What Are the Mayan Zodiac Signs?

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Discover the ancient origins of the Mayan Zodiac
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You’re probably already familiar with your star sign, and maybe you even religiously read your horoscope. But rather than looking to the stars, the ancient Maya people used calculations based on the days of the year to create their astrological system—and like much of what we know about this savvy civilization, that system holds up today. Consider this your guide to understanding the basics of Mayan astrology, as well as how to determine your Mayan Zodiac sign and what it says about you, your life, and your connections to others.

Things You Should Know

  • The Mayan Zodiac includes twenty day signs. A person’s day sign is thought to reveal their dominant traits, strengths, weaknesses, and path through life.
  • Each day sign corresponds to one day in a 20-day cycle. This cycle comes from the Mayan calendar, in which a year is divided into 13 periods of 20 days.
  • Find your day sign by entering your birthdate into a reputable online Mayan Zodiac calculator.
Section 1 of 2:

The 20 Mayan Zodiac Signs & Their Meanings

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  1. The first day sign is aggressive yet protective of its loved ones. Crocodiles are energetic and creative and enjoy taking charge in any situation, although they sometimes behave selfishly. They have a natural power and influence that they must be careful to use for good. Crocodile signs do well with team-building projects and charity work that allow them to be creative and generous. [1]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Imix/Imšx [2]
    • Core Significance: Integrity
    • Strengths: Innovative, enthusiastic, protective
    • Weaknesses: Aggressive, selfish, domineering
    • Direction Association: East
    • Color/Gem Association: Red/ Red Jasper
    • Gets along with: Wind
    • Faces challenges with: Monkey
    • Preferred occupations: Teacher, artist, psychologist, caregiver
  2. The second day sign is highly intellectual, flexible, and lively. [3] Wind signs are skilled at a variety of tasks, but prefer idealistic and romantic pursuits. However, they can be indecisive and insecure, so they struggle with commitment or feeling like their accomplishments are enough. [4]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Ik’/Iq [5]
    • Core Significance: Justice
    • Strengths: Intelligent, energetic, multi-talented
    • Weaknesses: Indecisive, insecure, overthinker
    • Direction Association: North
    • Color/Gem Association: White/ Sodalite
    • Gets along with: House
    • Faces challenges with: Grass
    • Preferred occupations: Entrepreneur, politician, spiritualist, artist
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  3. The third day sign values structure and tradition, and they struggle to let go of conventional beliefs. Due to their quiet and slightly stubborn nature, they may seem intimidating to others. But House signs are just deep thinkers who reflect often and seek out security, loyalty, and faithfulness. [6]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Ak’bal/Aq’ab’al [7]
    • Core Significance: Patience
    • Strengths: Self-reflective, loyal, patient
    • Weaknesses: Stubborn, traditional, withdrawn
    • Direction Association: West
    • Color/Gem Association: Blue/ Snowflake Obsidian
    • Gets along with: Lizard
    • Faces challenges with: Reed
    • Preferred occupations: Doctor, soldier, mathematician, travel guide
  4. The fourth day sign is highly performance-driven and independent. Lizards are high-achievers who enjoy being the center of attention . They have high self-esteem and are seen by others as energetic and dynamic. [8] They are extremely passionate about what they do, which sometimes results in argumentative or self-centered behavior.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: K’an/K’at [9]
    • Core Significance: Manifestation
    • Strengths: Passionate, principled, dynamic
    • Weaknesses: Aggressive, argumentative, self-centered
    • Direction Association: South
    • Color/Gem Association: Yellow/ Dumortierite
    • Gets along with: Serpent
    • Faces challenges with: Jaguar
    • Preferred occupations: Artist, gardener, shop owner, curator
  5. The fifth day sign is powerful, charismatic, and emotional. Serpents are highly intelligent and easily tap into the feelings and needs of others. They effortlessly attract the attention and admiration of people around them. [10] However, their high threshold for empathy means their feelings sometimes get the best of them and they express it via angry outbursts or over-dramatic shows of emotion.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Chikchan/Kaan [11]
    • Core Significance: Resolution
    • Strengths: Charismatic, empathetic, considerate
    • Weaknesses: Temperamental, dramatic, assertive
    • Direction Association: East
    • Color/Gem Association: Red/Amethyst
    • Gets along with: Death
    • Faces challenges with: Eagle
    • Preferred occupations: State official, lawyer, judge, nurse
  6. The sixth day sign represents a special connection to the spiritual world. [12] People born under the Death sign are generally practical and generous and put their energy toward helping their communities. [13] However, they quickly become burned out from frequently prioritizing others, so they may become resentful of close friends and family or sensitive that their energy isn’t being returned.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Kimi/Kame [14]
    • Core Significance: Understanding
    • Strengths: Grounded, generous, selfless
