Within the village of San Pablo la Laguna, there is an organisation doing great work. It just needs the correct nutrients and conditions to germinate and develop, just as sometimes we need encouragement to develop our ideas. However, the seed can grow into a mighty tree, it is full of potential. It is a low and odd number, which usually represents something challenging. The number 1 is representative of the seed, of unity. These ties can also be seen as excessive attachment to material things. When the nawal K’at is addressed during the fire ceremony, these strings are put in to the fire, with offerings, to ask K’at to help us release ourselves from our burdens, from the ties which bind us. When candles are purchased for the fire ceremonies, they come in bundles held together by little strings. K’at is also the nawal of prisons and burdens, as the net which gathers, can also ensnare us. An abundant crop will fill the net, but it will also slow you down. However, K’at also has its more challenging side. It is a day of prosperity and the bounty which comes from the Earth, a day of gardeners, but also of merchants. K’at is a great day to draw things together, whether this means gathering in your crops, collecting ideas and opinions for your projects, or inviting people to a social event. Through this we see one of the positive meanings of this nawal, that of abundance and harvest. Here, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, to this day many crops are harvested and carried in nets – oranges, lemons, avocados to name but a few. K’at signifies a net and represents gathering together or bundling. It is time to put aside differences and work together to plant the new field if we are to enjoy abundance on the future. We have the possibility to reap an abundant harvest, but right now in order to do that we need unity. Life is a continual cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The energy of 1 K’at can be seen as being about gathering together and embracing the new time. This conception will be gestated through Wajxakib (8) B’atz, until finally the birth process assisted by 3 Kawok leads to 4 Ajpu, the new world, the resurrection of the maize, the birth of Junajpu. The previous day, 13 Aq’ab’al, could be seen as a spiritual conception, and here the new process begins. This is the beginning of something new, new growth all around. When combined with the number 1, new births and new beginnings are signified. This was the gathering, the bringing together of the family through this harvesting, we also see the seeding. In this story we see the relationship between Blood Moon and the nawal K’at, the creator of magical abundance and a bountiful harvest. When Blood Moon arrived, there was only one stalk, but by pulling the corn silk, the plant magically produced an abundant harvest and Blood Moon was accepted as telling the truth. At first Ixmucane did not accept that Blood Moon was carrying her grandchildren, and set a task to fill a net with corn from the garden. She was banished from Xibalba and went to meet the mother of Jun Junajpu and Wucub Junajpu, Ixmucane. The head spat into her hand and she became impregnated with the Hero Twins, Junajpu and Xbalamque. She decided to go an visit the tree where she was asked to hold out her hand. However, it was known to speak and the news of this dis-incarnate voice in the tree reached Blood Moon. After their deaths, the head of Jun Junajpu was hung in a calabash tree, which fruited for the first time and where it eventually blended in with the wizened fruit on the tree. Unfortunately this first pair of heroes went unprepared and were tricked and sacrificed by the Lords of Death. Jun Junajpu and his brother Wucub Junajpu were summoned by the Lords of Death to Xibalba to face the challenges after they disturbed the Lords by playing the ball game too noisily. The nawal K’at is associated with Ixq’ik, Blood Moon, who, in the Popol Vuh, was magically impregnated in Xibalba (the underworld) by the spirit of Jun Junajpu. The threads of creation are being gathered ready to join the new to the old on the day Wajxakib B’atz. In the cycle of re-creation, the soil of the field has been turned and the tilled, infused and fertilised by the wisdom of the ancients. Here, on the day 1 K’at, we see the new seed planted for the next harvest. Whilst K’at does represent the net which gathers the harvest, it also has an association with what it contains, the seeds.
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