A practice I enjoyed while in Mexico was going on excursions to the ancient Aztec temple site of Teotihuacan, not far north of Mexico City.
Because of the unfamiliar surroundings together with my limited knowledge of the Spanish/Mexican language, most of these exercises had to be carefully planned and thought out . I felt this necessary if I didn’t want any complication and consequently become a burden to others.
So I carefully jotted down of simple sentences in Spanish just enough to support me in the unexpected situations I might meet on the way to my destination.
Another use for these simple Spanish sentences was to assist me with the purchase of refreshments usually after long walking in a blazing sun. My experience in Mexico was that it had plenty of eateries offering a rich menu of tacos , enchiladas, barbacoa and what not in exotic Mexican food . Many of these eateries could be found along the road.
This preplanning of my daily itinerary together with the little I had learned about Mexico customs and their general look on life, enabled me to spend three wonderful years on her soil.
I had to learn by experience what doing things by “manana” meant. It was a mentality I had to get used to while living among Mexicans. With regards to their transport , I had found that they not always held themselves to their timetables.
At times they were late or not operate at all or worse were headed into a completely different direction. I had gone through one such experience and I assure you, I made sure it did not happen again.
My first experience, when I had accidentally stepped on the wrong bus, was as soon as I realized it was going into a different direction, was to get off as quick as I could. I then tried to find my way back. But in my state of confusion and with my adrenaline pumping high, I forgot that I was a stranger among these people and at least should try to communicate in their language. I had decided then to walk back to the bus terminal, which was a long way to walk in the hot sun.
Looking back at this state I had gotten myself into made me accept this experience of utter frustration as the thrill of adventure.
I had considered these excursions in Mexico a kind of pilgrimages and were different from any others I had done during my many travels through Asia and Europe.
From where I stayed , San Miguel de Allende, the journey to Teotihuacan could vary depending on the choice of transport. If I took public transport, older type of busses, some had little curtains at their windows, most were overcrowded and the journey seemed to be go on forever. The bus stopped every few meters and once the driver even went out to buy himself a snack. The worst I found was that nobody cared.
But for an affordable cost there were luxurious buses available that besides being air conditioned they also had entertainment for their passengers. They showed video films of old monies and the handed out of some snacks. The windows also had sun-shading drapes to keep the glare of the sun out. All this made travelling to Mexico City most enjoyable thereby cutting the time in travel to the big city by half.
From the North Mexico City bus station where my bus ended it was to follow masses of people to an overcrowded subway to take me to Tacuba station by two interchanges. Tucuba was the end of the line and for me an opportunity to make use of my pre arranged Spanish sentences on where to find the bus that would take me to the Aztec ruins.
It all seemed so simple but in reality it was an experience one would not wish to repeat.
The difficulty I found was getting through the masses of commuters who were always of so much a hurry. To find a moment to stop to orientate was almost impossible and the risk of getting into the wrong train most likely.
I had often wondered, wether these speeding masses of people, pushing and shuffling me about, were in fact determining where I was to go. I declare; if I had not pushed and shuffled back into the opposite direction, would for sure had landed where I would not want to go.
On one occasion during a rush down a flight of stairs I slipped and fell, rolling down the marble steps and landing in the middle of a group of guys who were collecting donations for the Red Cross. They helped me up and one of them, who spoke a little English, gave me directions on how to get out of this incredible mess. I was sure that if these guys were not below the steps to break my fall, nobody else would have stopped for a moment to see if I was hurt.
The purpose of these devotional exercises was to assist me in my art. I had come to Mexico with the intention of creating expressions of their ancient cultures, which I showed on canvasses using brilliant colours. ` To be successful I found it necessary to visit as many ancient sights as I could to learn about their past civilization.
I had been to Teotihuacan on a previous visit. The sight, with its two large impressive pyramids, the largest structure of the two was devoted to sun worship and the other, a little smaller building, one had worshipped the moon.
The latter pyramid I had chosen for my purpose. There on its top I would sit in deep thoughts, imagining scenery of Aztec rituals, by which I imagined young Aztec males, often warriors, were being used as sacrifices.
