As we continue our journey around the globe, searching for correspondences with OrishaOko, we come to the Americas. To the Aztecs, Xipetotec was an important deity. He was the god of vegetation and represented the new life that came after the rains. The harvest of corn, which was the staple food of the Aztecs, was dependent on the rains that came every year and sacrifices were made to Xipetotec to insure the coming of the rains, so that a bountiful harvest would take place. The priests of Xipetotec reportedly wore the flayed skin of sacrificial victims for a period of time as part of the ceremony to insure a good harvest. Although human sacrifices were performed for the Orishas in the earliest times, that practice has been abandonded for more than a thousand years. This is due to Orunla, who changed the practice of human sacrifice with the Yorubas when they unknowingly were going to sacrifice a daughter of his in a ceremony. Once Orunla was walking the woods and fell into an elephant trap. Since the pit was very deep, he was unable to get out of there without help. As no one came along, Orunla began to sing songs. Three women happened to be passing by and heard his songs. They approached the pit and saw Orunla's plight. The only way to get him out, was for the women to take off their clothes and tie them together to make a cloth ladder. Orunla was then able to get out of the pit.
Since the women were naked and Orunla was very grateful to them for having saved his life, He made love to the women. Later on to one of the women, a daughter was born. Her mother taught her the songs that Orunla had sung. Later on, due to intertribal wars, the lost daughter was taken as a slave. It was the practice of the Yorubas in that time to sacrifice slaves to their Orishas. As they were bringing the slaves to be sacrificed, the daughter of Orunla began to sing the songs she had learned from her mother. When Orunla heard the songs, he stopped everything and discovered that she was indeed, his daughter. On that day, Orunla abolished the practice of human sacrifices to the Orishas among the Yoruba and substituted the sacrifice of animals instead. It is not pleasant to think about human sacrifices, but the reality of it all is that it was a common practice all over the world at one time.
The Mayas adopted the Toltec god, Kukulkan. He was a creator god, but also was closely connected with the growing of corn, the main food of the Mayas. Representations of Kukulcan are usually shown with an ear of corn, to represent this connection. Kukulkan was closely related to the Aztec diety Quetzalcoatl, who for us, is closely related to Osiris of the Egyptians. As Quetzalcoatl and Osiris are both related to reincarnation, so is Kukulcan. The ear of corn is a symbol of reincarnation, also, as the kernels of corn are planted, new life comes forth. So we see that OrishaOko and all the other forms of agricultural gods are related closely to the belief in reincarnation. Likewise, the followers of our religion are also believers in reincarnation. Reincarnaton is one of the basic tenets of most of the world's "old" religions. It is only in the last two thousand years that "new" religions such as Christianity and Islam appeared to question the validity of that age-old doctrine.
