Aktzin(Totonacan: Ā'ktzini, "He who makes Thunder") [1] was the god of rain, thunder and lightning for the Totonac people of Mexico. Aktzin corresponds with Tláloc to the Aztecs and Chaac or Cabrakán to the Mayas [2] , and is most commonly syncretised with Saint John the Baptist. [1]
He existed before the Sun and was owner of all the waters, except the rainwater ironically enough. He lived in the "great water" at the end of the sea and skies to the east, where he acted as the eastern pillar holding the world, his abode has also been described as underground where he creates wooden animals to act as his servants. In accordance to mesoamerican duality; Aktzin was both life giving and life taking, keen to drown the world as those who died by drowning became his servants; the men forced to dig the river beds, and women forced marry him. Aktzin is seen as a hunter, drinker and very noisy. It is he who is heard bellowing like a jaguar when rain comes. Stories credit him as the inventor of tubers and friend of animals [1]
A story of him as Saint John tells how he slayed a giant python called "seventeen heads", who lived in Chicontepec and devastated the population. John tricked the snake and made him fall head first into the sea, where he was chained with the hair of the Virgin, where he remains, only able to move his head and scream. [1]
Aktzin was typically depicted as a male figure wearing some form of headdress and rings over his eyes, similar to spectacles. In one hand he held a hammer or axe which would produce thunder and lightning as it struck the clouds. Water poured from his other hand, either from his palm or from a vessel which he held.[ citation needed ] These elements represented the life-giving and sometimes destructive forces of the weather.
The Spanish conquerors led by Hernán Cortés encountered the Totonac civilization in 1519, [3] after their initial contact with the Mayas of the Yucatán Peninsula. The Totonac territories were located near the Gulf coast in what is today the state of Veracruz. The city of El Tajín (City of the Thunder God), is an archaeological zone with the remains of the Totonac capital city dating back over 1,000 years.
Tláloc is the god of rain in Aztec religion. He was also a deity of earthly fertility and water, worshipped as a giver of life and sustenance. This came to be due to many rituals, and sacrifices that were held in his name. He was feared, but not maliciously, for his power over hail, thunder, lightning, and even rain. He is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain where he was believed to reside. Cerro Tláloc is very important in understanding how rituals surrounding this deity played out. His followers were one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico.
Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend, the various groups who became the Aztecs arrived from the North into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City – but little can be known with certainty about the origin of the Aztec. There are different accounts of their origin. In the myth, the ancestors of the Mexica/Aztec came from a place in the north called Aztlan, the last of seven nahuatlacas to make the journey southward, hence their name "Azteca." Other accounts cite their origin in Chicomoztoc, "the place of the seven caves", or at Tamoanchan.
Maya mythology or Mayan mythology is part in of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The legends of the era have to be reconstructed from iconography. Other parts of Mayan oral tradition are not considered here.
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Chaac is the name of the Maya god of rain, thunder, and lightning. With his lightning axe, Chaac strikes the clouds, causing them to produce thunder and rain. Chaac corresponds to Tlaloc among the Aztecs.
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The events of Revelation are the events that occur in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament. An outline follows below, chapter by chapter.
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