The rites of bloodshed

The rites of bloodshed were a very important part of the mayan cosmovision.

During these rites the rulers cut any part of your body to make yourself bleed, then collected their blood in papers and burned in censers. Participants in these ceremonies experienced visions in which they communicated with the ancestors or gods, often for advice or to purchase its protection. It is likely that in these ceremonies also used hallucinogens.

The visions that had taken the form of a giant serpent that served as a gateway to the spiritual realm. The ancestor or god who was contacting was represented as an entity that emerged out of the mouth of the snake. So, for them, the Snake in the Vision was a direct link between the spirit realm of the gods and the physical world.

In the publication we can see:

1. The lady Wak Tuun holding a basket with the materials for a rite of blood.

2. Bird-Jaguar is shown preparing to draw blood from his penis with a spike strip. In front of him is lady Balam-Ix, which proceeds to spend a thick rope through a slot in their language.

3.It shows a ritual of bloodshed that took place Shield Jaguar II and his wife, Lady K’abal Xook, was placed on the ruling by holding a flaming torch over his wife, who pulls a rope from end to through your tongue.

4. The lady Xook holds a basket of papers with blood, The Vision Serpent rises before she has two heads, one at each end, out of the mouth of one emerges a warrior, the other emerges the head Tlaloc, the god of the water of the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico.