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Mayan Signs — The Complete Guide to Maya Symbols & Their Meanings
“Mayan signs” actually refers to two distinct systems: the 20 sacred Nahual day-signs of the Tzolk’in calendar (used for birth-sign readings) and the hieroglyphic script the Maya used to write their language on stone, ceramics, and bark-paper codices. This guide covers both — clearly separated, so you find exactly what you’re looking for.
1 Two Kinds of Mayan Signs — Which One Do You Mean?
🌞 Nahual Day-Signs (Maya Astrology)
The 20 day-signs of the Tzolk’in (Cholq’ij) — Imix, Ikʼ, Akʼbʼal, Ix, Ajaw, and 16 others — each governing a spirit, an animal, and a personality archetype tied to your birth date. This is what most people searching “what is my Mayan sign” or “Mayan zodiac” are looking for.
See the 20 Day-Signs, by Direction ↓
✒️ Hieroglyphic Signs (Maya Writing)
Classic Maya script used roughly 800 individual glyphs (logograms and syllables) combined to write full sentences — the only fully deciphered writing system native to the pre-Columbian Americas. This is what researchers mean by “Maya signs” in an epigraphic or linguistic sense.
Learn How Maya Glyphs Work ↓
2 The 20 Nahual Day-Signs, by Cardinal Direction
Each of the 20 Tzolk’in day-signs belongs to one of the four cardinal directions in Maya cosmology. Find your birth day-sign, or use the free Nahual calculator ↗ to get it instantly from your birth date.
East — Likin: Birth & New Beginnings
The sunrise direction — initiation, first breath, the opening of a cycle.
North — Xaman: Wisdom & Ancestors
Clear-sighted, still, and reflective — endings that teach, memory, and discernment.
West — Chikin: Transformation
The sunset direction — descent, inner change, the road between worlds.
South — Nohol: Growth & Abundance
Fullness, harvest, and the storms that renew the earth — closing the cycle in Ajaw, the Sun.
3 Maya Hieroglyphic Signs — How Maya Writing Works
Classic Maya script (c. 300 BCE – 1500s CE) is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been almost fully deciphered. It combined two kinds of signs into a single text, much like modern Japanese mixes kanji and kana:
Logograms (Word-Signs)
A single glyph represents a whole word or concept — for example, a glyph meaning “jaguar,” “sky,” or “king” (ajaw). Scribes could choose the logogram or spell the same word phonetically, giving Maya writing striking visual variety.
Syllabograms (Sound-Signs)
Smaller glyphs representing a consonant-vowel sound (like “ba,” “ku,” “na”), strung together to spell out words phonetically — the same principle as a syllabary. Scribes combined syllabograms with logograms within a single glyph block.
Glyph Blocks & Reading Order
Signs are grouped into roughly square “glyph blocks,” read in paired columns, left to right, top to bottom — a distinctive layout found on stelae, lintels, ceramics, and the four surviving bark-paper codices (Dresden, Madrid, Paris, and the Grolier fragment).
4 Day-Signs vs. Hieroglyphs — Quick Comparison
| Feature | Nahual Day-Signs (Tzolk’in) | Hieroglyphic Script |
|---|
| Purpose | Sacred calendar / birth-sign meaning | Writing the spoken Maya language |
| Count | 20 signs, repeating every 260 days | ~800 known glyph signs |
| Still used today? | Yes — living tradition among K’iche’ Ajq’ijab’ (Daykeepers) | Studied academically; modern Maya languages use Latin script |
| Where to explore | Free Nahual Calculator ↗ | ClassicMayan Sign Catalog ↗ |
For Deep Epigraphic Research
If you’re researching the hieroglyphic writing system itself — individual glyph readings, phonetic values, or the academic sign catalog — the definitive open-access resource is the ClassicMayan Text Database & Dictionary Sign Catalog ↗, maintained by the University of Bonn, Göttingen State and University Library, and the Cologne Center for eHumanities. The Mayan Library focuses on the living Nahual calendar tradition; for glyph-by-glyph epigraphy, their database is the authoritative academic reference.
5 Frequently Asked Questions About Mayan Signs
What does “Mayan signs” usually mean?
It depends on context. In astrology and calendar contexts, it means the 20 Nahual day-signs of the Tzolk’in. In linguistics and archaeology, it means the hieroglyphic script the Maya used to write their language. This page covers both.
How do I find my Mayan zodiac sign?
Is Maya hieroglyphic writing fully deciphered?
Largely, yes. Decades of work by epigraphers — building on breakthroughs by Yuri Knorozov and others — mean most Classic Maya inscriptions can now be read, though scholarship continues to refine specific readings.
Are the 20 day-signs related to the hieroglyphic writing system?
Yes — each of the 20 day-signs also has its own hieroglyph, used in Classic Maya calendar inscriptions on stelae and in the codices. The day-sign meanings (personality, animal, direction) are a separate tradition from general Maya writing, but they share the same glyphic origin.
Can I see real photographs of Maya glyphs?
Continue exploring The Mayan Library: