This god did not require any sumptuous service and reportedly abhorred human sacrifice (although scholars believe that these accounts were designed to please the Spanish missionaries and divert from historical truth). Allah Almighty grants human beings all the sanctifications in this world and then finally man returns to a condition of oblivion by the determination of Allah Almighty, to be elevated another time on the Day of Judgment. Most probably it was that highly complex being that in Tula is metaphorically depicted by a combination of reptilian, avian, and human elements: the face of a man with circular, spectacle-like eyes is shown looking out of or emerging from open reptilian jaws. The practice of human sacrifice, however, was not uncommon among the Tula-Toltecs. The practice seems to be addressed metaphorically in endlessly repeated sculptural reliefs depicting eagles devouring human hearts. There are also frequent allusions in the reliefs to death in the form of skulls and bones. Based on central Mexican analogies, long rows of reliefs of strangely reclined warriors have been interpreted in relation to the sun cult: the sun that passed beneath the earth during the night had to be revived every morning through rituals executed by the warriors.

As epithet or name, the word Tollan has been used to designate other famous cities, and the description of this Tollan corresponds-if to any place on earth at all-more to Classic Teotihuacan than to Tula de Allende. The rather extensive archaeological site of Tula de Allende in the modern Mexican state of Hidalgo, 75 kilometers north-northwest of Mexico City, has been excavated professionally since 1940. Its main ceremonial center, Tula Grande, flourished from about 950 to 1200 ce (dates established by ceramic crossties but only very few radiocarbon readings). Because there was more than one place called Tollan, the word Toltec refers not to a single culture or religion, but rather to at least five specific groups of people, all belonging to Postclassic Mesoamerica: (1) the inhabitants of what is now the archaeological site of Tula de Allende near Mexico City, (2) the inhabitants or, more precisely, the elite, called Toltec-Maya, of Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, (3) the inhabitants of Tollan as it is described in central Mexican historical documents of the sixteenth century, (4) militant leading groups in other parts of Mesoamerica claiming descent from a place called Tollan, (5) members of various, often quite different, ethnic groups, all bearing the typological name Tolteca, that migrated to central Mexico.

There is a common claim that the God of the Old Testament (even in the New Testament) seems very harsh, brutal, and even evil. The theme itself is an old Maya one: a man’s head emerging from a snake’s mouth. The continuing belief in the old Maya water god Chac is clearly visible in the large masks with elongated noses that adorn the corners and facades of most temples, sometimes together with the bird-snake-man motif. To the water deities was directed a special cult peculiar to Chichén Itzá: on certain occasions, human beings were thrown into the sacred cenote (natural well) and drowned to appease the rain gods or to act as intermediaries between them and men. Everything points to the martial rituals as being associated with the elite warrior group, or “Toltecs,” whereas the cult of the water deities is likely to have been connected with the commoners, the Maya farmers. These are approximately lifesize sculptures of a reclining male figure dressed in some of the paraphernalia of a warrior, but clearly no warrior himself. The image is omnipresent, but there are practically no variations to provide deeper insight, although sometimes artists misinterpreted the stereotyped picture and made it look like a heavily adorned warrior with his pectoral and feathered headdress.

They would never embrace such a hypothesis in any other area of their lives-for example, in order to explain how there came to be overnight a car in one’s driveway. It encourages you to embrace the challenges and obstacles that may arise, knowing that they are ultimately serving your highest good and the growth of your spiritual partnership. Children’s bible story books are much more than just good reading material to help the young mind to flourish. The first was Lord Montgomery Falsworth, a member of the Allies and good friend of Captain America. In what may represent an important first step, some scientists have already produced artificial viruses, but they did so by synthetically reproducing DNA of known viruses. An intellectual battle over hieroglyphics ensued between a British scholar, Thomas Young, and a French scholar, Jean-François Champollion, both of whom wanted to crack the hieroglyphic writing first. His funeral was attended by over 10,000 people of different religious backgrounds. Another quite different aspect of Tula-Toltec religious activities centered on a ritual ball game, which is generally believed to have been important as a symbolic reenactment of cosmic movement. The rubber ball of the game in this scene is a symbol of glorious death, and snakes emerging from the victim’s neck symbolize precious blood.