Names of Zeus: Tlaloc

Tlaloc was a major God of the Aztec pantheon. He was associated with water, thunder, lightning and the terrifying powers of nature as represented in the jaguar. He occupied primacy in the Aztec pantheon from the earliest period, but appears to have been replaced. Through corruption by the enemy and other issues, Tlaloc unfortunately became associated with grisly and complex forms of human sacrifice.

The Temple of Zeus does not condone any form of human sacrifice. This is fundamentally worthless and dangerous to the soul. Our divine sages such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Iamblichus categorically designate this as evil. High priests such as Herodotus and Plutarch condemn it. Sages of Egypt and India also condemn this practice.

Sacrifice of children is a complete abomination unto the Gods. For many years, sacrifice has privately been the preserve of a certain prolific and powerful group in line with the instructions of the Talmud and Bible.

During the First Millennia BCE, many groups across the planet were moved towards a sort of monotheism, contact with malignant astral spirits, extraterrestrial contact and a trend towards human sacrifice, things we believe were prompted by enemy interference.

We list the example of Tlaloc here for fundamental reasons of listing the original identity and purpose of this God, but we emphasize in this article that much of this practice is why the Aztec civilization fell to catastrophe. I have it directly that the Gods frequently warned the Aztecs to stop this abominable practice many times. They appear to have equated sacrifice and pain with an idea of eternal apotheosis (ascending to Godhood) of the victim possibly out of extreme misinformation and taking symbolic matters literally, which we reject.

Not all Aztecs approved of this practice and in consistency with archeological findings we believe this was impressed onto the Mexica in stages up to the 1400s.

By the time of the Spanish conquest, this had spun out of control. The hundreds of festivities were all associated with sacrifice. We also note here that it was the Aztecs collision-course with enemy and then the pious Spanish, who also followed a barely-disguised complex of human sacrifice rooted in ecclesiastical judgements designed by the Church-all for the purpose of destroying ‘heretics’ for close to 1,200 years-that brought about their swift end as a civilization.

Interpreting Aztec symbolism is difficult as many aspects were deeply multi-faceted and mysterious. Tlaloc is represented in a fearsome and frightening manner with an azure face mask with a ‘goggle’ eye, as in this representation in the Codex Magliabechiano. Aspects of this representation may be related to Leishen or Raijin in Asia as the Aboriginal Americans bear certain influence from their forebears in Asia.

The round, ring-like eye (or eyes) are his most immediate hallmark. In Aztec iconography, these circular “goggles” often represent water or rain drops – essentially “eyes of the storm.” Mexica artists sometimes painted them as star-like disks (stellar eyes) to signify celestial water or rain from the sky. Revealingly, his terrifying ‘goggle’ eyes are often each lined with two separate serpents, channels or stark lines, representing the Ida and Pingala channels.

The God’s attire is richly detailed. Codex images show him adorned with jade earspools, a jade bead necklace, and sometimes a gold pectoral, emphasizing his association with water, as jade was considered the “flesh” of all the Tlaloque rain spirits​. Much like the Asian depictions, jade is considered the ultimate material of a divinity. Historian Miguel León-Portilla points out that in Nahua poetry, Tlaloc is called “giver of green jewels and fine turquoise”, metaphors for maize and jade, equating agricultural bounty with precious gems.

He is also represented with an extended upper lip or palate with fearsome teeth. This curl of the lip or nose was taken to represent the winds and the head-on direction.

Tlaloc is always represented with the jaguar, whose roar was considered analogous to thunder. These appear to have been the symbols of his four fangs.

He often wields a lightning-bolt scepter rendered as a blue serpentine wand​ and may carry a vessel or atecocolli (conch shell) from which water pours. This is an allegory of the serpentine power and his ability to punish through judgements of lightning. The serpent’s representation as a zig-zag shape twisting from horizontal to vertical lines also shows a geometric pattern related to magic.

