Friday, July 18, 2014

Cult of the Jaguar Knife

Ian Austin brings us this recreation of Huayna's Knife from the Hellboy comic series.  The stone blade is used in the rituals of the Cult of the Jaguar.



1 comment:

CoastConFan said...

That is a nice piece of work. I don’t follow the comics, although the movies have been enjoyable and very rich in props.

Human sacrifice had a long run in history, but eventually banished although it had to travel down the road of substitution of animals and then finally offerings of fruits, flowers and drink. Along with cannibalism, human sacrifice is one of those no-nos of modern civilization although it hung on in various forms for a while. But one has to wonder what people will shake their heads and tisk-tisk over when discussing our present civilization in a thousand or so years.

Some Maya and Aztec religious practices were a lot more hellish (to our “modern” eyes) which not only commonly involved human sacrifice, but also routine ritual self-mutilation. In a sense, the Hellraiser series with the Cenobites captures the mood. Religious self-mutilation has hung on a lot longer than human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. I’m a little surprised there is not a bridge story somewhere out there between the Cthulhu Mythos and Hellraiser. Remember that Capt Elliott Spenser finds the Lament Configuration cube in British India in 1921 (Hellraiser III).

There were a number jaguar cults in the Americas over the centuries. Some of these listed web sites might have items or information to pique your prop making and gamming interest.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299373/jaguar-cult

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguars_in_Mesoamerican_cultures

http://berclo.net/page94/94en-hist-sam-pc.html