Monthly Archives: April 2021

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

1 Kame (4th April 2021)

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1 KameThe energy of the nawal Kame brings us the opportunity to face our challenges. Its combination with the number 1 today suggests the beginning of fresh challenges which lead to our spiritual advancement.

Today may bring a theme for the next 13 days, or the next 247 when the day 7 Kame occurs and we are finally victorious over our challenge. Kame may bring the things which frighten us to our attention, but it also brings the strength to face these fears. Whether we choose to or not is up to us, but the rewards are great, the evolution of our soul. Kame may represent sacrifice, but it is also a purification, a refinement. This is the nawal of internal alchemy.

It is the beginning of a time of change, although today those changes may need a little encouragement, possibly from your ancestors. For now you may just be content with planning your process of transformation, sowing the seeds of change. There is no right or wrong way of approaching this. In the Popol Vuh, Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu failed in their attempt to confront the Lords of Death. However, Jun Junajpu spawned Junajpu and Xbalamque who succeeded at the challenge. There is rarely one chance to succeed, if the challenge is important to your life path or the evolution of your soul, it will return until you overcome it.

If you follow the cycles of the days, either through your own literature, or by looking through the archives of this site, you should be able to see a pattern emerging. The numbers follow a pattern, and it almost looks like a piano keyboard if we arrange them to differentiate between what almost appear to be two sequences running concurrently. What we also see is that the sequence starts with 1 and finishes with 7. We see this in the Popol Vuh used to exemplify the entirety of a concept. For example, the first pair of heroes in the story are 1 and 7 Junajpu, representing the entirety of the creative principle, and their polar opposites are 1 and 7 Kame, the two chief lords of Xibalba. The victory over 7 Kame represents the end of the struggle, the day 1 Kame represents the beginning of the challenges.

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Kame relates to death, which often makes people nervous. However, this nawal is seen as an extremely positive day. Birth is the gateway into the mortal life, death the gateway into the eternal. In many shamanistic traditions, the initiate goes through several death experiences during training. This can be through the use of particular herbs, or sometimes through accident or illness. In these experiences the density of the mortal realm falls away and the greater understanding emerges. It can often be described as a spiritual transformation. In the Popul Vuh, the Mayan book of creation, the Hero Twins descend to the underworld, Xibalba, to confront the Lords of Death. They pass the many challenges set for them, but eventually end up being tricked by the Lord of Death. Instead of giving in, the Hero Twins choose to sacrifice themselves. They give instructions to a pair of seers to convince the Lords of Death to grind the Twins’ bones to dust and throw the dust in the river. Everything went according to plan and five days later the twins appeared as catfish in the river, then transformed into vagabond “magicians”. In this way we see a literal transformation from the crusader (Tijax) through death (Kame) to the higher self (Ix). This is the potential of the Kame day, to face ones fears and attain a higher perspective, to advance the journey of your soul. This is also a day to remember your ancestors and friends that have passed into the other realm, to remember what they taught you, and to thank them for their wisdom that helped you to grow.

The number 1 is representative of the seed, of unity. It represents birth and beginnings. It is a low and odd number, which usually represents something challenging. However, the seed can grow into a mighty tree, it is full of potential. It just needs the correct nutrients and conditions to germinate and develop, just as sometimes we need encouragement to develop our ideas.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

13 Kan (3rd April 2021)

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13 KanKeep your head up and your senses keen today, it is one of the most potent days of all. It carries with it the possibilities of great wisdom or great manipulation by those with power. Learn to see through the illusion.

An ancestor brings wisdom through the vision serpent. Feathered Serpent Diety, detail of Classic Maya lintel at Yaxchilan, from ''A Study of Maya Art'' by Herbert Spinden, 1913 {{PD-US}}
An ancestor brings wisdom through the vision serpent. Feathered Serpent Diety, detail of Classic Maya lintel at Yaxchilan, from ”A Study of Maya Art” by Herbert Spinden, 1913 {{PD-US}}

Kan is not necessarily a problematic energy, but it can be if it is not well directed. In its most positive aspect we can expect wisdom to come through from the unseen world today. It is an excellent day for divination, and for asking for wisdom, particularly from your ancestors. If you were ever thinking of consulting a medium, today would be an excellent day to make an appointment with one. If you are at a loss to know what to do next and need the advice of a dear departed friend, today their words should come through loud and clear.

However, the dark side of Kan is also powerful. It is the side which governs spells and illusions, the love and abuse of power. It is also assisting those who would seek power over others. Be aware of attempts at mass deception today, use your wisdom to discern between fact and fiction. The people misusing the nawal Kan have the ability to seduce and flatter, and it is only when you are going over the cliff with a big smile on your face that you realise they have deceived you.

In your favour, it may bring you the wisdom to see through the illusions cast by by those in power, the infinite light from the spirit world illuminating the manipulator behind the scenes.

