#ancientwisdom – Cara Carozza

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Q’anil

There’s an old farming rhyme about planting seeds, “One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to root and one to grow.” Q’anil reminded me of this proverb over the past thirteen days. Not all seeds germinate and not all plants bear fruit. Ideally, we are able to recognize which ideas and opportunities will nourish our true potential and help us grow. Sometimes we need to get really uncomfortable in order to recognize that what we are cultivating is no longer serving us. That was certainly my experience this past trecena.

The building that I keep my professional office in was purchased last year. The new owners are lousy farmers. They’ve allowed us to wilt over the past few months. Our air conditioning stopped working two months ago and they still haven’t repaired it. Their response to our most recent service request was, “AC is not a right, it’s an option and it’s currently unavailable.” My lease states otherwise, but that’s not why I’ve been awake since three AM this morning. It’s the lack of humanity that these people have. It’s really triggered me. I’ve been literally and figuratively steaming for days.

As I thrashed about in my garden looking for viable crops, it suddenly occurred to me that I might need to plant my seeds somewhere else. I surveyed my options but found no fertile soil available. It was very disheartening. I had expected Q’anil to deliver the perfect new space. Far away from my heartless new landlords. Instead, I was made even more uncomfortable. Temperatures in my office have exceeded 84 degrees this week and it’s the last days of the filing season so I’ve had to be in my office whether I’ve wanted to or not.

With no relief in sight, I was forced to consider an entirely new business model. One my son has been encouraging me to explore since he came to work for me last year. This new model takes advantage of technology that I’m already paying for, stream lines my information gathering process and takes advantage of the share economy that I am such a fan of. Growing is hard work. Sometimes you have to get really dirty and really sweaty in order to produce something new that serves both you and your community. I’m actually feeling grateful for all my struggles now. If I hadn’t experienced them, my business might have become one of the seeds for the mouse.

Tomorrow, we begin a new gestation cycle. We welcome the collective force of Imox. The primordial waters of creation. Anything is possible. Amen to that.

To New Beginnings,

Cara xoxo

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Tz’ikin

Tz’ikin took me on a journey these past thirteen days. The Eagle (Red Tailed Hawk in my neck of the woods) gifted me with glimpses of the vision of Community that I have held for many moons. I was shown what I had seeded and tended with devotion. My sprouts were clearly evident. Deep satisfaction is finding a permanent home within my body and my spirit. I haven’t quite landed yet, but I have the runway in sight and it’s going to be a smooth landing.

I’ve been Beta testing an app that two dear friends and fellow students of Maya Cosmology have developed together. My Q’ij (@my.qij) is Ancient yet Futuristic in the words of its creators. It’s a magical tool for learning and reflection. It’s become my container for journaling each day and it’s given me an elevated perspective. I could scarcely believe all that had held my attention this trecena when I reviewed all the entries that I had recorded. Flying high in the sky, we have the complete picture. The entire vision of possibilities laid out before us.

Tz’ikin also showed me prosperity in all it’s varied forms. The freedom to shuttle my mother and step-father to his most recent surgery. The willingness of our crew to finish our cabin project despite numerous changes and delays. The opportunity to submit my manuscript to a number of small and independent publishers even though I don’t have an agent. The free card deck samples that my printer sent me before asking for any money. All of this and my first grand baby on the way. Life is full in a way I never expected it to be at this stage of my life. Tz’ikin showed me that there is always a new horizon. A new dream and expanded possibilities.

Tomorrow welcomes the fertile energies of Q’anil. Q’anil will ask us to tend the sprouts that most serve our spiritual growth over the next thirteen-day cycle. Careful and conscious tending is what will be asked of us. Q’anil will also offer us time to enjoy what we’ve already created as well. I’m looking forward to customizing my book proposal for each of the independent publishers I’ve identified and planning a baby blessing ceremony with my future daughter in law. My husband will be harvesting the cannabis and hemp plants in our garden in the coming days as well. Worthy and pleasurable endeavors to channel Q’anils’ ripening energy into.

