The spectacular ritual life of the Aztecs exerted one of the principal integrating forces behind their economic, social, and ideological cohesion. The organization and operations of the state were never completely temporal and utilitarian, operated for material interest alone. The functions of government were propelled by value systems intricately interwoven with cosmologies, myths, and beliefs rooted in religion. Since remote times the rhythms of life in highland Mexico had been deeply embedded in the land and the changing seasons. The annual alternation of rain and drought-- periods of life and death--had determined the cycle of farming peoples and hunter-gatherers before them. The pragmatic business of obtaining food went hand in hand with a sense of periodicity, rhythm and cyclic recurrence, and with the notion of belonging to the land.


The Aztecs, as well as other Amerindian peoples, had a strong tendency to see the forms of the land as primarily sacred entities that came before the historic forms of their many deities. Mountains, caves, springs and rivers, lakes, and agricultural fields, all identified with some special spiritual presence, were joined with man-made symbols in a network, spreading a tissue of connections for religious communication between the social order and the natural forces, deities, and ancestral heroes. The interaction of humankind with nature and the gods that personified its forces was of profound significance, affirmed through a calendar of cyclic festivals at sacred places in cities and in the surrounding landscape. The mandate to conquer and the time of war in the dry season alternated with the season of rain and agriculture in the annual cycle of Aztec economic activity.


The composite Aztec pantheon was incorporated from diverse communities within the imperial domains. Most, if not all, of the cults can be grouped in basic clusters concerning natural elements and ancestor-heroes. Some of the most important deities are the following.


TEZCATLIPOCA, "Smoking Mirror" (obsidian), characterized as the most powerful, supreme deity, was associated with the notion of destiny. His cult was particularly identified with royalty, for Tezcatlipoca was the object of the lengthy and reverent prayers in rites of kingship.


TONATUIH, the sun, was perceived as a primary source of life whose special devotees were the warriors. The warriors were charged with the mission to provide the sun with sacrificial victims. A special altar to the sun was used for sacrifices in coronation rites, a fact that signifies the importance of the deity. The east-west path of the sun determined the principal ritual axis in the design of Aztec cities.


HUEHUETEOTL, "the old, old deity," was one of the names of the cult of fire, among the oldest in Mesoamerica. The maintenance of fires in the temples was a principal priestly duty, and the renewal of fire was identified with the renewal of time itself.


TLALOC, the rain deity, belonged to another most memorable and universal cult of ancient Mexico. The name may be Aztec, but the idea of a storm god especially identified with mountaintop shrines and life-giving rain was certainly as old as Teotihuacan. The primary temple of this major deity was located atop Mt. Tlaloc, where human victims were sacrificed to fertilize water-rocks within the sacred enclosure. In Tenochtitlan another Tlaloc temple shared the platform atop the dual Main Pyramid, a symbolic mountain.


HUITZILOPOCHTLI, the deified ancestral warrior-hero, was the Mexica-Aztec patron par excellence. His temple (next to that of Tlaloc) on the Main Pyramid was the focus of fearsome sacrifices of prisoners captured by Aztec warriors. Victims' heads were strung as trophies on a great rack, the Tzompantli, erected in the precinct below.


QUETZALCOATL, "quetzal (feather) serpent," had dozens of associations. It was the name of a deity, a royal title, the name of a legendary priest-ruler, a title of high priestly office. But its most fundamental significance as a natural force is symbolized by the sculpture of a coiled plumed serpent rising from a base whose underside is carved with the symbols of the earth deity and Tlaloc. The image of the serpent rising from the earth and bearing water on its tail is explained in the Nahuatl language by a description of Quetzalcoatl in terms of the rise of a powerful thunderstorm sweeping down, with wind raising dust before bringing rain.


XILONEN, "young maize ear," and Chicomecoatl, "seven serpent," were principal deities of maize representing the chief staple of Mesoamerican peoples.


TONANTZIN, "honored grandmother," was among the many names of the female earth-deity.


The priestly hierarchy was headed by the tlatoani. Although he was not considered a god, the tlatoani was invested with sacred power during the coronation. His priestly duties included officiating at the annual rites for rain, as well as other crucial festivals of the ceremonial cycle. His responsibilities for rainmaking were deeply tied to the maintenance and renewal of Aztec society. Below the tlatoani were two high priests respectively associated with the cults of Huitzilopochtli and of Tlaloc. Next in rank was the commander of ritual and superintendent of the calmecac school (for training the nobility). He was assisted by two governors of the rest of the priestly orders.


The Aztec priesthood had a place for every talent and interest. There were scribes and painters of pictorial manuscripts; those who specialized in divination, calendrical calculations, and reading the movements of the Sun, Moon, and stars; others engaged in prophesies and visions. The warrior priests, who accompanied Aztec armies during campaigns, in addition to their other duties captured enemies and made the appropriate sacrifices in the field. Perhaps the most highly esteemed priests were the tlamatini ("wise men"), learned leaders, persons of trust, teachers, and counselors, who "light the world for one, who know the land of the dead, who [are] dignified, unreviled."