: One of my favorites is the Heron Guard naming scheme, as
: they are named after dates on the Bruig calender.
: Notice that the names are a number and a description
: of at least one thing.
The Mayans also based names on the names of days. A combination of names described the respective day. I have provided for a list of Mayan day-names below, I think that Bruig day names are the same, so with this you should be able to piece together Heron Guard names
1. Crocodile. The crocodile or alligator represents the water serpent which is part of the Mayan creation story. It is the first day of the 20-day cycle, and it
symbolizes creation. The day in life is probably conception or perhaps the creation of the spirit before birth. The Mayan name "Imix" devives from Ix,
meaning "womb."
2. Wind. The wind symbolizes the spirit, and this day represents the day of quickening, on which the spirit enters the fetus in the womb.
3. Temple. This glyph is usually translated "house," but it is a picture of a temple, and a temple is a holy house. It represents the house of the spirt, or the
body. In the cycle of life, it is the day of birth, when the spirit receives it's house.
4. Lizard. The lizard represents evil, and this day represents the day on which evil enters a childs life. Before that age, it was believed a child was pure and
could not be tempted.
5. Serpent. The serpent apparently represents all of mortality, or at least all of adulthood. It was said to be the day when man "gathers together all the
experience of life." The three days of Temple, Lizard and Serpent thus may each represent the beginning day of the three periods of life of childhood,
adolescence and adulthood.
6. Skull. The skull represents death, and the day is the day of death.
7. Deer. The deer apparently represents entrance into the spirit world, perhaps the day being that of the fleeting life review which occurs there shortly after
arrival in the spirit world.
8. Rabbit. The rabbit represented the "struggle to overcome the material state." Apparently it was believed that even as a spirit, after death one is still attached
to physical things.
9. Water. Water represented the day on which one "reaps the reward of his effort" of overcoming materialism. Many ancient religions had the goal of
controlling phyical desires.
10. Dog. At the lowest point of the circle, the dog (a guide through the underworld) represents the day one "enters fully into the uttermost depths of matter."
11. Monkey. The monkey, represents the day when one "burns without flame." It apparently is a purging or cleansing by fire.
12. Grass. The figure is of grass growing out of a skull, representing life coming from death. The Mayan priest was more vague on this and the remaining
steps, saying only that on this day one "begins to climb the ladder" of progression.
13. Reed. The reed is a continuation of the grass growing from the skull. The priest said only that it is another rung on the ladder. Because it is opposite on
the circle from the day representing birth, it may represent resurrection, the day when the body and spirit are reunited.
14. Jaguar. The jaguar represented the day on which one is "washed entirely clean," apparently referring to baptism. It is also known that the jaguar
symbolized an order of priesthood, apparently the one associated with baptism.
15. Eagle. The eagle represents the day on which one "becomes perfect." It also symbolized a higher priesthood order than the Jaguar. It is opposite the
serpent in the circle.
16. Thunderbird. Most tribes saw this figure as a vulture, but originally it was probably a condor (in the vulture family), known also as the thunderbird and
revered as the only bird which flies higher than the eagle. On this day one received the "full light of consciousness."
17. Quake. This glyph symbolizes both earthquake and motion in general. It is the day when one "shakes of the last traces of ash clinging to him from the
material world."
18. Flint. The flint knife represented sacrifice, which is another required step.
19. Storm. The storm, or rain of fire, is the day when ones "divine nature is manifest."
20. Flower. Flower is the day when one "becomes one with divinity." This symbolism is similar to the lotus flower in Hinduism. The Mayan name Ahau
for this glyph means "Lord."
-Milk Man
