The twelfth trecena (13-day “week”) of the Aztec Tonalpohualli (ceremonial count of days) is called Lizard for its first numbered day, which is the 4th day of the vientena (20-day “month”). In the Nahuatl language Lizard is Cuetzpallin, and it’s known as K’an in Yucatec Maya and K’at in Quiché Maya.
Pre-Conquest Codex drawings of the anatomical connection of the day Lizard are indecisive at best. Codex Rios points to the abdominal region of a male body, perhaps intimating the intestines—or the womb in a female? I can find no diagram of specific female anatomy, but the vagina is at times linked to a flower. In Codex Borgia plate 17, the Lizard is apparently “tied” (modestly under his loin flap) to Tezcatlipoca’s male genitalia (testicles?) and in plate 72 explicitly to his penis; in Borgia 53 it’s again linked explicitly to the penis. In plate 75 of Codex Vaticanus, it’s at Ehecatl’s left hand and in Borgia 73 at Mictlantecuhtli’s. (Meanwhile, in Borgia 17 the snake appears suggestively on his loin flap and in Borgia 73 as Ehecatl’s tongue and in Vaticanus 75 as Mictlantecuhtli’s.) I think it’s safe to say that the Aztecs broadly linked the Lizard to sexual organs, be they whichever, and concomitantly to reproduction and fertility.
My learned colleague Dr. Paquin advises that from the Maya perspective, K’an is about the germination of corn (maize) in the womb of the Earth, with emphasis on growth potential. From that to the Aztec concept of Lizard as representing sex and reproduction is but an intuitive step. Dr. Paquin also notes that one reference remarks, “those born under the sign One Lizard were forceful and alert, and sound of body, and that falling down will not injure them any more than a lizard would be hurt if it falls from a high to a low place.” Also, a Mayan elder wrote that K’an-born people “possess a powerful energy that allows them to overcome obstacles.” Dr. Paquin also advised, “I have found many, many examples of K’an-born people being overwhelmingly wealthy—as if there is no limit to their ability to germinate into enormous opulence whatever they touch.” How much of that was relevant to later Aztec thought is debatable.
Not surprisingly, the divine patron of the day Lizard is Huehuecoyotl, the Old Coyote (See Icon #6), the god of sexual indulgence (as well as of music, dance, storytelling, and choral singing), seen earlier as patron of the Flower Trecena.
PATRON DEITY RULING THE TRECENA
In my research long ago, the patron of the Lizard Trecena was identified as Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror (See Icon #19), deity of fate and bringer of war and change. The 10th lord of the day and god of the North, he protects slaves and is patron of magicians, sorcery, and divination, as well as bringing and curing diseases.
However, more recently another patron of the trecena has been recognized: Itztlacoliuhqui, the Curved Obsidian Blade. Maybe reflecting the Maya God Q, he’s the deity of stone, frost, ice, cold, sin, punishment, castigation, and human misery, but also of objectivity and blind-folded justice. Spawned by a conflict between Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, Lord of the House of the Dawn (See the Snake Trecena), and Tonatiuh, God of the Fifth Sun (See the Death Trecena), the Obsidian Blade somehow wound up as one of the naguals (manifestations) of Tezcatlipoca. His complicated heritage suggests a subconscious Aztec tendency to syncretism also involving Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, creator of the Fifth Sun, who, as the planet Venus is the “overlord” of his nagual Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, and possibly a twin/nemesis of Tezcatlipoca. The Aztec deities have subtle ways of blending and merging into an amorphous theological stew.
AUGURIES OF LIZARD TRECENA
By Marguerite Paquin, author of “Manual for the Soul: A Guide to the Energies of Life: How Sacred Mesoamerican Calendrics Reveal Patterns of Destiny”
https://whitepuppress.ca/manual-for-the-soul/
The first half of this trecena extends the “anything is possible” sequence that gives birth to the 20-day Maya month (uinal) as begun in the Monkey trecena, and now the emphasis is more of a cautionary nature. The theme of this trecena is about the germination of new ideas or directions, but it can also be a time of “testing.” In this period, careful nurturing of new ideas and staying vigilant is advised in order to help the “seeds of the new” to take root and flourish.
Further to how these energies connect with world events, see the Maya Count of Days Horoscope blog at whitepuppress.ca/horoscope/. The Maya equivalent is the K’an trecena.
