Copal incenseCotton threadMaizeWaterFlowersJadeThe first weaving
Invocation Approach
Tone
The lady who spins and births
Address
IxchelLady RainbowIx Chel
Relationship
The moon lady who weaves and delivers
Warning
She is a colonial era composite as much as a single goddess
Resonance
Weavers midwives healers womens craft
Symbols
The loomThe spindleSerpent headdressThe rainbowThe rabbit
Mythology Summary
Ixchel, Lady Rainbow, is the Yucatec Maya goddess of the moon, of weaving, of childbirth and of medicine, the wife of Itzamna, whose shrine on the island of Cozumel was a pilgrimage place for women. Diego de Landa and the colonial Yucatec sources describe her, and the codices show a moon goddess with a serpent headdress and, separately, an old woman with the tools of the loom. The equation of Ixchel with the codical figures called Goddess I and Goddess O - the young moon goddess and the old weaver - is a modern scholarly convention, and the figure the colonial sources give is a composite of several.
Modern Practice
Ixchel is worked at the loom and at the childbed, by midwives and weavers, and at the full moon. The Maya day-count traditions that survive are highland Guatemalan and are not hers; the entry does not invent a Maya calendar practice for her.