Chronos Apollonios' "Home on Olympus"

Drawing from the Codex Duran

Here is a scene from the Codex Duran depicting "Aztec Ritual Sacrifice". Below, is a drawing depicting alleged ritual human sacrifice by the Aztec people of Mesoamerica that is far more notorious, the scene from Friar Bernadino de Sahagun's "General History of the Things of New Spain", also known as the Codex Florentino, or the Florentine Codex.

What's wrong with this picture? For starters, every scholar "knows", or at least will tell you, that the "victims" of scarifices weren't forced. Eyewitness or not, it was probably drawn by someone with considerable medical and anatomical knowledge, and yet there is no detail of internal organs.

The apparent absence of the later from the Internet/ World-Wide Web (along with other famous vignettes from the same source that also appear in a large percentage of any general work, such as the page featuring ancient molecular diagrams which I am likewise still trying to locate after many many hours searching, for the benefit those reading the pages on this site about ancient microscopy… and also the very common photographs of Tutankhamen's nebris, for those reading that particular page of this site) is frustrating, troubling, and even alarming… there seems little difference in the end between the outcome of these oversights and the outcome of conspiracy.

It is occasionally mentioned on various history programs appearing on cable television channels or magazine articles that there are a few scholars who debate that the Aztecs practiced ritual sacrifice… Apart, that is, from noted and esteemed archaeological scholars and adventurers to whom the whole field remains so indebted, who paint an extremely idyllic portrait of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations in "in spite" of the "evidence" to the contrary. I am in the process of seeking their names, and the titles of their works, so that I can present an even more formidable set of arguments in favor of a similar position.

I was quite honored to find that such a view is shared by the noted American Indian activist and actor, Russell Means, as noted in a review of his book, "Where White Men Fear To Tread", in "The New Republic" magazine, July 8, 1996, pg. 37-41. Pg 38: "Means maintains, for example, that it is a Eurocentric lie that Aztec sacrificed captives by ripping their hearts out: they had secret drugs, he says, and were actually practicing open heart surgery".

If Mr. Means is in error, it may only be because he is either exercising what might otherwise be appropriate caution, or because he is deliberately guarding a proprietary knowledge of Amerindian peoples from the same exploitation and abuse that seems to both form a consistent pattern in institutionalized and commercialized science and research, and is also repeated with alarming frequency as a rationale for the more recent reticence of Amerindian peoples to participate in the free "exchange" of knowledge. Likewise, there is a certain recognizable futility to preaching to closed ears; the web page where I first found this quote is a horrible collection of retentive bashing of progressive thinkers of all types, and the review of Means' book prefaces the above quote with "some rather astonishing versions of historical events", and seems to place it's intended context by following it, "And yet"… as if Russell Means had delivered a piece of sentiment which was of virtually no value or substance whatsoever, as it moves on to search for any redeeming elements.

Suffice to say, it may take a modicum of education in such areas to be able to pass any sort of sensible judgement, although I must also assure the reader that even that may be no guarantee. And alas, there may be a number of works for me to refer the reader to which can provide even more formidable arguments against the notion of Aztec ritual sacrifice which I have not had the fortune to obtain or to read. Likewise, I have not had the privilege of reading the work by Mr. Means, but have my own arguments in the matter as an independent result of my researches.

Let us try to take a look at the vignette from the Codex Duran once again.

The first, and the most glaring of idiosyncrasies that can be found here, one that runs contary to everything that is supposedly known about Aztec "ritual sacrifice", is that the "victim" is being forced to participate.

On any other occasion, in any other context, there is a vast multitude of individuals who profess to be acutely aware that the Aztec both stupefied their victims with narcotic incense, and relentlessly indoctrinated their "victims" with the concept of what an honor it was to be ritually sacrificed. Any individual being forcibly restrained is the last thing that should appear in any picture which can be taken seriously at face value.

Nor can we successfully attribute these idiosyncrasies to artistic carelessness. Even the most careless and juvenile works from Mesoamerican codices have considerable attention to detail, and this ritual which was supposedly thought to keep the very sun alive must certainly outstrip all other religious details in importance and appropriateness to record with all possible accuracy.

As much more like the "real thing" as this vignette appears to be, compared to the Codex Florentino's version, it is merely another of the same specie. It is a vignette that underscores the fundamental error in the way that scholars, however numerous they may be, have added up the evidence to measure "facts".

The facts may not fall far from Russell Mean's vision at all.

In the version from the Codex Florentino, the same scenario is seen, and once again, instead of the particant volunteering, he is being forced by no less that four individuals, each holding an arm or a leg. One difference, however, is that the chest cavity appears to completely opened, although there is no attention to the detail of such a striking public event, no ribs, organs or other inner detail is present. In fact, the very notion that the chest is cavitized at all cannot be seperated from the distinct possibility that the curvature of the chest is merely stylized and has the illusion of cavitation given the context.

