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Kawak (Kawoq): The Storm Day, Nineteenth 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. Kawak is the nineteenth of the 20 day signs in the 260-day Maya calendar; in K'iche' it is Kawoq (also spelled Kawuq or Kaweq). Its names across Mayan languages mean storm, thunder and rain, and the central Mexican day in the same position is "rain". The Kawak markings also appear in the glyph for the 365-day year. In highland records Kawoq is an "indifferent" or difficult day, linked to the displeasure of the dead. Dreamspell calls this slot "Blue Storm". [1][3][5]

Is Kawak your day sign? Enter your birth date

Kawak at a glance
Position in the 20-day cycle 19 of 20 [1]
How often it returns Every 20 days; a pairing such as 4 Kawak returns every 260 days [2]
Yucatec name Kawak (16th-century spelling Cauac) [1]
Classic-period reading Unknown [1]
Highland Guatemala (K'iche') Kawoq; Caok, Caquok in colonial calendars [3]
Other names Chauc and similar forms in Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Chiapas languages [5]
Meaning of the names Storm, thunder, lightning, rain [5]
What the glyph depicts Markings found on celestial dragons and on the "year" glyph [5]
Central Mexican counterpart Quiahuitl, "rain" [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 [7]
Dreamspell alias (modern, José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987) "Blue Storm", seal 19; a separate system with a different count [8][9]

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Where Kawak sits in the 260-day count

Kawak follows Etz'nab and precedes Ajaw, the last day sign; 5 Etz'nab is followed by 6 Kawak. [1] In the 365-day Haab' Kawak can only fall on positions 2, 7, 12 or 17 of a month, the same set as K'an, Muluk and Ix. [1]

The names: storm, thunder, rain

Kawak is one of the few days whose names agree across the Maya area. Thompson wrote in 1950 that "the sundry names for this day in the Maya lists are clearly related, and signify 'storm,' 'thunder,' 'rain.'" His examples: chauc, "thunder, thunderbolt" in Tzotzil and "storm, thunder, thunderbolt, shower" in Tzeltal; cahok, "lightning" in Poqomam; and kakh, "storm" in Q'eqchi'. [5] The friar Ximénez gave "rain" for the K'iche' day, and the central Mexican day in this position was Quiahuitl, "rain". [5]

The K'iche' name appears in several spellings. The three colonial calendars edited by Weeks, Sachse and Prager write Caok and Caquok; [3] modern sources use Kawoq, Kawuq or Kaweq. Christenson's dictionary lists Kaweq as "day in the sacred calendar". [3][4][6]

The glyph: storm markings and the year

The Kawak sign is a cluster of curls, dots and small grape-like circles. Thompson observed that "the elements of the day sign frequently appear on the bodies of celestial dragons", which he connected with rain, and that "they also form the haab, 'year,' glyph". [5] The same markings are inserted around the temple of the Eb head, which Thompson read as rain combined with death. [5]

He concluded that "Cauac, then, is the day of the celestial dragons which send the rain and the storms". [5] The specific identification of those dragons with rain gods is his 1950 interpretation; the storm meaning of the day's name does not depend on it.

Kettunen and Helmke leave the Classic-period reading of Kawak blank, as for most days. [1]

Kawoq in highland tradition

The 260-day count is still kept in highland Guatemala by Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers). [2] Kawoq has a more cautious reputation than most days:

  • 1854 manuscript. Vicente Hernández Spina's calendar calls Kawoq an "indifferent day". [3]
  • 20th-century fieldwork. Weeks, Sachse and Prager, summarizing Bunzel (1952) and Tedlock (1992), describe it as a "bad day, symbolic of evil embodied in the malice of the dead". [3]
  • A personal association. Canek Estrada Peña recorded a woman from Santa Cruz del Quiché who felt she did things very slowly on Kawuq days, and attributed this to the day's animal, the turtle; on Kiej days, whose animal is the deer, she felt strong and agile. [4] This is one person's experience, reported by an anthropologist, not a general rule.

