Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Thursday August 17, 1989 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
3 - Calli (house)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
12.18.16.5.13
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
10 - Panquetzaliztli (XVI)
(Correlation: Alfonso Caso [adjust])
The significance of this day
Aztec facts
Aztecs named a newborn child after its day (tonalli) of birth. The elemental forces ruling over that day strongly characterize a person and its destiny.
Day Acatl (Reed) is governed by Tezcatlipoca as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Acatl is the scepter of authority which is, paradoxically, hollow. It is a day when the arrows of fate fall from the sky like lightningbolts. A good day to seek justice, a bad day to act against others.
The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Atl (Water) is ruled by Chalchihuihtotolin. These are 13 days of instability and unexpected events, of accidents and coincidences: these are good days to gamble a little on a long-shot; bad days to gamble a lot on a sure thing. Every day rollercoasters between all-good and all-bad, between rapture and terror. This trecena advises the priest-warrior to perfect the art of shapeshifting: only by mimicking the nature of water do we become an agent of change rather than a target of it. The purified heart casts no reflection in the smoking mirror.