God of the Month: Tlaloc
Tlaloc, lord of celestial waters, lightning flashes
and hail, patron of land workers, was one of theoldest and most important deities in the Aztec
pantheon.
Archaeological evidence indicates that he wasworshipped in Mesoamerica before the Aztecs
even settled in Mexico's central highlands in the
13th century AD.
Ceramics depicting a water deity accompanied byserpentine lightning bolts date back to the 1st
Tlaloc shown with a jaguar helm. Codex Vaticanus B.
century BC in Veracruz, Eastern Mexico. Tlaloc's
antiquity as a god is only rivalled by Xiuhtecuhtli the fire lord (also Huehueteotl,
old god) whose appearance in history is marked around the last few centuries BC.
Tlaloc's main purpose was to send rain to nourish the growing corn and crops. He
was able to delay rains or send forth harmful hail, therefore it was very important
for the Aztecs to pray to him, and secure his favour for the following agricultural
cycle. Read on and discover how crying children, lepers, drowned people, mountaintops and caves were all important parts of the symbolism surrounding thispowerful ancient god...
Starting at the very beginning: Tlaloc in
Tamoanchan.

Watery Deaths

Right at the beginning of the world, before the gods
were sent down to live on Earth as mortal beings, theyAztecs who died from one of a list of the follived in Tamoanchan, a paradise created by the divine
lowing illnesses or incidents were thought toTlaloc vase.
being Ometeotl for his deity children.
be sent to the 'earthly paradise' of Tlalocan.
Templo Mayor,
Mexico City,
There, they would meet and live with the
Tlaloc, among the other Aztec deities, enjoyed the
Mexico.
family of water related deities.
eternal beauty and abundance of this place: TaDROWNING
moanchan 'breathed life'.
LIGHTNING STRIKEDROPSY
Tlaloc was married to the beautiful young goddess Xochiquetzal
LEPROSY(Quetzal Flower). She represented fertility, sexuality and youth. BeSCABIES
cause of her beauty the creator deity Tezcatlipoca desired her and, inGOUTa flagrant act of disrespect to both Ometeotl and Tlaloc, he carried
ACHES AND PAINS
out a stint not unusual to his deceptive nature: he stole Xochiquetzal
PEOPLE WITH STUNTED GROWTH
for himself.
(they were thought to be small in size like
After his loss, Tlaloc did not remain a bachelor
Tlaloc's helpers, the Tlaloque)for long; he married another goddess called
THE PHYSICALLY DISABLED
Chalchiuhtlicue who was patroness of earthly
waters like rivers and springs. The couple,
along with their helpers the Tlaloque, controlled
the world of water and the agricultural cycle's
rainy season.
Xochiquetzal in the Codex Telleriano Remensis

Tlaloc Fact File
Name: Tlaloc or Tlaloc Tlamacazqui
Related to the ancient storm god of Teotihuacan and regent of land workers.
Age:Disputed. Some sources indicate that he was one of the four original creator gods made by thesupreme being Ometeotl; his brothers were the two Tezcatlipocas (Red and Black) and Quetzalcoatl. Others state that Ometeotl's four sons were Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, Huitzilopochtli and
Quetzalcoatl, and that Tlaloc was created afterwards.
Marital Status: Married to the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, lady of terrestrial waters including rivers,
springs, and seas. His first wife was the goddess Xochiquetzal who symbolised youth, beauty andsexuality.
Place of abode: The fourth level of the heavens; the earthly paradise of Tlalocan. He also dwelled on mountaintops and inside caves. Karl Taube describes these caves as "miraculous treasure houses filled with wealth and prosperity". Tlaloc is also present in rain and lightning.
Day sign: Ce Mazatl or 1 Deer. A male born under the sign of Ce Mazatl was "timid, weak-spirited andfaint-hearted" and "could not hear thunder or see lightning without being terrified." (López Austin:1998)
Trecena sign (seventh of twenty thirteen day periods in the 260 day ritual calendar):Ce
Quiáhuitl or 1 Rain.
Regency: Tlaloc presided over the Third Sun or Age (4 Rain or Nauhquiáhuitl): During
this Sun humans ate aquatic seeds (Currently, we live in the Fifth Sun and eat corn). The
Third Sun was destroyed by a rain of fire that gave way to the Fourth Sun which was governed by
Chalchiuhtlicue.
Festivities: As a god related to water and agriculture, Tlaloc was worshipped in more than one of
the twenty day 'months' that dominated the 365 day solar calendar. Some of the months he received offerings were Atlcahualo, Tozoztontli, Etzalqualiztli and Atemoztli.