"Bad day" here describes how the day was treated in ritual. It does not describe people born on Kawak, and we do not use it that way. We are not daykeepers. Our reports use the storm, which both threatens and waters the fields, as a theme for modern reflection.

Traditional Kawak vs Dreamspell "Blue Storm"

"Blue Storm" is seal 19 in the Dreamspell, a modern system begun by José and Lloydine Argüelles in 1987 and published as a kit in 1990. [9] Dreamspell gives it the keywords Self-generation, Catalyzes and Energy. [8] "Storm" matches the traditional meaning; the color and keywords are Dreamspell's own.

The counts differ. Dreamspell fixes 26 July 1987 as "Kin 34, White Galactic Wizard" and skips 29 February. [9][10] 28 Oct 2026 is 6 Kawak in the traditional count; Dreamspell calls it Kin 63, Blue Spectral Night. The next Dreamspell "Blue Storm" day, 24 Oct 2026 (Kin 59, Blue Resonant Storm), is 2 Men 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 nineteenth day in the west. [11] Contemporary K'iche' practice gives the west to Kame instead. [11]
  • Color. The west is black in colonial Yucatec texts; assigning that color to one day is a modern reconstruction. [12] "Blue" comes from Dreamspell, not from Maya sources. [8]
  • Element. Some charts, including earlier versions of this site, give Kawak the element "water". The day's link to rain comes from its names, not from a system of elements; we found no traditional source for Greek-style elements on day signs. On this site the element appears only as a labeled modern convention.

Upcoming Kawak days

Calculated with the GMT 584283 correlation, the same method as our calculator, as of 10 October 2026: [7]

Gregorian date Tzolk'in (traditional) Haab' Dreamspell, for comparison only
28 Oct 2026 6 Kawak 12 Sak' Kin 63, Blue Spectral Night
17 Nov 2026 13 Kawak 12 Keh Kin 83, Blue Overtone Night
7 Dec 2026 7 Kawak 12 Mak Kin 103, Blue Crystal Night
27 Dec 2026 1 Kawak 12 K'ank'in Kin 123, Blue Rhythmic Night
16 Jan 2027 8 Kawak 12 Muwan Kin 143, Blue Cosmic Night
5 Feb 2027 2 Kawak 12 Pax Kin 163, Blue Resonant Night
25 Feb 2027 9 Kawak 12 K'ayab Kin 183, Blue Magnetic Night

The date tables use your local date when JavaScript is available. Without it, they stay at the 10 October 2026 snapshot.

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

Kawak with each of the 13 numbers

Each number links to its page.

Kawak 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 Kawak, Cauac and Kawoq the same day? Yes. Kawak (Cauac in older spelling) is the Yucatec name and Kawoq the K'iche' name for the nineteenth day. [1][3]

Does Kawak mean "storm"? Yes. Names for this day across Mayan languages mean storm, thunder, lightning or rain. [5]

Is Kawak an unlucky birthday? No such rule exists for birthdays. Some highland records call Kawoq an indifferent or bad day for ritual purposes. [3]

Is "Blue Storm" the same as Kawak? It fills the same slot in Dreamspell's list, but Dreamspell's count differs, so a "Blue Storm" birthday is usually not a Kawak day. [8][9]

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. [7][13]

Is Kawak 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), 16. 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. 193, 201 n. 10. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2813/281336894007.pdf
  5. Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, pp. 80, 87.
  6. Christenson, Allen J. K'iche'–English Dictionary. FAMSI, s.v. "Kaweq". https://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf
  7. Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
  8. Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
  9. "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (citing Argüelles & Argüelles, Dreamspell kit, 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
  10. Argüelles, José. Rinri Project Newsletter II.2.1. Foundation for the Law of Time. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
  11. Estrada Peña 2015 (as source 4), pp. 202–203.
  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