Monthly Archives: July 2020

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

10 Iq’ (14th July 2020)

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10 Iq'The day 10 Iq’ can be seen as a very sociable day with an emphasis on communication within your community. With the strength of both the number and the nawal Iq’ this could lead to some inspired words and changes.

Whilst Iq’ is known for its blustery nature, there are some combinations which really have the ability to bring out the best in it. Its combination with the number 10 is one of these. If you were ever looking for a day to hold a community meeting this would be the prime candidate. The inspiring words conveyed through the divine breath come come into contact with the number which represents community and cooperation. We could expect our oratory skills to be enhanced today, especially when we are surrounded by our family and friends. It is a great day to make speeches, and to listen to them. Communication goes both ways, so make sure you listen to what your community is telling you today, there may be something divinely inspired in its words.

If you are seeking to make changes, something which is also highlighted by Iq’, today is a day to ask for the support of your community to make them. Whether this is emotional support, or physical, today is the day to rally around friends to support them through their processes.

Despite all the positive connotations of this day, bear in mind that the wind may change and Iq’ is also a nawal that governs the angry word. With the power of the number 10 behind it, be aware of the effect your words might have. If you feel anger rising within you, pause and take a breath before you allow your words to fly.

If you feel like getting inspired, I’ll be running a fermentation workshop over Zoom today, communicating with my community! You can find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/623971198512722/

Wind God 1
The wind god, from the Dresden Codex

Nawal Iq’ is another strong nawal. It represents communication and particularly divine inspiration. It is the wind, the breath of life, that which brings the change in seasons.

The communication brought by Iq’ can be enlightening and inspiring. It is the breath of the divine which flows through us all, in fact the word for soul is Saq Iq’ – white breath. When our breath stops, our divine essence leaves our physical body. When we engage ourselves with the divine breath we are able to create, to manifest with our words, to inspire those around us. However, Iq’ also has a destructive side. It has the ability to blow like a hurricane and may level everything before it. It is the angry words which cut down everything in their path.

Hurricane is one of the few English words which is actually derived from a Mayan word- Junrakan, meaning “one footed”. Junrakan is another name for the Heart of the Sky, one of the creator deities. Once again it seems that certain patterns follow through the sequence of the nawales which are interrelated. Imox, the female creative principle, or egg, is fertilised be Iq’, the male principle. Their combination results in Aq’ab’al, the conception and a change in the state, bringing the dream into reality.

Iq’ is a day of communication, a day of inspiration. It can be a great day to express yourself through written or particularly verbal means. It is also a day on which changes happen. You can either embrace those changes or resist them, but be aware that the wind blows forcefully and resistance of change requires a great deal of energy. Embracing change helps you to learn to dance like a leaf in the wind.

The number 10 is another number which demonstrates the connection between the sacred calendar and the human body. As five represents one hand, ten represents two hands coming together. This can be seen as the shaking of hands creating agreement between people. Ten is seen as a good number, a number of community and the laws of society, of people acting in harmony with each other.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 Imox (13th July 2020)

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9 ImoxWhilst Imox has its reputation for getting lost in the dream world, it also represents the place from where all things come. When this is combined with the number of life and the divine feminine, we can expect great things.

In some ways there can be no purer expression of feminine potential than the day 9 Imox. Imox is the font of life, itself the feminine, possibly the egg, possibly the womb, depending on how you look at it. It is the creative potential waiting to be brought from the collective consciousness into the physical world. The 9 represents both the feminine and is seen as the number of life itself.

We can, therefore, see this as a day to breathe life into our dreams, although this is rather an understatement.  It is the creation and nurturing of life itself, brought through from the other world. It is a day to look to the feminine, to the women around us, to help us all to navigate the collective consciousness, without being pulled into its dreamy depths. If you have a life dream and you are wondering how to bring it into reality, today you might ask the advice of the women in your life how best to nurture it.

Rainbow over Lake Atitlan, December 2013 by Mark Elmy

Rainbow over Lake Atitlan, December 2013 by Mark Elmy

Nawal Imox represents the collective consciousness, the great ocean. It is the moment before the “big bang”, when all that existed was the dream of the creator. It is everything and nothing in one place, the ovum from which reality was conceived. Imox is still very much in the other world, requiring another component to physically manifest the dream into reality.

