The Aztec Empire is believed to have lasted from around the 14th century until 1519 when it was conquered by the Spaniards. Aztec society functioned and prospered upon a religious foundation. “Religio” was evident in the rituals that wound through their daily lives and the strong caste system. “Spiritus” as an individualized experience can only be assessed based on the commitment of the populace to participate in this system. As an urban agricultural society, their prosperity was tied to weather and nature and so their religious ceremonies were a means to appease the Gods and thus protect them from the more destructive aspects of natural occurrences. Consisting of not only prayer and offerings, dedication to the gods was shown with both animal and human sacrifice and they built temples and pyramids in which to conduct these rituals. Various levels of “priests” not unlike the current Catholic religious system, were responsible for different rituals dependant on the importance of the ritual …show more content…
This can be seen as an example of a belief in a divine plan or pre-destiny. Unlike Christianity, the Aztecs had many gods. They did however have one supreme god, Huitzilopchtii. The existence of the world was attributed to him and they believed that the continued existence of the world was dependant on keeping him strong. Their creation story included an afterlife and they believed in the existence of heaven and hell going so far as to represent the thirteen ascending layers of heaven and the nine layers of hell (the underworld). Each of these layers was the home of a specific god. Upon death, dependant on the manner of death, the soul would be reawakened in one of these realms or would be