'Atlcahualo' thefirst 'month' of
the year. Codex
Vaticanus A.

Come and live in the paradise of Tlalocan!
Plenty of water features, the very best food, beautiful landscapes, a virtual paradise for you andyour family*.
*Conditions apply: Those who are interested in moving to Tlalocan must be chosen by Tlaloc (Coordinator and god) or his assistants.

They must also plan to die in the near future from a water related illness, accident or condition. Collect a leaflet at a temple near you or call
0800TLALOCTEL.

Once dead, those who were thought to travel to the land of Tlalocan were not crematedlike the majority of people. Instead, they were buried. Seeds were planted on theirfaces, blue paint covered their foreheads along with carefully placed pieces of paper.
Their bodies were dressed with paper, and a digging stick used for sowing seeds wasplaced in their hands.
Their souls went to the watery paradise of Tlalocan where they received nothing but thevery best. They could take their pick of food from amongst amaranth, corn, squash, tomatoes, green beans, and flowers.
One's eligibility to dwell in Tlalocan did not depend on whether you were well behaved The Tepantitla mural in Teotihuacan. It shows scenes from Tlaloduring your lifetime. What determined the matter were your personal traits.
can.
According to Alfredo López Austin, a devotee of Tlaloc would spend his afterlife in Tlalocan. Similarly, he who hoarded jade stones (these were symbolic of water to the Aztecs) would infuriate the god, be punished by a water related death, and experience a swift transferral to the aforementioned paradise.
Gods were allowed to choose their subjects, kill them and whisk them off to their personal realms at will. The solar
deity Tonatiuh took warriors and women killed in childbirth to dwell in the paradise that followed the sun across thesky. Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl chose and took a large amount of Aztecs to the underworld.
Ruled by Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, Tlalocan was also home to their four helpers, the Tlaloque, who were in chargeof controlling rain.

Take a look at Tlaloc…

What symbols help define this main Aztec deity in different codices? Here, you can finda few of the physical traits and personal objects that will help you to recognise him inany situation. Let us present Tlaloc...

His Head

What did he wear?

Feather headdress.
The style can change according to different representations (A).

Copper bells around hisanklesThis was a common adornment
for both gods and people. They
were special instruments thatmarked the rhythm in ritual
dancing (A).

Cape
Sometimes he wears a cape ending ina jaguar head (B).
Necklace of jade or Chalchihuite.
Jade was a symbolic representation ofwater. Chalchiuhtlicue's name meant'she of the jade skirt'.
Dots on his faceThis meant that sage seeds wereplanted there (C).
Colour
His face can be blue, black and sometimes 'dirty' yellow in colour. These
colours might be interpreted to show
the blue of water, the black darknessof a cave and the yellow of ripe corn.
(A, D)A

Truss or 'maxtlatl''that had a column–like 'tongue'
hanging down (K).
C

Pictures.
A: Tlaloc in the Codex Vaticanus A.
B, D, and K: Tlaloc in the Codex Vaticanus B
C, E, and F: Fragments from the Florentine Codex.
G, I and J: Fragments from the Codex Laúd.
H: The Earth Monster devouring a human in the
Codex Laúd.
L:Cultivators in the Florentine Codex

Water lily shield (E) and thickreed staff .

B

Light cotton sandals (F).
E

Goggle eyes, Jaguar teeth andSnake fangs.
Tlaloc and his round eyes (A, B, D, G)
date back to the classic period in Teotihuacan where he was one of theprominent gods. This was around
600AD, 800 years before the Aztecs
started to depict him in their codices.
The goggle effect around his eyes thatyou can see comes from two intertwined serpents whose fangs comedown at the sides of his mouth before
curling upwards. Additionally, thewavy white pointy teeth that shootdown out of his month have been interpreted as Jaguar fangs. Tlaloc wasconsidered to be part jaguar (unlike
his Mayan Chac equivalent). The rumbles of thunder that came from the sky
were thought by the Aztecs to be its
roar; it was, after all, the most powerful feline in Mesoamerica.
In picture J it is possible to see asnake tongue curling out from underneath one of Tlaloc's fangs.

