Kawoq means the strength of unity; it represents the family, the community, the society, and the group. It is the energy of abundance, in both the material and the spiritual sense. Number 9 represents the emotional, the intuitive, and the creative. Light a candle to ask the Creator for His protection and blessings on your home, your family and your community. During the Creation of the Universe on a day 9 Kawoq the Underworld was tested for the first time.
8 Tijax – Creation to Realization for Cholq’ij New Year
TIJAX is the lightning; it is the obsidian knife. The wise grandfathers call it the double-edged blade. This Ch’umil has an important role, for it is the energy in this chain of evolution that breaks the shackles that trap us in each of the four planes of manifestation, beginning with our limitations. To break them we need to focus in our inner being to review and recognize who we are, what entraps us. We cannot lie to our own selves, for if we do, what level are we in? Tijax, then, has the purpose of breaking those structures, it helps us take away the fog that is blinding our vision; it tears the veil. Tijax is deeply related to the Rays of Creation in its physical-material manifestation. It is the one that breaks the bonds that tie us in the four planes. It is the one that takes away the illnesses, the one that heals us. In these times, Tijax frees us from the limitations of reason. This Ch’umil gives sense to freedom. It allows us to engage in a new dimension, where we can access the development of our dormant senses. Magic, which is the technique that allows us to use these energies, is under the auspices of Tijax. We are the ones that set the limits.
8 Tijax – Today’s Maya Day Sign (Ch’umil)
Tijax is the power of the thunder and the lightning represented by the obsidian stone which is black and transparent, sharp but fragile. It is also the obsidian double-edged knife which represents the negative in the positive and the positive in the negative; it is the strength and power of the warrior. Number 8 symbolizes the complete energies of the material world. The energies of this day provide you with the power to cut off any material blockages and negative energies. During the Creation of the Universe 8 Tijax planted its hands and feet firmly and nailed them to the ground.
7 No’j – Creation to Realization for Cholq’ij New Year
NO’J is knowledge. This essence is important in the chain of creation, for it’s structure creates balance between material reality and magical reality. The challenge we must overcome is what we know as reason, which is both positive and negative. It has its share of knowledge, which frames us within what’s rational, within the part of the thoughts that is looking for logic and reason within the parameters that delineate the social fact. The other knowledge is the one that we deny or which is dormant, that one that connects us to a different reality, the reality of the energies that form what we call reality, which is ultimately the configuration that we all have learned; to give shape, weight, and volume to everything that exists, this is a world of vibrating energies. In the Creative evolution this Ch’umil is of essential importance, for it gives us the opportunity to foray into the magical part that most of us have restrained, limiting then its purpose of life. As an example we can assure that most people have no knowledge of how they are physically formed, they don’t know how many bones or muscles they have, many don’t know how many organs they have or where they are located, least what their function is. Less do we know the importance of the heart and the brain and its hemispheres, and of how to use them to develop the synaptic creative chain of neurons. Let’s take on the task of learning this, this is a good start.
7 No’j – Today’s Maya Day Sign (Ch’umil)
No’j is the connection between the Universal Cosmic Mind and the human mind; it represents intellect, knowledge, wisdom and spiritual learning. Number 7 brings balance, it is a force that can harmonize and it possesses the power to impel. Open up to receive the gifts of wisdom and the knowledge that the Ajaw (Supreme Being) is granting you today. During the Creation of the Universe on a day 7 No’j the first Earth was born where there was no Earth for us.
6 Ajmaq – Creation to Realization for Cholq’ij New Year
AJMAQ is by excellence the energy of curiosity. It is the seeker of something that we are lacking. It is what drives us in our search for knowledge, for experiences that will allow us to expand our being, our consciousness, our development, and our merging with the origin. Let’s remember that in the past, because of our haughtiness, seeing ourselves as Gods, our vision was blurred by a fog that prevents us from looking at the Heart of the Sky, at the depths of space. Ajmaq must break through the limits and the structures that halt our evolution. While its essence has the stigma of the sins, it also has forgiveness. It is because of this that it can trap us in problems. It can become rigid and grim. It does not channel the self control, but it becomes dominated by its own rules. The purpose, then, is to return to the inner path and find freedom within ourselves, to break the structures that entrap us. Not living in fear, letting go of self-importance, and becoming non-judgemental brings us closer to freedom, which is a state of consciousness. The search for compassion is the key in the path to Creation. This is what opens the space for us.