May you enjoy getting your hands into the dirt of your life.

Lovingly,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Iq

Iq gave me more opportunities to listen than to express myself over the past thirteen days. As a daughter, as a mother and as a friend. Iq is not subtle. It is breath, wind, voice and the hurricane. For me, Iq arrived as the hurricane. I expected a pleasant breeze and ended up with howling winds. I’m feeling a bit breathless from it all. Still, I’m grateful to have heard with clarity what was spoken to me. Iq seeks to liberate our voice so that we can experience the freedom of expressing our authentic self. Sometimes that process is less than graceful and sometimes it triggers those we care about most.

I’ve gotten really good at speaking my truth since I started writing and it’s become one my most powerful tools for regulating my nervous system. What I hadn’t realized was that it has also made me a great sounding board for others. Through witnessing my own feelings, I have developed more compassion for the feelings of others. I have cultivated the ability to hear what used to illicit anxiety and panic. I’ve developed perspective. I understand that until certain feelings, ideas and memories are expressed that they will divide and alienate. If they are given space and allowed to exist, they often dissolve. Once dissolved, they are easily carried away by the wind.

I focused on my heart each time words were delivered to me that made me want to act or respond instead of listen. I breathed deep into my diaphragm and imagined that I was drawing blue light from the heart of the sky into my own heart. I then exhaled deeply through my root chakra sending the light deep into the earth. Pacha Mama sent me her own soothing green light all the way up into my heart and I found myself softening. I was able to have empathy and remember times when I had felt similarly.

Even within a storm we can find a still point. Within my still point I was able to see the way forward. My way forward was a cup of cacao and a micro fire ceremony on Wajxaqib’ Toj. The fire always listens and always grounds me. Tomorrow we are joined by Tz’ikin, the eagle or the hawk. We’ll want to stay grounded while we’re taking in the scenes below. Tz’ikin offers vision and is the intermediary between heaven and earth, but can also get distracted by all there is to see. May you soar above it all and find exactly what you are looking for over the next thirteen days.

In quiet reverence,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Ajmaq

Aq’ab’al showed me that I was feeling hesitant about sharing my new book with others. Ajmaq arrived to show me why. Ajmaq’s literal translation is one who works with error. Recognizing and working with error can polish our soul and allow us to become more authentic versions of ourselves. But not if we can’t see them. Sometimes we create blind spots that we’re not even aware of.

Like the car that suddenly appears in the lane that you’re merging into or the sting of the bee, Ajmaq is far from subtle. It asks us to look at what is underneath our error and understand how it’s shaped us. I thought that the record of my error no longer existed. Until I purchased a new phone. That’s how the text thread between my twin sister and I suddenly reappeared two years after I thought that I had deleted it. I felt completely blind-sided. A part of me still believed that I could have kept her here if I’d just done more. If I’d just said the right thing. The text thread would support this belief. Or so I thought until I read it.

Ajmaq is also associated with forgiveness and ancestral healing. My twin didn’t stop with the restoration of our last conversation onto my new phone. She visited two of our mutual friends in the dream space to deliver her message to me. In each dream she came as a young and playful version of herself. One friend described her expression as mischievous. Both said she teasingly stuck out her tongue. Definitely my sister.

Her message? There’s nothing more I could have done and she wants me to have more fun. Taste more of the honey. Lighten up. I’m doing my best to listen. I spent this past weekend in San Diego with my daughter. We had a lot of fun and I know my sister enjoyed every minute of it. Tomorrow opens the trecena of Toj. Thirteen opportunities to make offerings and express gratitude. May you offer the fire your full presence. It would be a wise investment of your time. Toj is the Nawal of reciprocity.

