The Rabbit and the New Moon Cycle
In order to discuss the rabbit as a time-keeper, one must return to the disaster as found in the Aztec poem, Birth of the Fifth Sun where the rabbit was thrown into the face of the Moon, named Tecuiçiztecatl, because it waas burning the earth and would not leave the horizon.
The Moon or Tecuiçiztecatl, was the trailer unit of the event when the true Sun was created in the "oven of the Gods." Chichen Itza has a wall mural that shows the true sun as the front element and the trailer personage in the tail of his serpent shape. This imagery is repeated as God L in the mouth of the serpent with a "cigar-on-fire-in-the-forehead" entity as part of the tail of the serpent. Pacal, famed for his hidden tomb, as an infant in his father's (?) arms is shown with a mask of K'awiil on his face and the serpent tail with K'awiil as his foot. This is a strange image of power has been repeated in various forms throughout the mesoamerican areas.
On K2067, of Justin Kerr's photo library of vases, one can see the image of K'awiil, the "cigar-in-the-forehead" entity, arriving for the first time at the constellation home (Draco). God L (apparently the Old Sun) is there offering the Moon Goddess a (marriage?) cup. God L is identified by a glyph that shows a constellation within the mouth of another; one that has the curved head of the monkey (scribe, once believed to be the North Star).
It is not until vase K4485 that K'awiil attaches himself to the serpent tail where the moon goddess is being fondled by God L. It is possible that she married God L in order to create the 360 year cycle. The serpent of God L on this vase, has a "venus" glyph, a Jaguar paw and a flaming star element on its neck. These elements indicate that this scenario is a sky event.
When K'awiil, as Tecuiçiztecatl entered the picture, things change. Suddenly, there was an extra 5.25 days to take care of. This probably occurred after the "rabbit" of the story, was tossed at the "false" sun. And since the narrative is entitled, "The Birth of the Fifth Sun" it is assumed that the "rabbit" was born as the natural son of the Moon Goddess.
It is more likely that the "rabbit" is no other than Tecuiçiztecatl, who waivered and backed down from entering the "oven of the gods" more than once. When Nanahuatl (as Xolotl) threw himself into the fires (Brundage pp. 26- 27), Tecuiçiztecatl, as the new moon, followed. His waivering and hesitation is an indication that he, and no other, took on the attributes of the "rabbit."
The presence of the "so-called" venus glyph (probably only an indication of two comets since four comets are in the same type of expanded glyph in the Dresden Codexp. V.58 or K.37.) shows all four corners, instead of two, similar to the Old Testament, that tells us there were four "angels" connected, not by their heads, but by their wings as they sped across the skies. (Ez. I)
However, as every Mayista knows, there never was a connection with any other culture, because the stars visible in the Yucatan are never visible anywhere else in the world. That is like saying that a bull has feathers and can fly. And since this is not about G-I or any other entity that appears on this particular vase, we will leave the rest of the iconography for another time.
This vase (K1560) is said to have the Maize God, Hun Hunahpu, and Hun Nal Ye as its actors. Hun Hunahpú is said to take power from the Lords of the Otherworld as in a story from the Popol Vuh.
However, K'awiil has to grow up a bit before he can became a serious threat to God L. One sees him as a small child or as a dwarf with the cigar unit on his forehead and a flowered staff, holding some of the clothings already taken off an old God, who now has a jaguar ear. The ear is in agreement with the attributes for God L laid out by Lloyd Anderson in his (1997) paper called "Gods in the Mayan Codices: Their Iconography, Glyphic Names, and Attributes" (counted as p. 11).
On the top register of the vase and directly over his head is a "venus" glyph next to glyph of a jaguar head. A bit to the left is another glyph, that of a toothless old man, usually associated with God L. The staff carried by the child/dwarf seems to be the Cosmic Tree that may have been a new element in the sky.
A strange mishappened entity with a net headdress of his own is holding what might be a headdress of the tatooed entity on the ground. On the other side of the vase is another tatooed entity sitting in a conquered pose. The three "dancer/conquerors" are thought to be the Maize God, Hun Hunahpu, and Hun Nal Ye. However, Linda Schele identified Hun Nal YeAS the Maize God or First Father. So, in this vase, only two of the beaded dancer/conquerors are actually named.
As an older entity, on K1198, K'awiil is probably discussing the new orbit that the Moon goddess will have in the year. The Calender Round on this vase is 7 Muluc 10 Ceh and it is 11 August, 3114 BC if one uses the Gregorian dates or 6 (or 8) September 3114 BC in the Julian, as the base number. In short, it is the beginning of time for our purpose here. On the following vase, there is a distance date of 7 Muluc 14 Zac as another distance numbe of that 3114 date, 12.4.11 of 8 September 3102 only 12 years until the 3114 date as above when using a web-based Maya Calendar calculator.
