Meaning
Ajaw means lord or ruler in Yucatec and several other Mayan languages, and the Classic reading is the same word. It is the sign of the sun god, and the day that ends every tun, k'atun and b'ak'tun of the Long Count, so that 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u opens the current era and 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in completed its thirteenth b'ak'tun on 21 December 2012.
The K'iche' name Ajpu is the blowgunner, Hunahpu of the Popol Vuh, who with his twin outwitted the lords of Xibalba. The Komon Tohil daykeepers call the day the Lord Sun and the hunter; the Maya' Wuj manual gives lord, majesty and blowgunner, and the triumph of Ajpu over the lords of the underworld.
Our reading: the sun, the hero, light and life, carried by people described as gifted and generous, whose strong will is at its best when it warms rather than dazzles. The word does not mean spiritual mastery. The words are ours.
In the highlands today
The Zunil daykeepers use Ajpu to ask for the fulfilment of the ideas the community proposes; Maya' Wuj makes it a day for security and for renewal. In Momostenango it is a day for guarding against curses and for doing good.
Komon Tohil's sheet writes the name Ajpu'; every other K'iche' source we read writes Ajpu, which we use.
The glyph and the old readings
Thompson read the glyph as the sun god, matched its god with the head that writes the number 4, and recorded the eagle as its Yucatec augury and he of the blowgun as its highland one. The colonial spelling is Ahau, kept only so that searches find it; our page address uses the modern Ajaw.
The Central Mexican day of the same position is Xochitl, the flower, a different image from a different count.
In the count
Ajpu comes round every twentieth day, thirteen times in the 260: on days 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, 220, 240 and 260, with the numbers 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6 and 13 in that order, so 7 Ajpu is its first day in the count and 13 Ajpu its last. In the nawal cross of a person born on Ajpu, the day eight before (conception) falls on E, the day eight after (destiny) on Q'anil, six before (the right hand) on I'x and six after (the left hand) on Kame, each with its own number.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Thompson's reading of the glyph (1950)
- the sun god sourced
- Presiding god of the day, after Thompson
- the sun sourced
- Old augury, Yucatan and the highlands, after Thompson
- eagle (Yucatan); he of the blowgun (highlands); gradings differ between communities disputed
- The name, as the Zunil daykeepers explain it
- life, destiny, plants and animals; the Lord Sun; hunter, marksman, walker sourced
- Direction and colour
- south, yellow (k'an): read off the four-direction cycle; not attested for this day itself, and not shown on our chart unverified
- Our reading
- The sun, the hero, light and life: gifted and generous, a strong will at its best when it warms. our construction
How the schools read it
- Classic inscriptions (epigraphers)
- Reading of the glyph: Ajaw?
- J. Eric S. Thompson, 1950
- The glyph as the sun god; the day's god the sun.
- Komon Tohil daykeepers, Zunil
- Life, destiny, plants and animals; the Lord Sun; hunter, marksman, walker.
- The Maya' Wuj manual
- Lord, majesty, blowgunner; material and spiritual certainty; the triumph of Ajpu over the lords of Xib'alb'a; a day for security and for renewal.
- Momostenango (Andrés Xiloj, 2005)
- A day for guarding against curses and for doing goodness and wonders.
- The Central Mexican count (tonalpohualli)
- Xochitl, flower: the day of the same position in a related but different count.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- "Yellow Sun" for the same position in its own count; not our name for the sign.
- EsoTerrier
- The sun, the hero, light and life: gifted and generous, a strong will at its best when it warms. Our words.
Claims about it
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Ajaw means "radiant spiritual mastery" or enlightenment.
falseWhat the record shows: Ajaw means lord or ruler; the K'iche' Ajpu means the blowgunner.
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The day 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in, 21 December 2012, was the end of the Maya calendar.
falseWhat the record shows: It completed the thirteenth b'ak'tun of the Long Count, and the fourteenth began. The count goes on.
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Ahau is the correct spelling of the twentieth day.
disputedWhat the record shows: It is the colonial Spanish spelling. The Guatemalan alphabets of 1987 write Ajaw and, in K'iche', Ajpu.
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Ajpu is the "Yellow Sun".
falseWhat the record shows: That is a Dreamspell name from a modern count of 1990, not the Maya day.