THE 13 NUMBERED DAYS IN THE LIZARD TRECENA
The Aztec Tonalpohualli, like the ancestral Maya calendar, is counted through the sequence of 20 named days of the agricultural “month” (vientena), of which there are 18 in the solar year. Starting with the 4th day of the preceding vientena, 1 Lizard, this trecena continues with 2 Snake, 3 Death, 4 Deer, 5 Rabbit, 6 Water, 7 Dog, 8 Monkey, 9 Grass, 10 Reed, 11 Jaguar, 12 Eagle, and 13 Vulture.
In general Aztec calendrics there’s only one day in this trecena of particular import, Five Rabbit. However, for the ancient Maya in the “Chilam Balam of Chumayel,” the first seven days continue their “Creation” sequence, as once again kindly provided by Dr. Paquin. These later steps in the Maya sequence are just as vague, convoluted, and confused as the first thirteen in the Monkey Trecena. It’s small wonder that later Aztec lore apparently forgot that obscure ancient mythology, opting for the dramatic tale of Tezcatlipoca creating the First Sun, Four Jaguar (Nahui Ocelotl), in the process losing his left foot in battle with the Earth Monster Cipactli.
One Lizard (in Yucatec Maya 1 K’an) the day when the Creator deity was troubled (as in his spirit afflicted), and he first created anger (perhaps first felt anger) “because of the evil that he had created.” In the preceding trecena on the day Nine Rain, there was an attempt at creating hell, (the Underworld or Xibalba), and on Ten Flower as yet uncreated wicked men went there. Speaking of convolutions, evil doesn’t appear until tomorrow, Two Snake, and it’s intriguing that the Creator got angry for what “he” hadn’t done yet.
Two Snake (in Yucatec Maya 2 Chikchan) the day when evil appeared and was discovered by men. So, it was only now that men could be wicked enough to go to hell back on Ten Flower.
Three Death (in Yucatec Maya 3 Kimi) the day when the first death was invented. So, the wicked went to hell yesterday (or four days before) but only died today. One gets the feeling that perhaps this Maya creation sequence somehow runs halfway backwards in time.
Four Deer (in Yucatec Maya 4 Manik’) is a Creation-sequence day left blank in the Chilam Balam manuscript but thought to be something like “Spirit passing over.” Maybe it’s simply the Maya Creator’s “day of rest” like the Judeo-Christian Seventh Day, a Sabbath or sabbatical.
Five Rabbit (in Nahuatl Macuil Tochtli) is the day-name of one of the five Ahuiateteo or male deities of pleasure/excess, a big shot among the 400 rabbit-gods of intoxication and often paired with One Monkey (See Monkey Trecena), one of the female Cihuateteo.
(in Yucatec Maya 5 Lamat) is the day when the seven great waters of the sea were established. Remember that “all things” and “everything” had been created separately on two other days earlier in the sequence. So, were the waters only now gathered together into the “seven great waters”—into seas already created on Three Reed? Speaking of confusion…
Six Water (in Yucatec Maya 6 Muluk) the day when all the valleys were submerged before the world had awakened. Why were the valleys submerged when the waters had only yesterday been “established” in their great seas? The “breath of life” had already been created on Twelve Wind, and there’s been no mention of the earth being asleep till now. In fact, it’s long been a busy place what with being born on Seven Earthquake and being luxuriously furnished with rocks, trees, animals, birds, and man on other earlier days.
Seven Dog (in Yucatec Maya 7 Ok) the day when “occurred the invention of the word of God” when the uinal (the 20-day monthly cycle) was created, and all was set in order.” Inventing the word of God is a hard act to follow—or believe.
Incidentally, the trecena includes two more days significant for the ancient Maya but of no apparent import for the Aztecs:
Eight Monkey (in Yucatec Maya 8 Chuwen or in Quiché Maya 8 Batz’) is still a major ceremonial day for the Guatemalan Maya, sometimes referred to as the Maya New Year, primarily focused on celebrating the renewal of the sacred calendar.
Nine Grass (in Yucatec Maya 9 Eb’) was the day-name of a Maya goddess of Death and the fertile earth, as well as an oracle. I haven’t seen any Aztec notice of this goddess, but that might well be the day-name of Huitzilopochtli’s sister Malinalxochitl (Grass Flower), a sorceress and goddess of snakes, scorpions, and insects of the desert. If not, no matter…
THE TONALAMATL (BOOK OF DAYS)
Several of the surviving so-called Aztec codices (some originating from other cultures like the Mixtec) have Tonalamatl sections laying out the trecenas of the Tonalpohualli on separate pages. In Codex Borbonicus and Tonalamatl Aubin, the first two pages are missing; Codex Telleriano-Remensis and Codex Rios are each lacking various pages (fortunately not the same ones); and in Codex Borgia and Codex Vaticanus all 20 pages are extant. (The Tonalpohualli is also presented in a spread-sheet fashion in Codex Borgia, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Cospi, but that format apparently serves other purposes.)