Imox is considered to be a feminine nawal. Sometimes called water lily, sometimes crocodile, it is an embodiment of the primordial. It was from the great ocean that the four first men raised sky to create the world which we inhabit. Imox can also be seen as the Darwinian swamp from which all life emerged. It is fertile and creative, the mother that gave birth to our entire reality.

As the water lily, Imox is probably a representative of  Nymphaea alba, the white water lily. It has been suggested that the white water lily was smoked by the ancient Maya in a similar way to the blue lotus was used by the Egyptians. It was a plant which allowed access to the otherworld, a plant from which visions came if used correctly.

Imox is our common origin, and as such links us all together. It is the place of dreams, the collective conscious we delve into on our nightly voyages. It may also relate to the place that certain plant medicines take us to in order to bring us wisdom. However, as the font of all of creation, Imox harbours the dark as well as the light. When faced with the entirety of creation, the line between sanity and madness may become blurred.

Imox is a day to celebrate the spirit of the times, to understand the collective mind, particularly of humanity. It is a day to dream your creations, your art, your music. It is a day when we may all feel connected, a day when the psychic field between us may be particularly strong. Discernment may be called for, to understand when to dissociate from the collective, to remember your individuality, and to pull yourself back out of the dream world.

The number nine is very special indeed. It is the number of lunations in the human gestation period and in the sacred calendar. The sacred calendar is known as a calendar of life, and it is women that give life. As such the number nine is seen as the number of life and the number of the divine feminine. It gives all that it is attached to a strong feminine presence and is a day on which women may wish to give thanks for their gifts.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

8 Ajpu (12th July 2020)

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8 AjpuThe nawal Ajpu helps us to recognise the divinity in all that surrounds us, it sends us on our quest to understand the holiness of life. Today it shows us that we have to look in wholeness, in every aspect.

The nawal Ajpu is representative the heroes of the Popol Vuh, Junajpu, Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu. They were the ones who descended to the underworld to Xibalbans, the lords of the place of fright. Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu failed in their task and were killed, but Jun Junajpu’s severed head magically impregnated the maiden Blood Moon with his twin sons, Junajpu and Xbalamque. Where the father and uncle failed, the second generation were victorious and the Xibalbans were defeated, bringing peace to those who dwell in the earthly realm.

With Ajpu representing the sun we can see this interplay as representing the victory of light over darkness. The days numbered 8 are commonly used for ceremony, and today this ceremony could celebrate and honour the heroes that bring the light into our lives, and the divinity that surrounds us in the world. However, without their opponents, heroes would not exist and neither would the legendary stories we celebrate whatever our tradition. The challenges we confront are what bring out the divinity within us, without them there would be no quests, no progress. It is a day to celebrate our failures as well as our victories, all the things which have brought out our the hero from within us.

It is easy to see the beauty in what we have been taught is divine, but can you see it within the mundane, or even in what is considered to be ugly? Can you find the divinity in what you judge to be a negative situation? It is a day to see that all has come from oneness, everything is part of the divine.

Itzamna emerges from the mouth of the serpent, from the Dresden Codex
Itzamna emerges from the mouth of the serpent, from the Dresden Codex

We have decided to set an intention, to relaunch our retreat which will begin in 240 days time on 1 Ajpu, March 9th 2021. We understand there is great uncertainty in the world right now, but the hero has to have an objective! The retreat is based around the hero’s journey to discover the higher aspect of ourselves, to understand our potential. You can find out more about it here.

Nawal Ajpu is once again a nawal with a multitude of meanings and translations. In the Yucatec language it is known as Ahau, in Kiche is is also known as Junajpu. These are in turn variously translated into English as lord, hunter, blow gunner, flower and sun. Each one of the translations has it’s merits, and represents an aspect of this auspicious nawal.

Within the ancient Mayan society, the royals were not just political leaders of their particular city-states, they were priest-kings and priest-queens. They served as the conduit to the divine, deriving their wisdom for guiding their people through their connection with the Heart of the Earth and the Heart of the Sky. This wisdom enriched both the ruling dynasty and their people, as they would be working in harmony with the gods. Thus the ruler of the city was also the physical embodiment of the divine, and it is to this that Ajpu is so closely related. Likewise it represents our potential, the state of divinity to which we may aspire.