Appreciatively,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Tz’i

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Today I can honestly say that my faith has been restored. The word Tz’i means dog and this Nawal offers us an opportunity to look deep within ourselves to discover our own true nature. Tz’i enables us to sense that which is ordinarily hidden from our view. The dogs extraordinary senses fuel its persistence to discover bones of truth that have been buried for a long time. Perhaps for generations.

Emboldened by my fortified perception and already possessing the innate wisdom of a mother, I patiently unraveled and discovered the roots of the knots that N’oj had revealed. Decades old, yet still festering. I tended the wounds as a mother would. With attentiveness and compassion, but not denial. Tz’i reminded me that my job as a parent is a lifetime position. It requires a lot of faith and a lot of loyalty. Qualities that are often ascribed to our canine companions.

Being a parent is an instinctual job. We learn by doing. Our children do not come with an instruction manual and each one is different. My husband and I have four children between us. We each arrived with two and we decided that was plenty. Even though our hearts longed to know a child that was just ours, we both believed that it wouldn’t be fair to the four that we already had. They needed and deserved for us to give them our full presence. To finish the job that we began before we fell in love.

We did the best that we knew how to do and still we’ve made mistakes. Mistakes that have polished our souls and led us to have a renewed compassion for our own adult parents. Tz’i reminded me that I’m still my mothers precious baby girl even if I’m technically a senior citizen and on the path to grandmotherhood. When my cabin project hit a literal roadblock, it was my parents who came to the rescue with a solution. Reminding me that my own mother is still parenting me. We’re all just walking each other home to spirit and I’m so grateful to be exactly where I am.

Tomorrow, we welcome a new dawn and a new concept. Our faith restored, our senses heightened, we are ready to step into the new ideas and experiences that are awaiting us in this next trip around the calendar wheel with Aq’ab’al.

Gratefully,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Reflections on N’oj

The Solstice revealed some very old knots within my family. Many ugly things were said. It left me shell shocked and seeking support from both the heart of the sky and the heart of the earth. The wounds will take time to heal, but they will no longer be festering. With time and space reconciliation will arrive. I’m focusing on keeping my own head in my heart as I serve as mediator. I’m also beginning to understand that the job of parenting never ends. Even when your own children become parents themselves. In fact, it is a whole new opportunity to untangle the knots of the past and our ancestral lineage. These are the gifts that the Trecena of K’at offered me while I was in the mountains. Opportunity and compassion.

Since I moved onto my parents property three years ago, I have been praying for healing between myself and them and it’s happened. Now there is space for this same healing to happen between myself and my own children. It’s not comfortable and it’s most certainly exhausting, but it’s the most sacred work that we can do while we are here in earth school. The Maya believe that the fire is the ear of spirit and that’s why fire ceremonies are such an important part of their spiritual practices. I made my Wajxakib B’atz fire ceremony at 4500 feet, opposite Mt Lassen this cycle. My fire offered me an image of a portal and an invitation to enter it. I accepted and spoke the words that needed to be spoken.

N’oj arrived quietly after we had descended the mountain and returned home. Still bruised and vulnerable, I found myself unable to write as the first full trecena of the new calendar cycle opened. My spirit asked for stillness and reflection first. I often think about N’oj as the mind of the calendar. However, N’oj is not only the mind. It is also the earth thinking through us. In order to hear the wisdom of the earth we need to listen. I listen best when I am quiet and that’s why I’ve decided to offer a reflection at the end of each trecena this calendar cycle instead of at the beginning.

Tomorrow our loyal companion T’zi arrives to chaperone us into our destiny. T’zi brings the frequency of justice and natural law along with the playful and instinctual nature of the dog. I look forward to sharing my journey with T’zi after I’ve taken it.

