This day is celebrated as the day of the healer, when ceremonies are held in gratitude for our ability to bring healing to our communities. It is a potent day to deal with any aspect of healing to restore balance.

Tijax can be a powerful nawal, the razor edged discernment crafting the mundane into the holy. Today it is empowered by the balanced wholeness of the number 8, the masculine and feminine aspects of the qualities of the four directions, steadying and guiding the cutting edge. It is a day to recognise what can be healed in life, and what must be cut away, to bring order through compassionate action.

All aspects of Tijax are embraced today. Within the Tijax ceremony, we give thanks for our ability to heal and those who bring healing to us in whatever form it might take. We ask for pardon for when we become over-enthusiastic in our quests and it drives us into belligerence. Lastly we ask for healing to come where it is needed, whether this is in our physical bodies or within our society.

As we travel through the B’atz trecena, we are weaving in the new reality, ready to mesh it with the old on 8 B’atz. Here on 8 Tijax, we are cutting away the superfluous, trimming away the parts of the old pattern which no longer serve and shaping the new cloth to weave it seamlessly into the old.  Tijax discerns and removes the false.

It is a day to heal divides, to ask for the restoration of unity and balance. This may come through analysing both sides of the disagreement and using the discernment Tijax brings to cut away the excesses of either, to cut through to the truth.

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 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.