“It seems universally agreed that the action in the game followed a continuous circuit, and Verbeeck comments that ‘this cyclical movement of players returning to their starting point and leaving again for another round is typical for Mesoamerican thinking’ (1998: 96). Furthermore, scholars have long recognised that the length of the circuit - 52 spaces if each player passes along only the three arms of the board closest to him/her - represented the ancient Mesoamerican ‘century’, each square symbolising a year (Mateos Higuera 1982: 19). Clearly the game had cosmological associations; a century ago the great Mexican historian Alfonso Caso noticed that the arms of the board found at El Pedregal de San Angel (Coyoacan) were aligned exactly with the four cardinal directions (1927: 210) - this suggested to Kendall... that the game mat, like its big brother the ritual ball court, represented the flat plane of the earth. Evidence from the Maya lowlands suggests the game, known locally as Bul, had - and has today - agricultural associations linked to the ‘vigil of the maize’: players moved pieces along the ‘corn-track’ by throws of four corn-dice, and farmers mentioned playing bul in their prayers ‘as another ritual obligation that is being fulfilled’ (1998: 85).”
“To predict, prepare for - indeed, conceivably to influence - future events was of profound importance to the Nahua. In Kendall’s words, Patolli ‘seems to have been a particularly elaborate fortunetelling device. Indeed, under certain intense gambling conditions, it could even be made to bring about one’s fortune, whether happy or evil. Through prayer and ritual, patolli became as real and as full of unfathomable power as the cosmos itself... Their bets, always far higher than moderation or common sense would dictate, may not have been so much folly as acts of devotion. By risking something of great value - one’s house, one’s lands, even one’s own person - a player would seem to be offering assurance to the gods of his absolute faith and trust in them’ (1980: 24-5). Little wonder, then, that the relationship between player and game was highly personal and might involve ‘a dialogue of begging, worshipping, seducing, regretting, getting angry, and of benevolence, forgiveness, cursing and more’ (Proyecto Hunab Ku, 28/10/23 personal communication).
The game board acted in Aztec life as an oracle, communicating the wishes of the gods and hence to be consulted, amongst others, by merchants and warriors before embarking on journeys or battles.”