Ajpu represents the holiness in life, the divinity in the physical world, and our search for it. It is that moment when you look closely at a flower to see the beautiful detail, the moment when you see the magnificence of the landscape you live within, the beauty in your child’s eyes or in the face of your partner. It is the random act of kindness that restores our faith in humanity. It is the search for the underlying meaning in all situations, understanding that each person is a part of the whole. Whether we like it or not, and however we judge it, we are all a part of creation. Our every action, and every action of others gives us the opportunity to explore ourselves and our reaction, whether we are attracted or repelled by the action of others. However, sometimes Ajpu can lead us to become immersed in the other world, to lose sight of reality, it is important to remember to stay in touch with the Heart of the Earth as we reach to the Heart of the Sky.

The number 8 is considered to be a number of wholeness. It can be seen as birth (1) and death (7) combined to represent the whole cycle of the soul. It can also be seen as the point where the four first men who raised the sky from the sea were joined by their wives and the world become whole. It is the most common day for ceremonies to be made, it is still in the balanced range of numbers and is an even number, which is also considered fortunate. As this wholeness represents every aspect of the energy of the day with which it is coupled, it is the wholeness of the nawal that is addressed in ceremony.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

7 Kawok (11th July 2020)

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7 KawokThe rain may fall but how it affects you is your choice. Will you choose to fall victim to the storm allowing the torrent to wash you away, or will you dance in the rain giving thanks for the gift of life? Today it is very much up to you.

Chak sends the fire serpent (lightning) from the sky, from the Dresden Codex
Chak sends the fire serpent (lightning) from the sky, from the Dresden Codex

Like all things, the nawal Kawok seems to have two faces, one benevolent and one malevolent. However, this is actually just our perception and our experience. If our house gets flooded in a great storm, we may feel like cursing the rain. If we live in a desert, the rain falling may seem like a miracle, new life falling from the sky. The rain would fall whether we were there or not, and if there was no rain, there would be no life. In reality, there is no polarity.

Just as in the natural world, the rain brings new life, sometimes the storms within our lives also bring the potential for new growth. Today, with nawal Kawok combining with the number 7, it is very much our choice as to how we deal with the storms we see going on around us.

Sometimes we have to endure storms within our lives, and sometimes we lend our umbrella to our families and friends as we help them to endure their own storms. Today we have the opportunity to finally heal and decisively wash away the obstacles to growth, to allow the flow to take us towards novelty within our lives. This could be seen with the finality of the number 7 representing one final push to bring the new energy into our lives. Of course we can resist it if we wish, but we might find that the current is too strong and that resistance only causes exhaustion, the new life is coming in on its own schedule. Allow the rain to heal you, to cleanse you and to soothe you, as you move forward into the novelty of life.

Ixchel empties the water jar, washing away the old world in order to bring in the new. From the Dresden Codex
Ixchel empties the water jar, washing away the old world in order to bring in the new. From the Dresden Codex

Nawal Kawok is in some ways a counterpart to the nawal Tijax. Where Tijax has masculine aspects of healing, Kawok has the feminine aspect. Kawok is sometimes referred to as rain or storm. It is this rain that washes away that which has been cut out by Tijax.

While most healing roles within the Maya world do not seem to be gender specific, one is. Both women and men may be healers, prayer makers, herbalists and diviners, only women will become midwives. Kawok is the energy of the midwife. Kawok helps to clear the obstructions from the birth process, in some ways it actually represents the birth process. Kawok brings the new into the world. In the Mayan cross, Kawok, the birth process finishes the sequence which starts with Aq’ab’al (conception) and moves through B’atz (gestation.) In the sequence of the calendar, Kawok precedes Ajpu. Ajpu represents the resurrection of the maize lord, also the creation of the world. Kawok creates the conditions for that to happen, the rain which brings forth the sprouting of the maize.

In its storm aspect, Kawok can be destructive, although it is a destruction which allows a new creation to happen. Kawok energy can give rise to some tempestuous situations, it can be a day which can give people a rough ride, although this may be for the eventual good. It is a day to ask for the gentle rain to bless your crops, and for the harsh rain to stop. It is a day which washes away the old and outworn in life, so that the new growth, life and divinity may emerge.