A Cloak of dew
Tlaloc would sometimes sport thisgarment. Pictographically, it provided the viewer with a symbolic
link to water.

D

F

H

Digging stick
In some representations he isshown holding a digging stick.
With this the Aztecs sowed crops
G in an irrigated field (L).
Rubber drops
Tlaloc's clothes were often'stained' with rubber drops thatsignified rain droplets (I).

I

Important symbols...
Mountain temple
As you can see in the main picture, Tlaloc is seated upon agreen mound. It signifies his
main temple on top of Mount Tlaloc. Mountains and caves wereplaces highly related to rain andwater (A).
The mountain in picture A is covered with lizard skin. In Aztec
history the lizard or earth monster is linked to the beginning of
the world, the earth and underworld. In picture H, the earth
monster's jaws are open wide ina metaphor for an opening intoa cave or the underworld.

J

K

L

Meet the family
Unlike the free spirits of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc doesn't act alone. He has a rather
powerful family that helps him both seasonally and all year round. Meet Tlaloc's family...

The Tlaloque
Tlaloc could show himself in different guises. Four of these were called
the Tlaloque. They were seen both as parts of Tlaloc and deities in theirown right. They brewed rain in vats on mountaintops from whence theyalso sent out lightning and thunder.
They were the multiple spirits of mountains and 'powerful
Above, a cloud, Florentine
weather phenomena'. Each of them was a different colour: blue, Codex, book VII. Below,
white, yellow or red. They appear in this stone box, in the picChalchiuhtlicue in the Codex
Tonalamatl of the Pochtecs.
ture to the left, crouching in the position of the earth monster
This sacred box contains images
Tlalteotl.
of the Tlaloque. Museo Nacionalde Antropología, Mexico City,
Chalciuhtlicue
Mexico.
Was a patroness of birth and her powers lay close to running waters.
In pictographic resources her skirt was made of jade stones fromwhich water often flowed. She presided over the day sign 5 cóatl (5 snake) and the trecena Ceácatl (1 reed). In her manifestation of Acuecueyotl she was the ocean goddess. As Ahuic she became the tips of breaking waves.
Tecciztécatl, lunar deity, was the son of Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue. Huixtocíhuatl, goddess of salt,
was Tlaloc's daughter.

Pyramids, mountaintops and deep caves: shrines to Tlaloc
Tenochtitlan's Main Temple
The second chapel on top of the main pyramid at Tenochtitlan was dedicated to Tlaloc. Bothhis chapel, and Huitzilopochtli's next to it, faced west. There was also another temple called
Epcóatl dedicated to the Tlaloque. Sacrifices and rites took place in these temples.
Nonetheless, the Aztecs believed Tlaloc resided in mountain caves. He was known by his subjects as 'the provider' but, depending on how the rains that came forth from within his mountain home went during a certain year, he could be known as a miser too. It is appropriatethen, that his chapel in Tenochtitlan's pyramid was called 'mountain abode'. Many rich offerings were regularly placed before it, especially those linked to water such as jade, shells andsand.

Tenochtitlan's main temple. Tlaloc 's chapel is on
the left. Tovar Manuscript.

To the west of the main pyramid, on the present day Mount La Malinche, were two giant statues of Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue. Mount Tlaloc, the jewel in the crown of Tlaloc's places of worship, was situated directly east of the pyramid. It was exactly 44 miles away and a long roadconnected the two places of worship. On it was a shrine containing stone images of the mountain itself and otherneighbouring peaks. The shrine was called Tlalocan, after the paradise.

Also to be found inside its walls were four pitchers containing water. Each pitcher would bring a
different fate if used on crops: one would bring forth a good harvest, another would rot it, thethird would dry the harvest out and the final one would freeze it. Sacrifices that took place here
were thought to favour early rains.
As you might have already noted, Tlaloc did not only dwell in temples andon mountain tops. He lived in moist, fertile, and secluded caves too. According to the chronicler Durán, Tlaloc had the additional name of 'Path Under
the Earth' or 'Long Cave'.
Tlaloc seated on his
mountain throne, Codex
Borbonicus.

