294 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
capital at Teotihuacan. There, they were preserved at the Temple of the Jaguar.
Thanks to de la Vega, the Mayas’ Votan is adequately described as an alien civilizer.
Votan was known to another Yucatan tribe, the Chiapenese, who claimed
they were the first human beings in Middle America. To them, he was the grand-
son of a man who built a great “raft” to save his family from the Deluge that
ravaged the world. “He came from the east,” they said, then went on to found a
great city known as Chan. On Peru’s north Pacific coast lie the ruins of Chan-Chan,
a pre-Inca megalopolis. In fact, wall friezes at its Palace of the Governor display a
pyramidal city sunken beneath the sea. The Chiapenese recounted that seven families
arrived with Votan from over the “Ocean of the Sunrise.”
The occurrence of this figure on three continents forms a curious triangle.
His name appearing at such widely separated locations is remarkable enough. But
that three peoples as culturally different from one another as the Norse, Dahomey,
and Mayas should share complimentary aspects of his myth exceeds mere coinci-
dence, indicating an experience common to them all. Wotan/Vodun/Votan is not
found outside the areas mentioned, so he was not part of some extra-historical
phenomenon common to humanity in general. On the contrary, his appearance is
very specific, as is his myth, among just those peoples dwelling close to the ocean
who were obviously visited by the same “Wanderer,” a culture-bearer from some
central point and from which he impacted the three continents separately. Today,
that central point is only open sea, where several thousand years ago there flourished
a maritime Asgaard.
These intercultural connections through Wotan are reenforced by his early
characterization in Norse myth as god of the winds. So too, the Egyptian equivalent
of Atlas was Shu, likewise portrayed as controller of the winds supporting the
heavens. The Aztec Ehecatl—containing the indicative “atl” of Atlas—who was
said to have arrived on the shores of Mexico near Vera Cruz, was the wind-god
depicted in sacred art holding up the sky. Additionally, Wotan wore an azure
cloak and was venerated as the patron of sailors. In Plato’s Kritias, the maritime
kings of Atlantis wore sacred blue robes. The palatial estate of Wotan in Asgaard
was, of course, the famous Valhalla, originally, Valhal. Remarkably, both the
Quiche Maya and Chiapenese Indian versions of their Votan portray him arriving
from his Atlantic home, known as Valum. Reason rebels at the dismissal of com-
parisons between the Norse Wotan-Valhal and the Central American Votan-Valum
as “purely coincidental.”
In what may be correlating evidence, Rene Guenon, one of the greatest mytholo-
gists of the 20th century, reported that Hindu priests preserve traditions of Atlantis.
In a description of the Atlantean written language, astrological glyphs stood for
specific characters. They referred to this kind of “astral-alphabet” as Watan or Vatan.
Was that alphabet named after a culture-bearer from Atlantis? Since the Atlanteans
were supposed to have been the inventors of astronomy-astrology and continued
to excel foremostly in that science, their use of astrological symbols for letter values
is credible.
Wotan,Vodun,Votan,Watan,Vatan,Valhal,Valum—their interrelating themes
seem to describe the same Atlantean figure.