Both imagery and the discovery of human skeletons in ritual contexts indicates that human sacrifice played a significant part in Moche religious practices. These rites appear to have involved the elite, both ruling men and women, as key actors in an elaborate spectacle. These rituals included:

• Costumed participants, including priests and priestesses, many of which also ruled the city-states.
• Monumental settings, including the pyramid-like structures called huacas.
• Likely involved blood as a part of a renewal ritual.
• The sacrifices may have been associated with rites of ancestral renewal and agricultural fertility.

The painting above is a modern depiction of a Moche ceremony called the "waterlily ritual."

It shows noble men throwing sticks in the air to which "waterlilies" made of gold and feathers are attached. During the flight these fall to the ground. The ritual is done to purify the air and to "kill" bad spirits. The ritual has been shown on vase paintings. Sticks used in such rituals were found in burials.

photo and text from https://coricancha.deviantart.com/art/Water-Lily-Ritual-Moche-Peru-AD-600-475784281

Moche imagery features a figure named Ai Apaec. It is frequently depicted as a spider, but sometimes as a winged creature or a sea monster. Together, all three features symbolize land, water and air. The figure is usually shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a head; it has also been depicted as "a human figure with a tiger's mouth and snarling fangs."

Ai Apaec, also known as "The Moche Decapitator" is a traditional Moche icon which symbolizes death and renewal.