return to Home Page
or move on to Goddess Itzpapalotl,
next chronologically,
or use Her Cyclopedia Index
Ix-Chel, {Water}.
Y$-C]L
[to Whom the twenty-seventh day of October, day 300, is dedicated]
return to Home Page
or move on to Goddess Itzpapalotl,
next chronologically,
or use Her Cyclopedia Index
Ix-Chel, {Water}.
Y$-C]L
[to Whom the twenty-seventh day of October, day 300, is dedicated]
Geography/Culture:
Central America: Mayan of the Yucatan Peninsula. Pre-Columbian.
She had {has?} a shrine on island of Cozumel. She still has a sacred place
on the sourthern tip of Isla Mujeres, Island of Women, which has
been in use since BCE 2 (that is for 2000 years azov 1998). Before destruction
by hurrican Gilbert in 1987 there were three buildings made of limestone
blocks in Her sacntuary area. Mayanologists say temples were built where
Mayan diviners detected sources of great power.
Linguistic Note: {I have followed the pronunciation of Durán
BGRAC for want of any Mayan pronunciation guide.} Her name is sometimes
given without the hyphen: Ixchel.
Description: Mother of Deities; Wise, gentle, lustrous and
radiant shape-shifting Goddess of the moon; Eagle Woman; Great Mother Goddess;
She Who flooded the earth; Bestower of the knowledge of healing; Easer
of child-birth; Granter of conception; Spinner of Destiny; First Woman
of the world; She Who nurses the women of earth through pregnancy and labor;
She Who enusres family harmony; Matron of weaving of all kinds.
To Whom Sacred: humming-bird
(in which form the sun first visited Her); vulture (gave Her sanctuary);
eagle (messenger of Her moon essence); eagle feathers (with which She is
sometimes crowned -- they also form part of Her throne); dragon-fly; spider
(studying which caused Her to give birth to Ix-Chebel-Yax); crab (one of
Her forms); snake; reed-cradle (symbol of life); the number 13 (number
of days grieving dragonflies sang over Her till She recovered, after lightning
had been hurled at Her); crossed bones (symbol of death); overturned water-jar
(symbol of doom).
Festival/Ritual: Women made/make pilgrimages to her sanctuary
on Isla Mujeres, at the south end of the island. They came with offerings
of clay statues, cocoa beans, turquoise, hand-woven objects and the, now
rare, feather of the Quetzal bird. (QUETZAL [ket-sal], a brilliantly colored
bird, pharomachrus mocino, of the trogon family, Trogonidae.
The quetzal is native to forests of tropical America, from southern Mexico
to Costa Rica. It grows to a length of about 14 inches. During breeding
season the males develop 2 foot long tail plumes. The quetzal is predominantly
bronze-green with a blue-green back and scarlet belly. This beautiful bird
was worshiped by the ancient Aztecs and Mayas and is today the national
bird of Guatemala. ).
Iconography: She wears a snake on Her head. On Her hands
and feet She bears sharp animal claws. She holds a water-jar, bottom up.
Her mantle is adorned with crossed bones.
Male Associates: consort,
Hunab-Ku, ----, or Kinebahan, Eyes-and-Mouth-of-the-Sun,
god of the sun; lover, King of the Vultures.
Titles/Variants, etc:
Source: CR.GG/59, 61; MP.BGH/158; NE.GM/187, 188*, 189*, 228; SM.AMWv1/92-6; SF Examiner 5/17/98 T1.
Geography/Culture:
Yucatan and Guatamala.
Description: Goddess of the moon.
Titles/Variants, etc:
Source: SM.AMWv1/92
Geography/Culture:
Mayan. Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras.
Description: Daughter of the moon; She Who taught women the
arts of spinning, weaving and dyeing; Matron of weavers.
To Whom Sacred: cotton;
spider (from whom She learned the ways of the loom and spinning of the
cotton); carbon (for dyeing cotton black); purpura shell (for dyeing cotton
purple); iron rust (for dyeing cotton red).
Titles/Variants, etc:
Source: Monaghan BGH/158. SM.AMWv1/93.