Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Wednesday August 17, 2011 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
12 - Acatl (reed)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
12.19.18.11.8
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
15 - Panquetzaliztli (XVI)
(Correlation: Alfonso Caso [adjust])
The significance of this day
Aztec facts
The conqueror Hernán Cortés arrived on the eastern shores of the Aztec empire in the year 1-Acatl (1519). It had been predicted that on such a year Quetzalcoatl would return from the east to retake his rightful share of the throne. This belief probably weakend the defense of the Aztecs.
Day Tochtli (Rabbit) is governed by Mayahuel, Goddess of the Maguey and of Fertility, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Tochtli is a day of self-sacrifice and service to something greater than oneself. It signifies the religious attitude which holds everything sacred and results in experiences of self-transcendence. It is a mystical day, associated by the passages of the moon. It is a good day for communing with nature and spirit, a bad day for acting against others.
The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Calli (House) is ruled by Itzpapalotl. The 13 days of this trecena are governed by the conflict between culture and nature: the native desire of human beings to maintain a lineage of customs and beliefs is periodically disrupted by the evolutionary leaps of nature. In this sense, nature is represented as the house into which we are born and culture as the house into which we move. These are 13 days of struggling to decide which house is really home. With every step forward, the warrior still stands at the center of the crossroads: the heart must be trained if it is to be a reliable compass. These are good days to focus on the future; bad days to focus on the past.