Ix (I'x): The Jaguar Day, Fourteenth Sign of the Maya Calendar

Prepared by the Mayan Astrology Calculator editors · Sources below · Reviewed 10 October 2026 · Calculation: gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1

Quick answer. Ix is the fourteenth of the 20 day signs in the 260-day Maya calendar; in K'iche' it is I'x. The matching day across Mesoamerica is the jaguar (Aztec Ocelotl), and David Stuart writes that the Maya glyph "originated as the eye of a spotted feline". In highland Guatemala I'x is a good day linked to the mountains and the earth, when people give thanks for their land. Dreamspell calls this slot "White Wizard". [1][3][5][6]

Ix at a glance

Position in the 20-day cycle	14 of 20 [1]
How often it returns	Every 20 days; a pairing such as 8 Ix returns every 260 days [2]
Yucatec name	Ix (same in 16th-century spelling) [1]
Classic-period reading	Possibly hix, a jaguar-like feline (tentative) [1][5]
Highland Guatemala (K'iche')	I'x; Yix, Yx in colonial calendars, and "Balam" in one of 1722 [3]
What the glyph depicts	The eye and spotted skin of a feline [5][6]
Central Mexican counterpart	Ocelotl, "jaguar" [5]
Haab' days it can share	Only day 2, 7, 12 or 17 of a Haab' month [1]
How we calculate it	GMT correlation 584283, proleptic Gregorian dates [8]
Dreamspell alias (modern, José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987)	"White Wizard", seal 14; a separate system with a different count [9][10]

Your day sign is only half of your birth signature. The number from 1 to 13 is the other half.

Where Ix sits in the 260-day count

Ix follows Ben and precedes Men; 13 Ben is followed by 1 Ix, because the numbers start over after 13. [1] In the 365-day Haab' Ix can only fall on positions 2, 7, 12 or 17 of a month, the same set as K'an, Muluk and Kawak. [1]

The name: hix, I'x and Balam

Kettunen and Helmke give the Yucatec name Ix and list a possible Classic reading, hix, with a question mark. [1] Thompson noted in 1950 that "the word hix appears to have been a Maya name for that animal", the jaguar, "but it has survived only in Kekchi". [5]

In highland Guatemala the day is I'x, spelled Yix or Yx in the three colonial calendars edited by Weeks, Sachse and Prager. One of them, from 1722, writes "Yx/Balam". [3] Balam is the common Mayan word for jaguar, and Thompson cites the friar Ximénez for Balam as the K'iche' name of the day. [5] Christenson's K'iche' dictionary lists a word i'x, "salamander"; whether it is related to the day name is not established, and we do not treat it as the day's meaning. [7]

The glyph: a feline's eye and spots

The Ix glyph is compact and stylized: a shape with small circles and a few curved lines. The German scholar Eduard Seler read it as the hairy ear and spots of a jaguar, and Thompson agreed that "the circles represent the spots on the jaguar's skin". [5]

David Stuart refined this in his day-sign studies. Many Maya day signs, he argues, began in the Preclassic as heads of deities or animals and were later reduced to one diagnostic feature. "The day Ix similarly originated as the eye of a spotted feline." [6] In a later note he lists Ix among days abbreviated by "an eye of the deity or animal", with Lamat, Chuwen and Men. [6]

In the ancient texts

Colonial Yucatec day lists also tie the day to the jaguar. Thompson quotes the Kaua and Maní lists, which describe the "fierce jaguar" with "bloody his mouth; bloody his claws". [5] These are 16th–18th-century Yucatec auguries written down under Spanish rule, and they describe the animal, not the character of people born on the day.

Thompson also linked the jaguar with the underworld in Maya and Mexican thought, as he did for Ak'bal. [5] That connection is his interpretation and should be read as such.

I'x in highland tradition

The 260-day count is still kept in highland Guatemala by Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers). [2] Records of I'x are consistently favorable and tie it to the land:

• 1854 manuscript. Vicente Hernández Spina's calendar calls I'x a "good day. This day is sacred to the spirits of the mountains and forests"; on it protection was sought for flocks and animals. [3]
• 20th-century fieldwork. Weeks, Sachse and Prager, summarizing Bunzel (1952) and Tedlock (1992), describe it as "symbolic of the creative forces of the universe as embodied in the concept of the earth". [3]
• Giving thanks for land. "The days 8 I'x and 9 Tz'ikin are days when people give thanks for their lodging, for land acquired either by inheritance or by purchase, and to the former owners of the land." Another pair, 7 I'x and 8 Tz'ikin, are days to give thanks and ask for good fortune in money. [3]
• Rain and maize. Thompson, drawing on Schultze Jena's K'iche' fieldwork, noted that on I'x prayers go to the mountain gods, and that it is "a propitious day to pray for rain, for maize of good quality". [5]

These records describe what communities did on the day. They are not forecasts for people born on Ix. We are not daykeepers. Our reports use Ix's link to land and to the jaguar as themes for modern reflection.

Traditional Ix vs Dreamspell "White Wizard"

"White Wizard" is seal 14 in the Dreamspell, a modern system begun by José and Lloydine Argüelles in 1987 and published as a kit in 1990. [10] Dreamspell gives it the keywords Timelessness, Enchants and Receptivity. [9] "Wizard" is Dreamspell's own name; it does not translate Ix, I'x or Balam.

