#ixchel

A complicated goddess whose puzzle is still not fully solved. Her most widely accepted function is as a goddess of midwifery, birth, and medicine, she is a helping healing goddess who aids women in their time of need. In other stories she is said to be a goddess of the moon and wife to Itzamna, Chac, or Kinich Ahau, worshiped as a creator and bringer of the moons cycles, though this role is usually said to belong to a different goddess. Sometimes she is conflated with Goddess O as a fearsome half-jaguar woman who spills blood and is adorned with bones, sometimes she is equivalent to the young moon Goddess I, and sometimes she is seen as equivalent to the goddess Ix Chebel Yax who presides over writing and textiles. The islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres are sacred to her; women would travel here to pray for safe pregnancy under her protection. Many simply think of her as her name may describe, a rainbow, a myriad primordial grandmother goddess who represents many facets. Today her worship is small and statues of her take up the young moon goddess rather than the aged midwife, though these depictions can still be found.

Pantheon: Maya

Domain or Function: A goddess of healing, protection, medicine, and motherhood who primarily aids and protects women. She may also be identified with the moon, water, textiles, writing, rainbows, death, and war.

Alternate Names: Ix Chel, Chak Chel, possibly also the same as Goddess O, Goddess I, Ix Chebel Yax, and Ixmucane.

Character Traits: She helps birthing mothers deliver their babies as a goddess of medicine and healing, and is depicted as an aged grandmother, so it is assumed she is a helpful beneficial goddess.

Visual Traits: The trait that identifies her most is the coiled snake headdress, and is most often an older woman hunched over.

Symbolism: The water pot, coiled snake headdress, depending on the version she can also be shown with spools of string in her hair, a loom, a skirt made of bones, and jaguar claws. In modern depictions and statues she can be found seated on the moon with a rabbit.