Today is one of the most important days in the sacred calendar. It is the beginning of the new ceremonial cycle, the day of initiation of new day keepers, the day where the baton is passed from the old to the new. It is the day of celebration of the Chol Q’ij, the sacred calendar, which brings our ability to navigate through life using the cycles of sacred time. –Mark Elmy
8 (Wajxaqib’): Wholeness • Spirit & Matter • Time • Man • Solar • Executive Action • Ceremony, Arts & Rituals • Masculine Potency & Expression • Joy • Honor • Will • Vigor Pronunciation: “Washakeeb”
B’atz: Thread of Time • Arts • Performance • Beginnings • Development • Couple • Marriage • Family • Bonds • Love • Spirituality • Healing • Joy
Pronunciation: “Bahts” Direction: East Sacred Animal: Monkey Energy Places: Forests, Lakes, Clear Night Sky Colors: Red, Orange Body Parts: Blood Vessels Yucatec: Chuen Mexica: Ozomatli
B’atz Glyph: The top part of the glyph is a cone that has time rolled up in it. The cone descends to a triangle, which represents our dimension, and then to the sphere of the Earth, passing through the angles, which are the two polarities; masculine and feminine. –Carlos Barrios
B’atz is the start of life, infinite time, and unity. Spiritual connections are history interwoven with time. This sign symbolizes cosmic phenomena and original wisdom. B’atz is the deity that created Earth and Sky, the Creator of life and wisdom. B’atz signifies the time it takes for a child to develop in the womb.
The tz’ite that represents the Ajq’ijab’ (Mayan priests) contains 260 seeds, representing the nine moons or nine months of pregnancy. B’atz presides over the future.
This sign symbolizes time unraveled, evolution, and human life. The Maya depict time as a thread wound around a giant reed underneath the Earth. This thread is unraveled as time goes by. History is woven from time, just as clothing is made from woven threads. –Carlos Barrios
Diana’s Observations:
B’atz—guardian of the thread of time and genesis—intertwines today with the wholeness of 8, a cord spun from expression, will, and totality. In this convergence, the living tapestry of existence is rewoven anew: history and life, braided by both B’atz and 8, harmonize with the sacred cadence of endings and beginnings. This union, embodied in the umbilical cord that ties us to ancestry and new life, marks the profound joining of past and future, and the ceremonial birth of a new sacred cycle of 260 days.
Joyous new beginnings! Today’s Waqxakib’ B’atz is revered as one of the most significant days in the Mayan Sacred Calendar, marking the renewal of the 260-day Cholq’ij cycle. Across Guatemala, vibrant and fragrant ceremonies burst forth, weaving communal intention and reverence into the fabric of new beginnings. Waqxakib’ B’atz embodies a spiritual rebirth and the energetic interlacing of all the colorful cycles within the Cholq’ij. Regarded as the “head of the Cholq’ij”, it reflects the vital connection between Creator and humanity—the cosmic mind and the body of our collective journey.
Within the Trecena of K’at, this day’s unifying energy is magnified and guided by the theme of attraction, liberation, and harvest. As the net of K’at teaches us to be resourceful while patiently disentangling from excess and burdens, we’re invited to release whatever constricts us—materially, emotionally, or spiritually—and to gather only what nurtures our highest vision as a foundation for this new chapter of time. This is an auspicious day to reaffirm our vow of harmony and purpose on Earth.
This cyclical rebirth is also an invitation to celebrate fruitful interconnections and weave lessons from the past into a new pattern of possibility. To do so, we make offerings of gratitude to unburden our hearts, and take actionable steps toward the prosperous harvest born of walking in balance—spirit fully in action. Through this sacred dance of integrating, loving, freeing, and letting go, we create spaciousness for regeneration to unfold naturally. Co-creating with Waqxakib’ B’atz, we step into the blessings of the K’at Trecena: weaving connections, supporting liberation, and welcoming an unencumbered, renewed path for all beings.