Be aware of the hypnotic effect of power and those who wield it.
Be aware of the hypnotic effect of power and those who wield it.

Kan is one of the more powerful nawales and it represents just that – power. It is connected to serpents, and serpent symbology is very strong in Maya mythology. In the past, lightning was referred to as sky serpents, and what is seen in the outer world is reflected by the inner world. The power of Kan comes from something which is referred to as itz or coyopa, the lightning in the blood. This is the power which may also be known as Ki, Chi, Prana, kundalini or “the force”. It is life force energy. Kundalini is a sanskrit word actually meaning coiled, like a snake. When working with any of these energies, training must be undertaken in order to understand how to use them. In its most positive aspect, the energy of Kan brings great wisdom; in its negative aspect, great destruction. A lack of understanding or control of this power can lead to undesirable consequences. The dark side of Kan can seduce with its power, and a very sexy power it is too, holding its prey in an almost hypnotic grip with its allure. It can become the ultimate ego trap.

However, it is also said that the feathered serpent Q’uq’umatz (also known as Kulkulkan or Quetzalcoatl) brought wisdom, through the sciences of astronomy and agriculture, to the ancient Maya. Here we see the positive aspect of Kan, where the ability to work with the body lightning brings great wisdom. People born on a Kan day can become some of the greatest healers or psychics, or they can become the darkest sorcerers and manipulators.

The number 13 is the final number. It represents the spirit world. It is said that on Halloween, the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. However within the sacred calendar, this thinning happens every 13 days. This connection with the spirit world creates a powerful day, where both the positive and negative aspects of the nawal it is attached to come through strongly. It is a very good day for activities such as divinations, however, ceremonies on 13 days are generally only carried out by the most experienced Aj Q’ij who understand how to work with that strength of energy.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

12 K’at (2nd April 2021)

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12 K'at

This could be an excellent day to gather together with people from all parts of your life, a day of reunions. You may have to be aware of how many commitments you make, the energy of nawal K’at may bind you into over overburdening yourself.

Some nawales are associated with particular numbers, the number representing a similar energy to the nawal. 12 K’at is one of these with both K’at and 12 representing bundling or gathering together.

With 12 representing the gathering together of all of life’s experiences and K’at representing the gathering of abundance, we can see some very positive meanings to today’s nawal. It suggests that you may be able to finally bring together everything that you have learned into one place and that this will lead to abundance.

However, there is a caution to this. Sometimes we need to be selective over which experiences we choose to combine and which experiences we choose to exclude from our bundle. There are some life experiences which have served their purpose and have now become a burden. Today is the day to ask nawal K’at to help us set ourselves free of the baggage we have collected in life, to recognise what helps us grow and what holds us back, to release the outmoded or irrelevant attachments to our past. We can then draw together our true wisdom to create a new seed to plant and take us forward.

Cover photo credit: Marybel Iriondo

Blood Moon, mother of the Hero Twins being sent away from Xibalba after becoming pregnant. She goes to see Ixmucane, Mother of Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu and is set a challenge to fill a net with corn. which she achieves and is taken in as family. She is seen here holding the K'at glyph in her hands. From The Dresden Codex.
Blood Moon (Ixkik’), mother of the Hero Twins being sent away from Xibalba after becoming pregnant. She goes to see Ixmucane, Mother of Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu and is set a challenge to fill a net with corn. which she achieves and is taken in as family. She is seen as the patron deity of the nawal K’at. From The Dresden Codex.

K’at signifies a net and represents gathering together or bundling. Here, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, to this day many crops are harvested and carried in nets – oranges, lemons, avocados to name but a few. Through this we see one of the positive meanings of this nawal, that of abundance and harvest. K’at is a great day to draw things together, whether this means gathering in your crops, collecting ideas and opinions for your projects, or inviting people to a social event. It is a day of prosperity and the bounty which comes from the Earth, a day of gardeners, but also of merchants.

However, K’at also has its more challenging side. An abundant crop will fill the net, but it will also slow you down. K’at is also the nawal of prisons and burdens, as the net which gathers, can also ensnare us. When candles are purchased for the fire ceremonies, they come in bundles held together by little strings. When the nawal K’at is addressed during the fire ceremony, these strings are put in to the fire, with offerings, to ask K’at to help us release ourselves from our burdens, from the ties which bind us. These ties can also be seen as excessive attachment to material things.

The number 12 is the penultimate number. In some ways it can be seen as the last Earthly number, the number 13 representing the spirit world. We travelled through the mortal world with 1 through 6, then the other world with 7 through 12. In this way 12 can be seen as a point of bringing all of the experiences into one bundle for presentation to the spirit world as we step into 13. As such, the number 12 brings a wealth of experience into one place, it is rather like writing an autobiography. It is totality, all that is, brought together.