Tone 12, Kab'lajuj

Kab'lajuj means twelve. In the Momostenango bands, the 12 is among the intense numbers, mature and serious. Being even, it also sits on the side of the balanced ones.

That double face shows in practice: the number one set of bands calls intense is, in another town, a day for a regular rite.

Heavy like the high numbers, steady like the even ones.

In Santa María Chiquimula, the brotherhood has a rite for the 12 days of the four year bearers. At midnight on 12 Kej, 12 No'j, 12 Iq' and 12 E, its members wash the saints' clothes.

In the same place, three of the four mountain altars bear the number 12: 12 Tijax, 12 Kan and 12 Kej.

The reading of the 12 tends to be one of taking stock: what has been lived, the conclusions drawn, a person's thinking woven together with the family's and the culture's, as if life gained an archive.

The 12 keeps the memory of the house.

People born on a 12 day tend to carry a lot of strength and to become very independent.

In the reading of the 12, life tends to be seen whole and as a circle: the community, the family, those who learn and those who teach.

In practice, this often looks like someone who keeps the family stories and who, at some point, sets off on their own path without asking permission.

Whoever takes stock chooses the next step.

Each nawal falls on tone 12 once every 260 days. Open any of them to read its page.

• 12 Imox
• 12 Iq'
• 12 Aq'ab'al
• 12 K'at
• 12 Kan
• 12 Kame
• 12 Kej
• 12 Q'anil
• 12 Toj
• 12 Tz'i'
• 12 B'atz'
• 12 E
• 12 Aj
• 12 I'x
• 12 Tz'ikin
• 12 Ajmaq
• 12 No'j
• 12 Tijax
• 12 Kawoq
• 12 Ajpu