Horoscopes · Systems of many cultures
Mayan (Tzolk'in) · Mayan day sign 8
Lamat
Star (Venus); the rabbit; seed · Q'anil (K'iche')
Yucatec Lamat is the star — Venus — while K'iche' Q'anil is the seed and the colour yellow. It is the day of planting, fertility and the ripening of every kind of seed, including new projects.
The Classic glyph of Lamat is a four-pointed star, generally identified with Venus, whose cycles the Maya tracked with extraordinary precision in the Dresden Codex. In central Mexico the corresponding day is Tochtli, the rabbit, and the rabbit is also associated with the moon.
In the K'iche' count the day is Q'anil, 'seed' or 'yellow', and is the day of planting and of fertility: of maize sown in the fields and of the 'seeds' of human life and new undertakings. Ceremonies on Q'anil days ask for good harvests and the well-being of children. Those born on Q'anil are described as creative, fertile in ideas and good at bringing things to fruition, with the warning that seeds left untended do not grow.
Personality
creative · fertile · abundant · joyful · nurturing · productive
Among K'iche' Maya daykeepers, a person born on Q'anil (Yucatec Lamat) is described as creative, fertile in ideas and good at bringing things to fruition. Q'anil means 'seed' or 'yellow', and the day is the day of planting and of fertility, of maize sown in the fields and of the seeds of human life and new undertakings; the Classic glyph of the day is the star of Venus.
Daykeepers credit Q'anil people with creativity, abundance, cheerfulness, a love of beauty and an ability to nurture projects, families and communities until they flourish; they are said to be good at starting things that last. The challenge traditionally named is expressed in the warning that seeds left untended do not grow: Q'anil people may scatter their energies, lose interest or fail to care for what they have begun.
In love and friendship Q'anil people are portrayed as warm, generous and family-minded. In work they are suited to agriculture, the arts, teaching and the care of children, and any work that makes things grow. Ceremonies on Q'anil days ask for good harvests and the well-being of children; the number of the birth day shapes the reading of the nawal.
Sources and further reading
- Time and the Highland Maya — Barbara Tedlock, 1982
- The Code of Kings — Linda Schele and Peter Mathews, 1998
- Maya Calendar Origins — Prudence M. Rice, 2007