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The Mayan New Year begins on Wednesday, February 18, 2026.
This year is carried by the nawal 1 Kej, the Year of the Deer. This energy calls us back into the body, back to the earth, and back to a form of leadership rooted in integrity.
In the sacred Mayan calendar, each day is formed by the union of a number from one to 13 and one of the 20 nawales, or day signs, creating a cycle of 260 days. Each combination carries a unique energetic imprint that informs both our personal lives and the collective field we move through together.
Alongside this sacred count, the Maya also work with a 365-day solar calendar. Each February, a new Year Bearer steps forward as the guiding influence of the year ahead. The Year Bearer sets the tone of the times: the deeper undercurrent shaping global events, collective lessons, and the questions humanity is being asked to face.
This year, that guiding force is 1 Kej.
Kej is the nawal of the stag, the guardian of the four cardinal directions and the keeper of sacred territory. It governs the physical body, vitality, forests, wilderness, and spiritual leadership that arises through alignment rather than domination.
Kej does not rush. Kej listens. Kej stands its ground.
The number one carries the energy of beginnings, seeds, potential, and unity. One is the moment when intention crystallizes and something new chooses to be born. The year 1 Kej marks the beginning of a cycle that asks us to root deeply, even as we move forward.
After the intensity of 13 Iq’, a year marked by turbulence, upheaval, and relentless winds of change, 1 Kej arrives like a pause in the forest. A clearing. A chance to feel the earth beneath our feet again.
And we need it.
The past year has been heavy on the collective nervous system, to say the least. In the United States, political polarization and the rise of authoritarian and white nationalist movements have intensified fear and division. Globally, the immense and ongoing suffering in Palestine and in many other regions of the world has brought grief, outrage, and heartbreak into daily awareness. For many, it has felt like living inside a constant storm.
Iq’ years amplify this kind of chaos. They move quickly, expose fractures, and break open old structures, often without offering a sense of ground beneath us.
Kej is different.
Kej asks us not to disengage from reality or spiritually bypass what is happening in the world. Instead, we must ground and become steady enough to respond rather than react, act with clarity, and remember that sovereignty begins within.
This teaching is deeply embodied. At 45, I experienced significant changes in my body last year, particularly in my shoulders. They tightened in a way I had never known before—not frozen, but restricted. I could no longer bind my hands behind my back comfortably. The constriction felt energetic as much as physical, like protective armor around my heart. I recognize it as connected to a season of depressed anxiety, when my nervous system contracted in an attempt to keep me safe.
Slowly, gently, my shoulders are beginning to open again. My work now is to balance acceptance and effort: loving my body exactly as it is, while also tending it through yoga asana, pranayama, and mindful movement. I treat my body as a temple, not because it is perfect, but because it is intelligent and alive.
This, too, is Kej medicine.
Kej teaches that the body is sacred territory. Vitality is cultivated through movement, grace, and dignity. In a culture that glorifies burnout and disembodiment, Kej reminds us that slowing down enough to feel is an act of resistance—and of wisdom.
Kej is also the energy of spiritual leadership.
I have been leading yoga retreats for many years. I trust the precision of divine timing—the way the exact right people always arrive in the circle. When I am teaching yoga in its full expression, sharing the wisdom of the sacred calendar, and holding space with presence and integrity, I feel aligned with my purpose.
Kej leadership is not loud or performative. It does not coerce or dominate. It stands rooted and allows truth to emerge organically. This is the kind of leadership our world is quietly hungry for.
Finally, Kej is the forest. For many years, I lived immersed in wilderness, and now I move between the forest and a bustling Mayan town. The contrast is immediate in my body.
Humans are not meant to live cut off from the natural world. We need trees, soil, water, and open sky to regulate our nervous systems and remember who we are.
Kej years ask us to examine our relationship with the land—not as something we own, but as something we belong to.
Invocation for 1 Kej
On February 18, place your feet on the earth. Breathe.
May we stand rooted in truth.
May we care for our bodies as sacred ground.
May our actions arise from integrity.
May we remember our place as one with nature.
As we enter the Year of the Deer, we are invited, individually and collectively, to reclaim sovereignty, balance, and responsibility. This is a year to ground deeply enough that we are not easily knocked over by chaos, to lead where we are called, and to care for the living systems that sustain us.
May we walk gently yet firmly on the Earth.
May we remember that true strength is quiet, rooted, and awake.
May the wisdom of 1 Kej guide us home to our bodies, our values, and our shared humanity.
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