Atl
water · East
What it names
Atl means «water». It is sign number 9 of the twenty by which days are counted, and the sources associate it with water, fire, centre, purification.
Its ruling energy
It is ruled by Xiuhtecuhtli.
Direction and element
Its direction is the East and its element water. The share-out among the four directions runs in order and without exception; what the sources do not fix the same way is the colour and the guardian of each direction.
The trecena it opens
When the numeral one falls to it, the thirteen-day stretch named after it begins: 1-Atl, trecena number 17 of twenty, with its own name, its ruling energy, its direction and its plate.
Its thirteen days
Each sign combines with thirteen numerals, so Atl appears thirteen times in a full 260-day round — once with each numeral. The pair only repeats after 260 days.
- 1-Atl
- 2-Atl
- 3-Atl
- 4-Atl
- 5-Atl
- 6-Atl
- 7-Atl
- 8-Atl
- 9-Atl
- 10-Atl
- 11-Atl
- 12-Atl
- 13-Atl
These dates are not pluralised: one says 5-Atl, never five Atls.
What is not here, and why
We chose not to touch the primary text. Those sections quote Sahagún, Durán and the codices in their own words, often in sixteenth-century Castilian. A quotation carried across stops being a quotation: it loses the register, the ambiguity and the exact wording someone might want to check against a facsimile.
Read the sourced commentary in Spanish → Nahuatl terms and day names are the same in both versions.
How to cite this page
Alma Mexica, «Atl», The twenty day-signs. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/day-sign/09-atl/
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