Horoscopes · Systems of many cultures
Aztec (Tonalpohualli) · Aztec day sign 13
Acatl
Reed
Acatl, 'reed', day sign 13 of the Aztec tonalpohualli. Patron: Tezcatlipoca / Itztlacoliuhqui.
Acatl, the reed, was the sign of the year 1 Acatl, the year in which Quetzalcoatl was prophesied to return and in which Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519. Its patron is a form of Tezcatlipoca (sometimes Itztlacoliuhqui, the frost god). The reed suggests authority, the arrow and the sceptre.
The patron deities of the day signs differ between the surviving codices; the list used here follows the Codex Borgia tradition as reconstructed by modern scholars. The tonalpohualli was read by trained diviners together with the number of the day and its trecena, so a sign was never interpreted alone.
Personality
authoritative · upright · principled · ambitious · determined · proud
In the Aztec tonalpohualli, a person whose tonalli, or birth sign, is Acatl is described as upright, principled and authoritative, straight and strong as the reed that gives the sign its name. The reed suggests the arrow and the sceptre, and the year 1 Acatl was the year in which Quetzalcoatl was said to have departed and, according to post-conquest sources, expected to return, and in which Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519. Its patron is a form of Tezcatlipoca, sometimes Itztlacoliuhqui, the frost god.
Modern readings of the sign credit Acatl people with leadership, integrity, determination and a strong sense of order and justice; they are said to rise to positions of authority and to be respected. Their challenges are said to be rigidity, pride, severity towards others' failings and a tendency to break rather than bend under pressure.
In love Acatl people are portrayed as loyal and principled but demanding; in work, as leaders, administrators, judges and teachers. The Aztec diviners, however, read the sign together with the number of the day and its trecena, so the fortunes of Acatl births varied widely.
Sources and further reading
- The Aztec Calendar Stone — Khristaan D. Villela and Mary Ellen Miller (eds.), 2010
- Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript — Gisele Díaz and Alan Rodgers, 1993
- The Aztecs — Michael E. Smith, 2012