burned to make way for cattle.
[Our meat eating, our personal choice to consume the slaughtered flesh of creatures, has profound consequences for the environment, to say nothing of their pain and lives. Shopping a McDonald's and eating cows, pigs, chickens, and fish is paying capitalists to send in killers to round up these creatures, imprison them, and cut them up on an industrial scale so vast that more than million lives are lost a DAY just to feed this filthy karmic habit in the USA alone. Is it "moral"? Probably not, but who cares: It's anti-environment, it destroys ecosystems, it pollutes the air with methane and chemicals, it contaminates ground water, it destroys the seas.]
In addition to looting, another threat to the newly discovered ruins is deforestation for cattle ranching, seen here on a hillside on the way to the site. At its present pace, deforestation could reach the valley within a few years (Dave Yoder/natgeo.com).
.
The region has become one of the biggest beef-producing areas in Central America, supplying meat to fast-food franchises in the United States.
Virgilio Paredes Trapero, the director of the IHAH, under whose auspices the expedition operated, spent several days at the site. He concluded: “If we don’t do something right away, most of this forest and valley will be gone in eight years.” He spread his hands. “The Honduran government is committed to protecting this area, but doesn’t have the money. We urgently need international support.”
The expeditionwas made possible with the permission, partnership, and support of the government of Honduras; Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Avarado; Virgilio Paredes Trapero, director of the Honduran Institute for Anthropology and History (IHAH); Oscar Neil Cruz, Chief of the Archaeology Division of IHAH, as well as Minister of Defense Samuel Reyes and the Armed Forces of Honduras under the command of Gen. Fredy Santiago Díaz Zelaya, with Gen. Carlos Roberto Puerto and Lt. Col. Willy Joel Oseguera, and the soldiers of TESON, Honduran Special Forces.
Douglas Preston writes about archaeology for the New Yorker and other publications. His account of Coronado’s search for the Seven Cities of Gold was recently issued as an e-book.
Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, with Andes mountains in the distance (Anthony Lacoste)
LAKE TITICACA, Bolivia - Titicaca (in the hispanicized spelling) or Titiqaqa is a lake in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. By volume of water, it is the largest lake in South America. Lake Maracaibo has a larger surface area, but it is considered to be a large brackish bay due to its direct connection with the sea. Titicaca is often called the highest navigable lake in the world, with a surface elevation of 12,507 feet (3,812 m)... Bolivia has a mystery beyond the lake, that of Akapana. Scientists decode the life-giving riddle of Bolivia's great Akapana pyramid.
No one celebrates it in Mexico, but we sure love it in the US. What is Cinco de Mayo? The "Fifth of May" commemorates a time when Mexico rebuffed and repelled French imperial troops who were sent in to collect banking debts. They were defeated and turned away (but returned a year later and succeeded).
No one in Mexico would think to celebrate the fiasco, choosing instead to commemorate the September 16th "Mexican Independence Day" revolution that overthrew Spanish imperial rule. Long after Buddhism arrived, Spain came to Mexico and wiped out millions in waves of genocides that introduced chattel slavery, disease, mass rape, incarceration, the death penalty, corporate business, and deadly forms of Christianity -- mostly, but not exclusively, Holy Roman Imperial Catholicism.
Of course, the day is now debased in a 4th of July-style Beer and BBQ fest. Why drink Bud when you can have a Corona and enrich corporations on both sides of the border?Viva la revolución!
Satirist/Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz is a Pacifica Radio co-host in LosAngeles (KPFK FM)
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