Ixchel Tattoo Meaning

The moon, medicine, weaving, and the goddess of both crescent and flood.

Ixchel, 'Lady Rainbow,' is the moon goddess of the ancient Maya — the deity of medicine, weaving, childbirth, and the floods, who shows two faces across the moon's cycle: the beautiful young woman of the crescent and the fearsome old woman who pours the floods, the female divine who governs the body's own rhythms and cycles. To carry Ixchel is to carry the moon, medicine, and weaving — the Maya moon goddess of healing, childbirth, and the loom, the goddess of both crescent and flood, youth and age, who rules the cycles of the body, the rain, and the moon.

Ixchel (also written Ix Chel, meaning 'Lady Rainbow') is the moon goddess of the ancient Maya, a deity of wide and vital powers: she governs medicine and healing, weaving, childbirth, and the waters and floods. She is the great female divine of the Maya world, presiding over some of the most essential domains of life — health, the loom, the bearing of children, and the rains and waters.

Ixchel is depicted in two contrasting aspects, corresponding to the changing faces of the moon across its cycle. In one aspect she is a beautiful young woman, the crescent moon — lovely, fertile, associated with sensuality, weaving, and new life. In her other aspect she is an old woman, fearsome and powerful, with a serpent coiled upon her head as a headdress and the claws of a jaguar, who pours destructive floodwaters from an upturned jar. These two faces — the lovely maiden and the terrifying crone, the gentle crescent and the destroying flood — are the two faces of the moon itself across its waxing and waning, both held within the one goddess. Ixchel is the Maya moon goddess of medicine, weaving, and childbirth, who shows the moon's two faces. The Maya Ixchel is Lady Rainbow of the two faces — the moon goddess of the ancient Maya (Ix Chel, 'Lady Rainbow'), governing medicine, weaving, childbirth, and floods, depicted in two contrasting aspects matching the moon's cycle: a beautiful young woman who is the crescent moon (lovely, fertile, associated with weaving and new life) and an old woman, fearsome and powerful, with a serpent headdress and jaguar claws, who pours destructive floods from an upturned jar — the lovely maiden and the terrifying crone, the gentle crescent and the destroying flood, the two faces of the moon held within one goddess.

Ixchel's iconography in the Dresden Codex (one of only four surviving pre-Columbian Maya books) shows her with the serpent headdress and upturned water jar — the old, destructive aspect. The Dresden Codex itself contains sophisticated astronomical tables including the Venus table and eclipse tables, consistent with the Maya's advanced astronomical tradition of which Ixchel (as moon goddess) was the divine referent. The Spanish destroyed virtually all Maya books — Bishop Diego de Landa burned Maya manuscripts at Maní in July 1562 CE in what he himself described as an act he later regretted; he then wrote the Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán (c. 1566 CE) which, paradoxically, is now one of the primary sources for Maya culture. The name Ixchel is debated — 'Lady Rainbow' is the most common translation (ix = feminine prefix, chel = rainbow); other translations have been proposed. Cozumel's role as Ixchel's pilgrimage site is documented by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba's 1517 expedition — the first Spanish contact with the Maya.

Ixchel across cultures

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