1050

Maya calendar

• The day of the Mayan creation—the beginning
• of the Mayan era—was 13.0.0.0.0:
• 13 b'ak'tuns, 0 k'atun, 0 tun,
• 0 winal, 0 k'in, 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u,
• or 11 August 3114 BCE, we would say.
• A k'in is a day.
• A winal is 20 k'ins.
• A tun is 20 winals.
• A k'atun is 20 tun.
• A b'ak'tun is 20 k'atun.
• That was on a Monday.
• The Mayan week had two ways to reckon weeks.
• The first counted thirteen k'ins, 1 through 13.
• The second named twenty k'ins:
• Ajaw, Imix', Ik', Ak'b'al, K'an,
• Chikchan, Kimi, Manik', Lamat, Muluk,
• Ok, Chuwen, Eb', B'en, Ix,
• Men, K'ib', Kab'an, Etz'nab', and Kawnak.
• These two give us a cycle of 260 k'ins
• and the Tzolk'in date in the ritual calendar:
• 4 Ajaw was that distant Monday.
• The Mayan year had 18 months of 20 k'ins,
• plus 5 unnamed k'ins called Wayeb'.
• The Wayeb' was the dangerous, unlucky part of the year
• in which the gates of the underworld dissolved.
• This was the Haab' date in the civil calendar:
• 8 Kunk'u was the eighth day of the eighteenth month.
• The Mayan long count
• started over again
• on 21 December 2012.

Lords of the night

• The ritual calendar had 29 groups of 9 nights,
• each represented by one of 9 lords of night.
• The lord of fire and sunlight
• is life after death,
• warmth of a fire on a cold night,
• a light in the darkness,
• something to eat during a famine.
• The lord of wind and the night sky
• is the night winds, the cold north,
• hurricanes, war, rulership, temptation,
• black obsidian reflecting the earth.
• The lord of the rising sun
• is the protector of children.
• He is healing, hallucinogens,
• visions to guide our path.
• The lord of maize and plenty
• is dried corn still on the cob,
• the spirit of the harvest,
• the fertility of the earth.
• The lord of the underworld
• is death and sacrifice of human flesh.
• He is the god of heroic death,
• normal death, and accidental death.
• He guarded the bones of the first gods
• that Quetzalcóatl stole,
• giving rise to all of humanity.
• The goddess of water in her skirt of jade
• is rivers, seas, and storms.
• She is youth, beauty, and passion.
• She watches over childbirth and baptism.
• She brought the flood to end the fourth world,
• but protected humanity from drowning.
• The goddess of purification
• is vice and disease, love and desire.
• She is steam baths and confession.
• She eats dirt to free us from our sins.
• The lord of the heart of the mountains
• is earthquakes, echos, and jaguars.
• He is the lord of animals and dark caves.
• The spots on his jaguar coat
• are the stars in the sky.
• The lord of rain, hail, and lightning
• is earthly fertility and water,
• the giver of life and sustenance.
• He is the heron and creatures that live in water.

Counting and naming

• We begin counting at the beginning of time.
• We give each period a name and attributes
• for the meanings of our lives,
• for all the things we depend on
• and all the things that threaten us.
• Life is manifold, death is manifold, power is manifold.
• The moon and the sun run circles around us
• and array the forces of earth.