In Stillness,

Cara xoxo

Living Maya Time – Symbols of K’at

Today is my daughter Caroline’s birthday. Twenty eight solar years ago I became a mother. The seed that was implanted within me grew, ripened and finally emerged as my precious baby girl. Today we also welcome a new trecena. K’at can be seen as the gathering or the net. K’at is also everything that we carry. Our blessings and our burdens. K’at reminds us that everything we create or receive must be carried if we do not use it or share it with others. This weekend I had the opportunity to share some of the wisdom that I’ve gathered on this path of walking with the sacred calendar. I attended a women’s circle where we were invited to create a personal Medicine Wheel altar expressing our relationship to the energies of East and South through natural objects, symbols and creative expression.

My decision to join the circle had been spontaneous. It felt like my last opportunity to engage with the playful energies of the B’atz trecena. A chance to weave with other women and to be nourished by community. I didn’t know that I would be asked to set the loom and place the first threads. Our leader presented me as the, “Altar Queen”, a student who had surpassed her teacher. Cari introduced me to the practice of offerings as a nervous system regulation technique during my dark night of the soul. She’s walked the Medicine Wheel of her ancestors, the Esselen and she understands the power of ritual, presence and ceremony. She also understands the importance of finding ones own way and ones own medicine and that is why she asked me to share my experiences with my altars and the Cholq’ij. To offer a different indigenous perspective.

The ease with which I was able to speak and pray before strangers surprised me. It bolstered my courage. The FINAL draft of my second memoir had been sitting patiently awaiting my second read for over two weeks. Yesterday I was finally ready to read it. I was ready to see myself the way that the women in the circle had seen me. I have gathered much wisdom on my path and I need to share it. That’s what I will be accessing most from the energies that K’at offers over the next thirteen days, my connections to others and the opportunity to share my abundant heart with everyone in my community.

Next Monday is the ceremonial reset of the calendar, Wajxakib B’atz. A new creation cycle of 260 days will begin and new Aj’ij will be initiated. Fires will burn all day as people gather to celebrate, pray and make offerings. I’ll be up in the mountains celebrating the Solstice with my family. The Solstice is the day before Wajxakib B’atz this year and I’ll be making my own special ceremony on that day too. I have so much to be grateful for. May you also recognize all the grace and abundance that already lives in your life. Happy Birthday Sweet Caroline.

In Love & Celebration,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Symbols of Tijax

Today we are invited to look in the mirror and reflect on what is no longer serving us. Tijax asks us to edit, purify and set the boundaries that need to be set so that deeper healing can occur. The past thirteen days have been very introspective for me. That’s the power of the serpent. If we were able to sit still and listen, Kan delivered powerful wisdom from deep within ourselves and our lineage. Kan left me with the gift of empathy for my mother. Empathy for her overwhelm with all the busyness that living on a multi-generational homestead can bring. My son and daughter-in-law to be welcomed a set of Siamese cats to their growing family. Sisters. My twin sister and I had a set of Siamese cats when we were growing up. I would have expected to have been thrilled by these two little lovelies. Instead I panicked. What about their dog, Beso? How would he react to his new roommates? Who would take care of them when we all go on vacation? So many questions.

I’ve been praying for healing and intimacy for my mom and I ever since my husband and I moved onto her and my stepfather’s property three years ago. The original plan included only us, but has expanded to include our youngest son, his beloved, their dog and now their two cats. My mom has accepted it graciously, but not without discomfort. Kan showed me how this discomfort feels in her body when I became overwhelmed by my son and future daughter-in-law’s decision to adopt two new pets.

My favorite purifying plant, Rosemary

Today Tijax arrives in perfect time and with just the precision I need to excise any lingering feelings of anxiety that I may hold. I now understand that for my mother, most anything can feel overwhelming. She deserves grace and my compassion. This is the real work that we are doing together. We’re showing up just as we are and we are still choosing to live together in community. I’ve come to understand that a community thrives when its members are diverse and carry different frequencies. Different medicine.

I’ve awoken on the other side of the country this morning. I’m in New York visiting my new sister, her family and my stepmom. I’m feeling all their frequencies and I can’t wait to see how they polish me and my perspective. I’m hoping to see a lot of lilacs and even Niagara Falls. It’s going to be purifying and it’s going to be healing. May you find just what you need to deepen your own healing over the next thirteen days.