If we imagine the numbers 1 through 13 as a pyramid, the number seven would be at the top. Seven is the number of balance, it gives the ability to weigh up situations and see all points of view. While this may be very noble, it may lead to indecision.

The numbers of the days set out as a pyramid.
The numbers of the days as they appear through the trecena. Here they can also be set out as a pyramid, reaching the peak is also the end of a journey.

The number seven is the mid-point of the range of numbers, as we would see them,  but it is also known as a number of death and endings. This which would seem strange as it is only half way through the journey. However, another representation of the change of state of the soul, showing half of the journey (1-7) in the mortal world and half (8-13) in the other world. 7 Is the final number that appears in the bottom row before we move to the top row, suggesting the transition between realms. The numbers 1 and 7 embrace all other numbers as they appear in the sequence of nawales, and thus give a suggestion of beginnings and endings.

Number Sequence.jpg
The sequence of numbers as they appear with each appearance of a nawal. Here we see that the sequence begins with 1 and ends with 7, giving 7 as a number of finality.

 

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

6 Tijax (10th July 2020)

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6 TijaxWhen you are using the razor edged obsidian blade, it is of the utmost importance to have a steady hand guiding it. Today is that day, the day when the sharp blade of discernment cuts with a stable certainty.

Whether it is a way of creating beauty, or bringing harmony into the world through decisive action, today is an excellent day to be wielding the blade. It has enough power behind it to complete the task with certainty, but not so much so as to cause collateral damage. It is a day which brings the ultimate stability of the number 6 together with the healing ability of Tijax to bring true resolution of duality.

The energy of the nawal Tijax can have a fanatical energy, rushing off on the next quest, determined to rid the world of evil. The energy of the number 6 turns the fanatical crusader into a wiser warrior, helping us to understand when to stop, and which causes are really worth fighting for. It gives us a high degree of discernment, it can guide you to make the right cuts in order to lighten your load. Tijax‘s eye for beauty can be trusted, it can be used to cut away the superfluous and bring out the true divinity. It is also a great day for choosing things which bring beauty to the world.

With the energy of the number 6 also representing family values, this can be seen as a good day for bringing healing to certain areas of family life by cutting away anything which causes imbalance.

Today is a day of editing, a day to bring healing through precise cuts. It is a day to bring stability to your life by gently but firmly removing that which no longer serves you. After all, today the movement of the blade in the physical realm is guided through the connection with the Heart of the Sky and the Heart of the Earth.

Sacrificial Death God 1

The nawal Tijax is often thought of as an obsidian blade or knife. How the blade is used depends on the intention of the person wielding it. It can be wielded by a warrior or by a surgeon. These would seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, but where Tijax is concerned the aim is the same – healing.

Tijax is the nawal of the holy warrior. In the Mayan book of creation , the Popol Vuh, the first act of the hero twins was a mission given to them by the Heart of the Sky to rid the world of the false gods Seven Macaw, Zipacna and Earthquake. This is their quest, their crusade, and is represented by Tijax. They then sacrifice themselves in the underworld (Kame) and are resurrected with magical abilities (Ix). By destroying the false gods, the twins brought balance to the world, and helped mankind, they brought healing to the world. They cut out that which caused disease, exactly as a surgeon would do.

Tijax is celebrated as a day of healers, particularly what could be seen as the masculine aspect of healing. It is a day of crusading, of standing up for what is right. It has a tenacity to it, it is sometimes belligerent, it will not be stopped in its quest. It is the healer who refuses to give up on finding a cure. Tijax gives powers of discernment and refinement. Just as the surgeons scalpel cuts away disease and the warriors blade dispatches the evil, the sculptors chisel creates beauty by remodelling the base material. It is a day of alchemy, both internal and external, turning the ordinary into the divine.

The number six is said to be the number of ultimate stability. It is the first of the three middle numbers of the cycle, the balance point neither too strong nor too weak. It is a day frequently used for ceremony thanks to its conducive energy. It represents the four directions with the Heart of the Sky and the Heart of the Earth. It also represents family, relating to the six qualities that nourish and hold families together – health, understanding, property, employment, friendship and actions.