A research I did about this culture taught me of these human sacrificial rites.
I read of four assistants, supporting a high priest, held down the victim on an altar. How with the use of an obsidian knife the heart was, with one stroke, flicked out of the chest of the sacrifice and its heartless carcass thrown down the towering flight of steps.
These demonic rituals were held in utmost sacred esteem and as I understood; there had never been any objection to these rites.
As a Christian myself, the knowledge of these horrendous rituals became too much for me.
Reading about these sacred rituals often gave me nightmares and yet I once read how in the Christian bible Abraham almost sacrificed his own and only son.
In the course of Aztec devotion many deities, gods and goddesses were worshipped. Many of these deities had the most horrible features one could possibly imagine. The idea of these horrendous was to create fear among its devotees
Many of these godlike personalities had human qualities and were cable of human amorous affairs. These affairs were not always permissible. Some would carry horrible punishes when caught, especially when they involved sacred damsels, angels of the Aztec heavens
All these deities demanded excessive offerings from their devotees. Some mayor divinities could require the killing of infants, sons mainly, but on special occasions , also young girls.
What the devotees gained with their offerings were favours for rain to fill their rivers with water which they needed for the land and what consequently would promote successful plant growth, necessary to keep the population fed. An offering could also be to favour the outcome of the birth of children or perhaps the healing of a sick relative. At first I had found these cruel offerings nonsensical noticing what favours were being asked, realizing that these same children they had asked for favours to be born, could eventually be slaughtered as a sacrifice. The Chichimecas, one of the Aztec tribes, it was alleged, would sacrifice their own new born babies.
In my studies about Meso American cultures I had read a translation by Segundo, a Spanish monk, taken from Aztec codices, how during the reign of Aheotl, uncle of Montezuma, 25 000 captured warriors were sacrificed.
It seemed then that wars with bordering neighbours called “Flower wars” were not declared but arranged.. Warriors, dressed in colourful bird feathers with swords of obsidian did not hack each other to death but were instructed to gather captives to a required number.
The occasion for this ritual was to inaugurate the enlarging of their main temple complex devoted to Tlaloc, the water deity and Huizlipochli the war lord.
This duo pyramid lined with gold leaves stood in the middle of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire.
This special ceremony took a week and brought about such a horrendous condition that, so it was written, the gutters of the temple complex run full with the blood of the victims and the stench of rotten flesh became unbearable.
With all this information in mind I could sit in the silence and would hear the cries of fear and pain followed by a sickly thudding sound of disposed bodies rolling down the unusual high steps of the pyramid I was on.
To get the most of the gruesome impressions, it was important that I was alone and undisturbed at the site. To have that it was important that I was on the sight in the early morning when hardly anybody was present. I understood that most of these rituals took place in early hours of the morning just before the rising of the sun. One important deity who was worshiped in the early creeks of the day was Tonatiuh, the sun lord. People gave thanks to the sun lord after he had overcome the struggles of the underworld.
To be alone and undisturbed at these sights was not easy. Many of these remnants off the Aztecs area were also of great interest to many visitors who come to visit Mexico.
By midmorning , they used to arrive by the busloads, storming the sights like ancient warriors as if participating to whatever sacrificial ritual. To me, this manifestation added suggestions of how it could have been during those days of worship. I could imagine seeing many people, dressed in colourful clothing, running to and from , up and down the high steps of the various temples. In my mind I would take the sound of chatter of the visiting masses for the lament of the victims one way and the shouting of the congregation begging for favours the other way.
Unfortunately these were present days and nothing to do with the sacrificial services anymore and with the approaching of the tourist masses I soon stopped with my imaging.
While descending the steps of the Moon pyramid I soon noticed that there was always more appeal for the taller pyramid, devoted to Sun worship nearby. This pyramid was much more difficult to climb with its’ 250, half a meter high steps.
When I saw that it took a little longer before the first visitor climbed the Moon pyramid I was on ,giving me a little extension to my meditative exercise.
