The Maya were fascinated by astronomy and maths and they set out to attempt to understand time.

Is their knowledge beyond our own science? Did they learn something we haven’t yet discovered?

Perhaps by studying their calendar we can gain a little insight into their understanding of time.

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ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A CALENDAR..............

The moon spins around the earth. The earth spins around the sun. We accept these facts, we accept these natural cycles as the truth. Yet not very long ago we believed the world was flat and we snickered at anyone who thought otherwise. Now, we know better. We’ve come to understand physical laws and we accept that there are natural cycles and movements.Time too has a cycle. Yet most of us cannot see it and like our flat thinking forefathers we snicker at anyone who says time is not flat. We have seasons of the year, that is natural time, why do we think time has a beginning and an end?
Because we gave time a measure, a man made measure.We said it has a beginning and so it must have an end,
it must be linear and we must have a calendar.

However, the one we use globally, is very badly designed. Who ever put it together must have flunked maths .Months with odd lengths of days, messy leap year configurations, it is a strange thing then that we go on using it as it was some kind of natural law. The calendar we use now supposedly began 2000 years ago to mark the birth of Jesus.Despite it being changed along the way several times by Roman leaders vying for eternal fame(July=Julius, August= Augustus), people today accept that it is accurate!

Not only that, what did we use before Jesus was born?

Now the Maya, who have been heralded as the greatest mathematicians that ever lived, devised a system based on cycles, just like nature, how refreshing! They observed patterns in mathematics and astronomy and using the same principles, they discovered how to chart time. The calendar they developed was in sense, a time map.Time, they realised behaved like a cogwheel within a cog wheel within a greater cogwheel and so on. The reason they had names for numbers larger than what we use today is because they were using them to chart the largest cogwheel. The smallest measure of time that they followed daily is the ‘Tzolkin’, the 260 day count. When people talk about the Mayan Calendar, it is the 260 day count that they are referring to. The solar year cycle is divided by 13
moons and is the next biggest cogwheel of time that is observed . Beyond that, are 13 -year cycles,13 thousand -year cycles etc.The great cycle, the one that ends in 2012 is an example of a very large cogwheel.

click here to see an amination depicting this `cogwheel`

To follow the Mayan Calendar you must keep track of the the 260 day ‘Tzolkin’ count and use it within the framework of the 13 moon year.

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The 260 day Tzolkin

click here for a larger image

Read from the top left hand corner downwards. Each day is represented by a box and they are numbererd to 1-260. The dark boxes are called Portal days, these days are regarded as special as they notably more intense. The Tzolkin is made up of 20 wavespells each lasting 13 days .
A wavespell is in a sense like a week expect it is 13 days in it as opposed to our 7.
The name for the day comes from the combination of the glyph for the day
(which can be found in the left hand coloumn)
and the name for the number (which can be found in the boxes).

eg: box 260 = Yellow Cosmic Sun. Yellow Sun is the glyph for the day and the number for the day is 13 (which is called cosmic).
The Maya referred to the sun as `kin`, they also called a person `kin`, as well they called a day `kin`. They saw that the sun and the daytime as the same thing and a person was called a kin because they were born of the sun.This is why in the Mayan calendar, the characteristics of the day your were born is important. You are in sense, the essence of the day you were born.. When you combine the glyph for the day you were born with the number you are finding your kin.
Some people also call this combination your `Galactic Signature`.

please see our Wavespell section for more info on wavespells.
Also please see our Castles section which explain about the 5 'seasons` of the Tzolkin

 

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CHARACTERISTICS OF GLYPHS

Each day in the calendar is represented by a glyph. There are 20 glyphs in all. Each day is named after the glyph for the day combined with the number for the day. Since the Maya gave names to each number, every day has a peculiar sounding name.Days in the calendar have names like ‘Yellow Crystal Star’ .
The ‘Yellow Star’ is the name of the glyph and ‘Crystal’ is the name for the number 12.

There are four colour groups each containing five glyphs. The colours represent the four directions.
Red = East    White = North    Blue = West    Yellow =South

Here are the glyphs with their characteristics.
Their Mayan names are in brackets.

 

(Imix) Nurtures, Birth	(Ik) Communicates, Spirit	(Akbal) Dreams, Abundance	(Kan) Sowing Awareness	(Chiccan) Instincts, Life Force
(Cimi) Equality, Death	(Manik) Healing, Accomplishment	(Lamat) Beauty, Elegance	(Muluc) Universal water, Purifies	(Oc) Love, Loyalty, Heart
(Chuen) Magic, Play, Illusion	(Eb) Wisdom, Channel, Will	(Ben) Courage, Explore	(Ix) Enchant, Timelessness	(Men) Vision, Creativity
(Cib) Intelligence, Questing	(Caban) Evolution, Synchronicity	(Etznab) Reflecting Truth	(Cauac) Catalyzes, Self- generation	(Ahau) Enlightenment, Universal Fire

 

To find out more about the meaning of the glyphs, go to the birthchart page
where all the glyphs are explained in greater detail.

Note: They glyphs vary in style and you may see in other websites
and publications glyphs which look slightly different.
These beautiful interpretations of the Mayan glyphs were designed by Xavier de la Huerga.

