A Sacrifice of Blood for Rain

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Participants dressed in tiger costumes, lash at each other mercilessly in order to draw blood, and have their opponent submit. This is an indigenous tradition made as an offering to the rain god Tlaloc.

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According to tradition, blood spilled in battle is an offering for Tlaloc, the god of storms (Source-Pedro Pardo AFP)

Zitlala is in the state of Guerrero in south-western Mexico. It is one of the poorest and most violent states in the country, and has a little over 6,000 inhabitants; 97% are indigenous.

In 2016, 32 bodies and nine heads were recovered by local police. International travel advisories warn against all travel to Guerrero due to widespread violent crime, kidnapping, and the activity of armed groups. 

Tlaloc is an Aztec god revered for controlling rain, storms, and lightning, and for his connection to fertility and agriculture. He is depicted with goggle-like eyes, fangs, and sometimes a snake-like staff or mouth. He is a powerful but feared deity, associated with both life-giving rain and destructive storms or drought. Worship of Tlaloc was widespread in Mesoamerica and involved rituals like sacrifices, often including children, to ensure rain for crops.

According to one of the participants, "They say it's a drop of blood for a drop of rain."

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Jaguars in fierce combat during the celebration for the feast of the Holy Cross. Zitlala, Guerrero c.1987 (Source-Ruth D. Lechuga)

The "Tlaloc" ceremony is a ritual called Atsatsilistli. Participants dressed as tigers, fight with whips, and the blood spilled is an offering to Tlaloc, the god of storms and rain, to ensure a good rainy season for crops. The sound of the whiplashes is symbolic of thunder.  The tradition, which was once so brutal that some contestants even died. Normally only men were allowed, but now women are participating. They are dressed in tiger costumes and lash at each other. 

Each fighter must wear a tanned leather mask and jaguar clothing that can be yellow, green or black. The yellow symbolizes the sun, drought and fainne; green represents fertility and black represents the underworld. He also uses a rope mallet.

In preparation for the ceremony which usually occurs either in the last days of April or at the beginning of May, the participants dance under the sun to Mexican banda music. The ritual takes place inside a kind of cage to prevent crowds from disturbing the proceedings. At the beginning men lash at each other with rope whips for about five minutes. The air is soon perfumed with the scent of mezcal, an agave liquid the participants drink, and wet their whips with to make them more effective. Three hours later, women take a turn at drawing blood from their opponent in a ritual to ensure the rainy season begins on time. The one who can withstand the most hits, wins.

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Tlaloc c.17th century

THE GOD OF RAIN
Tlaloc was a god worshiped by the Aztec (14th to 16th century) who ruled over rain, fertility and water. In his wrathful persona he represented floods, thunderstorms, hail and lightning. He's portrayed with corn (maize) and lightning, and his likeness has bulging eyes with a ring around each and fangs.

Tlaloc was the eighth ruler of the days, and the ninth lord of the nights. With his lightning bolts, he first brought life to plants, then the second was light, the third created frost and the fourth heralded total destruction. Certain illnesses, such as dropsy, leprosy, and rheumatism, were said to be caused by Tlaloc and his fellow deities.

Although the dead were generally cremated, those who had died from one of the special illnesses, or who had drowned or been struck by lightning were buried. They had seeds planted in their faces, and blue paint covered their foreheads. Their bodies were dressed in paper and accompanied by a digging stick for planting.

Children, usually infants, were sacrificed to Tlaloc on the first month, Atlcaualo and on the third, Tozoztontli.

​Tlaloc was one of the main deities of central Mexico where many of the tribes were agricultural. The deity's high priest, Feathered Serpent, had a rank equal to the sun god's priest. 

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According to the Codex Tovar written by a Spanish priest depicts Tenochtitlan's enormous skull rack

RITUALS
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Tlaloc was a god of great importance to the Aztec. One of two shrines at the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan were dedicated to this deity. A bowl was kept there where offerings were made to the rain god which sometimes included sacrificial hearts.

