Chicchan: The Trecena Of Energy & Evolution

Associated with the mystical Feathered Serpent, Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl as the Aztecs called this deity, Chicchan, or Kan in K’iche’ Maya, is one of the most powerful day signs in the Tzolk’in. The Regent of the Sky and the Ruler of Time, Chicchan symbolizes the transformation of time, transcendence, peace, spiritual development and human evolution, and represents those predestined for spiritual vocations. Yet it is also the lord of all material things and represents the concepts of work, autonomy, precaution, power, law, intelligence, and justice. As the nagual of education and training, it signifies the power that learning imparts to individuals and communities. Chicchan is also the nagual of the creation of new human life, the transformation of knowledge into wisdom, and embodies a powerful connection with the inner fire, called koyopa among the Maya and kundalini in Eastern traditions. It activates sexual energy as the essence of koyopa and the awe-inspiring strength and power of life itself. Chicchan’s animal totem is the serpent. In the Classical Maya tradition, it is associated with the cardinal direction East and the color red. In the tradition of modern-day K’iche’ Maya, it is North and the color white. 

On Chicchan days, the Maya ask for answers and solutions to all kinds of problems, issues, and necessities. Chicchan helps you develop your inner fire and evolve spiritually. This is a good day to build physical strength, demand that vitality, clarity, and understanding immediately manifest in your life, and to neutralize fear, dread, and anxiety. It is also a powerful day for sexual matters of all kinds, such as asking for a partner, reconciliation between couples, and finding sexual balance. 

Perhaps one of the most striking, beautiful, and awe-inspiring visions in the cultural psyche of humankind is the plumed serpent. The serpent has played a profound role in our collective mythology since the earliest times, mesmerizing humanity across geographies and across time - from Egypt and Babylon to Greece and Rome, from Chinese dynasties and Hebrew tribes to Hindu cultures and the many native peoples of the Americas - at once feared and revered as an archetypal symbol of power, sexual energy, and eternal mysteries. The serpent is also frequently associated with the feminine principle, for its mystical essence mirrors the power a woman holds to bear and give life, a power that throughout human history men have tried to control, suppress, and conquer; hence the multitudinous and ambivalent interpretations of the serpent in so many of the world’s cultures and beliefs. 

Chicchan, the Serpent, embodies deep, instinctive wisdom and intelligence, but also profound, powerful emotion and energy that can cause great upheaval and change. For the Maya, the Feathered Serpent embodies the very energy of life, koyopa, energy in its purest and simplest form, that can be neither judged nor denied. This is the energy that guides, that fulfills, that changes, mutates, and evolves all that it touches. This is the energy embodied within the stars of which all things are made, the DNA of existence and consciousness. All of us carry this sacred energy deep within, for that is what we are made of. Yet we spend our lives denying, ignoring, or living in fear of it. You may notice this trend throughout history… fear, control, denial of potential, denial of freedom. These are the true dark forces - not some imagined threat, politicized evil, or a fabricated, hyper-marketed ‘disease” - that continue to affront us, within and without, and that we must seek to neutralize if we are to develop and evolve as the spiritual, emotional, and physical human beings that we are. 

As so many of the day signs and daily energies suggest, most of the work we need to do is internal. For it’s there, deep within the inner fire of our souls that our thoughts are born, our emotions ignite, our dreams take flight and our actions initiate. At least that is where it all should begin. Too much of what we think, feel, and do is the result of an external influence, whether it’s media, marketing, other people’s opinions, societal customs, or established infrastructure and regulation. Give it a try - the next time you react or respond to something or someone, ask yourself if this is truly you or an imprinted message from somewhere or someone else. It’s time to get back in touch with ourselves and re-embody the energies that make us who we are, as individuals, as members of society, as creators of our lives, as active elements of the greater universal consciousness.