What is the name of the Aztec paradise of the rain god Tlaloc?

The Aztec paradise of the rain god Tlaloc was called Tlalocan. The name means “place of Tlaloc,” and it was imagined as a lush, abundant realm governed by Tlaloc and his consort, Chalchiuhtlicue.

Tlalocan was not simply a destination for every dead person. Aztec beliefs connected a person’s afterlife destination with the manner of death. People who drowned, were killed by lightning, died in floods, or succumbed to illnesses associated with water could be received in Tlalocan rather than traveling to Mictlan, the underworld of the dead.

Descriptions preserved in sources such as the Florentine Codex portray Tlalocan as a place of perpetual spring, green vegetation, and plentiful edible plants. This contrasts with Mictlan’s dangerous journey through multiple regions. Tlalocan is also associated with the wider cosmic structure of the Aztec universe and with earlier imagery at Teotihuacan. A common mix-up is treating Tlalocan as another name for Mictlan; they are distinct destinations, although both belong to Aztec ideas about the afterlife.