In Lake Chapala, we still find small clay pots which were used to catch the blood from cuts in their ears and tongues to appease Tlaloc, the rain god, which were then thrown into the lake as an offering. Many have questioned how the Aztecs could be so willing to undergo the pain of cutting themselves but it’s now known that a fresh obsidian blade is so sharp that the cut is barely felt and the blade approaches molecular thinness. The Aztecs believed in ritual sacrifice and self-mutilation to appease their gods. Obsidian was believed to protect its owner, so Aztecs would place an obsidian knife in water in the courtyard of their home to keep sorcerers away because it was believed that they were frightened by their own reflections. They believed that obsidian, like everything in nature, had a spirit. This greatly added to its importance, especially because the Aztec royalty and aristocracy wore obsidian jewelry and Aztec priests polished the obsidian to a mirror-like sheen and claimed to divine the future with it. It was one of the main objects valued and traded among the Aztecs, Teotihuacan and Toltecs, but obsidian reached its pinnacle of pre-Columbian development in the hands of the Aztecs.īesides being used in weaponry, obsidian is a semiprecious stone, which can be polished. When the god asked her how he could help her, Xochitzol asked him: “May my tears become a beacon of light for when my beloved returns.” Her tears became representative of the enormous Obsidian deposits in the area. When he didn’t return, she climbed the mountain and began to cry without stopping. One of the gods asked her why she was crying, and she told him of her lost love. As they were saying goodbye, they climbed to the top of the Sierra de las Navajas and Xochitzol swore that she would never marry until her beloved returned. Her father, a priest, did not want them to get married so he sent her lover to war. Obsidian was known as the “Stone of the Gods.” As the story goes, a beautiful young woman named Xochitzol (sun flower) fell in love with a great warrior. Archeologists agree that this is one of the largest and most important obsidian deposits in Central Mexico, offering the rare green obsidian. In the Sierra de las Navajas (Razor or Knife mountains translated into English) about two hours outside of Lake Chapala, is a modern mine that recently crossed paths with pre-Hispanic tunnels used to quarry obsidian by the Aztecs. Ancient uses of obsidian are being challenged by today’s choice of obsidian as a surgical tool, offering one of the finest edges that nanotechnology can produce. The majority of obsidian is black or gray but a rarer green obsidian was prized for works of art and their most valuable weapons. Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed into a kind of rock by the rapid cooling of lava.

Obsidian scalpel surgical