Tlaloc, or Tlaloque, or also Tlalocan Tecutli (Lord of Tlalocan), was the god who brought rains. It was said of him that he caused water to fall in order to spray the earth, so that by his intervention grass, plants, trees, fruit, maize, would grow and flourish. It was also said that he caused hail, thunder and lightening, and that he was responsible for the dangers on rivers and the sea. He was a god who lived in the Earthly Paradise and who provided mankind with all necessities of life.

Rain means food, therefore was Tlaloc in fact the most important god for agriculture and the common people. A relief of Zanja de la Piedra Labrada, near the western exit of the village of Castillo de Teayo, presents to the left, Tlaloc with maize, and to the right, the Rain goddess Xochiquetzal .

The statue of Tlaloc was found by the Chichimecs on Mount Tlaloc, near Texcoco. It was painted blue and green, to keep the water off. According to Clavijero, this idol was destroyed at the order of Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico. According to Sahagún, Tlaloc was equipped as follows:

• his face was covered with soot;
• his face was covered with liquid rubber;
• he was smeared with black;
• he was bespattered with amaranth seed paste;
• he wore a sleeveless "netted" cloud dress (auachxicole);
• he wore a "netted" dew dress (aiauhxicolli);
• he had a crown of heron's feathers (aztatzone);
• he wore a necklace of green semi-precious stones (chalchiuhcozque);
• he wore soft cotton sandals (pozolcaque) and bells; and
• he had a green and white banner made of reed (aztapilpane ).

It seems that Tlaloc is represented by a man lying on the ground. We see a man lying outstretched on the ground in the relief in Temple C, the building on the north side of the ball court at Chichén-Itzá  in Yucatán. Does this stretched-out figure perhaps refer here to the Rain God Tlaloc?

In honor of Tlaloc, a celebration was held at the beginning of the month of Quauitl or Atlaualo, when the ceremony for the new year is held. On his feast day, many tlacteteuhtli, small children, were sacrificed on the mountain tops. Those who had a good calendar sign were bought in the market. This was a precious blood sacrifice for them. Tlalocan is the name of the mountain which is situated to the east of Tenochtitlan, near Tlaxcallan. The delightful place to which the souls of the boys sacrificed to Tlaloc went was said to be located there.

The name Tlaloc, according to Siméon, is composed of TLALLI + ONOC.Tlalli means "earth, field, property", and Onoc is the irregular verb "to lie stretched out" which is applied to any long object. When observing driving rain, it sometimes looks as if it flowed softly over the milpas. This is also the explanation of the lying-down image of Tlaloc. We will need to look at all those stretched-out figures in light of a possible representation of Tlaloc.

Robelo (1980 2:577) gives a different analysis of Tlaloc: TLALLI (earth) + OCTLI (wine), the wine from the earth. We believe, however, that Rémi Siméon has given the correct translation. The plural of Tlaloc is Tlaloque. These are the gods who live on the mountains, where apparently the clouds are being formed. They are the servants of the god Tlaloc. Tlaloc's wife is Chalchihuitlicue, "She of the Jeweled Robe", a water goddess. Her feast was in the month of Etzacuatliztli.

The well known eyes of Tlaloc, the two typical "goggle rings" are, as we pointed out many years ago, in fact rain or water-drops, represented by two concentric circles. The typical Tlaloc mask or eyes, appear mostly on Teotihuacán pottery and later on in Tenochtitlan (see title picture), and also on stone monuments, frescoes, and in the pictorial manuscripts. The Tlaloc presence enable us to discover the trade routes of Teotihuacán, at least as far as Copan in Honduras. Since many years, we are convinced that the ear ornaments (earstops) with concentric circles are the attributes of Tlaloc and of his priests or priestesses. Those concentric circles on buildings indicate the attribution to the rain god Tlaloc.

One representation of Tlaloc is particularly instructive and we are pleased to present this one to our readers. The rain god Tlaloc of Teotihuacán wears here the typical net garment we find at least in the Maya cities Palenque, Piedras Negras, Naranjo and Copán where it is worn by local chiefs and/or high priests. In this illustration he additionally carries a shield with the same net motif (auachxicole or aiauhxicolli).

When analyzing the many illustrations of the net garment in the codices and on monuments, we came to the conclusion that it is composed of an undergarment (cotton and/or feathers) on which a network is attached. Due to the size of the mesh we are reminded of knitted nets used for catching large birds and fish.

We also went to look for other illustrations of Tlaloc's garment. In Durán we noticed that the highest Aztec noblemen are sometimes represented with the blue net garment of Tlaloc. It would be useful to make an inventory of all the illustrations with the net garment in all the Mexican pictorial manuscripts and in all the Meso-American cities. Then we would get a clearer picture of the characteristics attached to this garment. Our study is in fact only a first approach.