6 Ajmaq – Today’s Maya Day Sign (Ch’umil)
Ajamq is a favorable day to ask for and receive forgiveness for our mistakes. Number 6 entails learning, it represents the tests we need to overcome in order to develop and find balance. Guilt is one of the main obstacles in our spiritual path, use the energy of 6 Ajmaq to transform any hard feelings into inner peace, accept your past mistakes, forgive yourself and others, this spiritual act is the first step to accomplish spiritual growth. During the Creation of the Universe 6 Ajmaq created the first light were there was no Sun or Moon.
5 Tz’ikin – Creation to Realization for Cholq’ij New Year
TZ’IKIN is the intermediary between the Heart of the Sky (the Sun) and Mother Earth. It is the space that opens communication between the Igneous Heart of Mother Earth, Q’aq’ Alom (magma) and the face of the Earth, entering to our heart. Tz’ikin is the vision. It is the one that communicates the essence of our being with the essence of reality, which is the image of this Creation. From it comes the vision of the future, which is the result of the structures of the Najt (Space-Time). It is the power of traveling between the circles which configure the Najt. The purpose of this energy for this moment is to have control of our mind, of focusing and directing our thoughts to be connected, to be aware. It is intuition, revelations through dreams, precognition of the dormant senses that we all possess. This is a moment to take away the constraints, this is what we should focus upon. Remember that spirituality of these times has a name, and that name is action. The same happens with economic well-being and with love, which are under the auspices of Tz’ikin. These are a determination of the creativity that we delineate. This is a moment to return to the reason of being Humans in the concatenation of the thread of Creation.
5 Tz’ikin – Today’s Maya Day Sign (Ch’umil)
Tz’ikin is the bird, it is the intermediary between the Great Father and human beings, it represents the sacred vision, the acute and panoramic vision of a bird; its energy provides freedom, magnetism and luck. Number 5 is the action energy, the elevation of creation. This day attracts opportunities, use its energy to have positive outcomes in your activities. During the Creation of the Universe everything started to work on a day 5 Tz’ikin.
Momma, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Tourists! Pt.2
This is the second in a series of blog posts that explores the possibility of transforming the way our current civilization leads us to live upon the earth. Can we change from living as though we are tourists in our own home to becoming the responsible co-evolutionary partners we see historically and within many modern Indigenous cultures?
In the last blog post, we explored the way Indigenous inhabitants have been treated in the name of conservation. In many ways, we can consider this conservation approach to be the other side of the same coin that reveals the exploitation of people and the earth in the name of extraction of resources. Both stem from a cosmological belief that the earth itself is in-animate, a non-living entity that hosts resources (above and below ground) that can be exploited. There is a cause and effect relationship between the way we view our place in the world and the world we help to create.
What becomes possible when we recognize that a people’s relationship to the earth arises from a culture and cosmology that recognizes the sacredness of life, arising from a co-evolutionary journey of millennia between people and place?
The following example demonstrates both our disconnected relationship with nature and a return to those who understand it most deeply. Northern California has experienced extreme drought conditions, which has brought with it historic wild fires. Fire conditions have been made worse by decades of fire suppression tactics, caused by a cosmology of control and domination, which had the effect of limiting smaller fires while unintentionally laying the groundwork for the massive fires we have today. As the realization that this approach has failed has spread over the last few decades, more naturally occurring wildfires were allowed to burn, which has led to limited success.
Now officials in California are turning to the Amah Mutsun and North Fork Mono Tribes amongst others to learn and implement pro-active fire management techniques that build the overall vitality of the ecosystem while changing the conditions that lead to the catastrophic fires of recent years. Native forestry practices such as these, which include clearing meadows that serve as fire-barriers and water repositories, have historic precedent in creating the abundant North-American (as well as other places globally) landscape that settlers marveled at. The myth of a pristine environment, with native people living innocently off of its abundance is just that – a myth. Undoubtedly, the cosmological framework embedded in the culture and practices of these and other peoples gave rise to an improved land – and life for the people.
If we take a moment to reflect upon our current cosmologies and how they play out in our culture and practices, are the effects upon ecologies and people’s evident? What is the opportunity we have to transform the foundations of how we view and relate to the world in order to create a different effect?
Native traditional methods revived to combat California drought, wildfires