This Tree Grows Out of Hell: Mesoamerica and the Search for the Magical Body

I'm astonished by the political correctness of the main editorial review at the top of this page. It suggests that the book was written to be a mirror on the modern day, that we have much to learn from ancient mesoamerican culture. Make no mistake, this is an excellent book. But what it really shows us is the depths of horror and depravity that was pre-conquest mesoamerican culture. The Aztecs were monsters, but their only invention was in the refining of the horrors the Mayans, whom they conquered from within. The author provides details of the depravity of the Aztecs. This is not a book for the squeamish. One of the key points of this book is that all the client peoples of the Aztecs hated the Aztecs so much that the moment a new power (the Spanish) arrived, the subject people flocked to them because they simply could not imagine any other situation that could be worse than life under the Aztecs. And no, I'm not an apologist for the Spanish--neither am I willing to excuse the brutal, homicidal native culture that thankfully is gone now.

This is a brilliant book. I've re-read it many times. A previous reviewer wrote that he did a net search on the author and discovered he was a "70's guru." Not so. His father was the weird one. His son, the author of this book, is a respected scholar.

It isn't often that you read a book that so deftly communicates the cosmic framework of an ancient culture. However, it is obvious that Tompkins' take on the archeological evidence of ritual and religion left by the Olmecs, Aztecs and Mayans is written within the framework of modern culture. Of course, any academic will translate an ancienct culture of which he has no first hand knowledge via his own ideologies, so it is silly to critique it, as the other reviewer has, in such a way. This book is a refreshing look at religion and spirituality in mesoameria, and is a good resource for anyone seeking knowledge about shamanism as well.