Happy Spring,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Symbols of Kan

Time felt like it sped up over the past thirteen days. I think the E’ trecena left me with some jet lag after Kawoq’s powerful news. I’m going to be a grandmother. This news both excites and overwhelms me. Much like the feeling I experience while traveling in a foreign country. The landscape is unfamiliar and I’m still learning the culture. I’ve already made a few faux pas, but I’m still delighted to be here. Today, Kan arrives just in time to help me integrate all of my contrasting feelings.

Kan is power and innate wisdom. It’s the coyopa or body lightening that animates human beings. It’s the secret dancer that lives inside us. It holds the codes of our DNA. Kan is most often associated with the serpent and personal transformation. Becoming a grandmother will definitely be transforming. Just like my grand baby, I will also need an entire calendar cycle to be reborn. In the meantime, I still have some identities to shed. A few have become quite uncomfortable, just like most of the clothes that I own right now.

**My new calendar wheel that arrived from Guatemala during the E’ Trecena**.

My body has changed a lot over the past few years. Grief and menopause will do that. I haven’t shopped for new clothes for myself since my sister passed. Instead, I’ve cobbled together a few outfits from the back of my closet and the clothes that she left behind. It’s been comforting, but it’s also kept me stuck in the past in many ways. Monday marked the two-year anniversary since she left. I’ve held onto my security blankets long enough. I’m ready for a new look that honors the body I have now. My grandmother body.

E’ walked me back to a stylist that I met five years ago. Amy arrived on my path just in time to help me harness Kan’s transformative energy and update my wardrobe. I sent her my measurements after we met virtually for an hour. A couple of days later I received an e-mail with links to over a dozen different pieces. I liked each and every one of them. Even the prices were good. What I didn’t like were the sizes. I’d never bought clothes in the sizes that she recommended before.

Today the first items arrived. Just in time for my trip to San Diego to visit my daughter for Mother’s Day weekend. Each one fits me perfectly and makes me feel beautiful. This is the feeling that I intend to cultivate over the next thirteen days. May your own transformation be equally fun and satisfying. Happy Mother’s Day!

Joyfully,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Symbols of E’

The midwife asked a lot of me over the past thirteen days. I had forgotten how intense labor can be. Everything we create requires energy and presence to bring it into form. A lot of seeds that I’d sown many moons ago popped during the Kawoq trecena. It felt like I had been told that I was expecting triplets after I’d just adjusted to the news that I was pregnant. It’s been dysregulating, to say the least. It’s time to direct my presence back to myself and to my own journey. I may have new creations to nurture, but I must anchor myself before I can serve anyone or anything else. I’ve acquired a lot of tools and now it’s time to use them.

Today invites us on a new journey. E’ is the nawal of the sacred path or road. It’s restless and curious. It craves novelty. E’ is just the breath of fresh air that I need after pushing through to the end of my deadline. It felt just like the transitional phase of labor. If you’ve given birth, you know what I mean. There’s no turning back. Only pushing through. This is the strength that Kawoq imbibes us with before we take our next journey on the wheel of life.

**The Path to our New Cabin Site. My son paving the way for the next generation.**

My next expedition is both professional and personal. I’m traveling to New York to stay with my new sister Maat. She arrived in my life just when I needed her most. Right after I’d lost my twin. This week Kawoq gifted us with a new law, just in time for her new venture. My sister is opening a cannabis dispensary and she’s asked me to prepare the tax returns. This week medical cannabis was descheduled by the Federal government. It’s now deductible as a medical expense for income tax purposes. A change I didn’t expect during my lifetime and if you’ve been following me for a while, a change very near and dear to my heart.

That’s all I have for now. Taking my own medicine and staying present with myself and those that I love. May your own horizons broaden and may your journey always be supported. There is much to be grateful for.

Cara xoxo