Dear Julia:

I just saw the movie Apocalypto, and it was disturbing! Now I'm wondering if the Mayans could possibly have been that barbaric, or if this was just Hollywood sensationalism designed to sell more movie tickets. It also has me wondering about the idea of sacrificing humans to the gods, and why people would have believed this to be wise or necessary. I can't wait to hear what you have to say on this subject!
- Char

Dear Char:

Apocalypto left me with a lot of questions too. Mostly I have been wondering what the heck is up with Mel Gibson and why I keep going to his movies, for Apocalypto was the most brutally violent film I've ever seen.

There are many mysteries surrounding the ancient Mayans. For most of us, the "history" we were taught in school was essentially European history followed by the relatively brief history of the United States, because the ancient history of the Americas was ethnocentrically dismissed by the writers of most history books.

Further, these lands were "conquered" by invaders who made a habit of murdering the rulers and priests, who were usually the only people who were able to read and write and thus record their history. Invaders also destroyed written records and banned the spiritual practices of native peoples in an effort to convert them to their own religion. Most native descendants who live in these areas of the world now consider themselves to be Catholic; sadly, the spiritual beliefs and practices of their ancient ancestors have been forgotten.

While I was also shocked by the brutality of Apocalypto, my research revealed that Mayans did indeed practice human sacrifice, and at times, did so in the horrible manner depicted. However, it's my understanding that unlike the endless stream of sacrifices shown in the movie, this was a rare event.

What bothered me even more than the graphic violence of the film was its final scene, in which Spanish (Catholic) conquistadors are shown coming ashore. Given Gibson's outspoken support of the Christian right, that scene is really disturbing, for as hopefully we all know by now, the Catholic Church has a long history of torturing and killing anyone who didn't wholeheartedly convert. Catholic efforts to "please God" led to the torture and murder of millions of innocent people and the destruction of entire civilizations. So if we're talking about barbaric "spiritual" practices, no Catholic should be pointing fingers. As I'll explain below, this scene left me pondering how easy it is to judge others, and how difficult it can be to see ourselves and our own beliefs in an honest light.

To begin to understand the practice of human sacrifice, first we must remember that in many ways, life itself used to be far more physical and barbaric. Instead of shopping at a grocery store, typing at a computer and watching television, most people struggled every day just to survive. Instead of attacking enemies from a distance with bombs and missiles, people killed their enemies with knives, spears, axes and even their bare hands. Ancient people witnessed violent death on a regular basis: they had to kill animals or starve to death, and kill other people or be killed.

Given the violent, precarious nature of life in ancient times, we must remember that what shocks us now was not so unthinkable then. Life itself was a scary undertaking. Considering all the drought, famine, disease, crime, and brutal invasions, the possibility of death was always lurking just around the corner. At the same time, lots of superstitions had a firm hold on folks' minds.

This led ancient peoples to try all sorts of things to secure divine help for their own survival. Sometimes, this meant making a sacrifice to the gods in order to "pay for" divine intervention, end or prevent natural disasters, or request a gift of prophecy/divination.

Historians tell us that human sacrifice was practiced by all sorts of ancient peoples including the Egyptians, Celts, Romans, Greeks, Vikings, Aztecs, Mayans, Incans, Polynesians, Africans, Aboriginals, Chinese, Hindus, etc. Reasons for sacrifice included the desire for protection in battle; harnessing the life force energy of the one sacrificed for magickal purposes; giving thanks for the gift of life or demonstrating faith in the gods; striking a bargain with the heavens in order to end a drought, famine or plague; preventing natural disasters like hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc. In time, these practices probably became rituals that were no longer consciously adopted for a specific purpose, but were performed simply because that was the tradition.

As was also depicted in the film, it was common to sacrifice outsiders like prisoners of war and criminals. This made sense emotionally, since people both feared and desired revenge upon those people, and it made sense from a practical perspective since during times of drought or famine, there were already too many mouths to feed.

Often human sacrifices involved willing participants who believed that by sacrificing themselves, they could help their communities. As leaders and protectors of their people, kings were often sacrificed in times of great need. In fact, one of the most fascinating reasons for voluntary sacrifice was to send a helper to the spirit world to watch over and guide a community.

In this case, the sacrifice was usually a young, smart, strong warrior, for this was the sort of spirit people wanted protecting them and guiding them from the other side. Before dying, this person might arrange to provide information and guidance through a living shaman/medium who remained on this side of the veil.

As humankind evolved spiritually and shed some old superstitions, a natural shift occurred in relationship to practices like human sacrifice, which is now viewed as barbaric and outlawed by governments around the world. As this shift occurred in history, animals were sometimes sacrificed instead of people, but in time, even the sacrifice of animals was replaced by symbolic offerings of food, money, or other gifts to the gods.

Finally, I'd like to point out that we are not all that different from our ancestors. Today many people feel that when someone violates Divine Law by killing an innocent person, that killer deserves to be put to death via capital punishment. This belies our belief that honoring what is "right" is more important than the physical existence of someone we consider to be an "enemy" of "our people." Sending young soldiers off to war is another example of our continued willingness to sacrifice a few for the good of the many or to defend the values we hold sacred.

I am not suggesting that we must accept human sacrifice as a natural aspect of life on earth, but would like to point out that when we feel safe and secure, it's easy to question the practices of other peoples and judge them to be barbaric, and much harder to see how we are like them ourselves - or could be if we were in their shoes. It's human instinct to protect ourselves and the land, people and beliefs we call our "own," and it is only when our own survival needs are met that most of us can begin to find compassion for "outsiders" and treat them as we would want to be treated.

In the event of apocalypse in the future, I expect that only the most enlightened among us would rise above our physical survival instincts; the rest of us would be willing to resort to brutal violence if we had to in order to survive. This is not a bad thing, however, for it is precisely this tension between our animal instincts and higher moral values that makes the physical world such a wonderful and challenging arena for spiritual growth.

- Julia