Meaning
Iq' is the wind, the air and the breath of life. Its Classic reading, ik', is the one day name scholars consider secure, and its meaning is the same in the ancient texts and in the living count: wind and breath. Thompson read the glyph as life and breath and gave the day to God B, the rain god.
The Komon Tohil daykeepers of Zunil derive the name from wind, air, spirit and the heart of the sky; the Maya' Wuj manual calls it the sacred breath that clears body and mind and the wind of change that blows to the four directions.
Our reading: breath, words and movement, a lively and changeable day whose gift is to clear what weighs on a person. People born on Iq' are described as expressive and quick to change course. The words are ours.
In the highlands today
In Zunil the day is used to ask for an end to suffering and to trouble in the home. In Momostenango Andrés Xiloj described it as the wind that moves us and gives us our speech.
Iq' is one of the four highland year bearers, with Kej, E and No'j. 13 Iq' entered as the bearer of the year that opened on 18 February 2025; the 2022 account in Prensa Comunitaria places Iq' in the north and makes it white, like the cold and the wind.
The glyph and the old readings
The Classic glyph is the T-shaped wind sign. Thompson's tables give breath and wind as the day's association in both Yucatan and the highlands. Ik' was also one of the Classic year bearers, the same four signs the highlands keep today.
The Central Mexican day of the same position is Ehecatl, the wind: here the two counts agree on the image, though their gods and directions are their own.
In the count
Iq' comes round every twentieth day, thirteen times in the 260: on days 2, 22, 42, 62, 82, 102, 122, 142, 162, 182, 202, 222 and 242, with the numbers 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1 and 8 in that order, so 2 Iq' is its first day in the count and 8 Iq' its last. In the nawal cross of a person born on Iq', the day eight before (conception) falls on I'x, the day eight after (destiny) on Tz'i', six before (the right hand) on Ajmaq and six after (the left hand) on Q'anil, 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)
- life, breath sourced
- Presiding god of the day, after Thompson
- God B sourced
- Old augury, Yucatan and the highlands, after Thompson
- breath, wind; gradings differ between communities disputed
- The name, as the Zunil daykeepers explain it
- wind, air, spirit, heart of the sky sourced
- Direction and colour
- north, white (sak): given to this bearer in the 2022 highland account sourced
- Our reading
- Breath, words and change: lively and expressive, with a gift for clearing what weighs on a person or a household. our construction
How the schools read it
- Classic inscriptions (epigraphers)
- Reading of the glyph: Ik'
- J. Eric S. Thompson, 1950
- The glyph as life, breath; the day's god God B.
- Komon Tohil daykeepers, Zunil
- Wind, air, spirit, heart of the sky.
- The Maya' Wuj manual
- Breath, life; the sacred breath that purifies body, mind, spirit and emotions; the wind of change that blows to the four directions.
- Momostenango (Andrés Xiloj, 2005)
- The wind, what moves us and gives us our speech.
- The Central Mexican count (tonalpohualli)
- Ehecatl, wind: the day of the same position in a related but different count.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- "White Wind" for the same position in its own count; not our name for the sign.
- EsoTerrier
- Breath, words and change: lively and expressive, with a gift for clearing what weighs on a person or a household. Our words.
Claims about it
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Every source gives Iq' the same years as bearer.
disputedWhat the record shows: There are three sets of year bearers and two alignments of the year. Iq' bears years in the highland and Classic sets, not in Landa's Yucatan.
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Iq' is the "White Wind" of the Maya.
falseWhat the record shows: That is Dreamspell's name for the second position in its own count of 1990, which skips leap days and gives most dates a different sign.
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Every day sign has an agreed direction and colour.
disputedWhat the record shows: Only the year-bearer days have attested directions. For Iq' the 2022 highland account gives the north and white.