    • Weaknesses: Oversensitive, self-sacrificing, fragile
    • Direction Association: North
    • Color/Gem Association: White/Carnelian
    • Gets along with: Death
    • Faces challenges with: Eagle
    • Preferred occupations: Counselor, doctor, philosopher, historian
  7. The seventh day sign is strong, protective, and innovative. While Deer signs value family and loved ones, they also need freedom to roam and explore. They tend to be deeply in touch with their sensuality and may be described by others as eccentric. [15] Deer signs aren’t bothered by other people’s opinions, but they do feel easily wounded by people who disappoint them or break their trust.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Manik’/Kiej [16]
    • Core Significance: Ascension
    • Strengths: Protective, original, loving
    • Weaknesses: Sensitive, evasive, guarded
    • Direction Association: West
    • Color/Gem Association: Blue/Amazonite
    • Gets along with: Rabbit
    • Faces challenges with: Earth
    • Preferred occupations: Public servant, sociologist, scientist, spiritual coach
  8. The eighth day sign is the clever, active, and competitive Rabbit. These signs enjoy music, humor, and debating important topics with others. They infuse everything they do with playfulness and energy. [17] However, their competitive and playful reputation sometimes gets to their head if they don’t think they’re good enough, and they become nervous and insecure.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Lamat/Q’aniel [18]
    • Core Significance: Unity
    • Strengths: Lively, energetic, intelligent
    • Weaknesses: Competitive, self-centered, insecure
    • Direction Association: South
    • Color/Gem Association: Yellow/ Hematite
    • Gets along with: Water
    • Faces challenges with: Knife
    • Preferred occupations: Counselor, agriculturalist, musician, spiritual leader.
  9. The ninth day sign leads with kindness and sincerity. Water signs are deeply emotional and sometimes struggle under the weight of their powerful and overwhelming feelings. This struggle can lead them to become obsessive about certain situations and force their emotions onto others. However, these feelings can also be channeled into passion, imagination, and sometimes spiritual pursuits. [19]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Muluk/Toj [20]
    • Core Significance: Duality
    • Strengths: Kind, passionate, sincere
    • Weaknesses: Overly-emotional, domineering
    • Direction Association: East
    • Color/Gem Association: Red/ Lapis Lazuli
    • Gets along with: Dog
    • Faces challenges with: Storm
    • Preferred occupations: Warrior, priest, farmer, midwife
  10. The tenth day sign represents curiosity, adventure, and trustworthiness. Just like their animal counterpart, people born under the Dog sign are loyal leaders and companions who enjoy contributing to a team. [21] Dogs sometimes struggle to develop emotional maturity and open up to others, but they are deeply loyal to the people they trust.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Ok/Tzi [22]
    • Core Significance: Patience
    • Strengths: Curious, loyal, collaborative
    • Weaknesses: Emotional immaturity, trust issues
    • Direction Association: North
    • Color/Gem Association: White/ Bloodstone
    • Gets along with: Monkey
    • Faces challenges with: Flower
    • Preferred occupations: Teacher, doctor, academic researcher, judge
  11. The eleventh day sign is all about performance and entertainment. The Monkey sign enjoys being the center of attention and feeling connected to others. They are funny, chatty, and outwardly sociable, although they may struggle with close personal relationships. [23] Sometimes their close friends and families become frustrated by their constant need to impress others.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Chuwen/B’aatz [24]
    • Core Significance: Manifestation
    • Strengths: Funny, talkative, sociable
    • Weaknesses: Superficial, vain, scatterbrained.
    • Direction Association: West
    • Color/Gem Association: Blue/ Aventurine
    • Gets along with: Monkey
    • Faces challenges with: Flower
    • Preferred occupations: Salesperson, singer/dancer, agriculturist, priest
  12. The twelfth day sign represents compromise and healing. People born under the Grass sign are easygoing and adaptable, and they work hard to both help others and achieve their own goals. Grass signs are also extremely sensitive and prone to hiding their hurt from others. [25]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Eb/Eey’ [26]
    • Core Significance: Resolution
    • Strengths: Industrious, nurturing, flexible
    • Weaknesses: Reserved, over-sensitive, closed-off
    • Direction Association: South
    • Color/Gem Association: Yellow/ Malachite
    • Gets along with: Reed
    • Faces challenges with: Wind
    • Preferred occupations: Retailer, hunter, explorer, researcher
  13. The thirteenth day sign is powerful and forceful. Reed signs are knowledgeable, accomplished, and have strong opinions. While they are popular with others, they may be argumentative or struggle to accept perspectives that go against their own intellectual beliefs. [27] Overall, however, they want peace, harmony and ease in their relationships and surrounding environment.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Ben/Aaj [28]
    • Core Significance: Understanding
    • Strengths: Wise, determined, problem-solver
    • Weaknesses: Argumentative, close-minded, authoritative
    • Direction Association: East
    • Color/Gem Association: Red/ Turquoise
    • Gets along with: Jaguar
    • Faces challenges with: House