​The most important site for the worship of Tlaloc was the peak of Mount Tlaloc in the rim of the Valley of Mexico. Situated on the eastern rim, the mountain rose to 13,500 ft above the Lake of Texcoco. The Aztec ruler would hold important ceremonies on a plateau at the top. Pilgrims would also come to bring offerings. A 44-mile road connected the two sites.

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Diagram ruins of Tlaloc c.1929

In a Atlacahualo festival that was celebrated from February 12 to March 3 children were sacrificed on Mount Tlaloc. The children were carried on litters while dancers careened around them. If the children cried their tears were viewed as proof of abundant rains not too far off. The children's hearts were cut out by a priest. The hearts of the sacrificed were placed in blue-painted vessels known as "cloud pots" and cast into the whirlpool of Pantitlan, a symbolic act to invoke the rains.

Every year during this festival seven children would be sacrificed around the Aztec capital. The children were either slaves or children of pipiltin, which were one strata above commoners. Within three weeks the Atlachualo festival (March 24 - April 12) was celebrated where children were also sacrificed. The victims would be brought to a cave were they were flayed. The skins would be worn by priests for 20 days and then left in dark caverns as an offering.

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Ruins of Tlaloc photographed by C.G. Rickerds c.1929

According to the Codex Boronicus, during an annual Huey Tozotli festival, Tlaloc was incorporated into the celebrations. Aztec rulers would make a pilgrimage to Mount Tlaloc and a child was sacrificed as part of their ceremonies. Tlaloc was also worshiped at Mount Tlaloc during the Etzalcualiztli festival (the 6th month of the Aztec calendar).

​Rulers from across Central Mexico would perform ceremonies to Tlaloc to assure fertility and rain. During the pilgrimage there was sacrifices of both children and adults to this deity. Detailed records of Mount Tlaloc were presented by Constantine G. Rickards in 1929. He photographed the ruins, surmising that many of the stones had been used by the indigenous people living in the area for their own purposes. There is evidence of construction of a shrine erected in the 1970s, suggesting rituals had been conducted recently on the plateau.

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Some of the skulls displayed on the tzompantli were transformed into masks (Source-Mostardi Photography/Alamy)

THE SACRIFICES

When the Conquistadores arrived in Tenochititlan in 1519, they saw enormous racks of skulls built in front of the pyramid where two temples presided over the populace of Mexica. One was dedicated to the war god, Huitzilopochtli, and the other to the rain god, Tlaloc. The skulls were harvested from captives. The priests would kill them by slicing open their chest, and pull the hearts out, still beating. Mercifully this brought death. With practiced hands they decapitated the body with obsidian blades, and then flayed the skin and muscles off the head. All that was left was a skull. Holes were made on both sides and slipped onto a wooden post to accompany other skulls. These racks were called tzompantli. Time and the weather would take its toll and eventually they fell apart. Then the priests would remove them and make masks from them, or use it as an offering. Others were stacked on two towers that were held by mortar that flanked the tzompantli.

The Spanish tore down the Templo Mayor in 1521, along with the tzompantli. Historian and archaeologists charged that the Conquistadors exaggerated, or outright lied about the evidence of human sacrifice practiced by the Aztec, including the Spaniards' estimate that over 100,000 skulls hung on the racks.

In 2015, archaeologists at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) excavated a skull rack, and one of the towers underneath a colonial-era house situated behind Mexico City's cathedral. They suspect the second tower lies in the back courtyard of the cathedral. The scale of the discoveries proved that indeed the rack and tower held thousands of skulls.

​In the 1970s, the Templo Mayor was discovered when electrical workers dug up a circular statue of the goddess Coyolxauhqui, who was killed and dismembered by her brother Huitzilopochtli. A lead anthropologist with INAH found that 75% of the skulls belonged to men, age 20 to 35, 20% were women and 5% to children. The mix of age and sexes substantiates the Spanish claim those used in the sacrifices were slaves sold in the city markets specifically for this purpose.

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