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Before I tell you a little story about some of my (dream) journeys in Guatemala, I will give you a brief introduction to the energies of this specific day in the traditional Mayan Cholq’ij calendar. The calendar that measures the space-in-between. The 260-day cyclical calendar that is invented by women and follows the female cycles of life. One gestation period equals one full year. Honoring the natural cycles of life so we can live in harmony with them. Traditionally used by the Mayan midwifes to predict births and still widely used to give dates to ceremonial practices and important events. In fact, the Cholq’ij calendar forms the very base of the Mayan cosmovision.

Artwork by Susan Seddon

In the sacred count of the Mayan cholq’ij calendar we welcome today the energies of 12 I’x. I’x is the Nahual of the jaguar, the high magic and the divine female spirit that is found in all of nature. Including within ourselves as a part of it. This day helps us to come into communion with the beautiful manifestations of nature all around us. A day to honor and give thanks to the Temples in nature. To create them, as you go. Give thanks to the elements. Invite them into your day. Letting the spirit of I’x show you the magic of life in the simple things. The energies of this day awaken our senses to a high level. It has the capacity to connects us with the energetic ley lines of mother earth on which the ancient temples are built across all different cultures and timelines. Take this opportunity to soak it in, let these frequencies fill you and send your love and gratitude back. Our engagement with the energies of the day is what awakens the magic and the gifts of these Nahuales, which serve as guides during the day. Welcome, I’x, welcome, spirit of the Jaguar.

I feel a very special connection with this Nahual. As I sat down this morning to invite the spirit of I’x into my day, I was brought back about 4,5 years ago, to the beloved Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. I vividly remembered a dream I had during this time. Knowing – as I was dreaming – that it was an important one. A dream to register, a dream with a hidden message in it. There was a tiny black jaguar peeking across the door into my bedroom as I was sleeping in my dream. It was rather shy and as I woke up, sought flight again out of the room. Some days later, I went to Santiago Atitlán with my friend Outi to visit Dolores Ratzan Pablo, a Mayan woman who once was married with Martin Prechtel – writer of the book “Secrets of the talking jaguar” and initiated by Mayan shamans as an Ajq’ij – a Mayan spiritual guide. She herself works as a tourguide and carries the gift of a medicine woman. She masters the art of dream interpretation.

In Guatemala, the Mayan shamans and spiritual guides get called to their work in a very specific way. They will have specific dreams from the age of 7 years old and will find special objects in nature that become part of their medicine. They believe that one does not just become a healer, midwife or shaman, but one is born with this gift. When that gift is not put into practice, the energy that person carries cannot express itself or find a way out. Thus.. expressing itself through an illness. The only way to cure this illness, is to seek for guidance of a local healer who will tell them that they have to start working with their gifts. Dolores herself suffered from epilepsy for years. Until she started having dreams of electricity cables that were on fire. All of the burning was the energy of the medicine that she has but none of it was using. As a result, having epilepsy. She went to see an elder shaman who told her the following:

“This lady has a gift. But it is hard because it is not getting the attention.“

However, there are many religions (Evangelism, Catholocism, Christianity) in Guatemala that “can steal her medicine”, as Dolores said. Their healing arts are being confused with witchcraft and some are risking their lives because of it. And still – last year in 2020 a Mayan herbalist was burned alive by his villagers as he was accused of performing witchcraft. Who are we to judge her for not wanting to put her gift into action in the first place.. At some point, the people in her village’s church were asking her to perform Mayan ceremonies. At the moment, she works with people who have problems with epilepsy.

So let’s go back to the dream. We were having lunch with Outi, Luis the local Mayan bonehealer and Dolores in Santiago Atitlan, after we had a special visit at Maximón’s place (who is a very important Mayan deity for the local people – but that is another story). As we were having a conversation about dream interpretation, I told Dolores the dream I had about the little jaguar visiting me in my sleep. I remember the way she responded. She did not just interprete the dream for me, but she “read” what it meant for ME. She told me that it was time for me to develop my feminine energies. By that time, I had no idea what that meant nor how I could do that or what that would look like. And still, I believe that is different for everyone. There is no prototype for “the feminine energies”. So I took the message and let it go again. Though I never forgot the words she said.

