The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012 - Dr. Synthia Andrews Nd [33]
Days, Months, Years
Tzolk’in has been translated to mean “the Count of Days” by Yale professor Michael Coe. Each day in the 260-day cycle is known by both a number and a name. The name is designated by a glyph called a day-sign that we talked about in Chapter 3. There are 20 day-signs and 13 numbers. Tzolk’in dates were written with the number first and the glyph second, such as 1 AHAU.
Here’s a list of the day-sign names of the Tzolk’in:
Day-signs and numbers are counted alongside each other like we count weekdays. Both the day-sign and the number change each day. In our week, Monday the 1st is followed by Tuesday the 2nd is followed by Wednesday the 3rd, and so on. In the Mayan calendar, it would look like this: 1 Ahau, 2 Imix, 3 Ik, and so on. In the Tzolk’in calendar, one cycle is complete when all 13 numbers have been combined with all 20 days. You can get a sense of how this works by looking at the two rings inside of each other in the following illustration. The inner ring is the cycle of the 13 numbers, the outer ring is the cycle of day-signs.
The numbers of the Tzolk’in are the inside ring, the day-signs are the outside ring, and the large ring is the Haab.
As the 13 numbers revolve within the 20 days, it takes 260 days for the same number-glyph combination to repeat. That means a complete cycle of the Tzolk’in takes 260 days. The number of times a cycle completes, or the number of Tzolk’in years, are not counted. It’s a system that exists in the eternal present, one more reason it’s considered the centering calendar.
What Is a Divinatory Cycle?
If a divinatory year is not tracking a specific astronomical body, what is it based on? Some say the calendar is based on the length of human gestation, or the growing cycle of corn, the sacred plant of the Maya. Others say it’s related to celestial events such as eclipses, the time Venus is seen as the morning star, or the zenith passages of the sun. Some link it to the Pleiades constellation. Robert D. Penden, former lecturer at Deakin University in Australia, asserts that 260 days is the common denominator between the planets of the inner solar system, thus making it a unifying cycle.
Codex Cues
Thirteen-day periods of time are called trecenas. They were used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars. The calendars divide the 260-day cycle into 20 trecenas of 13 days each. Trecena is a Spanish word meaning “group of thirteen,” and trecena is used similarly to the way we use “dozen.”
In the larger picture, all these theories are valid. Together they form the basis for the belief that the Tzolk’in calendar linked celestial and terrestrial events, like the movements of the planets with the corn harvest. It’s said that celestial events are linked into in the human body through the gestation cycle.
Spiritual Qualities of the 20 Suns
Let’s not forget the spiritual qualities expressed in the Tzolk’in. The 13 numbers and 20 day-signs were actual deities, so the combination of deities determined the attributes of the day and influenced the events that occurred.
The glyphs representing the day-signs show pictures of meaningful activities in daily life. When used in divination, the day-signs were combined with the meanings of the 13 numbers as well. It’s like reading a horoscope with both a sun sign and a rising sign.
Divination
Ah K’in is the title of the Mayan Day Keeper. The Day Keeper performed divination by “reading” the Tzolk’in. You might decide to go to the Day Keeper to resolve a crisis, to ask health questions when you’re sick, or to find out the status of a pregnancy. If you wanted to expand your business, you might consult the Day Keeper for a wealth reading. The sacred cycle was also used to determine