Likewise, there is no detail about the "heart" that is held above his chest that identifies it as such, quite the contrary, there is only One major vein proceeding from it, and not two, even though it is in no way stylized. Likewise, is possible that the slight bit of branching that appear on the singular vein is unnatural.

What it may more greatly resemble, in fact, is a botanical, sporting a part of the stem from which it was cut; the "blood" may therefore be its juice. However, we must ask is this observation Plausible? What could the purpose be? Could it in fact be a medical procedure?

The answer is yes .

To this very day, botanical practitioners of the Huastec Maya, (the Huaxtec are normally regarded as some of those routinely victimed by the Aztec), informants of Janice B. Alcorn who contributed to her book, "Huastec Mayan Ethnobotany", employ members of the plant family Solanaceae, which contains a number of plants that similar to chiles and other peppers, only larger, have a shape approaching resemblance to the human heart. Like the tomato, which also occurs in this family, they are not uncommonly red in color (disregarding color, an Ascepliad, possibly a Sarcostemma specie, would serve as another candidate for a source of large heart-shaped fruits of potential medicinal value). Furthermore, certain Mesoamerican specie have been noted to contain substances called cardiac glycosides, steroidal substances not dissimilar in function or form that the heart medicine digitalis that is so widely used in modern medicine.

One notable difference, however, is that unlike our use of digitalis, the picture in question would of course depict the Topical, or external use of digitalis. It this postulation plausible?

Not more than three months after I began to have this suspicion in regard to the true nature of these illustrations of human "sacrifice", the National Public Radio news announced that scientists had begun having notable successes to topical applications of digitalis, applied like transdermal nicotine used in cigarette smoking cessation, by means of a skin patch.

I have yet to track down follow up to this reseach, but this is clearly sufficient for this purpose. It is likewise illustrative of the typicality of overly rigid thinking, for in our culture, there was "no other way" to use digitalis, mcuh as there is "no other way " to look at these ancient drawings and artifacts and scenes and practices, when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Such topical application of digitalis is intially tremedously encouraging, because it may promise to circumvent many inherent drawbacks of this staple of medical practice. As one individual succinctly put it, "about the time you get to the age where you need a heart medicine, you can't always trust your memory to tell you whether you already took it or not. If it starts making you sick or confused, you may think your body is trying to tell you didn't take it, so you end up taking even more". This feature alone can be enough to compromise the independence of many elderly people, as well as being a costly proposition because of the alternatives.

Indeed, digitalis from its natural source, the Foxglove, is easily poisonous, and even very small amounts can constitute an overdose. A single leaf of this plant from which digitalis first came is often sufficient to kill a child.

But indeed, the bondage of rigid thinking is tremendous. The fact of it is, the possibility of transdermal application of digitalis should be obvious. As with many, many other substances, if there is objectionable possibility of side effects from internal use, the possibility whether it can be safely used Externally should be the very next thing asked. Even moreso, the possibility of topical application of digitalis should also be obvious from the long known risk of poisoning from inappropiately handling large quantities, such as weeding sizable amounts without gloves and having large quantities of the juice make contact with the skin, or other similar risky situations.

It may prove that the medical as well as the historical profession have merely parroted this scholarly work or that far too many times without questioning. There is no shortage examples of the medical profession having suffered exactly this, and no institutionalized pursuit is inherently immune.

Another detail that would distinguish such use of cardiac glycosides by the Aztec from modern use of digitalis is the regularity of the treatment; treatment with digitalis is often ongoing, often repeated on a daily basis. The Aztec scenarios, on the other hand, appear to be in some aspect a mildly arduous minor ordeal that is not preferable to repeat often.

It is here that the question may fall into the new and unknown, and may yet await further research to unfold this last detail… is there something inherent in either the treatment method, or other aspect of the method… or perhaps within the complex chemistry of a natural product, that would make possible such infrequency of treatment? Such analgesic contituents of Solanaceaceous plants as capsaaicins may indeed effect systems in the body that affect and perhaps spare ATP, an endogenous fuel of the body employed in modern European medicine as a heart medicine, and may also pertain to systems in the body by which certain reactions become routine; ATP or its close relative are relevant in processes, for example, of both learning, and of addiction. This may be the most rudimentary way of assessing such possibilities tentatively, and indeed, other possible mechanisms may come to mind, but this may yet be proven to be exactly what the outcome of the specific parctice may be, that the effects of each treatment are more enduring than conventional use.

