Book of Days: An Introduction to the Aztec Calendar with Jesse Hathaway Diaz

The tonalpohualli,  or count-of-days, is the sacred calendar of the Mexica, also known as  the Aztecs. While a 365 day agricultural secular calendar, the xiuhpohualli,  was used to determine important seasonal agricultural festivals and  rituals, its was the day-count of the the tonalpohualli that described the flow of energies that permeated all existence. This  ritual calendar both described and created an equilibrium of forces that  kept the world in motion. Intimate knowledge of the Count-of-Days  permeated all facets of Mexica life, but was itself an inheritance of a  larger MesoAmerican calendric tradition, developed over millennia by the  Zapotec and Olmec, truly blossoming with the Mayan Tzolk’in (Mayan Count-of-Days), and ultimately used by the Mexica and their contemporaries like the Mixtec.

This  260 day calendar is an interaction of 20 day signs (such as Crocodile,   House, Water, Flower, etc.) and 13 numbers. It is the interaction of  these two components describes the very nature of the animistic centers,  or souls, that make up every living thing. It describes the tendencies  and ambitions of a person, as well as the gods to whom we are most  intimately connected. Its contemporary use by indigenous communities parallels systems of contemporary predictive, psychological, and medical astrology, celebrating the unique matrix of energies that make up each person. 

Hathaway-Diaz, a lifelong student of curanderismo, will discuss the history and use of the Sacred Calendar, including the  cosmological contexts of the MesoAmerican universe. Exploring the day  signs and cycles of forces inherent in the calendar and how they might  inform each person specific to their day of birth, as well as lore  surrounding the sacred substances and deities assigned to each soul-part  of a person born on their specific day, we can then provide a framework  for attuning oneself to these cosmologies, whether you are a devotee of  indigenous Meso-American deities, a muertero working with Santisima Muerte, cultivating a practice of curanderismo or brujeria, or interested in understanding indigenous systems of thought.