The 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.

Within the solar calendar, today marks the beginning of a new month as we travel through the solar year. Today is the first day of Takaxepual translated as the season of first sowing. This should mark the point in time where that first sowing of maize, which took place 260 days ago, is ripened and ready, marking the beginning of the maize harvesting season.  It should also mark the point in the year where the rain ceases to fall and we move into the dry months before the new Year Lord takes his seat in 105 days time.

It is particularly interesting that this takes place on the day before astronomical cross quarter day of Samhain (November 7th). This point of the year is exactly midway between the Equinox and the Solstice, and was considered the first day of winter in the Celtic calendar. It is seen as the death of the Sun god, the sun descending into the underworld, where it will remain until Imbolc (Feb 3rd 2021). Regardless of the hemisphere and whether it is seen as the beginning of winter or the beginning of summer, there is a particular alignment which is happening, which is said to be an opening of portals to the otherworld. Perhaps rather than just seeing it as where the sun shines on the Earth, we could think of it as how the sun interacts with our magnetosphere.

This could suggest that the power of the year lord will go through a change at this point of the year, the original strength diminished after being used throughout the growing season. The year lord could be seen as having done his work and now enters a period of retirement, so perhaps the intensity this year lord has been demonstrating may be softened.

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 next No’j year will be 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.