5 K’at (28th November 2021)

5 K'atWith the nawal K’at representing the gathering of abundance and the number 5 representing work, we could understand that today would be a good day for bringing in your harvest, but the task might turn out to more challenging than it seemed.

However, that does not mean that the final outcome will be negative. There is a suggestion here that your hard work will be paid off, it’s just that on another day the abundance you receive might come to you more easily. This is a day to work on bring together all the threads, the ideas and plans into one place.

K’at also gives us the opportunity to work on what will be useful to keep in our net for our onwards journey, and what no longer is required. It may be that an emotional attachment to something that you once held dear may be actually preventing you from progressing. K’at may highlight what it is time to let go of, to help you sort through what you carry with you, ensuring that you pack correctly for your journey. Sometimes we can cut our ties in one go and release ourselves, other times it needs more effort. You might not release all of your burdens today, but putting your energy in to the process of releasing yourself from attachments will certainly help your progress.

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, 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.

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 Sacred Mayan calendar is often said to be a calendar of human life, and parts of it can be seen as a microcosm of the human body. The number five is one of these parts. It is representative of the hand with it’s five digits. It is with our hands that we work, and with what we earn for that work that we pay our debts. Five is also a number that relates to the sacred fire where we pay our debts with offerings and prayers. Five might be so busy working that it fails to remember what it is working for. It can also signify that what it is attached to becomes work, or is “hard work”.