[Aztlan] Tlaloc Star? (Aztlan Digest, Vol 51, Issue 6)

[Ivan Sprajc]

There is plenty of evidence indicating that Mesoamerican rain deities, like
Tlaloc and Chac, were associated with Venus, particularly its evening
aspect, forming part of the so-called Venus-rain-maize complex, and the
latter was, in turn, related to warfare symbolism. While different types of
data can be found in a number of publications, the following works discuss
this subject extensively:
Carlson, John B. 1991. Venus-Regulated Warfare and Ritual Sacrifice in
Mesoamerica: Teotihuacan and the Cacaxtla "Star Wars" Connection. Center for
Archaeoastronomy Technical Publication No. 7. College Park, MD.
Sprajc, Ivan. 1993. The Venus-Rain Maize Complex in the Mesoamerican World
View: Part I, Journal for the History of Astronomy 24: 17-70; Part II,
Archaeoastronomy No. 18 (Journal Hist. Astron. Suppl. to Vol. 24): S27-S53.
-----. 1996. Venus, lluvia y maíz: Simbolismo y astronomía en la cosmovisión
mesoamericana. México: INAH.
-----. 1996. La estrella de Quetzalcóatl: El planeta Venus en Mesoamérica.
México: Ed. Diana.

Ivan Sprajc
 

> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:20:21 -0500
> From: Gary Daniels <Gary at lostworlds.org>
> Subject: [Aztlan] Tlaloc Star?
> To: Untitled <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
> Message-ID: <C79211E5.22D5%Gary at LostWorlds.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="ISO-8859-1"
> 
> Does Tlaloc  have an association with stars (or a particular star)?
> 
> On Lintel 41 from Yachilan, the figure on the right wears a headdress
> which
> includes an emblem that looks like a five-pointed star. The interior of
> the
> star contains a circle-within-a-circle design. This headdress is
> referred to
> by Carolyn Tate in  her book on Yaxchilan as ?Tlaloc.? Here?s a link to
> an
> image:
> 
> http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?im
> age=m
> m029101.jpg&retpage=16199
> 
> So I started doing a little research on Tlaloc and found this very
> interesting depiction on Wikipedia:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlaloc
> 
> It appears the sculptor purposefully rendered Tlaloc?s face as a sort
> of
> ?EK? glyph. The nose and eyebrows seem purposefully combined into one
> unit-
> which I haven?t seen in other sculptures. Tlaloc also appeas to have
> rays of
> light emanating from behind his head, star-like. And in his head band
> is the
> circle-within-a-circle motif repeated multiple times.  I?ve seen this
> same
> headband on a sculpture of Quetzalcoatl, who definitely has an
> association
> with a star/planet: Venus.
> 
> The article states Tlaloc was the Aztec version of the Mayan god Chac.
> I?ve
> read elsewhere that God GI is also associated with Chac. Interestingly,
> God
> GI is ?enthroned in the sky? at the beginning of the Mayan Flood Myth
> and
> Decapitation of the Cosmic Caiman. This ?enthronement in the sky? seems
> very
> star-like and suggests Chac (and thus Tlaloc) has an association with a
> particular star.
> 
> Is this the case? If so, do scholars know which star Tlaloc is
> associated
> with?
> 
> -Gary Daniels
> http://www.LostWorlds.org