- Joined
- Aug 8, 2021
No, sadly, I only know of the official figures, which are sketchy to begin with. Based off of the few known cases of human sacrifice being offered all being traced to areas with heavy cartel presence or a theorized serial killer hunting the area, I'd bet 99.9% of the worshippers who actually hurt anyone fall under one of those two categories. Those giving animal sacrifice or auto-sacrifice are probably more numerous and more ordinary people -- I can think of a number of documented cases of animal sacrifice and Tigre boxing being recorded in the last 20 years among rural villages in northern and central Mexico. Neither of those were for Santa Muerte (the former was for local mountain deities, the latter is a modernized "sport" with heavy religious undertones associated with Tlaloc the rain god, and though none of the articles mentioned it, there are features of the symbology that are identical to symbology in certain sacrifices in antiquity that were performed for Xipe Totec, the god of spring and vegetation), but if both of those kinds of things are still happening for other gods, I'd infer it's not off the menu for Muerte, for some devotees.
I agree with your view that the vast majority of Muerte's followers are just ordinary people, though. The cartel psychos and criminals tend to draw a lot of attention, but Muerte's generally viewed as a benevolent, merciful goddess (despite her frightening appearance) who's willing to try to help the very poorest and weakest of people, those forgotten or discarded by the rest of society. A lot of those who turn to her are people who are utterly desperate and feel like they have nowhere else to turn.
Part of this is her symbology is a syncretism from European Christian folklore of Death as the one who ultimately comes to take everyone, powerful and weak alike (Ever listen to the folk song "O Death?" or "Death And The Lady" Same energy.) and Precolumbian beliefs about the King and Queen of the Dead, Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl. Warriors who died in battle and women who died in childbirth went to the paradaisical House of the Sun. Those struck by lightning or drowned would go to Tlalocan, the land of eternal springtime and realm of Tlaloc. Babies who died before eating solid food would return to the primordial creator gods, Ometeotl and Omecihuatl, waiting to be sent back for another shot at life. Virtually everyone else, however, would go to Mictlan, the domain of the Lord and Lady of Death. They welcomed anyone and everyone, kings and orphans alike, and your former status only carried so much weight under their rule -- being rich and powerful made your trip to their throne easier as you had more grave goods to bring with to help you on the way, but once in their court, the deceased would give up the relics of their former life, presumably now level with the rest of the mass of the common dead. But, humble as it is, it's still a home, and one given by the King and Queen of Death when none of the other gods would offer one. And a little like Hades and Persephone, they allow their "guests" periodic trips to the world of the living to visit their beloved families.
<angry nerd noises> I'm going to rip each one of these apart. (No one bitch at me about the translation bits, my Spanish sucks and all I care about is giving the gist.)
"Tlaloc eats the kids/something about Tezcatlipoca and drinks the translator failed on/Quetzalcoatl asks for food, chocolate, and basically being a hippie/Hugs!"
Children were indeed sacrificed to Tlaloc way back when, and it was a desperation offering -- children were the most precious thing the people could give, and their small stature was a symbolic analogue to Tlaloc's army of rain spirits who served him, the Tlaloque (they were like mini-mes of the god). This was the ceremony that was performed when there was a drought so bad it threatened to destroy an area with famine.
Can't understand the bit about Tezcatlipoca but I'm sure it's retarded and would piss me off.
Quetzalcoatl... he was the farthest thing from a hippie. He was the god of the priesthood and proper ceremonial procedure. His seminary/priestly school (calmecac) was one of the toughest and most selective. It was also 100% male. Unlike some of the other gods, he had no female religious officers (this is specially remarked on in the Florentine Codex). He was also, like his brother Tezcatlipoca, a god of fate, particularly divinely-ordained death and misfortune, kind of like the Greek goddess Nemesis but even less predictable.
"I offered Tlaloc my menstrual blood/it started raining quick!"
There is literally not a single example of offering menstrual blood in any codex I have ever read, or any colonial-era source. None. Not one. Not even as a form of prohibited black magic, or as an offering to the goddess of sin/deviance/literal shit and trash, Tlazolteotl. (However, as she has dominion over all this disgusting stuff, she can also cleanse you of it, if you do penance. The Aztecs had a form of confession -- and it was strict. Some sources seem to say it was a thing you could do once ever in your life.) Furthermore, all legitimate blood offerings were of freshly-drawn blood, symbolically full of vibrant life, and blood offerings associated with rain usually emphasized free flowing, spattering, dripping blood (blood when it's most like falling, flowing rain). Based on those details, I feel safe in inferring that clotted, nasty menstrual blood would be viewed as dead, lifeless blood, and body waste, and that this offering would've been seen as sacriligeous. The menstrual blood fetish so many of these idiots have is fucking tiresome.
"I'm not afraid of the gods of Mexico/Okay, but do you know Mictlantecuhtli?/Ah yeah, in drawings/Oh no <cue scurreh pictures>"
Wat. No.
<in chibi animu chipmunk voice> "Please stop sending rain (Tlaloc), I don't have clean panties!/Tlaloc: Hehe/Hehe?! I flooded!!"
Gross. This is also the part where I mention that, even by Aztec mythological standards, Tlaloc had a nasty, hair-trigger temper and basically no sense of humor. In one of his myths, he plays a ballgame against an arrogant king and loses. He keeps his word and hands over the wager of profound riches he put up -- and the king flips his shit. He expected gold, silver, jewels, and precious quetzal feathers. What Tlaloc gave him was fruit, vegetables, and all sorts of crops. Tlaloc was so insulted he told the king to fuck off and struck the kingdom with a total drought ("You don't want my riches? Fine, have it your way!") until the king made some pretty extreme sacrifices and practically got down on his belly and begged for forgiveness. Not a good idea to fuck with the storm god with a jaguar's face (and general personality).
"Do you see the moon growing?/Yes I see, it's growing for her/Coyolxauhqui <shitty fantasy drawings of the moon goddess>"
Don't get the point of making this but at least it's not actively offensive in the context of supposedly having been made by a devotee.
And you're gonna give me an anger seizure posting these, because I can't not watch them and then go "WTF?! No!" the whole time. I'm amazed they left out the lewd metaphors with the story about Xochiquetzal... 
, and the dancer has an awesome set of ayoyotes. It's incredible how going from two to three to four rows cranks up the volume they can kick out almost exponentially. Also, I feel good about myself, I was thinking as I was watching "that sounds like one of Tezcatlipoca's rhythms and then I saw the captions. You can hear the same drumbeat in Xavier Yxayotl's song for Tezcatlipoca starting at 2:21 below.