TONALAMATL BALTHAZAR
As described in my earlier blog The Aztec Calendar – My Obsession, some thirty years ago—on the basis of very limited ethnographic information and iconographic models —I presumed to create my own version of a Tonalamatl, publishing it in 1993 as Celebrate Native America!
As mentioned above, when I drew my version of the Lizard Trecena (in colored pencil) over 30 years ago, its patron was generally seen as Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror. The only codex image I’d found of the Black One was a figure from plate 21 in Codex Borgia, which I reversed and doctored up with a bigger and more ornate shield and arrows, enhanced with subtle detail changes, and gave lots of blue (to go better with black). My unwitting iconographic mistake was to omit the traditional yellow stripes on his face. With the eponymous smoking mirror as a left foot, my image thus wove in the story of his epic battle with the Earth Monster and (again unwittingly) incorporated several of the deity’s traditional emblems. He’s a real showstopper.
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TONALAMATL BORGIA (re-created by Richard Balthazar from Codex Borgia)
The figure of Tezcatlipoca on the right in this patron panel from the Tonalamatl Borgia is the only one to be found in the surviving Tonalamatls, and it’s likely why earlier scholars called him the patron of the Lizard Trecena. Other figures of this deity occur in Codex Borgia in many contexts, most similar (like my own above), but in fact he was reputed to be invisible, in rituals his presence merely indicated by the mystical appearance of a right-foot print in a box of sand.
Invisibility made it easy for Tezcatlipoca to manifest as various naguals including Tepeyollotl, Heart of the Mountain (patron of the Deer Trecena); Chalchiuhtotolin, the Jade Turkey (patron of the upcoming Water Trecena); Itztli, god of sacrifice and another form of Tecpatl, the sacrificial knife.; Xipe Totec, the Flayed God or Red Tezcatlipoca (patron of the upcoming Dog Trecena); and of course his companion in this patron panel, Itztlacoliuhqui, the Curved Obsidian Blade.
Being the “jaguar of the night,” the figure stands on the thatched roof of the night sky (as does Tepeyollotl in the Deer Trecena). I suspect that this added “pedestal” is why the codex artist fore-shortened the god’s traditionally larger plumed back-bundle. Unfortunately, the original codex image is severely damaged, particularly in this ornament and around his hindquarters. So, I’ve reconstructed it, his skirt, and tail-flap using details from other Borgia images. By the way, the item in his painfully twisted upper hand is apparently a scepter of divine power/rulership.
Meanwhile, Itztlacoliuhqui enthroned on the left is one of the more elegant and enigmatic images of this unusual deity. Unique among Aztec deities, no item of human form (except an elemental head) detracts from this image as an abstract, divine idol. Elsewhere in Borgia as patron of the day Reed, he looks like Tezcatlipoca but still wears the blindfold of objectivity.
Among other odd items of the Blade’s paraphernalia, the most telling is that arrow/dart stuck in his head, whereon hangs the tale of the celestial conflict mentioned earlier. In short, when Quetzalcoatl/Ehecatl created the Fifth world, a young god named Nanahuatzin leapt into the cosmic conflagration to become the new sun (Tonatiuh) and then refused to move until the other gods recognized his supremacy. Unwilling to kowtow, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (the Morning Star) shot an arrow at Tonatiuh, which that god caught and threw back at him, hitting the Lord of the House of the Dawn in the forehead. To redeem the situation, Tonatiuh turned the target into a new god, a nagual illogically of Tezcatlipoca, namely Itztlacoliuhqui. I can’t explain why the arrow is broken here, except maybe to make it fit on the page.
The rest of the panel is comfortably uncluttered. The ornamental pulque pot is likely homage to the intoxicated Five Rabbit just below it, but the other two items bear comment. The inverted (empty) vase at the top probably intends to warn people about what recklessness can cause if they’re not cautious in generating new ideas and directions (not to mention opulence). The falling figure may indicate someone in a situation out of their control (a victim of fate). Usually, falling indicates a deceased person (with closed eyes), but this one’s eyes are open. We’ll come to understand this motif better with evidence from other tonalamatls.
