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Muluk (Toj): The Jar Day, Ninth 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. Muluk is the ninth of the 20 day signs in the 260-day Maya calendar; in K'iche' it is Toj. Its Classic glyph began as a narrow-necked jar, usually upside down, and its animated form is a gopher. In Oaxaca and Central Mexico the matching day is "Water", which is where the common English label comes from. David Stuart argues the Maya day itself has nothing obvious to do with water. In K'iche', toj means "payment". Dreamspell calls this slot "Red Moon". [1][4][5][6]

Is Muluk your day sign? Enter your birth date

Muluk at a glance
Position in the 20-day cycle 9 of 20 [1]
How often it returns Every 20 days; a pairing such as 9 Muluk returns every 260 days [2]
Yucatec name Muluk (16th-century spelling Muluc) [1]
Classic-period reading Unknown [1]
Highland Guatemala (K'iche') Toj; Toh, Thoh in colonial calendars [3]
Meaning of the K'iche' word toj, "payment"; also "accident, difficulty, sorrow" [5][6]
What the glyph depicts A narrow-necked jar, often inverted; animated form a gopher [4]
Central Mexican counterpart Atl, "water" [4][7]
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 [9]
Dreamspell alias (modern, José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987) "Red Moon", seal 9; a separate system with a different count [10][11]

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Where Muluk sits in the 260-day count

Muluk follows Lamat and precedes Ok; 8 Lamat is followed by 9 Muluk. [1] Over 260 days it meets each number once. [2] In the 365-day Haab' it can only fall on positions 2, 7, 12 or 17 of a month, a set it shares with K'an, Ix and Kawak. [1]

The glyph: a jar, a gopher and a dark spot

Stuart's 2026 study traces the sign through the Classic period. Early examples show "a narrow-necked jar", usually inverted, with a curved line across it and a small dark circle. By about 700 CE the outline of the jar was mostly gone, leaving the curved line and the circle; by the time of the codices and Bishop Landa's list, only the circle remained, and "any idea of Muluc's true visual origin as a representation of a jar or vessel was lost". [4]

Muluk also had an animal head form. Researchers once argued over whether it was a jaguar, a dog ("jog", in Thompson's word) or a rabbit. It is now read as a gopher, the same animal that writes the word baah, "gopher" and "self, body". [4] Stuart links the jar and the gopher through a supernatural being on painted vases, K'an Baah Ch'ohok, a "were-gopher" who carries a dark jar. He suggests that the gopher form came first, and that scribes abbreviated the being to its jar, as they reduced Lamat or Ix to an eye and Imix to a forehead flower. [4]

Why "Water"? A Maya sign read differently abroad

Outside the Maya region the ninth day consistently means "Water": Zapotec Tuta, Nahuatl Atl. [4] The matching Zapotec glyph is a vessel full of water. Stuart's proposal, which he himself calls "perhaps controversial", is that the Zapotec scribes borrowed the simplified Maya jar sign and read it simply as a water vessel. In his words, "This was a visual appropriation, not a semantic one", and "nowhere in Maya writing does the ninth day have anything obvious to do with water". [4]

This reverses an older view. In 1950 J. Eric S. Thompson, following Hermann Beyer, read the late forms of the sign as symbols of jade, which stood for water, and linked the day to the mythical xoc fish. [7] Stuart judges the jade connection "baseless". [4] Many websites, including earlier versions of this one, still call Muluk "Water". On this site we treat it as a cross-cultural alias.

The names Muluk and Toj

The names do not mean "water" either. Stuart, citing Terrence Kaufman, notes Huastec mul, "water jar", and K'iche' mulul, "jar, clay pot". [4] Christenson's dictionary glosses mulul as a gourd used as a cup or pitcher. [5]

Toj, the highland name, has been read as "shower, thunder, storm". Kaufman proposed Proto-Mayan toj, "payment", connecting it with the K'iche' storm deity Tojil. [4] Christenson's dictionary has toj, "to pay something", tojbal, "price, payment", and the noun toj, "accident; difficulty; sorrow; danger". It also gives tojij, "to pour out (grain, liquid)", which Stuart connects with the image of the upturned jar. [4][5] The dictionary calls Toj the "Treasurer Mam". [5]

Toj in highland tradition

The 260-day count is still kept in highland Guatemala by Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers). [2] In their tradition, Christenson writes, the days are lords with the "power to bless or to punish". [6] Toj sits within that framework of debt and repayment:

  • 1854 manuscript. Vicente Hernández Spina's calendar lists Toj as a "bad day". [3]
  • 20th-century fieldwork. Weeks, Sachse and Prager, summarizing Bunzel (1952) and Tedlock (1992), describe Toj as "a day of sickness" that "symbolizes the suffering caused by sin". [3]
  • Payment. Christenson's Popol Vuh note glosses Toj as "tribute or payment", metaphorically "punishment or illness" caused by wrongdoing, and quotes Bunzel's collaborator on burning incense at home on Toj for the Lord of Sickness. [6]

These records describe ritual practice in particular communities. They are not predictions for anyone born on Muluk. We are not daykeepers. Our reports treat Muluk as modern reflective writing about what you carry, and what you owe and are owed.