Quetzalcóatl, Feathered or Emplumed Serpent, is considered as the inventor of the calendar and is therefore also god of agriculture. He ruled in heaven (the precious Quetzalli-bird was a symbol for heaven) and on earth (Cóatl, the snake, was a symbol for earth). He was longtime one of the most important gods of the Toltecs of Teotihuacán, and later of the Azteca Mexica. Quetzalcóatl has also a Venus appearence as Morning star. As we know from our study (1984) of the Pyramid of Quetzalcóatl in the Ciudadela of Tollán-Teotihuacán, we have there also a double mask, the combined heads of Tlaloc (raingod) and Ehecatl (windgod), come out of the body of the Emplumed Serpent, Quetzalcóatl. There must be certainly a close link between the three gods.

We know already that Ehecatl was one of the aspects of Quetzalcóatl, and that the Rain god Tlaloc is logically a companion of the windgod Ehecatl. His temple was round, like the one of Chichen-Itza, called "el Observatorio". In the Maya region he was known under the name of KUKULCAN, which means also "Feathered Serpent".

3.- CASTILLO DE TEAYO

The place was since long called Teayo, we find indeed on the map of Vera Cruz by Garcia y Cubas a number of ruins indicated on the same spot. In 1870, people cleared the bushes in order to plant 'potreros' (grass for horses and cows) and to make maize fields. Around the three store pyramid (considered as a 'castillo') of Teayo of 24.5 x 24.5 m, they builded a village. On the westside there is one staircase going up to a platform at the height of 12.5 m. The construction was originally an early Huaxtecan or an early Totonac building, transformed later by Mexican conquistadores. In Castillo de Teayo there are many very interesting stone monuments representing Mexican gods:

• Mixcóatl, a stellar god, god of the north, hunting and war;
• Macuilxochitl, god of music, dance and games;
• Teteoinnan, goddess of maize;
• Chalchiuhtlicue, a water goddess and Tlaloc's wife;
• Xipe Totec, god of the skin;
• Quetzalcóatl, the featered or emplumed serpent, and
• Tlaloc, the raingod (of Teotihuacán), the most interesting of all.

• the raingod Tlaloc with half a Venus glyph;
• a full figure with a double mask of the planet Venus combined with Tlaloc;
• a flat Tlaloc representation with half a Venus glyph;
• an astronomer wearing his double sundial as headdress;
• an astronomer figured as the raingod Tlaloc, wearing his double sundial as headdress.

The upper part of the face of the first figure and of the third figure are formed by the half sign of Venus, like we can see on pages 46-50 of Codex Dresdensis. This half Venus sign is in fact the way the mexicans represented CUITLATL, excrement (in Mayathan TAA). The head of the second statue is a beautiful one. It is a double mask, a combination of the upper and middle part of the head formed by a complete Venus glyph, and the middle and under part of the head formed by the face of the Rain god Tlaloc! Here we have certainly a direct TLALOC-VENUS link, which is a very important constation. We must think here of a calendar-cosmological connection between the two entities, a connection as important as the QUETZALCOATL -VENUS Morningstar link. In one of our following lectures we shall explain this glyph in detail.

The fourth stone monument is an astronomer wearing the year sign in his headdress. The fifth stone figure is a Tlaloc representation with an half Venus sign as upper part of his face. He wears also the year sign in his headdress. This is again a calendar link for Tlaloc. In fact, this is normal because it is very important for agriculture to have fertilizing rain and a very good knowledge of the seasonal time. We find the year sign sometimes on a vase of Teotihuacan, or stone monuments, even in the Maya region.

Until 1972 we did not have a clue as to how the Mesoamerican peoples carried out their solar and astronomical observations. At the 40th Annual International congress of Americanists in Rome, Adrian Digby put forward a most interesting hypothesis. Relying on the year glyph (type A) and similar signs, he made a hypothetical reconstruction (type D & E) of a double gnomon, placed perpendicular. The two frames cast a double shadow, one of which indicates the position in the day (the solar hour), while the other one determines the position in the solar year (season). Convincing tests were carried out by means of a model with trapeziums of about 25 cm long.

These double frames are represented in some Mexican hieroglyphic writings, but then as a bird's eye view, which results in a cross-shaped picture. In an example of Codex Bodley, the eye of the observer looks right through this cross. We believe that the double frames can serve as gnomons during the day, and as an observation cross (quadrant) at nighttime - provided they are put on their sides. When we consulted astronomers, they confirmed this possibility. The cross is also said to be the function emblem of the astronomers. They sometimes carry it as a sign on their belts. We need more additional evidence for both Digby's and our own hypothesis.

We have some representations of an astronomer (Xochicalco), and of priestesses of Tula and Xico, wearing their gnomon as crown. We can show you also some other examples of the year glyph on a conch of Teotihuacan, or on stone in the Maya region, Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, Kabah, Copan, etc.
This picture shows on the left side a Venus cycle (star with a bar = 5) of 5 x 584, or 2920 days, and on the right side a bundle of 8 solar years of 365 days, or also 2920 days, with above the gnomon sign. Mayas and Mexicans used indeed a very interesting Solar-Venus calendar.