As the patron of rain and the storm, Tlaloc is often represented in blue, green, purple or dark colors. It is known he was associated with the First trecena of Rain in the Aztec calendar, which in the Codexes he is often used to illustrate. The standards and flags that come out of his back are adorned with stars, showing his mastery of the cosmos.

Tlaloc’s bifurcated tongue in some depictions may also be a snake reference (tongue of a serpent flicking out). In the round eyes, scholars have even seen the “eye of the reptile” symbol, linking to an ancient Olmec rain deity concept​.

His headdress includes quetzal (turquoise green) feathers and white heron feathers, and even a zacatapayolli, a ritual grass ball for storing bloody maguey spines from self-sacrifice. This is a device that here represents a rain-laden mountain or cave fertilized by blood​. The amount of feathers on his crown often is represented as five, but another typical number is twelve. The white heron feathers are associated with mist, clouds, and foam – linking to rain, clouds, and water spray. Together, the green and white feathers on Tlaloc’s head represent the union of water and earth.

Frequently, Tlaloc is represented as treading on a dragon or lizard that spits out the lightning serpent.

THE GOD OF THE MOUNTAIN

Tlaloc was associated with the Mountain and the peaks of the Mexica empire. His name is associated with Nahuatl words for the earth and for cave complexes. The most important area of worship for this mysterious God was the Cerro Tlaloc, a 13,500ft mountain within the Valley of Mexico that formed the core of the Aztec alliance of city states. The great ruler of the Aztecs would conduct important ceremonies annually here as it was adorned with an elaborate shrine.

The shrine atop the peak was one of the highest-known complexes ever constructed. The journey to worship Tlaloc was hence fraught with dangers and problems, but people would come to the site to distribute precious stones and artefacts. Codexes represent the mountains: the center rock is thought to be analogous to representation of Tlaloc within the Codex Borgia which depicts Tláloc standing in the center of his four rain forms, representing the four directions.

One of the two shrines on top of the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan was dedicated to Tlaloc’s worship, a relationship between the shrine and the mountain was thus analogous. His precedence in this Temple shows the high level of esteem he commanded among the Aztecs.

QUETZALCOATL

Quetzalcoatl is known as the feathered serpent. He is held to rule over the Morning Star aspect of Venus, the winds, mercantile matters, knowledge and all aspects of learning. He was linked to the creation of humanity and the retrieval of bones from the underworld to create new life, an allegory of reincarnation.

It is probable that Quetzalcoatl represented a mixture of Zeus and Astarte’s powers in some format, particularly given his association with the western direction. In ancient times, archeologists believe was also represented in a triad with Tlaloc and the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan.

THE FOUR AZTEC GODS

The four supreme Aztec Gods were:

• Tlaloc, Lord of the East
• Huitzilopochtli, Lord of the South (Apollo)
• Quetzalcoatl, Lord of the West
• Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the North

Tezcatlipoca seems to have originated as an aspect of Zeus, being the representative of the North and darkness. At a certain point, however, this entity began to be referenced as Yaotl or ‘Enemy’ in Nahuatl.

At a certain point in the 1460s, Tlaloc was replaced in the Aztec cult by Xipe Totec, the Flayed God. This entity which was foreign to the Aztec pantheon, originating from the south of the Mexican heartlands, was also copiously named as ‘Enemy’ and has no relation to any God we have encountered, not even symbolically, although it seems to have started as an aspect of Camaxtle that was marred by association.

In line with evidence from the Aztec Codexes, we believe this entity was inserted progressively as a result of enemy intervention. This being also became broadly synonymous with smallpox to an obsessive level even prior to the Spanish conquest.