    • Preferred occupations: Farmer, healer, investigator, administrator, poet
  14. The fourteenth day sign rules over healing, counseling, and psychic abilities. People born under Jaguar tend to keep things close to their chest, but they are great listeners that enjoy helping other people and hearing about their lives. [29] They are also deeply strategic, which sometimes appears as manipulative. But Jaguars are always well-intentioned and deeply value their interpersonal relationships.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Ix/Ix-B’alam [30]
    • Core Significance: Ascension
    • Strengths: Empathetic, intuitive, loving
    • Weaknesses: Secretive, guarded, competitive
    • Direction Association: North
    • Color/Gem Association: White/ Moonstone
    • Gets along with: Eagle
    • Faces challenges with: Lizard
    • Preferred occupations: Warrior, animal trainer, philosopher, doctor
  15. The fifteenth day sign is independent, open-minded, and, as its animal symbol suggests, eagle-eyed. Eagle signs are perfectionists with expansive vision and great attention to detail. They are also extremely autonomous and enjoy seeking out new experiences and adventures far from home. [31] However, the eagle can be overly critical of both themselves and others.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Men/Tz’ikin [32]
    • Core Significance: Prosperity
    • Strengths: Open-minded, independent, adventurous
    • Weaknesses: Restless, guarded, stubborn
    • Direction Association: West
    • Color/Gem Association: Blue/ Unakite
    • Gets along with: Vulture
    • Faces challenges with: Serpent
    • Preferred occupations: Poet, sculptor, painter, diplomat
  16. The sixteenth day sign represents authority and status. Vulture signs are serious and realistic people who see the benefits that come with power and status. They think it’s important to take lessons from every part of life, both good and bad. Although their realism may be perceived as cynicism or emotional unavailability, they are wise and humorous individuals at their core. [33]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Kib/Ajmaq [34]
    • Core Significance: Wisdom
    • Strengths: Knowledgeable, reflective, realistic
    • Weaknesses: Jaded, serious, low self-esteem
    • Direction Association: South
    • Color/Gem Association: Yellow/ Smokey Quartz
    • Gets along with: Earth
    • Faces challenges with: Death
    • Preferred occupations: Politician, judge, doctor, administrator
  17. The seventeenth day sign is a forceful and progressive intellectual thinker. People born under the Earth sign like to shake things up, using their ideals to change societal structures and traditional ways of thinking. [35] Their brain is always bouncing around between their next great ideas, but they struggle to pause and focus on emotional needs.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: K’aban/N’oj [36]
    • Core Significance: Action
    • Strengths: Philosophical, innovative, community-oriented
    • Weaknesses: Condescending, nervous, emotionally reserved
    • Direction Association: East
    • Color/Gem Association: Red/ Agate
    • Gets along with: Knife
    • Faces challenges with: Deer
    • Preferred occupations: Artist, doctor, agriculturalist, judge
  18. The eighteenth day sign represents courage, strength, and logic. [37] Knife signs tend to be self-sacrificing and go out of their way to accommodate others, which means they often repress their own feelings. [38] However, they love to have deep conversations and apply practical logic to both their work and their relationships.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Etz’nab/Tijax [39]
    • Core Significance: Stability
    • Strengths: Logical, courageous, thoughtful
    • Weaknesses: Self-sacrificing, emotionally guarded, workaholic
    • Direction Association: North
    • Color/Gem Association: White/Rhodonite
    • Gets along with: Storm
    • Faces challenges with: Rabbit
    • Preferred occupations: Healer/doctor, politician, strategist, athlete
  19. The nineteenth day sign is all about the mind. Storm signs live up in their head, making for compassionate, mentally active, and friendly personalities. They are usually skilled in a variety of disciplines, although they’re drawn to roles where they can heal and connect with others. [40] However, their focus on neatness and order can become restrictive, and they could benefit from being more laidback from time to time.
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: K’awak/Kawoq [41]
    • Core Significance: Empowerment
    • Strengths: Friendly, generous, spiritual
    • Weaknesses: Strict, impractical, sensitive
    • Direction Association: West
    • Color/Gem Association: Blue/ Jade
    • Gets along with: Flower
    • Faces challenges with: Water
    • Preferred occupations: Midwife, weather forecaster, fisherman, weaver
  20. The twentieth day sign is the final one in the cycle. Flower signs symbolize beauty and perfection. Individuals born under this sign may be a bit socially awkward, but that’s only because they spend so much time dreaming about their lofty ideals. They are true romantics who will give themselves entirely to their friends and romantic partners. [42]
    • Yucatec/Quiche Maya Name: Ahaw/Jun Ajpub [43]
    • Core Significance: Flow
    • Strengths: Loving, creative, imaginative
    • Weaknesses: Impractical, delicate, restless
    • Direction Association: South
    • Color/Gem Association: Yellow/ Rose Quartz
    • Gets along with: Crocodile
    • Faces challenges with: Dog
    • Preferred occupations: Musician, athlete, politician, leader
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Section 2 of 2:

Understanding the Mayan Zodiac

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  1. In the Maya sacred calendar known as the Tzolk’in , the calendar is divided into thirteen periods of 20 days. [44] Each of these days is associated with a glyph or visual image, often an animal. [45] These visual symbols are the origin of each Mayan Zodiac symbol.
    • The most important sign in Mayan astrology is the day sign, which reveals a person’s dominant personality traits, strengths, weaknesses, and destiny. [46]
    • Someone’s day sign is determined by which date in the 20-day calendar cycle they were born and which symbol rules over that day.
    • This is distinct from the more well-known Western Zodiac, where the position of the Sun at the time of birth (or what constellation it was in) determines someone’s sign .
  2. Find a trustworthy site with a Mayan Zodiac calculator and enter a birthdate. This Mayan Wisdom Project’s calculator will give the name of the heart sign (day sign) in Quiche Maya. The description gives more information about this sign’s associated symbol. [47]
    • Day signs are mathematically complicated to calculate, as they follow the 20-day cycles within the Mayan calendar.
    • Three people born three days in a row will all have different signs. Two people born 20 days apart, however, will have the same sign.
    • For example, someone born on January 7th, 2004 will have a Water sign. But someone born on January 8th of the same year will be a Dog because it’s the next sign in the 20-day cycle. [48]
    • However, someone born on January 27th, 2004—twenty days or a full cycle later—will also be born under the Water sign.
  3. While they use the same symbols as day signs, trecena signs represent a person’s underlying traits (like a Moon sign in modern astrology). The trecena is determined by a 13-day cycle that runs throughout the Mayan calendar, separate from the 20-day cycle that determines the day sign. [49]
    • The sign that ruled on someone’s birthday during the trecena cycle is their trecena sign.
    • Finding someone’s trecena sign requires an in-depth assessment from an expert service or individual who provides full Mayan Zodiac readings. [50]
  4. Each tone is represented by a number, ranging from 1-13. The symbolism of each number reveals how a person will embody their dominant sign and channel it toward their destiny. [51] Use this calculator to see the galactic tone number of any birthdate, given alongside the day/heart sign.
    • One: Unity, new beginnings, and innovation.
    • Two: Intuition, community outreach, and duality.
    • Three: Socialization, admiration, and artistic pursuits.
    • Four: Stability, routine, and support.
    • Five: Curiosity, investigation, and knowledge.
    • Six: Balance, leadership, and family.
    • Seven: Reflection, autonomy, and spirituality.
    • Eight: Justice, authority, and financial success.
    • Nine: Patience, leadership, and generosity.
    • Ten: Manifestation, innovation, and creation.
    • Eleven: Transformation, collaboration, and imagination.
    • Twelve: Communication, understanding, and charisma.
    • Thirteen: Order, ascension, and psychic power.
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      References

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