Ix Chel

Ix Chel, 'Lady Rainbow,' is the principal goddess of the Yucatec Maya, associated with the moon, medicine and curing, childbirth, and weaving. Landa records that her island shrines on Cozumel and Isla Mujeres drew pilgrims, especially women seeking healthy children, from across the peninsula. Modern scholarship distinguishes at least two figures often gathered under her name: a youthful lunar goddess (codical Goddess I) linked to sexuality and fertility, and an aged, jaguar-eared and clawed goddess of the earth, flood, and midwifery, called Chak Chel (Goddess O), who is shown in the Dresden Codex pouring a torrent of water from an inverted jar to drown the world. She is regularly paired with the creator Itzamná.

Domains

• moon
• medicine
• childbirth
• weaving

Powers

• preside over childbirth
• pour the destroying waters

Epithets

• Chak Chel — Great Rainbow / Red RainbowKarl Taube, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (1992), pp. 99-105 (secondary)
• Ix Chebel Yax — Lady of the first brush / weavingJ. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion (1970) (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: ItzamnáPaired with the creator Itzamná.J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion (1970) (secondary)

Sources

• Ix Chel is the Yucatec goddess of the moon, medicine, childbirth, and weaving, with a major pilgrimage cult on Cozumel.: Landa, Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, trans. Tozzer (1941) (primary); J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion (1970), pp. 241-249 (secondary)
• Scholars distinguish a young moon goddess (Goddess I) from the aged jaguar-clawed water goddess Chak Chel (Goddess O), with the name Ix Chel applied variously to both.: Karl Taube, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (1992), pp. 64-69, 99-105 (secondary)