Dreamspell fixes 26 July 1987 as "Kin 34, White Galactic Wizard", that is, 8 White Wizard in its own count, and skips 29 February. [10][11] 23 Oct 2026 is 1 Ix in the traditional count; Dreamspell calls it Kin 58, White Rhythmic Mirror. The next Dreamspell "White Wizard" day, 19 Oct 2026 (Kin 54, White Lunar Wizard), is 10 Ok in the traditional count. [Link: Dreamspell vs traditional converter → /dreamspell-vs-traditional-maya-calendar]

Colors, directions and "elements"

• Direction. Prehispanic calendars assigned the days to east, north, west and south in turn, which places the fourteenth day in the north. [4] Contemporary K'iche' practice gives the north to Imox instead. [4]
• Color. The north is white in colonial Yucatec texts; assigning that color to one day is a modern reconstruction. [12] Dreamspell also colors this seal white. [9]
• Element. Some charts, including earlier versions of this site, give Ix the element "earth". We found no traditional source for Greek-style elements on day signs. The highland link between I'x and the earth comes from the records above, not from an element system. On this site the element appears only as a labeled modern convention.

Upcoming Ix days

Calculated with the GMT 584283 correlation, the same method as our calculator, as of 10 October 2026: [8]

Gregorian date	Tzolk'in (traditional)	Haab'	Dreamspell, for comparison only
23 Oct 2026	1 Ix	7 Sak'	Kin 58, White Rhythmic Mirror
12 Nov 2026	8 Ix	7 Keh	Kin 78, White Cosmic Mirror
2 Dec 2026	2 Ix	7 Mak	Kin 98, White Resonant Mirror
22 Dec 2026	9 Ix	7 K'ank'in	Kin 118, White Magnetic Mirror
11 Jan 2027	3 Ix	7 Muwan	Kin 138, White Galactic Mirror
31 Jan 2027	10 Ix	7 Pax	Kin 158, White Lunar Mirror
20 Feb 2027	4 Ix	7 K'ayab	Kin 178, White Solar Mirror

Each falls on day 7 of its Haab' month, one of the four positions (2, 7, 12, 17) open to Ix. [1]

Ix with each of the 13 numbers

• 1 Ix · next: 23 Oct 2026
• 2 Ix · next: 2 Dec 2026
• 3 Ix · next: 11 Jan 2027
• 4 Ix · next: 20 Feb 2027
• 5 Ix · next: 1 Apr 2027
• 6 Ix · next: 11 May 2027
• 7 Ix · next: 20 Jun 2027
• 8 Ix · next: 12 Nov 2026
• 9 Ix · next: 22 Dec 2026
• 10 Ix · next: 31 Jan 2027
• 11 Ix · next: 12 Mar 2027
• 12 Ix · next: 21 Apr 2027
• 13 Ix · next: 31 May 2027

Each number links to its page. 7 Ix and 8 Ix are the two I'x days named in the highland thanksgiving records. [3]

Ix and relationships

Our compatibility tool compares two full birth signatures with a modern reflective method, not a documented historical Maya formula. [Compare two birth dates → /compatibility]

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FAQ

Are Ix and I'x the same day? Yes. Ix is the Yucatec name and I'x the K'iche' name for the fourteenth day. [1][3]

Is Ix the jaguar sign? Yes, in the sense that the matching day across Mesoamerica is the jaguar and the Maya glyph shows a feline's eye and spots. [5][6]

What does I'x mean in K'iche'? The day is linked to the mountains and to the earth. One 1722 calendar gives it the name Balam, "jaguar". [3][5]

Is "White Wizard" the same as Ix? It fills the same slot in Dreamspell's list, but Dreamspell's count differs, so a "White Wizard" birthday is usually not an Ix day. [9][10]

Why does another calculator give me a different day sign? It may use the Dreamspell count, or a correlation constant other than 584283, which shifts results by a day or two. [8][13]

Is Ix a zodiac sign? No. It names a day that recurs every 20 days. → How we calculate

Sources

1. Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs, 17th rev. ed. Wayeb, 2020, pp. 49, 51, 57. https://www.mesoweb.org/resources/handbook/IMH2020.pdf
2. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. "The Calendar System." Living Maya Time. https://maya.nmai.si.edu/calendar/calendar-system
3. Weeks, John M., Frauke Sachse, and Christian M. Prager. Maya Daykeeping: Three Calendars from Highland Guatemala. University Press of Colorado, 2009, pp. 3 (Table 1.1), 15. https://www.upcolorado.com/media/acfupload/9780870819969.pdf
4. Estrada Peña, Canek. "Anima' ri cho, anima' ri plo: Imox y el agua entre los k'iche'." Estudios de Cultura Maya 45 (2015): 191–224, pp. 202–203. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2813/281336894007.pdf
5. Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, p. 82.
6. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Caban." Maya Decipherment, 12 Aug 2024; and "Day Sign Notes: Muluc / Toj." Maya Decipherment, 6 Sep 2026. https://mayadecipherment.com/2024/08/12/day-sign-notes-caban/ ; https://mayadecipherment.com/2026/09/06/day-sign-notes-muluc-toj/
7. Christenson, Allen J. K'iche'–English Dictionary. FAMSI, s.v. "i'x". https://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf
8. Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
9. Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
10. "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (citing Argüelles & Argüelles, Dreamspell kit, 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
11. Argüelles, José. Rinri Project Newsletter II.2.1. Foundation for the Law of Time. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
12. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Imix / Imox." Maya Decipherment, 14 Aug 2025 (on the colors of the imix che' world trees). https://mayadecipherment.com/2025/08/14/day-sign-notes-imix-imox/
13. Van Stone, Mark. "2012 FAQ." FAMSI. https://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/faq.html

Reviewed: 10 October 2026 · Calculation: gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1 · Corrections: contact us