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TONALAMATL YOAL (compiled and re-created by Richard Balthazar on the basis of
Codex Telleriano-Remensis and Codex Rios)
The more human image of Itztlacoliuhqui on the left is heavily loaded down with divine accoutrements. Here the blind, black-striped face wears an abstract crescent nosepiece instead of a blindfold, and the legendary arrow is now a large ornate spear. A curious detail is that the left side of his/its body has been flayed, and strips of flayed skin are evidently included in the headdress and profusion of flaps and scarves (no doubt as signs of holiness). The flaying may also refer to his connection with Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, who’s almost always represented thus. In his right hand is a swatch of straw or broom thought to indicate cleaning/clearing required before “germination of new ideas or directions;” in the Borgia panel it’s probably reflected in that idol’s straw cape.
The two human figures on the right immediately clarify the meaning of Borgia’s falling fellow. They represent Itztlacoliuhqui’s symbolism of justice and/or castigation and punishment of sin. Both stoning and strangling were standard Aztec methods of execution, which I strongly suspect didn’t come with the religious benefits of sacrificial rites. Note these two figures’ eyes are closed indicating death. While this trecena generously portends the “nurturing of new ideas,” it clearly doesn’t pretend to be gentle or forgiving. Of course, objective justice rarely is.
The Codex Rios copies of this trecena page are exceptionally blurry and careless, and I relied solely on the Telleriano-Remensis original for this re-creation. An innovation was making the bladed crest on his headdress black to indicate obsidian, which various sources claim as an iconographic attribute of Itztlacoliuhqui. However, in other images the points are normally left white, the primary color of this deity. My other innovation was to reposition his left arm so that it wasn’t jutting from his forehead, a frequent problem with Aztec-style figures.
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OTHER TONALAMATLS
In the Tonalamatl Aubin, the Blade is almost entirely white with only red points on the obsidian crest of the standard headdress (struck with only a small arrow). Here his whole body, eyeless face, and headdress are flayed. In the upper hand is evidently the broom (on an arm typically and weirdly coming out of his forehead). The two (deformed) humans seem to be bleeding from punishment, maybe for disporting with pulque and some kind of flower or fruit, but they’re still alive. The four small bleeding items beg explanation, particularly the front half of the snake. Whoever uses these panels for divination will just have to make what they will of such details.
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The patron panel in Codex Borbonicus presents yet another elegant and enigmatic figure of Itztlacoliuhqui. This time he has a human body, a crescent nosepiece as in Yoal, and again only a small arrow piercing his headdress, and he holds a rather large broom for sweeping the way clean. His mostly white raiment of bands, sashes, and pointy ornaments conveys an appropriate sense of crystalline cold and ice. Some sources suggest that the bumpy texture of his legs and arms represents a covering of unspun cotton (tlazolli) destined to be “ordered” as spun cotton (ichcatl). I find that interpretation strained, but this texture doesn’t look anything like the striped flaying we’ve seen in his other images.
As in most Borbonicus patron panels, lots of ritual objects are shown in a scattered conglom, including two little executed folks on the lower right, some inverted containers (pulque and water), and another front half of a snake, for whatever that might mean. Oddly, on the lower left where the symbol of the trecena is usually placed, instead of a lizard, we find a two-headed snake. Quite curious, in the upper center the arrow has a side-notched flint point I’ve not seen in other Aztec instances. Even odder, at the bottom center is an inscrutable animal head (a deer?). Have fun interpreting this arcane collection.
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The Codex Vaticanus patron panel more or less restates the Borgia version—minus the big cheese, Tezcatlipoca—again leaving his nagual Itztlacoliuhqui as undisputed patron of the trecena. Only this time, the blind “idol” is even more abstracted, looking like a standard corpse bundle with a broken arrow stuck in the top. This tells me that the deity of stone, cold, etc., must be dead, not a god of Death but a defunct god, which is a passing strange concept. But an arrow in the head is usually lethal, and the dead can afford to be objective.
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Put simply, the Lizard Trecena is an optimistic, if rather gruesome, time period in the Aztec calendar. Our discussion has now set the record straight that the ominous Curved Obsidian Blade is its sole patron, and sinners should beware. Fortunately, it only lasts for 13 days…
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UPCOMING ATTRACTION
The calendar’s thirteenth trecena will be that of Earthquake (or Motion/Movement) with Tlazolteotl, Goddess of Filth, again as its patron. (She was also a patron of the Deer Trecena.)
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You can view all the calendar pages I’ve completed up to this point in the Tonalamatl gallery.
Richard Balthazar 