Tag Archives: Feminine

9 Ajmak (28th June 2022)

27th June 2022 Mark Elmy 1 Comment

The day 9 Ajmak combines the spirit of forgiveness, pardon and redemption with the number of the divine feminine and life. This is, therefore, a day to ask for forgiveness from the women in your life where it is necessary.

On some days we work and on some days we play. Sometimes we play a little bit too much and need to make up for it. Sometimes we feel guilty about things we would not have done had we known their consequences. We can not always know the consequences of, what we often intended to be, well meaning actions. All we can do is to ask forgiveness and move on. This forgiveness includes the act of forgiving ourselves, which can be one of the hardest acts of forgiveness.

If you have been holding guilt over, or blame towards, any particular woman, today is the day to forgive and move on. After all, the energy of your lack of forgiveness is probably having a greater effect on you rather than her, holding you back from progressing. This applies not just to the women in your life, but the feminine aspect of life in general. This is the day to ask forgiveness and forgive yourself, for the times when you could have embraced more feminine qualities such as compassion and nurture. Sometimes we have forgotten the feminine nature of where we all came from, whether it is the body of our mother or of Mother Earth herself. This is often caused by imbalance within the generally male dominated society. This is a day to recognise the times when we allowed ourselves to become part of that imbalance, and ask forgiveness for them. After all, as we progress through this trecena of ripening, the trecena Q’anil, how can we reach full and abundant ripeness if we are carrying these imbalances?

It is a day to forgive yourself for the things in life you would rather leave in the past. Light a candle and allow the flame to burn away any guilt surrounding any past actions. As the candle burns and cleans your life, feel the other aspect of Ajmak arriving – allow Ajmak to bring the sweetness into your life.

I’m sorry

Please forgive me

Thank you

I love you

When the creators fashioned the four first men, the Bacab’ob, they created them as equals. These four first humans had superhuman abilities, including the ability to see through space and time. As equals were not desired, the gods smoked the mirror of perception, giving us our human set of senses. When we lost the ability to see through time, we lost the ability to see the true consequences of our actions and thus we needed to start asking for forgiveness. Sometimes even well meaning actions can cause problems at a later date. Ajmak represents this ability to forgive others, the ability to forgive ourselves and the ability to accept forgiveness.

Ajmak is a sensual energy, which creates some of the reasons for its needing to be forgiven. It is kind and very lovable, but irresponsible. It can be a very talented energy, with great ideas. However it can also be very easily distracted, especially by anything that makes it feel nice. This often leads Ajmak to failing to fulfil its true potential, although due to its lovable nature it is easy to forgive. One of the lessons with regards to the Ajmak energy is learning to forgive oneself.

The number nine is very special indeed. It is the number of lunations in the human gestation period and in the sacred calendar. The sacred calendar is known as a calendar of life, and it is women that give life. As such the number nine is seen as the number of life and the number of the divine feminine. It gives all that it is attached to a strong feminine presence and is a day on which women may wish to give thanks for their gifts.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 Aq’ab’al (15th June 2022)

14th June 2022 Mark Elmy Leave a comment

The day 9 Aq’ab’al can be seen as a very special day indeed. It can be seen as bringing dreams to life, creating a new concept which becomes an important part of your life.

Today we see an interesting progression, all within the trecena of Tz’ikin, the trecena of the new vision. Two days ago, 7 Imox brought us the multitude of possibilities, of dreams, to choose from. Yesterday, on 8 Iq’, we breathed life into those dreams and today the dream begins to make a transition into the physical world. This day of conception can be seen as the planting of the seed of new life. This might not be the day on which you start a new life, or make a massive change regarding your life path, but it is a very strong day to start the ball rolling towards a change which will take effect in the future. It is still hidden in the darkness, but it’s passage towards the light of reality has begun.

In the K’iche language, the word aq’ab means night. The suffix -al changes the meaning slightly, to hint at change and alludes to the dawning of the day, the time between darkness and light, night and day. Just as birth is the beginning of the mortal journey, Aq’ab’al is the beginning of the day, although the detail of the day may still be obscured. Aq’ab’al is representative of new things, things which are not yet fully formed. While in Santiago Atitlan one day, a friend explained to me the different parts of a weaving in process on a backstrap loom. Aq’ab’al is the warp (the vertical threads), B’atz is the weft (the horizontal threads) which creates the whole cloth, and the newly woven cloth is Kawok. In order for the weaver to create, first she has an idea in her head or a dream. She sets out the dream on her loom by setting up the warp. Thus, the design has passed from being just an idea, to the beginnings of a woven reality, although it still requires creative input before it becomes whole. Aq’ab’al can also represent conception, the fertilised egg is far from ready to be born, but has passed from the dream or spirit world into the physical.

