And is beauty beauty? Or is beauty ugly. Or is ugly beauty. These are
the questions that torment the demented mind of one whose name shall
remain unmentioned. Which bring us via a most logical and totally
arcane route to human sacrifice.
Yes. well… the road to understanding is at times a slow and
tortuous one. For those of you who feel compelled to read on–poor
souls that you are–I am here to tell you that I am quite clearly on
a Mesoamerican kick. Aztec anyone? So. was there a methodology here?
A system to this whole thing? A raison d’etre for the slicing up of
our corporeal entities? And how did they get their victims? And what
the devil has this to do with jewelry, Benjamin? Perhaps you would
like to tell us that?
Yes. Well. Where to start? Where did they get their victims? War, my
friends. As was and is and probably always will be… war was
oft-times as not a religious enterprise and was the preferred way of
culling victims for sacrifice. The loser… quite often a brave and
noble soul. would end up tied to a stone slab. immobilized in order
to appease the God-du-jour. This all started some time ago. during
the Olmec civiliation. … around 1200-1300 BCE. The Aztecs however.
bless the little souls. raised the custom to an unprecedented scale.
Their position was. the more they slit you up. they happier they made
their supreme beings. The thinking went a bit like this: The Great
Ones went through much toil and trouble and personal sacrifices in
order to create the world and the sun (if you think this is easy you
try it) and so. in repayment for their sacrifices we give them our
sacrifices. Sort of repayment in kind so to speak. A tit for a tat. A
heart for a planet.
And the next question is. how did they do the deeds. Children were
often used for it was well known that their tears would bring on the
rain. Once again logic reigns. Or rains. Whatever. Of course. the
most common procedure was to simply cut open the chest and rip out
the heart using an obsidian or flint knife. and then place the heart
in a vessel and burn it as an offering of appeasement. Sometimes the
heart was eaten by the priests. Oh bloody yummy.
And if you weren’t slit open from stem to stern. upon occasion you
would be skinned alive. or decapitated. or shot with darts and
arrows. or repeatedly thrown into a fire until you were well done. a
succulent morsel for those who liked to partake.
Shall we seque to the jewelry segment of this horror story? In order
to use a sacrificial knife. one would need. it would appear. a
suitable knife handle. Ah yes. well… it is here that ugly becomes
beautiful. Hoo–hah! Do I have a knife handle to show you. Used by
the Aztec priests of old. it is made of turquoise and shell mosaic to
form a rather monstrous figure which formed the handle of the knife.
Of course. a new question arises. When viewing this handle. perhaps
there are one or two of you who could enlighten me as to into which
end or orifice the blade is placed. This is nothing more than a
matter of intellectual curiosity. one which I would appreciate having
sated.
A slight addendum now. and we’re done. When you go to view this hilt.
you will also see in the upper right hand corner of the image. an
Aztec priest performing a ritual act of sacrifice. Quite entertaining
you know.
And so there is it. You know where. You know what. The visit to the
image. also known as the viewing experience. You know how to get
there. Home page. http://www.tyler-adam.com. Scroll down. Left side.
[Tidbits]. Click. And there for your sensory optic pleasure you will
see an Aztec mosaic knife handle of incredibly beauty used to do
ugly.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week.
Benjamin Mark