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The twenty trecenas

Trecena 17 of 20

1-Atl

Chalchiuhtotolin

CipactliEhécatlCalliCuetzpalinCóatlMiquiztliMázatlTochtliAtlItzcuintliOzomatliMalinalliÁcatlOcélotlCuauhtliCozcacuauhtliOllinTécpatlQuiáhuitlXóchitl12345678910111213
The thirteen squares of this trecena within the two hundred and sixty days of the count. They run diagonally and wrap round: thirteen and twenty do not divide, and that is why no trecena begins where the last one ended.

What a trecena is

One of the twenty thirteen-day stretches the tonalpohualli is divided into. Twenty trecenas of thirteen days give the 260. Each takes its name from the day that opens it and has its own ruling energy, its direction and its omen.

This one

1-Atl is trecena 17 of twenty. It opens with the day 1-Atl and lends its character to the thirteen days it contains. It is ruled by Chalchiuhtotolin.

When it comes round

Every 260 days, which is one full round of the tonalpohualli. The twenty trecenas follow each other in order and then begin again.

Its ruling energy

This trecena is ruled by Chalchiuhtotolin.

Direction

Its direction is the Este. The twenty trecenas are shared out among the four directions in cycle.

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.

Etymology

1-Atl: the trecena that opens Atl, water, with the number one. What it is about: conscious self-sacrifice and the inexhaustible flow of feeling and penance.

How to cite this page

Alma Mexica, «1-Atl», The twenty trecenas. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/trecena/17-atl/