Tlaloc

Tezcatlipoca caused trouble during Tlaloc’s reign as the sun of the second age. He took Tlaloc’s wife, Xochiquetzal, away from him. Tlaloc was overcome by grief and anger after losing her. He refused to let rain fall, and a severe drought spread across the world. The people suffered because their crops and plants could no longer receive the water they needed.

Tlaloc eventually destroyed the world with a different kind of rain. Fire fell from the sky and ended his age. The flames consumed the world and brought his rule to an end. In one account, the people who survived the destruction became birds.

Quetzalcoatl then began the fourth age, called the Water Sun. He appointed Tlaloc’s second spouse, Chalchiuhtlicue, as its sun goddess. Her reign was mostly unhappy. Tezcatlipoca denounced her and later knocked her out of the sky. When she fell, the water that came from her caused a great flood. The people of that age would have drowned, but some gods changed them into fish at the last moment. Accounts differ over the details of the changes between these ages, but this account links Tlaloc’s reign with fire and Chalchiuhtlicue’s with the flood.

Black Tezcatlipoca took and seduced Xochiquetzal, the goddess of plants, love, and flowers. She had been Tlaloc’s wife. Tlaloc was so distressed that he refused to let rain fall, and the land suffered a terrible drought. Tlaloc could send rain to help crops, yet he could also bring drought, floods, and illness.

Tlaloc later took Chalchiuhtlicue as his wife. She was the jade-skirted goddess of lakes and streams. Together they were connected with the Tlaloques, the lesser rain-gods who assisted Tlaloc. The Tlaloques supervised Tlalocan, the afterworld kingdom ruled by Tlaloc. People who died by drowning or from illnesses carried by water were sent there. Tlalocan was described as a paradise with mild weather and flowering plants.

Tlaloc controlled rain and water through four jugs. He could pour from them to determine whether rain would nourish crops or damage the earth. In one account, he and Chalchiuhtlicue had Tecçiztecatl, the moon-rabbit god. Another account says that Tlaloc was the father of the Tlalocs.

Tlaloc was also associated with the Third Sun, the Rain Sun. He ruled that age for 364 years after a great wind had swept away the people of the Second Sun, leaving a few who became monkeys. After this period, Chalchiuhtlicue became ruler of the Fourth Sun. Accounts differ about Tlaloc’s divine domain. He was said to rule either Tlalocan, the lowest of three heavens, or Ilhuicatl Xoxouhcan, the eighth of the thirteen Aztec heavens.