#wisdom – Cara Carozza

Living Maya Time – Symbols of Toj

I’ve had a lot of opportunities for gratitude over the past thirteen days, but I was not immune to the sting that the medicine of Ajmaq often brings. After eight long months and many hours on the phone with the Internal Revenue Service, Mercury Retrograde delivered my sister’s tax refund. The last thing I had been waiting for in order to finally close her estate. All that remained was to sort through her personal possessions. She left a surprisingly small amount of stuff. She’d done a massive purge and even managed to get her house into escrow in the weeks leading up to her suicide. She made the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do as easy as it could possibly be for me. For this I will always be grateful.

I’ve kept what I think my niece and nephew will want the most when they are finally able to look at it. I found a few things that I know they will never want to see. I’ve set those aside to burn in ceremony this evening. Today we welcome the energy of Toj. Toj is the Nawal of reciprocity and the sacred fire. The fire ceremony is the Mayan’s most fundamental ritual and also my favorite. The fire is our portal to communion with the spiritual realms and our ancestors. It’s where we offer spiritual food to the energies that sustain us. Toj teaches that in order to have balance in our lives, we must make offerings in payment for what we have received.

I’ll be offering rose petals and rosemary from my own garden today. I’ve been trying to use what I have and what already knows the land. I will also offer cacao, tobacco, copal and agua florida from my favorite local sources in Central America. Supporting the indigenous wisdom keepers of the spiritual practices that feed my soul is part of the reciprocity of Toj. It’s another offering from me to create balance in my life.

The fire also offers an opportunity for purification. Fire cleanses and transmutes. Today I will burn the documents of old agreements. I will pray for the transmutation and renewal that only the flame can deliver and I will offer prayers of gratitude for the financial stability that my sister’s departure has created for me. I invite you to light a candle each day for the next thirteen days and take a moment to offer your presence and your gratitude for what you’ve received this year.

In Service,

Cara

Living Maya Time – The Trecena of Tijax

The serpent brought me a lot of wisdom these past 13 days. Wisdom that is seeding knowing. Knowing feels different than believing. The difference is subtle, but profound, much like the energy of Kan. It’s innate and is best understood through experience. Ix Cacao was my chosen experience. I’ve completed 19 days of a 21-day cacao immersion. Traditional preparation and ritual formed our courtship. The Mayan energy of the day informed our meditations. Her magic invited me to feel my innate wisdom. So gentle, so sweet. My heart has been opened in the most delightful way through knowing this sacred plant. Pure bliss. Insights delivered easefully. A joyful practice that I was eager to engage with each morning. Echoing my rib adjustment and the attic excavation, Madame Cacao showed me that healing can feel good. More of that, please!

The trecena of Tijax invites us to put the wisdom we’ve acquired from Kan to use. Tijax purifies and excises whatever creates imbalance. It represents an obsidian blade and embodies the archetypes of both the surgeon and the holy warrior. Its power is best wielded with discernment. Through our presence and experience during the Kan trecena, we embody the wisdom necessary for discernment. Ideally, it tempers our blade.

With the arrival of Tijax, we are nearing the end of the cycle that began in January on 8 B’atz. Discharging and releasing any energies that are not serving us creates space for sustained healing and growth. Healing that liberates and nourishes. Writing is part of my release process. If I can access my vulnerability, my prose teaches me things about my experiences that my mind dismisses. Tuning into how I feel is key. Cacao and her teacher, @sacred_wellness_by_zuli, inspired a new level of feeling within me. It has changed me. I feel softened. A sense of innocence and hope have been restored.

I intend on harnessing the power of the obsidian blade to create permanent space for these new found feelings. Cutting distorted ideas about pain from my psyche. Editing old stories from my mental playlist. Purifying my heart of cynicism. I will be drinking cacao and I will be beginning a creative journey called Dream Weaving with my editor and soul sister, Lee Mayimele. It’s a journey into vibration, attunement and elevation according to her. I can’t wait to see what we create together in the coming cycle. Getting rid of anything that will impede the process with the tenacious energy of Tijax.

Trust yourself, you are so very wise.

Cara xoxo

Living Maya Time – The Trecena of Kawoq

I am welcoming today’s energies with an optimism that I have not felt in a very long time. Kame’s alchemy has transformed my perspective. I am ready to birth a new reality. Kawoq is both the midwife and the rainstorm. She can be a gentle sprinkle or a violent storm. Either way, she is there to ensure that new life and new creations are born. In perfect harmony, the Kawoq trecena follows the trecena of Kame. Kame is death, transformation and the ancestors. Kame extinguishes that which no longer serves our path. Kawoq follows to cleanse and purify us. She guides us through the rebirth process. She is the wisdom of the grandmothers and the divine feminine.

My pinched nerve turned out to be a rib out of place. It was really uncomfortable. And yet, all I could think about was getting back up into the attic. The momentum had started. I had the support of the ancestors. Now was the time. My enthusiasm was undaunted and I was rewarded. After all the empty card board boxes had been removed and recycled, there was plenty of space to view what remained.

