Living Maya Time – Reflections on Toj

Toj offered me many opportunities to be of service over the past thirteen days. My service began with sharing some cacao with an old friend that I hadn’t seen in many years. She found me on social media. Told me she had been dreaming of me ever since her daughter had passed in March. When I arrived at her home she asked, “What is the ceremony?” I responded, “The ceremony is simple. I will prepare the cacao and then we will drink it together.” Cacao is a heart opener and an invitation to slow down. The cacao did indeed open our hearts and allowed my friend to express some of her grief. She told me she felt peaceful, held and grounded at the end of our visit.

My next opportunity to serve came when another friend and client asked me to attend a meeting with her and her financial planner. Both she and her husband have attracted a lot of new business since I prepared a micro fire ceremony for them last summer to open a new path of abundant and fulfilling work. Jun E’ came in hot. It opened a clear road of opportunity. My friend received an honorarium to create seven statues for Burning Man. The Freedom Dancers were installed on the playa over the weekend. They began as a meditation on transforming grief into compassion. They became so much more than seven statues – they are a collective expression of love, resilience and human connection, according to my friend and I absolutely agree with her.

I also received a lot from the fire myself during the Toj trecena. My oracle deck, “Messages From Your Dreams”, is almost ready for printing. Both my writing coach and her sister, the decks illustrator, offered their assistance to help me find a local printer and format the files so that they are ready for said printer. I’m feeling really joyful and very held by these two women. I’ve been experiencing some imposter syndrome lately. I learned during a Mayan Cross reading last week that this is one of the shadow aspects of my birth nawal, Ajpu. As I revisited the deck that I co-created several seasons ago, I was filled with pride and also excitement. I can’t wait to gift this deck to all the women in my life who have walked alongside me on this journey. The friends, family, clients and collaborators who are my community. Toj is the fire. Toj is how we commune with the divine. I hope you felt it too and that it warmed your soul.

Tomorrow brings the wind, the breath and the voice into focus. Just the movement we need after sitting intently in front of the fire. May Iq deliver whatever freshness you are seeking in the coming days.

In community,

Cara

Living Maya Time – Reflections on Aq’ab’al

Today is the final day of the Aq’ab’al trecena and also my Dad’s Nima Q’ij or great day. Today we are gifted with the sight and the vision of the ancestors if we’ve been listening well enough. My Dad speaks to me most often through the voice of his Nawal, Tz’ik’in as he lives in the spirit world now. Whenever I’m out hiking and thinking or speaking about him, a hawk will invariably appear overhead and cry out. My Dad, like me, loved to talk and it seems that hasn’t changed. He makes it easy for me to hear his messages, but I’ve been struggling to hear my own voice lately. Decisions that I expected to come easily have not. It’s not time yet. The path forward is still forming.

Aq’ab’al invites us to travel into the cave of our own inner landscape and discover our true light. Not the light offered by our television, our computer or our phone, but something more eternal. For the past year I’ve been writing through my grief and my joy in a sacred partnership. My manuscript is finished, but it’s not the end of my journey. Now I must decide how and with whom I will share it. As I entered this trecena, meeting my book proposal deadline was all that I had on my mind. Making the video portion was really uncomfortable. However, it reflected clearly to me how I feel about sharing my book right now. I was articulate and concise, but quiet and tentative. Not quite ready to shout my message to the world like my Dad when he’s embodying the hawk.

What did get me talking and connected to my inner light this trecena was the ceremony that I made on B’elejeb B’atz. A day to celebrate and nurture the creations of women. I had many petitions to make. For gestating babies, a home for a young family, a business launch and an art installation. In my excitement to pray for all the women in my life who are creating, I forgot about my own book until the very end. Aq’ab’al showed me what really ignites my light and what I most want to share right now and that’s ceremony. The pile of Carmel stone that my husband has been diligently stacking to make way for a new water line suddenly revealed their purpose. The community fire pit that I’ve been dreaming about may be ready in time for the winter Solstice. I’ve always wanted to make a proper bon fire to welcome the returning light and this year we’re also welcoming our first grandchild. A vision worth tending to.

Tomorrow initiates thirteen days of reconciliation. If we’ve discovered shadows in our cave, Ajmaq is just the medicine we need to find forgiveness for ourselves and others. May you taste more of the sweet honey than the sting offered by this Nawal and its animal totem the bee.

In gratitude and contemplation,

Cara