Again, it may well be if that Mr. Means is in any way in error, it is merely because his own estimation is too cautiously conservative. While advanced surgical procedures are certainly in no way beyond those in question (the trepanning skills of ancient Peruvians are notorious), it may be that the skill of the Aztec doctors circumvented the need for surgical and invasive procedures entirely.

In the meantime, what is also relevant is that the "confusing" occurance of a heart medicine that can be mistaken for a heart is that it can be counted as an yet another example of the Doctrine of Signatures, a possibility that indeed should be easily well known to scholars to serve as a possible theory in this matter. Wherever a judgment has been passed in the matter without taking this into consideration, little more than a heinous oversight has been accomplished.

Likewise, sometimes chilling are the words from conversations that supposedly occurred. Alledgedly, Cortez was asked, "What do you Spaniards want with so much gold? Do you eat it?" Cortez is purported to have said, "We Spaniards suffer from a disease of the heart, for only gold can cure". Not only is this remark disturbing as a perverse rationalization of greed, but it is disturbing as well within the present context of heart disease. (It nearly reeks of some of the premises of alchemic medicine as well… not that there is a legimate need for gold as a medicine, quite the contrary, alchemy promises to create the gold rather than it needing to be plundered… but the sort of substances that may transmute elements in nature, are indeed used to treat heart disease; they may be plentiful in corn, as is mentioned in the page that discusses the Cacaxtla mural being an additional example of the Doctrine of Signatures in Mesoamerican history.

As is asserted elsewhere in the pages of this site, Doctrine of Signatures, that is, the employment of natural pharmaceuticals whose shape and color, or other traits coincide with their economic functions is continually noted by scholars as one of the common characteristics of Amerindian and European color alike. A system of botanical classification which facilitates the practical, economic use of natural products as opposed to the modern system which seems more inherently geared to taxonomic abstractions, it merits are discussed in great detail at this site. Likewise, pages of this site present arguments of the possible superiority of a practical botany, of special importance as America grows ever-increasingly burned with staggering rising health care and medicine costs, and the financing of the treatment of health care cost resulting from the use of conventional pharmaceuticals, and the desperate need to search for new pharmaceuticals…

And yet tonnage of natural medicines whose number proceed into and may surpass the trillions, whose dollar values are inestimable, are wasted every year.

Additionally, the Doctrine of Signatures may play a pivotal role in purposeful interpretation of other Middle American codices. There is no shortage of pictures which depict individuals from whose opened chests spout forth the magical trees which correspond to the four cardinal points of the compass. While the temptation to cite these as evidence of ritual sacrifice, thankfully, seems often negated by these aspects of unrealism, these are nonetheless very real botanicals, and the appearance of the trees in this context, rather than suggesting some perverse rite of fertility, may fall in the same context of being the particular prevailing style in which the pictograms or ideograms communicate that they too may be potential heart medicines, possibly more preferable to use, in corresponding proportion to how much more often they seem to appear. Lacking easily observed traits or Signatures that identify and commemorate them as heart medicines, this dramatic gesture is taken instead. Certain characteristics of products from the maguey, for example, may hint at certain qualities that may be their means of operation in this area.

Mexican codices and conquistador accounts of the New World describe racks of human skulls adorning the pyramids, but the great probability is the that the reality is what we see at the right, that they are only facsimiles. It's hard explaining, whatever rationale is given, why, if there was any purpose in genuine human skulls, that facsimiles could suffice in any instance. The same must be asked about their crystal skulls; the Mesoamerican occurance of, and preoccupation with skulls may very well arise from their feats of progress in the physical sciences and oracular "magick".

This, on the other hand, recently featured in a special edition of Time magazine, is described as a "bone church". Found in Prague, Czechoslovakia, it reputedly contains the remains of tens of thousands of victims of the plague.

Of course, anywhere that heresay is taken to be fact, we could of course maintain other different, unfounded notions as to the purpose and origin of the remains, which might be equally bigoted and defamatory toward the clergy in question.

What else can be said in favor of the argument that what is commonly taken to be "human ritual sacrifice" is in fact something very different?

For one thing, the testimony of the Conquistadors as they are presented by almost virtually everyone unanimously, has a multitude of reasons to be considered inherently biased; for another, we must consider that the very presence of such Conquistadors potentially constitutes the duress under which any confession of wrongdoing becomes meaningless. They are as substantial as the confessions that are alleged to have been literally tortured out of witches and innocent bystanders, or the confessions tortured out of prisoners of war.

If we are willing to retain open minds about the matter, there are alternatives. There is quite a spectrum of possible scenarios available for us to consider. Here, for example is one possible scenario:

Having realized that Cortez is anything but the long awaited God, Quetzacoatl, the emperor Moctecuzoma tells Cortez that he believes this nonetheless, to pamper and soften and satisfy Cortez' ego, hoping this will spare the lives of many of his people from egotistical and lethal displays of Spanish "superiority". Cortez is catered to as if he were a God to aid in this process.

