Miquiztli (Death): Aztec day sign Meaning

Miquiztli, 'death', day sign 6 of the Aztec tonalpohualli. Patron: Tecciztecatl (Meztli).

Miquiztli, death, was not simply ominous: the Aztecs saw death as part of the cycle that feeds life. Its patron in the Borgia list is Tecciztecatl, the moon god. The sign is associated with transformation, endings and the ancestors.

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

transformative · serious · intuitive · calm · ancestral · reflective

In the Aztec tonalpohualli, a person whose tonalli, or birth sign, is Miquiztli is described as serious, reflective and transformative, close to the cycle of endings and new beginnings. Miquiztli means 'death', but the Aztecs saw death as part of the cycle that feeds life, and the sign's patron in the Borgia list is Tecciztecatl, the moon god, who waxes and wanes.

Modern readings of the sign credit Miquiztli people with calm, intuition, depth, a lack of fear before change and the ability to help others through loss and transition; they are said to have a strong connection with ancestors and with the unseen. Their challenges are said to be melancholy, a fatalistic streak and a tendency to withdraw or to be weighed down by the past.

In love Miquiztli people are portrayed as loyal and steady, with deep and lasting attachments; in work, as healers, counsellors, historians and those who care for the dying and the dead. Colonial accounts of the Aztec diviners stress that the number of the birth day and its trecena decided whether a sign was favourable, and Miquiztli births were judged in that light.

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