K'awiil is full-grown at this point and is now distracting the Moon Goddess. God L assumes the "cigar-in-the-forehead" symbol and places a net around his neck. Apparently, by assuming the K'awiil attire, he wants to entice the Moon Goddess back into his power, i.e. the 360 days cycle. The net seems to be part of the corded (contained) stars and constellations of the sky, sometimes indicated by the image of the netted jaguar on the walls of Atetelco in Teotihuacán, or the Maya vase of three gods (MS1123) who may be constellations in the same netted area as a strange fire bird (with a K'awiil "flaming-cigar-shape" on top of his dangling-by-a-thread head).
It is in K5164 that K'awiil of the burning cigar shape is finally attached to the serpent tail of God L who seem to be resigned to his new tail-companion, but is still trying to get the Moon Goddess to return to him. The date here is 13 Muluc 17 Pax that translates to a distance number 4.13.3.9 during the same 3114 August date, here 19 July 3022 BC or 92 years later. So with these three vases, we have a series of dates 12 years after 11 August 3114, 40 years after that date, or 92 years later. Since the total is 144, could it possibly mean that it is only 122 months or only 12 years.
The assumption is that the Maya or other mesoamerican astronomers could not view the sun at all, so knew nothing about it. Yet, in the "Birth of the Fifth Sun" the description of sun flares, as the scabby disease of Nanahuatl, that he threw away as he peeled them off and the sun spots reminiscent of Xbalanque's diseased dotted body that is now in the next vase image.
Here, on K2772, is believed to be an earthquake glyph, however, the three moon maidens are here (three phases of the visible moon?) and the earth curls are more like the moon curls found also in the ears of the Rabbit with the split face in The Rabbit and the Split Moon.
That split faced moon is also found on this vase as a glyph in front of the three ladies.It has a blank top area, but the section under it is the moon glyph with the split down the middle. To see this better one needs to go to the FAMSI site (http://research.famsi.org/cgi-bin/webdata_pro.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=mayavase&keyval=mayavase.vase_number%20=%202772) for a better view of the glyph. They are watching their mansion or home being shaken by a "quake" that is identified as a "moon quake" because of the "question-mark curls of moon-goddess" glyph identified by Eric Thompson that is placed on the pillars. K'awiil without his cigar-forehead is here also. He is now part of the serpent tail which is now his foot. It is on the next vase that we find the rabbit as he arrrives on the moon to become the new time-keeper.
On K0559,it is believed that the Moon Goddess was giving birth to the rabbit while Goddess O helps the rabbit nurse. As I wrote in "The Rabbit and the Split Moon," no lady of primitive times would permit her husband in the same room with her or look at herself in a mirror during her birth throes. She would be much too busy for the mirror, and never want her husband to see her in such a situation. It is only in today's hospitals that doctors have devised the awkward hospital spread-eagle position with a mirror for birthing.
The three ladies are very likely the same three in the previous vase, the returning year glyph is on one of them in both cases. Even though, all have different huipils than on the first vase, it is a female perogative to change their clothing at will. The rabbit here is being held up to the obsidian mirror to view the stars in their new positions after the "moon-quake."
The K3094 vase shows the rabbit seated in a star seat after his arrival on the moon apparently. He is getting ready to review his new co-workers, the male phases of the moon.
In the next picture 
The Moon Goddess holds the rabbit up to God L. And the rabbit is now holding the hat and cloak that had been removed from that God L in a previous scenario (K1560).
The K1398 the rabbit is holding the clothing of God L out to him, possibly to return them to him since the male moon entities agreed to the extra five days of the year. Next has to be the little moon elements, the many nights that the moon is actually seen in the skies which apparently includes rainy nights and cloudy ones when the moon cannot be seen.
The last vase, K2026, in this group has eight small rabbits below a man who is looking into a mirror. Dave Kelly suggests the rabbits are phases of the moon leading to an eclipse. David Stuart reads the text as 'There are rabbits, there are no rabbits." Either way they are just guesstimates. The best guess came from David Kelley. Since one rabbit is on its back, it may indicate the half-moon phase. If one is the "rabbit-to-be-scribe" that leaves seven rabbits that probably accounts for all the moon phases of one month, except for the new moon which is never seen. All had to be accounted for by humans (in front of the sky mirror) before the new scribe could begin his records.
All the above are guesstimates, based on what appears to be a sequential set of vases. It is a story, a tale of the heavens, created by me to explain how the Rabbit became the new scribe of the phases of the moon (hence the new 365.25 day year.)