Looking back now to how my life continued to enfold since then, this was exactly what happened. I never “tried” or forced to develop my feminine energies, as I never heard of this concept anyways. It just happened. Now I can connect with “my feminine energies” through my intuitive knowing and deeper sensing. A spiralling pathway inwards. I went through my own initiation journey into womb work after I conceived a little seed in my womb that stayed there for only about two weeks. I prayed it away and it left me with my blood. Only until recently, I realized that this was the very moment where I started to do my own womb work with the obsidian yoni egg, who became my teacher and initiator into the feminine mysteries and deeper realms of wisdom that opened itself through my womb. I experienced this period like a shamanic journey with the obsidian yoni egg as the medicine that guided me through it. I learned that the feminine is not just blissful and ecstatic. It moves in spirals and travels through dark muddy depths, from where it retrieves its pearls and True wisdom. To be integrated through the bodies wisdom. It was challenging, for sure. But it was deeply magical, more than anything else. The medicine of the Nahual I’x showed itself to me. It got activated through the obsidian yoni egg, who took me on a journey through the female realms of existence. With the black jaguar as the great guardiana of those underworlds. She kept showing herself through the dream worlds. Sometimes she was small. Other times she was caged in. But how I liked to see her mostly, and how she shows up more recently, is big and bold and wild and free. Courageously walking through the pitch dark nights, appreciating the stars above her. Wild and free to be. How she is in her true nature.

Maltiox I’x ~ Thankyou I’x
for the High magic that you can take us into


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Living in cyclical time. The more we are in tune with nature around us, the planets and the energies of the day, we can observe that all of nature goes in cycles. Just like us – as we are a part of nature. We all come to moments in our life where we seem to be going in cycles, but yet – in a bit of a different way. Spiralling up and down in growth and evolution as we learn and integrate life’s lessons along the way. The ancient Maya have done a huge job in mapping out the cyclical timelines in different calendars, one of them the Tzolkin calendar. After living with the Maya calendar for over 3 years now, I have come to see and experience the ever-deepening depth of this never-ending cyclical calendar with its teachings. It is mesmerizing. The Tzolkin calendar has helped me to come to live in harmony with the natural cycles of time. Why is this so important? For us to come back to the natural rhytm of life, recognizing the cyclical nature around and within us. When doing so, we naturally open up to the essence of our own nature and come to see the contribution of our drops into the bigger ocean.

Not without a reason the Mayan spiritual guides were also called “daykeepers” or “keepers of time”, as they knew how to move with the energies of the day. Or how they would call these energies; Nahuales. Nahuales are the spirits that are present on a certain day, coming with their specific qualities and characteristics. There are 20 different Nahuales or daysigns which change as the sun rises and the new energies of the day become alive. These 20 Nahuales form a combination with one of the 13 different tones. If the Nahuales represent the days, the tones represent the weeks. Together they form 20 times 13 = 260 different combinations and days in the Mayan Tzolkin calendar. This is equilavent to 9 months – see the link? The period it takes to create (human) life. In this way, the Tzolkin calendar helps us to walk through the different phases of the creation process, each day having its own contribution to it. Whether it’s a baby or a creative project – the principle is the same. One year in the Tzolkin calendar is equivalent to nine months and related to the creative process of life.

The Maya honor(ed) the Nahuales and gained big wisdom out of it. A wisdom that is enriched by the possibility to map out this spiral of life into a bigger timelapse. Being able to make certain predictions of what is about to happen on earth in the bigger picture. The crisis on the planet, extinction of species, earthquakes, etcetera. It has all been predicted, mapped out into this spiralling timemap; the Mayan calendar.

Now, as the Maya used to work with that, we can still use this gift that they left amongst us humanity. The Mayan priests used to abdicate their citizen’s profession and roles in the community dependent on their Mayan birthsign, their Nahual. Why? Because this says a lot about the qualities someone is born with and what one will be learning in their lifetime and what will be supportive to them in their life. I see it like a map that helps to understand the evolution of the soul’s journey in one’s life. How will we grow? What will help us grow? What gifts and characteristics are we naturally born with to move through life? Still, we can apply this information into our everyday lifes. It is a simple yet profound reminder of what we came here to do and what comes naturally to us. To see our own part within the bigger creation story of life.

The Mayan calendar helps us to swim with the currents of the river of life, rather than going against the stream. Knowing one’s Mayan sign can be a huge support for creating more ease and flow in one’s life. Beyond that, being aware every day what energies are present in the Mayan calendar can help us plan our life around this. It helps to map out where to focus our energy on a certain day, to know momentum and make the most out of it. That wisdom is still available to us. Simply by being aware of the day in the Mayan calendar. Observation is the biggest teacher. What is happening in and around you? Because thát, is the universal stream of the cosmos that is making its way through you and your day. Cycling up, day by day. You have exactly 260 days to study all the different combinations in a year’s cycle.

How did I start learning about this? In Mayan ceremonies. Around the fire with the Mayan elders. Listening to their stories, observing the fire. But mainly by following the Mayan calendar for at least two years now, day by day. Paying attention to the happenings of the day and the people I meet along the way. Being curious to learn. It all starts to make more and more sense, continuously, like the upgoing spiral of time. Do you want to get to know your Mayan astrology? In the Saq’Be sessions I will interweave this ancient wisdom – as interpreted by my own observations – to unweave a bit of your souls essence into your awareness. Moving onwards, on the Saq’Be, the path as written in the stars.