Aq’ab’al days are great days for the start of new things, particularly new relationships – Aq’ab’al has a strong affinity with marriage. It is also a perfect day for starting new projects, or at least bringing them into the world of light from the world of dreams and ideas.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 K’at (7th May 2022)

6th May 2022 Mark Elmy Leave a comment

Today we experience the energy of the nawal of gathering together with the number of the divine feminine and life. This is a potent day for bringing together life’s abundance.

This is another harvest day, a day on which we can collect that which we have been propagating through life. This may be our physical harvest, from our fields and gardens, or the bounty which comes from our ideas. Whilst this might be true of any K’at day, today the number of life is highlighted, which could give a suggestion that what is gathered today is the harvest from your life’s work. This is bigger than just one growing season.

The nawal K’at also represents merchants – those who understand what is of value and what to release from our nets. This could be a great day to liberate yourself from the things which are stopping you from really living, the things which are filling your net and stifling the entry of new abundance. It’s a great day to release yourself from attachments that life may have brought you at some point, yet are no longer relevant. It could also be seen as a day on which you may use your discernment to choose exactly what to keep in your bundle, and what to let go of. What do you really need in your life?

With the 9 representing the feminine, and the women in our lives, it is particularly a day on which to appreciate the bounty brought to us by the women around us. This should be a great day for gatherings of women, abundance may come from a collaboration of female energy.

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.

The nawal K’at is associated with Ixq’ik, Blood Moon, who was magically impregnated in Xibalba (the underworld) by the spirit of Jun Junajpu. Jun Junajpu and his brother Wucub Junajpu were summoned by the Lords of Death to Xibalba to face the challenges after they disturbed the Lords by playing the ball game too noisily. Unfortunately this first pair of heroes went unprepared and were tricked and sacrificed by the Lords of Death. After their deaths, the head of Jun Junajpu was hung in a calabash tree, where it eventually blended in with the wizened fruit on the tree. However, it was known to speak and the news of this dis-incarnate voice in the tree reached Blood Moon. She decided to go an visit the tree where she was asked to hold out her hand. The head spat into her hand and she became impregnated with the Hero Twins, Junajpu and Xbalamque. She was banished from Xibalba and went to meet the mother of Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu, Ixmucane. At first Ixmucane did not accept that Blood Moon was carrying her grandchildren, and set a task to fill a net with corn from the garden. When Blood Moon arrived, there was only one stalk, but by pulling the corn silk, the plant magically produced an abundant harvest and Blood Moon was accepted as telling the truth.

However, K’at also has it’s 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.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 Tijax (11th April 2022)

10th April 2022 Mark Elmy Leave a comment

An interesting combination of the predominantly masculine nawal of Tijax, with the number of the feminine occurs today. This may be seen as a day on which the divided may become united through compassion.

Tijax may be known for many things. It is seen as the crusader, championing the holy, using its fine edge of discernment to cut away that which is out of balance. It is seen as the healer, particularly the energy healer, who experiences the illness in order to heal others. It is the knife, severing the attachments which no longer serve. It is the chisel, creating the divine art from the mundane block of stone or wood. These are all seen as being active, masculine traits, rather than the the passive, feminine side.

However, today pairs Tijax with the number of the divine feminine, the number 9. This is the day where all of those active “masculine” traits are balanced through their association with the more feminine qualities of compassion and nurture. It is a day of the healing women, a day to celebrate in particular their ability to resolve duality through their discernment. This should also be a particularly empowering day for women in general, bringing out the strength and tenacity of their warrior aspect.

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.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 Imox (15th December 2021)

14th December 2021 Mark Elmy Leave a comment

Whilst Imox has its reputation for getting lost in the dream world, it also represents the place from where all things come. When this is combined with the number of life and the divine feminine, we can expect great things.

In some ways there can be no purer expression of feminine potential than the day 9 Imox. Imox is the font of life, itself the feminine, possibly the egg, possibly the womb, depending on how you look at it. It is the creative potential waiting to be brought from the collective consciousness into the physical world. The 9 represents both the feminine and is seen as the number of life itself.

We can, therefore, see this as a day to breathe life into our dreams, although this is rather an understatement. It is the creation and nurturing of life itself, brought through from the other world. It is a day to look to the feminine, to the women around us, to help us all to navigate the collective consciousness, without being pulled into its dreamy depths. If you have a life dream and you are wondering how to bring it into reality, today you might ask the advice of the women in your life how best to nurture it.

