Time Weaving Daily Rhythm Ritual: Root Into Wild

🦌 Today, on the day of 1 Kej, plant your body in the new year’s soil.

Hola! I’m Ixchel Lunar (they/them), an Indigenous-Time ecologist, ancestral medicine guide, and rhythm witch for creative rebels, decolonial dreamers, and neuroqueer visionaries. This Substack is dedicated to weaving business, body, and belonging into something no empire can replicate. Still punk as fuck. Still cozy in the chaos.

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Photo by Philipp Pilz on Unsplash

Beautiful Wildling, Here is the Cholq’ij Energy of the Day:

Today breathes 1 Kej, the current of Earth, Strength, and Sacred Stewardship.

This New Year rises under the sign of Kej. That means 2026 moves with earth wisdom, boundary clarity, and embodied leadership. Like the stable 4 legs of a stag or a horse, it is a year to stand steady, tend land and lineage, honor the directions, and walk with integrity. The weather of the soul is grounded and alert. We are asked to become guardians of what matters.

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Kej is the deer, the forest guardian, the four directions rooted in bone and soil. It carries the intelligence of mountains, the instinct of wild creatures, and the quiet authority of those who protect what is sacred. The number 1 initiates a cycle. It plants the seed that will shape the entire year ahead.

This New Year opens with earth underfoot, and antlers raised. The weather of the soul is steady, alert, grounded. Stand well.

Sky Pulse for Today

Moon links up with the North Node and Venus, then trines Jupiter and locks in with Mercury. That’s destiny talk with heart and volume turned up. Meanwhile, the Sun slips into Pisces and softens the edges. The vibe says listen deeply, move smart, and let intuition ride shotgun.

Time Weaving Daily Rhythm Ritual — Root Into Wild

This sensorial practice grounds your body in the four directions and aligns you with the Year of Kej. The forest does not rush. It listens.

Practice

• Stand facing East
  Feet hip-width apart. Feel the soles press into the floor or earth. Bend your knees slightly. Let your spine lengthen.

• Call the four directions through sensation
  Turn slowly to the East, the beginning of the Sun. Notice the warmth in your chest.
  Turn to the South. Notice the weight in your heels.
  Turn to the West. Notice the back of your body, your spine, your support.
  Return to the North. Notice your breath.

• Rooting breath
  Inhale through the nose and imagine breath traveling down your legs into the ground.
  Exhale and feel the ground press back up through your feet. Repeat five times.

• Stillness
  Stand completely still for one minute. Let your senses widen. Listen for the subtle hum around you.

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Writing Prompt

What does it mean for you to walk in the Year of Kej? Where in your life are you called to be a guardian, a witness, or a steady ground?

If it feels aligned, share your reflection in the Substack comments. This year belongs to all of us.

Walk slowly with Time today. Let the earth carry you into the new cycle.

Stay wild, love fiercely. Your presence is golden.

With wild and rebellious love,

Maltiox! xo Ixchel

P.S. 1 Kej carries Fire Horse energy: instinctive movement, grounded direction, and leadership that does not abandon the body.

If you’ve been carrying more than is yours, or carrying it in a way that costs you, this Maya new year is an invitation to move differently. To clarify your lane, stabilize your capacity, and express from aligned presence.

Queering Rhythm is where we recalibrate how responsibility, visibility, and growth are held. A few private spaces are open.

P.P.S. Maltiox pronounced mall-tee-osh means with gratitude in K’iche Mayan.

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About Cholq’ij Energy of the Day
Each day in the Mayan Cholq’ij calendar carries a unique combination of a nawal (one of 20 sacred characteristics of Time) and a tone (one of 13 sacred numbers that increase in intensity). The nawal brings the spirit, element, and ancestral wisdom of the day. The tone offers rhythm, structure, and movement. Together, they spiral through a 260-day sacred cycle, a living calendar description of Time itself as a sacred entity that invites us to align with cosmic, earthly, and ancestral flow.

If you want to explore your Maya birth sign, please visit Maya Tecum. They are undergoing a website update after being hacked, but they remain the most trusted source for a Maya Cross calculation. Their website is in Spanish, but you can use a translator to view the descriptions of your cross.

For a Maya Cross reading, which should be performed only by a trained ajq’ij (Maya Daykeeper), visit Denise Barrios for more information.

Your Sanctuary to Cultivate Wild Presence for Thriving with a Planet in Transition

Land Lineage

I was raised and bore children on the traditional, unceded, and stolen lands of the Coast and Central Valley Miwok (colonized as Petaluma, CA) and Nisenan (colonized as Sacramento and Fair Oaks, CA), past, present, and future. I also write, work, and live in the highland forest of the traditional, unceded and stolen lands of the Totonac, Nahua and Mexicah, past present and future, in what is known as Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.

P.P.S. I do not live or consent to the colonial impositions regarding the construct of Time. I also practice honoring rhythms of work, play, and rest so that I can serve you with embodied presence and with loving care. This means I may take several days to respond to your requests and questions. (h/t Eva Glamaris)

P.P.S. A mention is not necessarily an endorsement of someone. It’s an acknowledgment, a citation, of the origin of information in my process of understanding. (h/t Kelly Diels)

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Copyright © 2025, Cheyenne, WY and Veracruz, Mexico, All rights reserved. Sharing your lineage of knowledge is decolonial. When iterating, please cite me. Not citing is epistemicide.