Tone 8, Wajxaqib'

Wajxaqib' means eight. In the Momostenango bands, the 8 sits in the middle of the numbers of measured strength, between 7 and 9.

For one ajq'ij today, the calendar is circular and counted from the 8: the 1 added to the 7, the totality of time. She holds the 8 to be very good, since it is the 4 twice over.

The 8 also tends to be read as the two sides of wholeness: night and day, sun and moon.

The 8 is the beginning and the end holding hands.

The 8 is the number of the best-known day in the count: 8 B'atz'. In Momostenango, it is the date of the largest rite and the day new ajq'ijab' are initiated. In today's tradition, it is also celebrated as the Maya New Year, the opening of the cycle.

The shrine of the 8, the wajxakibal, is where the new ajq'ij is presented; afterward, they make offerings there on the 8 days, from 8 Kej to 8 Toj. The 8 days also mark the second part of each of the apprentice's training series.

An oral tradition explains why the cycle opens on an 8: a new life begins with four arms and four legs, the man's and the woman's.

When the 8 arrives, the cycle starts over.

People born on an 8 day tend to be volatile: they change their minds and moods quickly, and sometimes get irritated over nothing. The number of wholeness does not promise an easy life.

The thread tends to show up in the reading of the 8 as well: life as a weave, time as a thread, and the eight strands that the umbilical cord is said to hold.

In practice, this often looks like someone who stitches people and projects together, and who needs time alone to untangle their own ball of yarn.

The 8 weaves time; you hold the thread.

Each nawal falls on tone 8 once every 260 days. Open any of them to read its page.

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