Ocelotl's Patron and the North

Ocelotl's patron is Tlazolteotl, the earth goddess who receives confession, an association less immediately obvious than some of the count's other day sign pairings, though the jaguar's own reading as a sign requiring careful, disciplined use of a dangerous gift sits comfortably beside a goddess whose whole cult concerned the disciplined clearing of excess and transgression through the confession rite neyolmelahualiztli. Its direction is north, shared with Ehecatl, Miquiztli, Itzcuintli and Tecpatl in the recurring four direction rotation.

Ocelotl is not a year bearer, sitting between Acatl at thirteen and Tecpatl at eighteen, outside the spacing that marks the select four signs. Tlazolteotl's patronage here as day sign governor is a separate office from her role as the seventh of the nine Lords of the Night and from her further patronage of Trecena 13, opening on Ollin the movement sign, so the earth goddess holds at least three distinct calendrical posts across the tonalpohualli's several registers, each concerned in its own way with excess, its consequences and the discipline needed to manage it, a thematic consistency across her several offices that the count's patron assignments do not always provide for other deities.