The "Forgotten" Moon Goddess

By D. M. Urquidi

Abstract

Because the following monument has been renamed Coyolxauhque/Tlaltecuhtli, it is quite possible this icon was not meant to
be the Moon Reflected in the Lake called Texcoco. Yet, all the references
I have read recently are of the Coyolxauhque/Tlaltecuhtli goddesses,
it has been stated multiple times Coyolxauhque was thought to be the Moon, Yet, Maria Longhena, inferred “this appears to be true, [but[ it is not certain.” Another more recent study [infers] Coyolxauhque may instead be, the goddess of the Milky Way.” [Miller, M. and Taube, K. (1993. 68)] Because the Moon Goddess got lost; my purpose is to find how she got ignored and/or “forgotten.”

                                                                                                               

[a]  Ignacio Bernal (1969, pl 40b) An Olmec-type Hea                              [b] Vailliant G, (1941, pl. 56).]

      covering ] with Tears of Gold from the Eyes           

This image of an Olmec helmeted goddess with the same rounded dimensions
has three glyphs under each eye. The glyph to each eye have a “cross with four
even arms and in each of four spaces, there is a circle. The middle glyph is
partially obscured, It may be seen clearer in the second [b] view of Metztli was the name identified by George Vailliant in 1941. Yet, this monumental head,
created in the style of the Olmec boulder-sized heads wears the same type
banded helmet as the Olmec heads without glyphs for identification.

The moon’s first view appears to be a museum copy [Fig: a]. On the other
hand, Fig: b  has all the attributes of the Olmec boulder heads. Glyphs
flowing with tears directly under her eyes appear to be the same as the
single tear flowing from Coyolxauhque. However, a closer examination
of Coyolxauhque shows that the tears flow from the end of a rod, marked
with squares as if to measure distance.

When the meteorites plunged in the Atlantic Ocean, they created a “sheer
thrust” across the Gulf of Mexico as far as the San Andreas fault line in the
Gulf of Baja California.

As a result, the volcanic mountain range in central Mexico rose into
the sky. In this way, the body of the land south of the mountains was separated from
Lake Texcoco contained within the caldera of the volcano Popocatepetl. Because of the extra height of the mountain range, the Moon would
obliterate the stars reflected in the lake when the moon was in the sky.
There the Moon would reflect itself in the waters of the whole lake.

Miztztli, after her body was removed from her head, the tears from her
eyes were released into the Balsas River and then on to the Pacific

Ocean. The view of the two earplugs ends in as the knife, while her

slightly extended tongue clearly is another knife blade, just as Coatlique who has one in her mouth. Both of these goddesses had their body

removed by the barranca. 

          However, the lower Balsas Valley did not get chopped into pieces.

It was only a geological “sheer thrust,” as a clean-cut barranca between the volcanoes and the lowlands.

 

Before 1941,Metztli, the Goddess, Keeper of the Moon, the night, and thefarmers was buried together with the Sun Stone in the southwest

corner of the National Palace at the Parque Tezozomoc. Her name here

in a schema by the reconstruction archaeologists in the Scientific

American magazine, dated August, 1984 shows Coatlique buried next

to the stone of the Sun even though both the names: the Sun Stone

and Meztzli as the moon was used, as stated previously, by George

Vailiant in 1941. He did admit that the Sun Stone, even with all the day

names on it did not constitute a useable calendar system.

By 1978, Miztztli, the moon, postulated it was Coatlique who was
buried next to the Sun Stone. And again, in 1984.she was again
renamed as Coyolxauhqui, the sister of Huitzilopochtli even though
her location was on the corner in the Great Temple (1984,85)
Coatlique got lost in the shuffle because she was the central
iconic image on the Sun Stone.

The area below the volcanoes, the Balsas Valley, changed to
a different temperature zone ranging from 12.5 to 28 Centigrade.
It became the valley where “primavera nunca muere.” [Spring never
dies.] The other river of tears of Miztzli, the moon goddess, where
once one could pan for gold, was the Papaloapan
River which emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.

Two goddesses have acquired a different myth. First, Tlaltecuhtli,
the male Earthlord was also a female goddess with the same name
who was born in a burning tree. She became the mythological Mixtec
goddess who was the source of heavenly power and approval for
the dynasty of Apuala and Tilangtongo. [Bodley Codex, Lamina 1-1]

Her counterpart from the Aztec world named, Coyolxauque, had the same star myth as that of Tlaltecuhtli. The exception was that Coyolxauhque was not born in a burning tree. Instead, she was the star-sister of Huitzilopochtli. When she found her mother,Coatlicue, was pregnant but had no husband, it was her

desire to destroy her mother for her indiscretion.

So Cotollxauque and the Centzon

Huitznahua the stars of the Via Lacta//the

Milky Way] attacked her mother. Huitzilopochtli, was not yet born.

Mary Miller and Karl Taube, in 1993, in their book

The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya,

described the battle:

“The Centzon Huitznahua and Cotollxauque charged Coatepec,
slicing off Coatlicue's head. Out of her truncated body leapt [sic]
Huitzilopochtli, fully formed and dressed, brandishing his Xiuhhcoatl,
with which he, in turn, dismembered his sister‘s body parts, and
tumbled them down to the foot of Coatepec. Only a few of his half-brothers managed to flee.”

Miller and Taube continued their narrative with the following information:

“. . . The head of Coyolxauhque lay at the base of the pyramid, her
image carved on the surface of a round [flat] stone. . . “

The conclusion that Coyolxauhque “might be the Moon Goddess was
already an established conclusion in other publications (1978, XI, 96) in
Newsweek, “as a lunar deity,” and by Moctizuma, Eduardo M. (1988, 42)
in his book, The Great Temple of the Aztecs, where he inferred
Coyolxauhque “could represent the moon,”

Nevertheless, both  Coyolxauhque and Tlaltecuhtli had a similar story,.

The Moon and Coatlicue were joined into one disaster, but there was

the other myth that both Coyolxauhque

and Tlaltecuhtli had been dismembered and thrown down to earth.

Their bodies were decapitated but torn apart.

Conclusion There was a clear distinction between Aztec

Coatlicue, the center of the earth with Miztztl, the Aztec Moon goddess

and the Mixtec Coyolxauque with Tlaltecuhtli. The first pair were

decapitated with one direct “sheer thrust.”  The latter two were torn

apart, head, torso, arms, and legs and thrown down to earth, ]bur only

Coyolxauhque had the Centzon Huitznaha

come down to commiserate about her bad luck in the battle.

Because of the disparity between the two pairs of goddesses,
there is no doubt that Miztzli
was, and is, the original name of the Moon Goddess.