A harmonious pairing again occurs today, as the most feminine nawal, Ix, is paired with the number 9 which represents the divine feminine. This could be seen as the day of Mother Earth and feminine altars.
Ix has a very mother-like energy to her, she is nurturing and caring, providing for all she gives birth to. She is our mother, the spirit of the Mother Earth, the source of all the material we and our world are made from. She is the spirit of nature, the beauty that adorns her body. She can also be fierce when she needs to be, keeping her children safe, or keeping them in line. She is wild and strong.
When we need something we ask our mother and she provides for us. We ask her through our words and our prayers, we make offerings to her at her ears, the natural shrines and altars such as caves and springs, she is always listening to attend to our needs. Sometimes we can be so excited and overjoyed with the results that we run off, distracted, and forget to say thank you for what our mother provided for us.
As we travel through the Kame trecena, heading towards our transformation, we give thanks for all the things we were given by our mother which have helped to get us this far. We give thanks for our connection to Mother Earth, and for the feminine spirit of love and compassion which help to assist our transformation.
Ix is a day on which we remember how to engage with our magic and today on, 9 Ix, we engage with the most important of all, the magic of life. Women are the holders of this they are the birth givers, the ones who create new life, surely this is the greatest magic of all.
Therefore, the day 9 Ix is a day to celebrate the feminine essence of life itself. It is a day to thank our mothers, and all women in our lives, for everything they provide for us. It is the perfect day to show our gratitude to our Mother Earth, to thank her for our entire existence. We can do this by giving flowers, both physical and verbal, at the natural shrines and altars. In return she will bring her magic into your life.
Ix is possibly the most feminine of the nawales. It represents the spirit of Mother Earth and could easily be seen as a Mayan representation of Gaia. Ix can be seen as a mothering energy, nurturing all things, but this should not be confused with weakness – the animal totem of Ix is the jaguar and it is as the jaguar that Ix is often known. The jaguar is, of course, powerful and stealthy. Ix also embodies these qualities. The jaguar is an animal of the night, slipping magically through the darkness, the spots of her back a representation of the milky way. She carries the sun on it’s nightly journey through the underworld.
The connection Ix has with the Earth gives it the ability to manifest material wealth. In the Mayan cross astrological configuration, Kame evolves to Ix. In the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya, the Hero Twins sacrificed themselves in the underworld (Kame) and then were resurrected as a pair of catfish, later to become travelling magicians (Ix.) They cut the heads off animals, then resurrected them, they even cut off each others heads and brought each other back to life. In these scenes they are shown with patches of jaguar skin on their clothing, a symbolism denoting that the wearer is a shaman. Thus through the symbolic death or sacrifice, the shamanic power emerges.
Whilst Ix has the power to engage with the magic of the Earth, it also has a tendency towards illness. This is particularly strong when the vain, ungrateful side of Ix emerges. The magic that runs through this nawal comes so easily, that sometimes it forgets that everything really comes from the Earth and it is to the Earth that we must show our gratitude. Ix is also the nawal of natural shrines and altars, the places where fire ceremonies are made to give thanks. A spirit of gratitude and humility keeps Ix healthy. Ix is of course deeply connected with the natural world and it is here that they find their wisdom, power and wealth. This is a day to give thanks, to remember gratitude, and a day to engage with your magic.
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.
