As you may have read in Anya’s post, recently the lab purchased several new incubators. Rather than labelling them 1, 2, 3, as we have done in the past, we decided to give each incubator the name of a fertility god. One of the names we chose is Ix-Chel (pronounced ee-shell).
Ix-Chel was the fertility goddess of the ancient Myans. In May, while on a SCUBA diving trip with my daughter to Cozumel, I had the opportunity to visit San Gervasio, the archeological site where the ruins of the temple of Ixchel stand. The ruins were located in a beautiful spot in the center of the island, with the stone path still leading up from the ocean where women from all over the Mayan civilization walked to come to the temple of Ix-Chel.
I learned from our Mayan guide that as an ancient fertility goddess, Ix-Chel was responsible for sending rain to nourish the crops and when fulfilling that function she was called “Lady Rainbow”. She helped insure fertility by overturning her sacred womb jar so that the waters would flow.
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