Practical Applications & Programming of the Day:
Auspicious for: Prayers and intentions toward new beginnings; ritual offerings; celebrations; initiations; venerations; weddings; renewing vows; engagements; anniversaries; pregnancy announcements; reunions and gatherings; launching businesses or products; initiating creative projects; performance, dancing, painting, musical or healing arts; celebrating marriages; resolving marital issues; renewing business or projects; weaving or unifying ideas together; consciously weaving and celebrating a new pattern of life
In a key episode of the Pop Wuj (Mayan Sacred Book), the monkey is associated with the two older, half-brothers of the Hero Twins. These brothers, while great artisans, musicians, and scribes, were arrogant and cruel to their younger siblings. Through a clever trick, the Hero Twins humiliate them, causing them to climb a tree that magically grows taller and taller. This transforms them into monkeys, forcing them to live in the forest and become a source of amusement.
This particular story highlights the monkey's association with the arts, creativity, and music, but also with vanity and mischief. They are seen as patrons of scribes and sculptors, yet their transformation serves as a cautionary tale against pride and the failure to honor family bonds. This duality is key to their symbolism, embodying both creative divinity and human flaws like arrogance. Their life in the forest canopy, between earth and sky, underscores their role as sacred intermediaries.
Ultimately, the Monkey spirit animal can be invoked when one seeks to channel creative energy and curiosity, particularly in artistic, innovative, or intellectual pursuits. The Monkey also guides those who need to overcome vanity and mischief, reminding them to use their talents with humility and a sense of shared community.
Observations by Mayan Spiritual Guides:
8 B’atz The nawal B’atz represents the thread of time, and the sacred calendar is a representation of how that thread is woven to create reality. It is the nawal B’atz that brings the creativity to our world, re-creating and renewing all around us.
Both the number 8 and the nawal B’atz have a connection with gestation. It is said that the umbilical cord has 8 strands to it, and of course this brings the nourishment to the new life being brought into being.
Here, within the Maya cross, we see 8 B’atz sitting between 13 Aq’ab’al (the conception from the ancestors) and 3 Kawoq (the day of the midwife/birth process) preceding the day 4 Ajpu (the first day of the new world).
It is on 8 B’atz that the new world receives its nourishment within the womb of creation, and this comes from the prayers and offerings made in the ceremonies.
From the dawn of this day, the shrines and altars within the Maya lands will be packed with Aj Q’ijab making offerings and prayers on behalf of not just their communities, but the world as a whole.
They are imparting the love and wisdom of the old world into the new world which is being woven.
This is the day where the seam is created joining the previous weaving of creation, completed on 7 B’atz (40 days ago), with the new weaving started in 1 B’atz (20 days ago). Here, the past and the future are joined.
We all have some talent to create, through words, music, food or images. We also have the ability to shape the world around us, our homes, our families, our communities.
This is the day that we give thanks for our creative abilities, the day to gather inspiration from what you have created before and combine it with a new concept or method.
Today we put all our love and energy into nurturing the new world soon to be birthed into being. It is the day where we embrace, and are empowered by, the wholeness of creation. –Mark Elmy
8 B’atz It is said that B’atz’ is the time that weaves our history, it is the skein of thread that is wound with the passing of the days, and on this day we celebrate that this thread of time begins a new turn.
We celebrate the beginning of a new cycle in the Sacred Cholq’ij Calendar under the energy of Wajxaqib’ -8- B’atz’, day in which the physical/material plane manifests.
On this day, let us light our Sacred Fire and invoke the power of the twenty Ch’umilal in their thirteen manifestations, giving thanks for their cosmic and telluric energy that guides with its strength and wisdom each one of the days of the cycle that begins today.
Happy Wajxaqib’ -8- B’atz’! May the 260 days to come be filled with new knowledge, may new roads emerge that lead to our realization, harmony and freedom, to the sacred paths that bring us abundance and balance in each one of the planes of existence. –Denise Barrios
✍🏼 Journal Prompts of the Day:
Where am I being called to bridge connections between the past and innovation—honoring the old while welcoming new approaches into my actions and relationships?
How might I recognize and celebrate the threads that unite my story—what wisdom or quality connects the chapters of my life and helps me renew my vow with who I am becoming?
