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Influence Of Cosmic Law On Aztec Society

1115 Words5 Pages

In understanding religion, there are two popular schools of thought; one school of thought relates to the saying “as above, so below”, meaning the rules, norms, and values of the divine world – the world above – influence the rules, norms, and values of the human, secular world – the world below. The other school of thought relates to the saying “as below, so above”, meaning the rules, norms, and values of the human, secular world – the world below – are projected onto divine beings – the world above – which then reflect those rules, norms, and values back onto human, secular society, allows the rules, norms, and values to be reinforced. Many scholars are divided between these two schools of thought; two such scholars being Mircea Eliade and …show more content…

Because of his subscription to the “as above, so below” school of thought, Eliade would interpret the influence of cosmic law on Aztec society – based upon the three images – as the divine influencing the secular. It was because of the personal encounter with a hierophany in the form of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli that the structure of Aztec society was revealed – a structure of division into four sectors, with a section in the middle. According to “as above, so below”, this encounter with the divine revealed the structure of the divine world, encouraging the Aztecs to construct their secular world in a similar way so as to adhere to the cosmic law of how society must be constructed. According to Eliade’s beliefs, the rules of the divinity are the foundation of cosmic law; therefore, in order to live in accordance with cosmic law, humans must live in accordance with the rules of the divinity – as it is above in the world of the divine, so it must be below in the world of the humans (Section, Feb. 7). In contrast, because of Berger’s subscription to the “as below, so above” school of thought, it can be inferred that he would interpret the influence of cosmic law on Aztec society as stemming from the laws of secular society. According to Berger’s beliefs, the Aztecs created cosmic laws of the divine based upon their society as a result of shared experiences and beliefs due to collective effervescence and a societal internalization of the nomos, or customs of society, allowing those cosmic laws to return back to society in the form of the divinity and reinforce the norms, rules, and values of Aztec society (Lecture, Feb. 6; Section, Feb. 7). While the two scholars may agree that cosmic law did affect Aztec society, they disagree in how cosmic law affected

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