In the Codex Chimalpopoca, there exists a story of the First Quetzalcoatl being disgusted by human sacrifice. Tezcatlipoca and others want him removed and so they hand him a mirror, where he is frightened of his own image and the others mock him. They get him drunk and oblige him to commit incest. He then immolates himself in despair at the Red Land and Black Land (note the similarity to the Egyptian concept):

It is likely there are a lot of occult allegories in this story, but the attitude exhibited toward sacrifice is revealing. An interesting element here is that the word for evil entity means owl-sorcerer of death. Tzitzimime, the entities that would tear apart the world if not appeased with sacrifice, were associated with this concept.

Another Codex named the Codex Ramírez claims that after Quetzalcoatl’s departure from the earth, the entire population of the city of Tula was brutally mass sacrificed by an evil entity that did not allow a single one of them to live. Others link this event to a violent invasion from the north.

There also are references in the Aztec literature to how the Goddess of Water, Chalchiuhtlicue, was overthrown from any position in the four lords and in the Sun.

The Aztecs were a warrior-oriented race. This in itself is not so much an extreme issue. Mesoamerican states in general are oriented towards a more martial attitude. The ancient Celts, Germanics, Dacians, Slavs and others had these characteristics. The Mongols infamously pursued this path in Asia, and the Japanese have also exhibited violence. Many African states were formed out of violence.

The record of the so-called Toltec civilization and pre-Aztec rituals shows that the original purpose of such ritualized violence was to execute captive enemy warriors captured in combat and perhaps evolved into a type of game played among rival groups of nobles. This is not dissimilar to the so-called barbaric ‘head hunting’ of the Celts that is an object of derision in many Greek and Roman works.

However, the bounds of violence slowly began to verge towards things that were unacceptable and almost insane. Increasingly, Aztec texts reference the supply of warriors from only allied states that the latter were obliged to give to them by force, as well as sacrifices among their own nobility, particularly children. This is why many Greek texts warn about the excess of violence.

We believe much of this is down to enemy interference. Many aspects of impure, ugly spirits and hostile extra-terrestrials have been dug up from Aztec civilization:

WORSHIP OF TLALOC

Unfortunately, contrary to the will of the Gods, Tlaloc was the recipient of human sacrifice, and it is impossible to speak the worship given to him without this facet. However, it is known that in comparison to some other Gods, non-sanguinary offerings were central to Tlaloc’s worship. The rich troves of shells, jade, and aquatic fossils on the Tlaloc side of the Great Temple show a deliberate pattern that the Aztecs were symbolically “feeding” the rain God with water-related treasures​.

Non-lethal Aztec ceremonies for Tlaloc focused on invoking rain and fertility through symbolic acts, communal participation, and offerings rather than human death. Priests led rain-petitioning rituals during specific annual festivals, featuring incense burning, music, dancing, and chanting to please the rain God. Participants would sometimes ritually pour water over altars or offerings – a sympathetic gesture to “water” the earth in hopes Tlaloc would send rains​.

In some rites, priests and devotees impersonated Tlaloc or his helpers: they donned Tlaloc’s distinctive regalia (such as goggle-eyed masks and feather headdresses) and performed dances. For example, during one festival young men danced holding sticks with birds tied to them, imitating the sounds of birds and thunderclouds to entice rainfall​. Another common ceremony was the ritual drinking of pulque (fermented agave wine) in Tlaloc’s honor; in the early rain month Atlcahualo a priest even offered pulque to the king and the community drank until intoxicated as part of the festivities​

The Rituals reinforced Tlaloc’s role as a life-giver through song, dance, and sacramental food and drink, the Aztecs celebrated the God who nourished their fields. Bright flowers were a favorite offering to Tlaloc, embodying the life and color that rain brings. During several Tlaloc festivals (such as Atlcahualo, Tozoztontli, and Atemoztli), fresh flowers were formally offered to the God.

Importantly, many Tlaloc ceremonies took place in nature or settings evoking water. People made pilgrimages to mountain springs and peaks believed to house Tlaloc’s presence. During Atlcahualo, for instance, crowds ascended sacred mountain shrines to present offerings to Tlaloc’s images​.