Olmec Religion
The picture below shows an ancient Olmec temple where they would do sacrificial tributes, appease rain gods, and give the jaguar special attention.
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The Olmec religion focused on a strong link between the supernatural world with nature itself. Natural formations and phenomena such as caverns, natural reservoirs, and mountain peaks acted as entrances into such a supernatural world, and as a result the Olmec tended to establish settlements and cities among such features. At times they even worked to have their architecture constructed to emulate volcanoes or mountains.
Shamans held great power, often overlapping with the role of ruler or leader in Olmec culture. These shaman-kings connected with their religion through bloodletting and the usage of hallucinogenic drugs to induce intoxicated trances. It was believed that such a state let the shamans change forms into animal spirit familiars known as naguals. Such a form allowed them to enter the spirit world through one of the aforementioned portals and manipulate natural forces such as the weather or crop growth to assist their people.
Other traditions included the usage of infants as sacrificial tributes that symbolized renewal to appease rain gods, and the special attention paid to the jaguar as the greatest predator in existence. The reasoning behind such glorification was it’s versatility and mobility in the three different spheres of influence in the world: water, earth, and air. The jaguar’s influence of Olmec religious beliefs was far from subtle; it acted as the nagual for most shamans, and it was believed that a human women mated with a jaguar in the ancient past to create a were-jaguar.
Shamans held great power, often overlapping with the role of ruler or leader in Olmec culture. These shaman-kings connected with their religion through bloodletting and the usage of hallucinogenic drugs to induce intoxicated trances. It was believed that such a state let the shamans change forms into animal spirit familiars known as naguals. Such a form allowed them to enter the spirit world through one of the aforementioned portals and manipulate natural forces such as the weather or crop growth to assist their people.
Other traditions included the usage of infants as sacrificial tributes that symbolized renewal to appease rain gods, and the special attention paid to the jaguar as the greatest predator in existence. The reasoning behind such glorification was it’s versatility and mobility in the three different spheres of influence in the world: water, earth, and air. The jaguar’s influence of Olmec religious beliefs was far from subtle; it acted as the nagual for most shamans, and it was believed that a human women mated with a jaguar in the ancient past to create a were-jaguar.