By then the Mexican sun got to hot anyway and time for me to return to San Miguel de Allende.
On a second occasion I returned to Mexico, this time to do Mayan expressions I had again stayed in San Miguel de Allende.
Remembering the previous routine when I did Azteca I had thought of doing the same for my Mayan expressions. For some unknown reason and after a few trips to the same familiar spot on the Moon pyramid I, gained nothing that suited my impressions of the Mayan culture.
I had decided to go to the Yucatan , the district of the Mayans on the west coast of Mexico.
My first visit was to go to Chitzen Itza , a magnificent complex of pyramids, temples and warrior quarters. There was even a mysterious spot of a dark and deep well where, I was told young victims were thrown in to appease the gods.
Entering this ancient Mayan city I looked out for the “El Castillo” a tall pyramid devoted to Kulkucan, one of the principal deities. After a steep climb to the top of the stone structure, I gave myself a moment to enjoy the magnificent panorama of the old historical site.
There were no visitors that day which gave me an opportunity to do some meditative imaging. The night before I had made short a sight seeing tour of Merida the capital of the Yucatan. Instead I stayed in my hotel room to read as much as I could about Chitzen Itza and what the city had meant to the Mayas.
Sorry to mention but I could only stay for one day. The sheer distance the sight is separated from San Miguel would make a repeat visit for me not affordable.
So I was to look for an alternative by which I could express my subject I had titled as “Mayan Symposium”. The concept of which I derived from a book that I was told was sacred among the Mayans and was still in use.
The book that I had chosen was that of the “POPOL VUH” . Its sacred connotation was still practised by various groups of Mayans most of them living in Nicaragua. It told of a struggle between good and lesser with the latter being defeated by deceit and treachery.
Were I was not able to find suitable material for my Mayan images I went the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City where there was an abundance of references available.
On the opportunity to visit the museum I always took a moment to visit the Aztec collection first . I was always impressed with what there was on show with all the old relics of the past empire.
My favourite sculpture I admired which overpowered the Aztec collection was that of Quatlique, the Earth Goddess.
“Quatlique”
A story told was that during the ransacking of the ancient capital Tenochtitlan, her image was pulled down from its platform and buried by the then marauding Spanish conquistadors , by order of the Spanish inquisition.
The sculpture stayed buried until it was rediscovered during excavation for the subway system of Mexico City and put in the museum. As you can see above , the image of the sculpture had ferocious features . There are serpent heads that came out of her neck and hands. She wore a skirt of snakes and around her neck hung a necklace of skulls.
The mythology of her, told the reason how she got to that state. As one of the Aztec deities she was accused and convicted of having committed adultery. As punishment she was beheaded. and de-handed and her body thrown down the mountain hills of the Aztec heavens where she stayed at its feet, to be used as a doormat for all times. I am not quite sure, whether she became known as the Earth goddess as a result or if she was the Earth deity before her unfortunate predicament.
With my frequent visits to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and the library in San Miguel de Allende I was able to express all the answers I had wanted to know about these wonderful ancient cultures.
From a Shaman I had met in San Miguel de Allende I heard that everyone, Mayan as well in Aztec Indians have converted to Christianity. However, many still practise the old religion to the extent that their ancestors did. The use of human sacrificial is now forbidden. The most they use is a chicken or perhaps a pig if they can afford it. Most of the time the offerings were consumed by the people who attended a ritual so they were never wasted.
An other peculiarity I would like to mention as an interest is the ease by which many of the ancients converted into Christianity. The reason could have been because of the image of the bleeding heart of Christ which the invading Christians armies used in their religious emblems, was also the most important subject in Meso American ritual.
What all the research in Mexico did for me , was to give me a greater understanding, not only about the religion of these ancient Meso American civilization, but also of my own as a Christian of Roman Catholic faith.
With trying to go beyond the ideological conviction of both Christians on one and primitive cultures on the other side I have come to a conclusion what religion meant.
I will in due course try to explain this concept in another part of my life story.
For now I would like to express my deepest respect and sympathy for all religions that include the Mexican people.
