© 2006 Judith Ann Griffith

In Mayan cosmology, there were four divine figures called the Bacabs (Bah KAHBS) who personified the four directions and were responsible for holding up the sky in each of the four corners. They were depicted as beekeepers or sometimes even gigantic bees and wore conch shells on their heads. The Maya associated this day sign with the conch shell as its spiral shape symbolizes emergence and rebirth. In many ancient cultures, the spiral represents death and rebirth as an ongoing process taking place within the human soul. To the Maya, the day sign of the Vulture also represented departed spirits returning as butterflies or bees.


This day sign is associated with Vulture because the Vulture not only feeds on the remains of the dead, but also clears away the past. Vulture symbolically represents the purging of karmic patterns and the emergence of new thought. Vultures and Owls were also revered as great teachers and Keepers of Ancient Wisdom. According to Tony Shearer in Beneath the Moon and Under the Sun, “In a Mayan translation of this sign we learn that this day was a day of God, the Creator of All, when just before the end of the long 1144 year epic the Creator would come down and clean up all the filth and corruption on our Earth Mother, as the Sacred Buzzard cleans the filth from our highways and fields.” As this is the last Cib Trecena before the end of the 13th Baktun, NOW is the time to clear out the past (forgive and forget) in order to harmonize with the new energies of the future cycle.


Carlos Barrios in The Book of Destiny states that Cib “is a favorable day to ask for and receive forgiveness, to manage harmony and discord, and to focus on the word, the message, ancestral lines, and the energy that emanates from living bodies, called an aura.”


Another representation of the Trecena is that of a creative wave beginning at 1 and ending at 13, with the numbers 6, 7 and 8 representing the crest of the wave. The crest could be interpreted as a strong influential energy, although the underlying influence on the Trecena would still rest in the beginning. In this Trecena, the crest falls on 6 Imix (Crocodile/Waterlily), 7 Ik (Wind) and 8 Akbal (Night/Hearth). Crocodile represents ancient primal forces and new beginnings. Wind is the spirit or chi energy that gives life to primal energy. Night represents the temple which houses the soul. The Cib trecena encourages us to clear out old habits and patterns. The energies available at the crest (new beginnings flowing in the wind influencing our spiritual house) will help us to attain a new level of awareness and new patterns of existence.


As we journey through each day of this Trecena: