Tamoanchan – The Journey to Paradise
Heaven, nirvana, Zion — whatever you want to call it, religions and cultures around the world differ in their beliefs about where we go after we die.
For the indigenous peoples of Mexico, they had a bit of a different view of the afterlife. Instead of automatically landing a place amongst the clouds or stars, a deceased person had to do some work to earn a spot in paradise in a place known as Tamoanchan, or the “place of the misty sky.”
What is Tamoanchan?
Tamoanchan is a mythical paradise that, depending on who you ask, is associated with Aztec or Mayan culture. Like many other cultures, these indigenous peoples believed after a person died, he or she would eventually end up in Tamoanchan. They also believed Tamoanchan was a home to the gods and the birthplace of mankind, time, and the calendar.
Tamoanchan is mentioned in the Tovar Codex, a work by Mexican Jesuit Jovan de Tovar. In the Codex, he describes Tamoanchan as “the Aztec equivalent of the Garden of Eden.”
However, there are some key differences between Tamoanchan and comparable concepts of the afterlife. Unlike heaven and similar places, Tamoanchan is not located in the sky — rather, it’s a place on Earth, situated on top of a mountain. This parallels the concept of Mount Belukha, being the gateway to the Buddhist paradise of Shambhala.
Secondly, the indigenous peoples did not believe one automatically went to Tamoanchan after death except under very rare circumstances. Instead, after dying, the deceased began a journey that would ultimately lead them to Tamoanchan.
The Journey to Tamoanchan
To reach Tamoanchan, the deceased had to first pass through a dark underworld called Xibalba, or “place of fright.” In Xibalba, they would encounter difficulties as the residents there would attempt to trick them into staying and not moving on to Tamoanchan.
According to legend, the Tree of Life sprouted from Xibalba and extended all the way up to Tamoanchan. After successfully passing through Xibalba, the deceased would then move up through a series of other worlds on the Tree of Life and eventually reach eternal paradise in Tamoanchan.
Under very rare circumstances, some individuals were exempt from the journey and could go directly to Tamoanchan after death. These circumstances included:
- Human sacrifice – Human sacrifice played a big role in Mayan culture. The Mayans had a cyclical view of life, believing people never truly died. Rather, they believed death was simply a part of life, and sacrifice was a surefire way to land a seat amongst the gods.
- Suicide – Suicide was also considered an honorable way to die in ancient Mesoamerican culture.
- Death in childbirth
- Death in combat
- Death on the ball court – The Mayan game Pok-a-tok was a sacred ritual that represented the struggle between life and death. The winning team had the privilege of being sacrificed to the gods, granting them direct access to paradise in Tamoanchan.
Tamoanchan: Fact or Fiction?
There are some who believe Tamoanchan isn’t merely a myth but an actual place. This draws back to the idea that Tamoanchan was located on Earth rather than in the heavens.
Researcher Alfredo López Austin claims Tamoanchan could have been located in several places, including Cuernavaca and near Iztactepetl and Popocatepetl. Other historians allege the mystical place was near the Gulf Coast.
Despite the many theories of Tamoanchan’s location, no one can be certain of its existence. There are many books out there about Mesoamerican mythology and history that can serve as resources, should you decide to conduct your own research on this fascinating topic.
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Ancient Footprints Evidence of 'Ant People' of Hopi Indian Lore
Ancient footprints buried for thousands of years are revealing their true date of creation thousands of years earlier than we thought and shaking up the conventional timeline. Could this validate Hopi stories of ancient Ant Men?
White Sands National Park in New Mexico today, is mostly chalky white desert and sand dunes, but thousands of years ago this was a temperate zone centered around the massive Lake Otero filled with flourishing plants, wildlife, and now we can confirm, humans. Ancient footprints originally discovered in 2009 have been radiocarbon dated to be from 21,000-23,000 years ago. Previous estimates of human habitation in this area were 13,000-16,000 years ago.
Ancient stone tools, footprints, and rock layers are difficult, if not impossible, to date. But scientists have found seeds from ancient spiral seed grass, mingled with some footprints. Those seeds were able to be carbon dated, proving humans were in the area and thriving thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Jack Cary, researcher and author of “Paranormal Planet” commented on the significance of this discovery. “This is a huge point to shove back human migration. That means that you’re going to have to rewrite everything that’s associated in our science related to human migration. That is a huge problem for our anthropologists and for accepted science as a whole,” Cary said. “As investigators into ancient mysteries, this is one of the biggest things that we could ever discover because now we have absolute, inarguable proof that humans were there at this exact period of time.”
Why are investigators of ancient mysteries so excited about this find?
“This is the same area, the same place, and the same time that the Hopi Indians claimed that the so-called Ant People took them underground during a massive global cataclysm because the world basically caught fire according to their ancient, historical oral traditions. And this same event, strangely enough, can be found in the Book of Enoch when he describes a cometary impact. All of this would date back to around the same time period,” Cary said.
“And we have to remember that in Hopi language ‘Anu’ means ‘Ant’ and ‘Naki’ means ‘Friend,’ so the word Annunaki to the Hopi means ‘Ant Friends.’ And it was these ‘Ant Friends’ who twice took them underground, the second being when the last Ice Age actually melted creating a global flood that has been recorded in ancient histories worldwide. Now we have radiocarbon dated proof that there was in fact, human habitation in the right place, at the right time to make those oral histories viable.”