Investigators such as Doris Heyden suggest that the little passages thatlead off of the main caves underneath the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan
could have been used to house the bodies of children that were sacrificed tothis god each year.
At an excavation elsewhere, the burial chambers of seven infants placed in a circle inside a cavewere found. The centre of the cave roof was open and let in rain. There were also storing facilities thought to have once been grain deposits. The archaeologist who worked on this site, Linda
Manzanilla, equated the caves, water, childrens' bodies and grain with the mythical Tlalocan; theTlaloque who lived there were small, like children, and it was abundant with both water andgrain. Out of Tlalocan's opening came the rain, seeds and new life and into it came the dead andretreating rain clouds.

The seven caves ofChicomoztoc form
which emerged the
Aztec nation. Historia
Tolteca Chichimeca,

The Tenochca Morning Herald
Read our full page spread. The latest news on Tlaloc worship and why you should stay away from water!

Nail-bitingly terrifying - the rituals dedicated to Tlaloc according to 16th century friar, Bernadino de Sahagún
The water gods required constant worship. They controlled the waters of theworld and the all important seasonalrains.
To try and secure plentiful rain, great
ceremonies were held and sacrifices
took place in honour of these gods several times a year.
Here are the summarised descriptionsof some of the ceremonies that werepractised during three 20 day periods('veintenas') in the solar calendar.

All the swimming lessons in the world won't get youout of this mess!
According to the Aztecs, if you
drowned, it wasn't by chance…

Tlaloc in the Codex
Ixtlilxochitl

The first was called 'Atlcahualo' andwas celebrated from the 12th of February until the 3rd of
March.
Dedicated to the Tlaloque, this'veintena' involved the sacrificeof many children on sacred
mountaintops. The children
were beautifully adorned,
dressed in the style of Tlaloc
and the Tlaloque. On littersstrewn with flowers and feathers; surrounded by dancers,
they were transported to ashrine and their hearts would
The 'raising of the poles' andbe pulled out by priests.
the sacrifice of children in themonth of Atlcahualo. Primeros
Memoriales, f.250r.

If, on the way to the shrine,
these children cried their tears
were viewed as signs of imminent and abundant rains. Children who did not weep could have their fingernails torn off
in order to achieve this effect. Every Atlcahualo festival,
seven children were sacrificed in and around Lake Tetzcoco
in the Aztec capital. They were either slaves or the secondborn children of nobles.
Similarly the festival of Tozoztontli (24th March - 12th April)
involved more child sacrifice. Additionally, offerings weremade in caves. The flayed skins of sacrificial victims that
had been worn by priests for the last twenty days weretaken off and placed in these dark, magical caverns.
The winter 'veintena' of Atemoztli (9th December- 28th December) was also dedicated to the Tlaloque. This period
preceded an important rainy season and so statues of themwere made out of amaranth dough. Their teeth werepumpkin seeds and their eyes, beans. Once these statues
were adorned, offered copal and fine scents and prayed to,food was presented before them.
Afterwards their doughy chests were opened, their 'hearts'
taken out and, finally, their bodies cut up and eaten. The
ornaments with which they had been adorned were taken
and burned in peoples' patios. On the final day of the'veintena' people celebrated and held banquets.

Whoever died a watery death
did so for one of two reasons:either they were such devout Drowning. Florentine Codex Book XI.
subjects that the Tlaloquegods, assistants to Tlaloc, selected them as worthy inhabitants of their earthly
paradise Tlalocan, or they had hoarded precious jadestones, an action which angered the Tlaloque gods
enough to kill them with one of the afflictions mentioned in the 'watery illnesses' section.
No one dared to touch the body of a drowned man
because only Tlaloc's
priests were worthy of
having contact with such a
divine entity (divine because it now belonged to agod).
On touching a body thatwas on its way to Tlalocan,a normal person could
Drowning. Florentine Codex
guarantee he would beBook XI.
'drowned or stricken withgout'.
A deceased person who had been carried off to Tlalocan and wanted a relative to join him could get him
drowned or hit by lightning. Because of this, somerelatives took 'great care to avoid bathing.'
Investigators believe that Tlaloc's power extended beyond
what appeared to be themerely willful acts of killing humans and controlling theweather.
His power was a unique substance that took possession ofwhatever it impregnated.
In other words, those who
Watery elements decame into contact with Tlaloc's picted in the Florendomain, like he who touched a tine Codex, book VII.
drowned person, the relativesof someone killed by his acts, or a person who treasured his precious jade stones: all these people would
be subject to the fate that Tlaloc allocated them.
They were touched by and saturated with his power.
Only Tlaloc's priests, who usually control this power,
were free from the threat of his will - and only provisionally.

Sources
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