8 No’j (26th December 2022)

8 N'ojThe nawal No’j representing the brain and logical thought combines with the number of wholeness giving a day to think about all options. This is a day to celebrate our ability to plan and solve problems.

As humans we have been blessed with the amazing gifts of our brain and our mind. We can use them to achieve incredible feats, to advance our lives, and those of our families and communities. We can use them to solve the problems around us to make our world a better place. However, sometimes that intelligence turns against our evolution, as new ways to destroy our planet and ourselves come from the brains of some humans. This of course shows the difference between intelligence and wisdom. Our intellect can also lead us to overthinking situations, it can lead us into such minute details that confusion or inaction occurs.

Today we see these qualities combined with the number which represents wholeness. This can give us the ability to think through every aspect of a situation. It suggests that we are able to use all aspects of our intellect, to resolve what we need to. We are able to use our minds to gain the new inspiration, coming as unexpectedly as an earthquake, combined with understanding of how to bring the idea which forms to completion. This is the day to understand the true scale of problems in our lives and how to overcome them. It is a day on which whole solutions may arrive, complete from inception to execution, a whole package to make the world a better place for all. It is a day to make ceremony to give thanks for our ability to think clearly and develop solutions, and to ask for pardon for the times when we act without fully thinking through the consequences of our actions.

A depiction of the Earth Lord, the patron of the day Caban (N'oj). He makes a sacrifice of his own blood so that the maize, sustenance of the people, will sprout. Representative of fertility and abundance through the cycle of life, death and resurrection. From the Dresden Codex.
A depiction of the Earth Lord, the patron of the day Caban (N’oj). He makes a sacrifice of his own blood so that the maize, sustenance of the people, will sprout. Representative of fertility and abundance through the cycle of life, death and resurrection. From the Dresden Codex.

The nawal No’j is the nawal of thought, of intelligence and intellect. Within the count of days, there are two geniuses. B’atz is the creative genius, No’j the intellectual one. No’j is an energy of masculine, logical thought. No’j is the problem solver, it gives ideas and solutions which work in the real world. No’j gives a different way to understand situations, and through this ability comes innovation. It is thought, but also understanding and, indeed, knowing. As such, No’j is also a day associated with divination.

This energy is not necessarily social, it can lead to becoming absorbed into one’s work, lost in one’s thoughts. The influence of No’j can create ideas which may be very much ahead of their time. Do not be surprised if ideas you have on this day take a little time to catch on, the people you express the ideas to may need a little time to process, to see the genius within the idea.

No’j is also one of the classic year bearers, or year lords. As a year bearer it is thought to be one of the more beneficial and benign energies. The last No’j year was the year 8 No’j in 2020.

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.