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The Astrology of Meso-America |
The importance of the eternal flame can be linked to Sun worship depicted on the famous Calendar Stone, the largest known Aztec carving weighing close to 25 tons. This was rediscovered in 1790 on the sight of the main square in Tenochtitlan. The pivotal figure is the face of the Sun surrounded by claws and holding a human heart. The Aztecs believed that to dedicate a still beating heart, representing human life, to the Sun god would affirm its constant motion. Their belief is similar to many religions where atonement is achieved through sacrifice, but the Aztecs were not concerned with purification of the spirit. Theirs was a more practical consideration - the perpetuation of life itself. Priests were trained not only in religious custom and cosmology, but also with swift and accurate incisive use of the ceremonial obsidian (volcanic glass) knife. The whole operation took but a few minutes with the victim's heart held up to the Sun and then placed in a wooden or stone vessel. Not all were willing victims but those who were, braced themselves with the belief that they would migrate to a solar paradise.
To facilitate their sacrifices and religious ceremonies, they built magnificent pyramid temples and ziggurats. The largest of these rises two hundred and thirty feet above the jungle floor, (the equal of a modern twenty-story building), however the most famous is definitely the Castillo (Great Pyramid) of Chichen Itza. It's four sides face the cardinal compass directions and each has 91 steps, totalling 364, with a top platform making 365 and corresponding to the days of the year. At the spring and autumnal equinoxes the setting Sun casts a shadow in the form of a mysterious undulating serpent slithering down the stairway. This spectacular light show is dedicated to their god of writing, learning and civilization, Quetzalcoatl, the famed 'Feathered Serpent', whose statue stands at the top of the pyramid. No doubt this fascination with a god originating from a snake, along with human sacrifices, convinced the Spanish priests that the Aztecs were really devil worshippers of the first order, and fast-tracked the mass destruction of their culture.
Ed maintains the leading website www.edtamplin.com specialising in world prediction, cycles research, plus yearly, monthly and weekly sun-signs.
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