Horoscopes · Systems of many cultures
Aztec (Tonalpohualli) · Aztec day sign 20
Xochitl
Flower
Xochitl, 'flower', day sign 20 of the Aztec tonalpohualli. Patron: Xochiquetzal.
Xochitl, the flower, ends the count: the sign of beauty, art, love and the pleasures of life. Its patron is Xochiquetzal, goddess of flowers, love, weaving and craftsmanship. Births on Xochitl days were associated with artistic talent.
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
artistic · loving · graceful · creative · pleasure-loving · refined
In the Aztec tonalpohualli, a person whose tonalli, or birth sign, is Xochitl is described as artistic, loving and refined, devoted to beauty and the pleasures of life. Xochitl, the flower, ends the twenty day signs, and its patron is Xochiquetzal, goddess of flowers, love, weaving and craftsmanship; in Nahuatl poetry 'flower and song' (in xochitl in cuicatl) was the phrase for poetry and art itself.
Modern readings of the sign, following the colonial sources, credit Xochitl people with creativity, grace, charm, sensitivity and artistic talent, especially in painting, weaving, music and poetry; births on Xochitl days were associated with skill in the arts. Their challenges are said to be vanity, indulgence, a love of pleasure that avoids hard work, and fragility under criticism.
In love Xochitl people are portrayed as romantic, tender and devoted to beauty in their partners and homes; in work, as artists, craftspeople, poets, musicians and designers. As with every tonalli, the Aztec diviners read the sign together with the number of the day and its trecena.
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