Lamat, the Day Sign Behind It

The corresponding Maya day is Lamat, and it is the day of Venus. The Maya tracked Venus with great precision, and the Dresden Codex contains a Venus table correlating the planet's synodic cycle of about 584 days with the 260-day count and giving prognostications, mostly warlike, for its heliacal rising; Venus in Maya thought is associated with war, with the taking of captives and with the timing of raids, an association shared with central Mexico. The glyph of Lamat is often read as a star or Venus sign. The Dreamspell reading of elegance and art has no relation to this. It is a clear instance of the general pattern, in which a sign carrying specific astronomical and political content in the Maya record is reassigned a general psychological one.

Lamat is the eighth of the twenty authentic Tzolk'in day signs, its imagery the star, generally identified with the planet Venus, paired with the rabbit; the living K'iche' daykeeping tradition knows the corresponding day as Q'anil, connected to ripeness and abundance. In the directional scheme, Lamat belongs to the south and the colour yellow, closing the Tzolk'in's second four-sign directional set. Arguelles's Solar Seal 8, Yellow Star, borrows Lamat's star imagery specifically, and the seal's Dreamspell gloss of elegance and artistry draws on the star's brightness rather than on the rabbit or on Q'anil's harvest associations in the living K'iche' tradition.