Elizabeth Rhein-Sacrifice and Time-Space-Reading

Since I had written about Aztecs and sacrifice as an example in my senior seminar paper, I thought that maybe it would be good to read more about it. I found a book on sacrifice written by Kay Reed. In one section, she discusses the process of a fire sacrifice. Apparently the Aztecs sacrificed people in order to keep everything in order. Their goal was to keep everything in order and continue on with time-space. At the ceremony, everyone doused their fires, wore masks, and sat on top of their homes. Pregnant women were hidden away because it was thought that if they viewed any of the ceremony, they would turn into man-eating beasts. The ceremony consisted of the removal of one man’s heart with a special knife used by the priests. After his heart was consumed by the fire at the alter, the rest of his body was burned. This fire would then be used to light the rest of the city. I thought this was really interesting because I never really knew what certain things people like the Aztecs would sacrifice a human for. In this case it was fire. I don’t think I read it here, but I wonder what the human going to be sacrificed would think. Maybe he would have agreed to do such a thing and consider it as an honor or maybe he would have been chosen by his people and therefore be completely against having his heart cut out. The book said that four priests held the person down but I would think that this would happen under both mindsets. Anyway, I feel that now I know a little more about human sacrifice after reading this book which is that they use it to keep time-space continuing on.