Mayan Numerology Each day in the calendar is a combination of the glyph for the day and the number (the Kin). The numbers have names and characteristics just like the glyphs.To get the meaning of each day you must know the characteristics of the glyph and the number. The numbers are often referred to as `tones` as in music. In the Tzolkin the numbers are symbolised using a dot bar system. One dot =1 and one bar=5. Here are all the numbers (tones) showing the dot/bar system and including the name for the numbers and their key meanings. Click on any box to find out more about that number Don`t know your number? Go to convert dates to find your Kin. (glyph & number) 1 MAGNETIC attract unify 2 LUNAR challenge polarise 3 ELECTRIC duty service 4 SELF-EXISTING form definition 5 OVERTONE empower radiate 6 RHYTHMIC organise balance 7 RESONANT attune channel   8 GALACTIC harmony integrity 9 SOLAR intention pulse 10 PLANETARY perfect manifest 11 SPECTRAL liberate release 12 CRYSTAL dedicate co-operate 13 COSMIC transcend endure

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The ‘Tzolkin count’ is a 260 day cycle. It is based on the numbers 13 and 20. The number 13 is important because there are 13 moons in a year. The Maya believed that a calendar should be founded on naturally occurring numbers.
The number 20 is a part of the sum because the human has 20 digits to count on and because of the the
numbers 4 and 5 which when multiplied add up to 20.
Number 4 is crucial because there are 4 directions and four seasons of the year.
The number 5 is vital because the human body makes the shape of a five, with it’s four limbs and one head.
The reason the pentacle is so sacred in so many cultures is partly due to this observation.
The number 7 also becomes a player because if you deduct 13 from 20 the result is seven.
There are seven colours in the rainbow and seven chakras.

The gestation period of a human is the same length as the Tzolkin.
You are likely to be born in the same wavespell that you were concieved.

The 260 day count also represents the gestation period of a human pregnancy and that is why it is considered a
feminine calendar. Women have as many periods in a year as there are moons.
Our hormones rise and fall like the waxing and waning of the moon. The Maya observed that time had to be
feminine concern based on naturally occurring cycles.
The Maya understood that natural numbers are the ‘co-ordinates’ to our place in time.

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The Number 13
The number ‘13‘ has been subject to some very bad press in recent years leading to it being unfairly feared.
We consider ourselves sensible logical people yet in tall buildings there is no 13th floor!
The elevator goes from 12th floor to 14th floor as if there wasn`t a number 13!
People dread when Friday the 13th comes round, expecting disaster.
Fear of the number 13 is called trikaidekaphobia but how did this superstition begin?

Not that long ago, before Christianity became popular, folk followed nature’s cycles
and paid heed to the 13 moons of the year.
They celebrated Summer & Winter Solstice, Spring & Autumn Equinox and all the other celebrations of nature.
It was a way of life that honoured Mother Nature, the feminine. When priests came along and wanted to persuade
people to give up the indigenous customs, they began to make up stories about the
number 13 saying it was bad luck. The old superstition about not having 13 people sat at a dinner table comes
from the last supper where Jesus was betrayed. Mostly though,, the priest cast consisted exclusively of men and they wanted the people to worship the masculine. In fact it was Pope Gregory who invented the Gregorian calendar, the one we use today .
When people began to adapt to the Pope’s way of measuring time the old customs
of living by natural cycles was forgotten. A little bit of propaganda from the Vatican certainly helped and since
then the number 13 has had a bad name.

The number 13 is a special number, it is not unlucky or lucky it is simply powerful.

There are 13 Moons in a year
Jesus had 12 disciples (12 +1=13)
King Arthur had 12 knights (12+1=13)
In many religions 13 is the age initiation ( Jewish, Native American)
In music there are 13 notes in a scale.
13 moon calendars has existed amongst the Druids, Hindus, Buddhists and Native Americans.
The U.S.A. Was founded with 13 states.
Coven have 13 members
Arguably there are 13 astrological signs not 12, Ophiuchus being the 13th.

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As explained earlier, the Maya saw time as cycles, very much like cog wheels within cogwheels.
The great count that began 5,125 years ago is an example of a very large cogwheel of time.
The ‘Tzolkin’ the 260 day count is the smallest cog wheel and the one which we follow daily.
The solar year is divided into 13 moons rather than 12 months. When you divide the year by 13 you get ‘months’
each lasting 28 days (13x28=364). Add one day and it all adds up to 365 days.
This odd day is called the ‘day-out -of time’ and is celebrated the day before the Maya New year.
The Maya began their new year on July 26th when the star Sirius rose in conjunction with the sun..
Each ‘month’ or ‘ moon’ had an animal allocated to preside over it.
The animal was chosen by the constellation that dominated the sky at the time and the Maya had 13 animal constellations.

see 13 Animal Moons for more details

People have often asked ‘why did the Maya not follow the cycle of the moon if it is
supposed to be a moon calendar’?

There is a very good reason why they didn’t. The Maya observed (and they were incredible astronomers)
that the sidereal cycle of the moon, that’s the one where the moon reaches the same point again in the sky, took 27.3 days.
Yet the time it takes between one new moon and the next new moon is 29.5 days.
This is because the moon is spinning around us as we spin around the sun.
If you take those two measurements of the moon cycles and make an average the result is 28
days. The Maya were attempting to create a solar year that was divided by lunar cycles.
Furthermore, the Maya would not only keep track of the animal moon they were in and what day it was in the Tzolkin,
but the would also celebrate the phases of the moon too.