Traditional Muluk vs Dreamspell "Red Moon"

"Red Moon" is seal 9 in the Dreamspell, a modern system begun by José and Lloydine Argüelles in 1987 and published as a kit in 1990. [11] Dreamspell gives it the keywords Universal Water, Purifies and Flow. [10] Both the moon name and the water keywords are Dreamspell's; the Maya day is a jar and a gopher deity.

The counts also differ: Dreamspell fixes 26 July 1987 as "Kin 34, White Galactic Wizard" and skips 29 February. [11][12] 18 Oct 2026 is 9 Muluk in the traditional count; Dreamspell calls it Kin 53, Red Magnetic Skywalker. The next Dreamspell "Red Moon" day, 14 Oct 2026 (Kin 49, Red Planetary Moon), is 5 Chikchan 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 ninth day in the east. [8] Contemporary K'iche' practice gives the east to Aq'ab'al instead. [8]
  • Color. "Red" follows the east–red pairing of colonial Yucatec texts; assigning it to one day is a modern reconstruction. [13] Dreamspell also colors this seal red. [10]
  • Element. Earlier versions of this site gave Muluk the element "water", echoing the Mexican name. We found no traditional source for Greek-style elements on day signs, and Stuart's work argues against a water reading of the Maya day. It appears on this site only as a labeled modern convention.

Upcoming Muluk days

Calculated with the GMT 584283 correlation, the same method as our calculator, as of 10 October 2026: [9]

Gregorian date Tzolk'in (traditional) Haab' Dreamspell, for comparison only
18 Oct 2026 9 Muluk 2 Sak' Kin 53, Red Magnetic Skywalker
7 Nov 2026 3 Muluk 2 Keh Kin 73, Red Galactic Skywalker
27 Nov 2026 10 Muluk 2 Mak Kin 93, Red Lunar Skywalker
17 Dec 2026 4 Muluk 2 K'ank'in Kin 113, Red Solar Skywalker
6 Jan 2027 11 Muluk 2 Muwan Kin 133, Red Electric Skywalker
26 Jan 2027 5 Muluk 2 Pax Kin 153, Red Planetary Skywalker
15 Feb 2027 12 Muluk 2 K'ayab Kin 173, Red Self-Existing Skywalker

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 2 of its Haab' month, one of the four positions (2, 7, 12, 17) open to Muluk. [1]

Muluk with each of the 13 numbers

Each number links to its page.

Muluk 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 Muluk, Muluc and Toj the same day? Yes. Muluc is the colonial Yucatec spelling, Muluk the revised one, and Toj the K'iche' name. [1][3]

Is Muluk the water sign? Not in Maya sources. "Water" is the meaning of the matching day in Oaxaca and Central Mexico; the Maya glyph is a jar linked to a gopher deity. [4]

What does Toj mean? "Payment" in K'iche', with related senses of difficulty and of pouring out. [5][6]

Is "Red Moon" the same as Muluk? It fills the same slot in Dreamspell's list, but Dreamspell's count differs, so a "Red Moon" birthday is usually not a Muluk day. [10][11]

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. [9][14]

Is Muluk 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, 56. 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), 14. https://www.upcolorado.com/media/acfupload/9780870819969.pdf
  4. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Muluc / Toj." Maya Decipherment, 6 Sep 2026. https://mayadecipherment.com/2026/09/06/day-sign-notes-muluc-toj/
  5. Christenson, Allen J. K'iche'–English Dictionary. FAMSI, s.v. "Toj", "toj", "toj", "tojbal", "tojij", "mulul". https://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf
  6. Christenson, Allen J. Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People. Electronic edition, Mesoweb, 2007, p. 123, n. 311 (quoting Bunzel 1952:282–283). https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf
  7. Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, pp. 77–78.
  8. 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
  9. Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
  10. Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
  11. "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (citing Argüelles & Argüelles, Dreamspell kit, 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
  12. Argüelles, José. Rinri Project Newsletter II.2.1. Foundation for the Law of Time. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
  13. 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/
  14. 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