Aztec and Maya Calendar
In the tonalpohualli, the sacred Aztec calendar, Thursday January 1, 1534 is:
Xihuitl:
solar year
2 - Calli (house)
Long Count:
Mayan calendar
11.15.14.1.9
Xiuhpohualli:
365-day calendar
6 - Tititl (XVIII)
(Correlation: Alfonso Caso [adjust])
The significance of this day
Aztec facts
Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, often combines two terms to create a metaphoric expression (difrasismo). Examples are 'atl-tepetl' ('water, hill') for the concept of a settlement, or 'atl-tlachinolli' (water, fire) for the concept of war.
Day Atl (Water) is governed by Xiuhtecuhtli, God of Fire, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Atl is a day for purification by subjecting oneself to the ordeal of conflict. It is a good day for battle, a bad day for rest. Water brings out the scorpion, who must sting its enemies or else sting itself. Atl is the day of the holy war, which is always a battle with one's own enemies within.
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.