Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

where he created the center called Chichen Itza. Following his death therewas a succession of Quetzalcoatls throughout the centuries. At a certainjuncture, a personality who went by that name became heavily influencedby dark powers.Many people were initiated into the mysteries of Taotl, which wereAhrimanic in character. These Ahrimanic forces caused a hardening of thehuman being. The ultimate effect was as if the soul was squeezed and pressedout of its being. The victims would give up the control of their own soulsand excarnate. All of this happened through rites of black magic.No one was initiated into these mysteries unless they had taken partin a murder. Progression on this ritualistic path required additional murders,after which additional Ahrimanic “truths” were imparted. These murdershad to be performed in a particular ceremonial manner. The victim was bentover a rounded stone such that the thorax and the abdomen were extendedupward.In this position, a knife would cut out the still-beating heart. (RudolfSteiner suggested that it was the stomach.) The initiate would psychicallybreathe in the soul-life forces of the victim and would incorporate theseastral forces into himself. The organs were then further sacrificed to the godTaotl in a special ceremony. The victims to be murdered had been religiouslyprepared to die and often willingly accepted their fate as part of a higher lawof sacrifice. They were told that they were being released from the drudgeryof life, and their souls would fly upward toward everlasting peace. Theywere also told they would live on, in a strengthened form, through theirmurderer, with whom they would conduct a steady conversation betweenthe threshold of life and death. Repeated sacrifices increased the astralcapacities of the initiate and allowed for heightened powers of black magic.Obsidian ritual knife5