In Aztec Mythology, Xipe Totec embodied the essence of Spring, overseeing growth, death and rebirth. Because of his association with the cycle of life and death, he was also considered a god of warfare.
APPEARANCE AND ATTRIBUTES
Despite his revered status as a god of life, Xipe Totec was an image of horror, depicted wearing a fleshy suit crafted from the flayed skin of sacrificial victims. Typically white or yellow, the skins were stitched together intricately, and draped from his wrists.
His own skin bore a crimson hue, his eyes were sealed in double sockets while his mouth, double lipped, gaped wide open. In some sculptures, his chest had an incision, where a sacrificial victim’s heart was removed before they were flayed in his honour.
A GORY INTERPRETATION OF REBIRTH
Xipe Totec’s association with flayed skin was linked to his role in rebirth and renewal of the seasons. Every twenty days, a month in the Aztec calendar, his old skin would age and deteriorate, and Xipe Totec would flay this skin from his body, emerging from the rotting remains to reveal a new, fresh skin beneath it.
The removal of the skin to start afresh was likened to the emergence of new life, growth and vegetation. This would be represented by a new hide offered to him in sacrifice.
HUMAN SACRIFICE
As March heralded the arrival of Spring, the Aztecs celebrated the festival of Tlacaxipehualiztli. At the heart of the celebrations was Xipe Totec, who was responsible for the life, rain and fertility that the new season would bring.
To honour this god, priests orchestrated ceremonies that demanded human sacrifice. Prisoners of war were rounded up as sacrificial victims, flayed alive and their skins offered to Xipe Totec. This was performed in various ghastly manners.
Gladiator sacrifice;
In such a ritual, a person would be bound to a stone, given weapons rendering them entirely useless, and forced to fight a fully armed warrior. Both parties would have a Macuahuitl, a wooden sword edged with razor-sharp obsidian. The prisoner’s sword, however, would be cruelly handicapped, the deadly obsidian edge replaced with fragile feathers, making chances of a victory impossible.
Arrow sacrifice; Victims of sacrifice were tied to a frame, and shot with arrows until dead. The flow of blood from their wounds that seeped into the soft earth was symbolic of the much needed rainfall, sought by the Aztecs to nurture their crop and ensure that it emerged healthy and plentiful.
Once the ritual was complete, the person’s heart would be removed, and their skin carefully peeled from head to toe. To honour Xipe Totec in return for the promise of a good harvest, the priests would don the flayed skin of the victims until it had rotted away.
REFERENCES
Ethereal Chronicles 
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