Rainbow over Lake Atitlan, December 2013 by Mark Elmy

Nawal Imox represents the collective consciousness, the great ocean. It is the moment before the “big bang”, when all that existed was the dream of the creator. It is everything and nothing in one place, the ovum from which reality was conceived. Imox is still very much in the other world, requiring another component to physically manifest the dream into reality.

Imox is considered to be a feminine nawal. Sometimes called water lily, sometimes crocodile, it is an embodiment of the primordial. It was from the great ocean that the four first men raised sky to create the world which we inhabit. Imox can also be seen as the Darwinian swamp from which all life emerged. It is fertile and creative, the mother that gave birth to our entire reality.

As the water lily, Imox is probably a representative of Nymphaea alba, the white water lily. It has been suggested that the white water lily was smoked by the ancient Maya in a similar way to the blue lotus was used by the Egyptians. It was a plant which allowed access to the otherworld, a plant from which visions came if used correctly.

Imox is our common origin, and as such links us all together. It is the place of dreams, the collective conscious we delve into on our nightly voyages. It may also relate to the place that certain plant medicines take us to in order to bring us wisdom. However, as the font of all of creation, Imox harbours the dark as well as the light. When faced with the entirety of creation, the line between sanity and madness may become blurred.

Imox is a day to celebrate the spirit of the times, to understand the collective mind, particularly of humanity. It is a day to dream your creations, your art, your music. It is a day when we may all feel connected, a day when the psychic field between us may be particularly strong. Discernment may be called for, to understand when to dissociate from the collective, to remember your individuality, and to pull yourself back out of the dream world.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 Toj (24th October 2021)

23rd October 2021 Mark Elmy Leave a comment

This is a day on which women make offerings for the gift of their children, and where men make offerings for the women. It is a day to acknowledge the sacrifices made by the women in your life.

The combination of the number 9 with the nawal of payment gives rise to two important aspects of today. Firstly, the number 9 represents life itself, and our ability to reproduce. Toj days are days on which we make ceremonies, offerings or payments and, as such, today is a day on which offerings are made for fertility, for the ability to reproduce. In particular this aspect is pertinent to women, it is a day of women’s ceremonies, a day of thanksgiving for the divine feminine essence that all carry. The second aspect could be seen more from a male perspective, although not exclusively. This is a day to make offerings to the women in your life for the sacrifices they have made in order to sustain life. Again, it is a thanksgiving for all that the divine feminine, and those who embody it, bring into our lives.

The energy of 9 Toj may represent what you might consider to be a life debt. Whilst the payment may involve the use of your energy, the results of making a payment today may be very powerful. When life debts are resolved, the momentum to move forward increases. Today is a day when the “karmic cashiers” are open to receiving the payment, and that payment will be accepted on your behalf.

One project which I find particularly inspiring is ODIM. Within their well organised structure, they run several community health and education programs, one of which is called “Healthy Mommy and Me”. This particular program helps to educate women with regards to child nutrition and help combat one of the biggest issues in Guatemala, childhood malnutrition. As an example of the impact this program is having, 90% of the children whose mothers graduated from this program were of a normal weight for their height, compared to only 35% as the rate for Solola in general. To donate to ODIM, please follow this link https://odimguatemala.networkforgood.com/

Lady Xoc pierces her tongue and receives wisdom for her people from her ancestor emerging from the mouth of the vision serpent. From http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya-lintels.htm — The woman makes a sacrifice. Lady Xoc pierces her tongue and receives wisdom for her people from her ancestor emerging from the mouth of the vision serpent. The original lintel can be seen in the British Museum in London. This beautiful drawing is from http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya-lintels.htm

The nawal Toj represents offerings and payment. It is part of the name Tojil, a Mayan god who gave fire to the people, although this was not a free gift. Tojil asked in return for sacrifice to be made. This is a day of payment and sacrifice, a day to resolve debts, both in the physical and spiritual realms. Toj is the nawal of the sacred fire, and it is to the fire that we make offerings in order to burn away what would commonly be known as karmic debts. In this way we restore balance, we bring our accounts back to zero.

Toj carries with it a form of divine protection, which is enhanced through selfless acts. These acts might involve a sacrifice of our time or energy in order to strengthen our community. Payment should be made with an open heart, thanks might not be quickly forthcoming, and may not come at all. Your sacrifice could be something as simple as picking up litter in your neighbourhood, it doesn’t have to be something elaborate.

Chol Q'ij - The Energies of the Days

9 Ajmak (11th October 2021)

10th October 2021 Mark Elmy Leave a comment

It is a day to forgive yourself for the things in life you would rather leave in the past. Light a candle and allow the flame to burn away any guilt surrounding any past actions. As the candle burns and cleans your “karma”, feel the other aspect of Ajmak arriving – allow Ajmak to bring the sweetness into your life.