Cholq'ij calendar

The 20 nawales

Each nawal, sometimes searched as a Mayan zodiac sign, opens a distinct energy. Together the 20 nawales form the 260 day spiral of the Cholq'ij, still kept alive in the villages around Lake Atitlan.

How this page was written

This page draws on published academic and ethnographic sources, principally Barbara Tedlock, Allen Christenson, Munro Edmonson and Mesoweb. It was not written by an Ajq'ij and it does not replace the living tradition. For a personal or ceremonial reading, consult a practising daykeeper.

What a nawal is

A nawal is one of the 20 named day signs that, combined with the numbers 1 to 13, make up the Cholq'ij, the 260 day sacred calendar. Nawales are not signs in a 12 sign Western zodiac and they are not fixed personality types. They are days, and the qualities of those days, recognised by a calendar tradition kept continuously in highland Guatemala.

How the 20 day signs combine with 13 numbers

Every day in the Cholq'ij advances two linked counts at once: 20 day signs and 13 numbers. Because 20 and 13 have no common factor, a specific pairing, say 8 B'atz', only returns after 260 days. The 13 day stretch that opens with a given number and sign is called a trecena, and it sets the tone for that run of days.

A living tradition

The Cholq'ij is not a historical curiosity. Ajq'ijab, Maya daykeepers, use it today around Lake Atitlan for ceremony, agricultural decisions, naming children, marriage and personal consultation. Fire ceremonies on significant Cholq'ij days remain an active religious practice in towns such as Santiago Atitlan and San Pedro La Laguna.

How to find your nawal

Your birth nawal is the day sign that falls on your date of birth within the Cholq'ij. The calculator linked below converts your date using the GMT 584283 correlation, the same reference used by working Ajq'ijab, rather than the unrelated Dreamspell system found in many calendar apps.