**The Mineral people were welcomed outdoors with a smudging ceremony.**

Feathers, rocks and shells were the souvenirs of a lifetime of family camping trips, spiritual vision quests and hiking with friends. The attic was filled with mineral people eager to be liberated. This is where we began excavating memories. We did not confront the past as I had imagined, we were welcomed by it. We made ourselves comfortable and spent some time there. It was delightful. I could only agree with my mother when she remarked, “We sure had a lot of fun, didn’t we?”

Kame has gifted me with the perspective that transformation does not have to be uncomfortable. It can come gently and easily. Just like the adjustment from my chiropractor. I’m nurturing this energy by beginning the Kawoq trecena with a two-day meditation retreat. Quieting my mind to listen for what wants to be born. The Maya believe that time is a thread that weaves reality. Being still offers the opportunity to create our reality with conscious intention. To mindfully weave our experience. Seeking the wisdom of women will be supported and particularly blessed over the next thirteen days. I’ll be staying with my friend Cathryn this weekend. She invited me to the retreat. She’s very wise and also lots of fun. I can’t wait to initiate these creation energies together with her.

Joyfully Yours,

Cara

Living Maya Time – The Trecena of Kame

In my zeal to stand up tall and do what is right for the community, I’ve managed to pinch a nerve. It feels like there is a knife lodged alongside my left shoulder blade. The benevolent and hard-working energies of the Aj trecena had me sorting a life time of memories in my parents’ attic last week. Most of it had not been touched in nearly twenty-five years. Feeling strong and healthy, with a desire to better use the spaces that three generations are now occupying, I dove in eagerly. Perhaps I over did it? It felt so good to be moving all day, to spend time with my mother and to create at least the possibility that some of it can be let go of.

Kame is the energy of death, rebirth and transformation. The Maya view time as circular, not linear. Time is a cycle and death is part of that cycle. As the saying goes, “Out with the old and in with the new.” Kame is also the Nawal of the ancestors. An ideal day to honor your deceased loved ones or ask for their guidance.

While physically challenging, sorting all the stuff in the attic was the easy part. The hard part will be confronting the past. The unrealized plans and dreams. Your own unlined face and the faces of others that are no longer with you. Kame will bring the ideal energy to support this process if one chooses to engage with it.

Some prayers to the ancestors wouldn’t hurt either. I’ve already created a special spot on my alter for my Nana for this trecena. My Nana was a minimalist and an immaculate housekeeper. She was also a bookkeeper. My Mother’s Mother holds a very special place in my heart. I inherited a lot of her habits and skills and they serve me every day. She’s my perfect ally for the potential this trecena offers our homestead.

The roses we planted two seasons ago are finally flourishing. My Nana loved yellow roses. Every year on her birthday my grandfather would buy her a dozen yellow roses. The glory of summer flowers is a powerful reminder of how life is constantly renewing itself. Growth and renewal are the natural outcome of death and destruction. It’s the alchemy of life and it’s the energy of Kame. May you find comfort in the cycles of your life and in the wisdom of your lineage.

Eternally yours,

Cara

Living Maya Time – The Trecena of Tz’i

While journeying through the No’j Trecena we have gained wisdom and discovered new solutions for the challenges that we face in this new calendar cycle. The Trecena of No’j was gentle with me this time. Last time around the calendar wheel, No’j was guiding me to a daily practice to navigate the storm of shock and grief that I found myself in after my twin sister took her own life. The rhythm of the Cholq’ij was my anchor. This time around I’m sailing in smoother waters and I’m seeking to deepen my knowledge of the calendar and expand my ritual practices. Hiring my son so I have the time to do this was the solution that No’j delivered to me last Trecena.

In this new cycle we also get a new guide. Today we meet that guide as the Trecena of Tz’i begins. The energy of Tz’i asks us to have faith and loyalty as we move forward on our new journey. I’ve owned my business for twenty years and this will be the first time I have an employee. I could definitely use some guidance and A LOT of faith. Lucky for me, my business partner has employed her son for nearly ten years. A perfect guide for me, and she’s also a dog lover. The animal totem for the Nawal Tz’i is the dog.

Tz’i offers us unconditional love as it guides us and it invites us to love each other unconditionally. It is also the Nawal of spiritual and emotional justice. It possesses the qualities of the five human senses and has an instinctual quality. I have come to associate it with the archetype of the Judge or the Policeman. Those that are just and fair and those that are corrupt. Having such keen senses, this energy can get distracted, especially by vices. During this Trecena you may receive guidance from many sources. Use your instincts to discern what will most serve you on your path.

As we enter day eight of the Tz’i Trecena, we also enter the five closing days of the Mayan solar year, Tz’apin Q’ij or Wayeb. The Maya solar calendar is known as the Macewal Q’ij. It has been called a civil or agricultural calendar and it is 365 days. The days of Wayeb are meant to be days of introspection. For the most traditional followers of the calendar system, these days are spent in isolation and many abstain from gathering in public or making ceremonies because the energy is thought to lack direction. The new solar year will welcome a new year lord or Mam. The year lords mark the intersection of the sacred calendar with the solar year. If you have the opportunity to take time to be on your own and receive your own inner guidance, February 13-17^th would be excellent days for that.

Until next Trecena…

Cara