Ixchel
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.
This entry is Maya and Yucatec, and the culture value is the grimoire's Mesoamerican grouping label rather than an Aztec identification. Her moon is native rather than an overlay, but the identification of Ixchel with the codical moon goddesses is a modern convention, and the colonial figure is a composite - so the Moon value is traditional while the person it is attached to is partly a reconstruction, and the tradition gives her no other planet. The zodiac values Cancer and Virgo, the tarot cards and the sabbats Imbolc and Ostara are modern Western overlays, as are the Venus and Neptune values listed as secondary planets. The tradition's own account, the loom, the childbed and the shrine at Cozumel, is primary.
Correspondences
- Planetary Correspondence
- Moon
Offerings
- Offerings
- Copal incenseCotton threadMaizeWaterFlowersJadeThe first weaving
Sacred timing
- Sacred Timing
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- Ix ChelLady RainbowThe WeaverLady of the Moon
- Gender Expression
- Feminine
- Titles
- Lady RainbowThe WeaverPatron of MidwivesLady of the Moon
- Symbols
- The loomThe spindleSerpent headdressThe rainbowThe rabbit
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- ToneThe lady who spins and birthsAddressIxchelLady RainbowIx ChelRelationshipThe moon lady who weaves and deliversWarningShe is a colonial era composite as much as a single goddessResonanceWeavers midwives healers womens craft
- 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.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- The moonWeavingChildbirthMedicineThe seaThe rainbowWomens craft
- 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.
- Related Deities
- IsisHathorSeleneChalchiuhtlicue
Details
- Correspondences
- ColorsWhiteSilverBlueTurquoiseRedScentsCopal whiteRoseSandalwood whiteMetalsSilverGoldAnimalsRabbitSerpentJaguarButterfly
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