Tone 3, Oxib'

Oxib' means three. In the Momostenango bands, the 3 closes the gentle group, with 1 and 2: a young number that has not yet put on weight.

That small weight shows in divination. With K'at, the day of debts, a 3 points to a recent, light debt, something that can still be settled with little.

But the 3 has two faces. One places it among the soft numbers; the other counts it among the hardest days to be born on, since it carries two marks at once: it is low, and it is odd. Both readings live side by side.

Gentle in number, demanding in balance.

The strongest image of the 3 belongs to the household: the three hearthstones, which have held the pot over the fire since the creation of the world. In this reading, the 3 tends to speak of the home, of children and of those who learn from us.

The 3 also tends to be read as the world in layers: the sky, the earth and the world below.

That is why some are cautious with it. Among those who count the days the old way, many avoid starting anything on a 3 day, held to be a day of uncertainty, when plans often get tangled.

Three stones hold the pot; with two, it falls.

People born on a 3 day tend to wobble more than others: what is low and odd at once needs support. In the full reading, that support usually comes from the rest of the Chart, from the nawales around the day of birth.

In practice, this often looks like someone who does best with a tidy home and the right people nearby. When the three stones are in place, the fire cooks.

Like every tone, the 3 does not decide alone: it adds to the nawal of the day and to the rest of the reading.

Steady the house, and the 3 steadies you.

Each nawal falls on tone 3 once every 260 days. Open any of them to read its page.

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