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Mayanastro

The 13 tones · tone 5

Tone 5, Job'

Job', the 5, is the number of the hand: five fingers, a handful. Outside the bands of numbers, it speaks of work, of paying what is owed and of those who get there before the hour.

Updated 7 October 2026

Job'the hand

In short

  • The 5 is the number of the hand; at the market, a handful means five.
  • It stays outside the three highland bands of numbers.
  • Some explain the bar of the Maya numeral, which is worth five, as the hand laid flat.
  • People born on a 5 day tend to show up early and to settle what they owe right away.

1. The number of the hand

Job' means five. In Maya writing, the 5 is the first bar: from 1 to 4 the numbers are dots, and the 5 gathers everything into a single stroke. Some explain that bar as the tips of the five fingers together, the hand laid flat.

The 5 falls into none of the three Momostenango bands: it is no longer one of the gentle numbers and not yet one of measured strength. It stands alone between what is born and what is measured.

Like every odd number, the 5 is on the side of the numbers that set things moving and push them forward.

Five fingers, one hand: the 5 is the number of doing.

2. The hand, the senses and debts

The reading of the 5 tends to start with the hand. At the market, a handful is worth five units, and the number reaches out to the five senses and to five ages of life, from child to elder.

As the number of the hands, the 5 also tends to be the number of work and of settling up: what is owed gets paid, and the fire of the ceremony consumes the debt.

These images come mostly from one voice, that of an ajq'ij from Momostenango who explained the numbers one by one. That is why this page speaks of the 5 as a leaning, not a rule.

What the hand takes, the hand pays back.

3. Born on a 5 day

People born on a 5 day tend to show up before the appointed hour. In practice, this often looks like someone who hands in the work the day before it is due and pays the bill the day it comes.

The care the 5 needs is about haste: whoever runs without watching the road can stumble along it.

Like every tone, the 5 adds to the nawal of the day and tends to arrive with its hands full.

A quick hand gets work done; a hurried hand knocks things over.

4. Tone 5 with the 20 nawales

Each nawal falls on tone 5 once every 260 days. Open any of them to read its page.

What is your nawal?

Find your nawal and your tone in seconds, for free. All you need is your date of birth.

Find my nawalYour Maya Cross and your year bearer are in the Complete Maya Chart

Where this page comes from

Every statement on this page was checked, page by page, against books by ajq'ijab' and by researchers who followed the living count. When only one voice supports an idea, the wording says so. The authors have no connection with the site.

The books and where to find them

Sources cited