Sharpen Your Vision: Tz’ikin Trecena Journal Entries
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ~Carl Jung
The spirit guide of Tz’ikin is the eagle and its powerful eagle-eye view. These days invite us to spread our wings and see the big picture.
Tz’ikin knows the way toward an abundant and prosperous life. Tz’ikin is the nawal of the birds. In the Mayan cosmovision, birds are great teachers of happiness and joy whose singing every day reminds us to lighten up, smile, and laugh.
I’ll be honest: my life has felt like a struggle lately. I am emerging from a period of mild depression that has lasted months. I allowed myself to wallow in self-pity after sequence of health issues in the spring, as well as during a trip to Texas to visit my aging parents, to the point where I started to feel easily overwhelmed, listless, and often uninspired to get up in the morning. Even taking an epic road trip to California and Oregon didn’t “cure” my blues. Thankfully, I was still functional (eating, sleeping, working), unlike during the deeper depressions I experienced cyclically in my twenties, and I was able to enjoy multiple moments of beauty and bliss along the way.
Nonetheless, getting back home to Guatemala didn’t cure me magically as it typically has in the past. I felt too blah and uninspired to write about the trecena of Iq’ that just ended (with its themes of change, wind, communication and imagination). I found myself frequently caught up in worries about the future; our daughter is entering her middle school phase and we’ve been contemplating a potential move for her to have better educational opportunities. Yet I am realizing that I am pretty deeply attached to my life as it is here at the lake.
Appropriately enough for Iq’ (which also represents the breath), I dove into a pranayama breathing course shortly after returning to the lake that involved doing intense breath practices and retentions multiple times a day for 9 days. As I knew it would, the course brought up a lot of difficult feelings and old habit-patterns to become aware of and to reframe or replace.
It was not easy, but the course helped me break through my depression and reconnect with my center, my heart-mind, and my intuition in a way that felt miraculous. It’s an ongoing process, of course, but I am so grateful to feel a sunbeam of hope and a new lightness in my step.
The eagle is an especially powerful hunter that soars majestically high above the earth with sharp vision. This nawal and 13-day period is related to long-term vision (the birds-eye view), prosperity, abundance and bliss.
This is the penultimate trecena of the sacred Mayan calendar cycle, as well, in the tradition of the living Maya in the Guatemalan highlands. After one more trecena (of Q’anil), it begins yet again with 1 Imox and a new 260-day period of spiraling time and energies.
Yogic Practices for the Tz’ikin Trecena and Tz’ikin Days
Asana
o Shoulder rolls and stretch your wings!
o Eagle pose (garudasana) and maybe bird of paradise (an advanced pose)
o Headstand followed by child’s pose
o Eye yoga (move the eyes up, down, right, left, then clockwise and counterclockwise in slow circles)
Pranayama
o Bastrika: rapid mid-chest breathing (hold your hands on your rib cage and feel it expand and contract with each strong, fast inhale and exhale; repeat 54 or 108 times)
o Alternate nostril breathing with first two fingers on the third eye point
o Bumblebee breath: close and cover your eyes and ears, inhale deeply through the nose and exhale with a soft humming sound that reverberates in your head (advanced addition: do the humming on the inhale, as well)
Meditation
Manifest a creative new vision with the support of Tz’ikin. Sit or lie down and take several deep breaths. Imagine a magnificent eagle landing in front of you. Visualize yourself climbing onto its back and feeling it soar into the sky. Enjoy the joyfulness of flight and a sense of gliding in the abundance of this life. Looking down upon the beauty of the Earth beneath you, feel the cool breeze on your skin.
Contemplate one goal you’re aiming for. Envision yourself as having achieved that goal and already living the way you would as if it were your present reality.
Trust that this or something even more ideal is coming together in your life.
Breathe deeply several times and enjoy the sense of ease and prosperity that comes with inner and outer peace.
Journal Prompts for the Tz’ikin Trecena
1 Tz’ikin
If there were no limits to your dreams and your ideal future, what would that look like?
How can your vision be inclusive and bring prosperity to all?
2 Ajmak
When will you forgive yourself?
What wisdom guides you in your vision for your close relationships?
3 No’j
Stream of consciousness: write down as many thoughts as you can on paper without stopping to think or edit, allowing them to flow without attachment or aversion.
4 Tijax
What aspect of you is asking for physical healing?
How can you intentionally let go of the old and invite in the new?
What old fears, beliefs and resentments can you cut away?
5 Kawok
Connect with turtle spirit, slow down and take time to simply be.
What efforts are you making to continue growing on your path?
What new ideas and visions are you bringing to life?
6 Ajpu
Write 3-5 things you’re grateful for on your divine and natural path as a human being.
What was your original name?
What’s your artistic name?
7 Imox
Write about the choices are available to you in the long term (coming years).
Write down a dialogue with the water element, the timeless book of memory.
In what aspects could your life benefit from flowing more?
8 Iq’
Write an ode to your breath.
Write a letter from your future self to your present self.
9 Aq’ab’al
What in-between spaces are you currently occupying?
How do you honor the divine feminine within you?
10 K’at
What steps do you need to take to reap an abundant harvest?
What is your vision for yourself in the context of your community and social network?
11 Kan
What are you learning?
What are you teaching?
Indulge in creative movement and take pleasure in the art of distraction today.
12 Kame
Reflect on your life’s experiences around themes of birth, death and/or transformation.
What have been the five major turning points of your life?
13 Kej
Write a poem or paragraph about the power of the four directions and the grace of wild animals.
What places on this planet do you hold most sacred?
Ask your spirit guides for advice on caring for the temple of your physical body.