The Aztecs, accustomed to entertaining themselves by wearing lavish garb and engaging in mock battles do not feel ready to win such a battle. Although their tools could make formidable weapons, they are not in fact accustomed to using them as weapons, for had they been, they could have been rapidly victorious, largely by means of sheer numbers. Still, their rainments are questionable, for they are not the rainments of warriors, they are costumes for sport, armor made not of metal and stone, but of cotton and feathers. Even the sheilds with metal studding serve no reasonable defense against a spear delivered from a javelin thrower by a skilled hand, for the javelin blade would all too easily glance off of the studs and be guided between them through the wood and into the sheild carrier's forearm, pinning the sheild to his arm and rendering him severely handicapped.

Moctecuzoma realizes that if he wishes to assert his own might, and the might of his people, that doing so in the direction of Cortez' men will only bring more retaliation, in unjust proportion, upon his own people. So, improvising, he devises a way in which to convey that Aztecs can be ruthless, cold-blooded killers, and even in a way which absolves the Aztecs of animosity, a way in fact in which victims are Honored by this treatment, as if to say, "this is the highest honor we can bestow upon someone, is to sacrifice them alive. You come here seeking to be honored by us above all, perhaps you and your men had better get back in your ships and go home, before we "honor" you in this way".

Seizing the opportunity, Moctecuzoma produces Codices depicting teachings about cardiac medicine, presented in the stylized, facetious, cartoonish and comical fashion employed so that the texts appeal to the morbid humor of young schoolboys, dramatically emphasizing critical elements such as blood, heart, and circulation, and the comedic reluctance of the patient to take his medicine. Prominent are those that specify the necessity of good cardiac health for participation in rigorous athletic games because of the risk of heart attack, and yet the need of physical exercise to promote good functioning of heart and circulatory system

He proceeds to explain to Cortez that this is "proof" that his people have a long history of "honoring" people in this way.

Had a Spaniard actually been an eye-witness to a human ritual sacrifice, he would have been brought before the pyramid with the crowd, and watched from perhaps a considerable distance, making details considerable difficult to percieve. The drums pound so loudly that the Spaniards blink their eyes with each drum stroke, and their eyes brim with tears from the acrid sting of the well-established latex incenses, perhaps even being affected by the narcotic content which the consensus of historians regard as being used to virtually stupefy the victim.

They see a man walk slowly up the step of the pyramid, accompanied by the priest, taking slow, dazed steps forward, and with every few passing seconds, their eyes burn and tear more. Finally, they see him reach the top, and in a thick, dark cloud of latex incense smoke, they dimly see the priest gesture towards the man. They see the victim fall, and then they see a lifeless body tumble limply down the first few steps of the pyramid, where it rest motionless, it's midsection a great blur of red. At least, they see the priest hold the heart high into the air, and then devour it.

Thus, the Aztecs demonstate their feirceness without harming anyone, and particularly without inviting retaliation by making an example of a Spaniard. The fable that Cortez is Quetzacoatl proves a convenient excuse for his own exemption from this honor, although we note that no one was sacrifid to supplicate or honor the "God" Cortez, strikingly enough.

If the victim has had his body splashed with paint, and then pretended to fall, lifeless, while the preist pulls a large fruit from his robe and eats it, they do not know it. If the victim has stepped into the smoke at the top of the pyramid and walked down the backside of it, while the corpse of a man killed that morning by Conquistadors who has been dressed the same, with his chest opened, has been carried into the smoke and pushed from the highest step, waiting to be examined by the Spaniards, they do not know it. If the whole thing has been a vision induced by narcotics put into the meals of the Conquistadors and been whispered carefully, hypnotically, into their ears for them to believe that they have seen it, he has not seen it. But they believes he has seen it, and Moctecuzoma has attempted to communicate his warning...

A point, unfortunately, with which the oblivious Cortez has a field day… for it is difficult enough to return to Spain and proclaim, "they were the kindest, sweetest, wisest, most gentle people we have ever known, full of color and playfulness, like children", and then announce that they were slaughtered mercilessly for the sake of their gold". They could hardly expect to regarded as heroes, let alone as humane, even by the standards of the day. Rationalizing the plunder of the new world to the king's public requires vilification, just as it required their vilification on religious grounds… a process for which the Spaniards found all too easily expedited by the well-meaning, fabricated display of intimation that would be provided or alledged by the Aztecs, the "honor" of being "ritually sacrificed".

These last matters alone are grounds for eyeing any "testimony" of Conquistadores with suspicions.