Mesoamerican Calendar

                           The Spirit of the Calendar and the Birth of Time

Sky provides early man with practically his only challenge to intellectual speculation and measurement. What speculation has started, however, it creates in societies the need for what we might call “speculation maintainers,” or priests. A hierarchy is then called for, which in turn imposes on the priests the need to expand the cult.

  Burr C. Brundage, The Phoenix of the Western World p.145

The once familiar basis of the calendar which arrives to us from out of ancient Mexico has now of course been completely forgotten. The numerological notations, and the ancient symbolism's used within the basis of this calendars numerological script have only very recently in our times been misconstrued as mere ideas, for which had supposedly gained their significance through the repetition of mythological oral traditions, and the authority of scribes. Before the existence of the Mesoamerican Calendar, as it generally has come to be understood in its completion, there was first and foremost a long and ongoing tradition pertaining to an ancient “vision quest,” which had resulted in the enactment of profound entheogenic experiences that were initiated thru the study of the night sky. These had been taking place all throughout the lands of Middle and South America, resulting in the diverse ancient psychedelic symbolism's we view today and that are to be found within the traditional works of art from within those areas; resembling in many cases the same aesthetic stellar frameworks for the ancient iconographies that reach us from many other parts of the world.

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Before man learned how to count time, he discovered the gods in the various forms of nature, and for that matter, subsequently within the night sky as well. The sun and moon still remain obvious to this day as physically demonstrating the original pair of celestial forerunners that defined a universal godhead. Sometimes, in many cases in different parts of the world these two celestial bodies represented ‘the two eyes of the godhead’, and this concept was no doubt true for an extremely early Mesoamerican cosmology as well.

However, in the case of the more delicate visions brought about through consistent deep night star gazing, ancient man would discover through the ongoing use of various hallucinogens that the night sky contained subtle depths of light and shadow, which revealed patterns and forms that mimicked many of those that can be found in the world of physical daylight. These delicate celestial patterns, and forms that were to be perceived had contained a quality about them however, which was different from the everyday world of light and sun, and which for that matter contained within them the seeds of the ancient spectators own psychological creativity, which would later emerge in the form of many fantastic hallucinations that were brought about through stargazing.

These enigmatic celestial visions and their qualities began to be recognized more and more frequently as a message of liberation disconnected from the physical plane of reality, and instead they were eventually understood as being delivered indelibly from on high, from a place of permanence and stability that is revealed only from within the vast world of the gods, as a mark of their work and their ultimate statement of a transcendental universal creativity. Deep within their ongoing hallucinogenic vision quest with the stars, the ancient seers began to see within these massive enduring celestial structures of light and shadow, the bases of what appeared to be to them the blueprints of physical existence.
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The vision quests became more and more frequent, and consisted of more and more spectators participating in the hallucinogenic experience, which then revealed a psychological exaltation from within the night sky that then became a shared liberation among certain groups of men. These groups of men, who later emerged in the form religious sects, then became the architects of the emerging celestial religions, which eventually came about to dominate the immediate tribal world. The religions emerged through the hallucinogenic vision quest, and then were stabilized through the invention of the symbolic stellar iconography that was in many cases developed relative to the cycles of the planets within a systematic relationship to the stars. The bases of many of these visions became what we now understand today as the regalia and imagery of the gods. The deeds of the gods, therefore often reflected various astronomical activities taking place within the heavens throughout the year, and of course eventually their roles were to be expounded upon to explain the nature and categories of universal creativity; this is especially and usually true for that particular case which accounts for the invention of man and his continuing existence.

For that matter, these colossal celestial visions also allowed for man-like formations to be perceived throughout the night sky, resulting in their various positions and specific posturing’s that were then to contain such immense significance that these constellations then had become the key profiles of the “god-men” in their occupations. However, an even more significant aspect of an hallucinogenic vision had always been ever present, which revealed the form of various animal and reptile like creatures that dominated the panorama with their exotic ferocity that would echo with the unconscious fears of mans ancient emerging psyche . Within this immense star-scape, a hallucinogenic world dominated the scene, revealing in its eerie similarity, a stellar version of the earthbound food chain, and therefore quantifiably appearing as a celestial world of consumption taking place among many celestial beasts. The now well-know appearance of the Galactic Center, as being consumed by a celestial Milky Way Alligator-Dragon serves well to prove this point, although there are of course other such examples. In fact, the ongoing cyclic occasions of the solar eclipses also revealed a recurring combat within the heavens between what was to become a celestial dragon (in the form of the rotating lunar node) and the sun.

The stellar theme here being alluded to was especially strong in Mesoamerica, and the lesson here, which is being carried out pertains to the fact that Mesoamerican Calendarictic Iconography is indeed specifically celestial. This fact is applicable not only for the Aztec calendarictic symbolism, but to the Mayan as well. This is to say that most every aspect of the Mesoamerican Calendarictic symbolism is to be found in the stars in a way that exceeds conventional stargazing creativity by far. For that matter, this often leaves the more popular bright star patterns only as sparkling decorations that sprinkle the more subtle and massive shadowy figures that fill the sky. These massive shadowy figures further help to serve as enormous clues and reminders of the Milky Way’s Galactic spiral formation process.

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    Also, for the case of Mesoamerica, and even more esoterically for the ancient world abroad, the stellar formation of the distant Andromeda Galaxy was understood as pertaining to a great deal more of cosmological synthesis and mythological formulation within the labors of deep night star gazing then is currently supposed; to a degree that the ancients may have perceived the Andromeda Galaxy as the soul of the universe. It might be a good place here to recognize that one of the Mesoamerican notions of the soul was the result of deeming it, or what was called the soul warmth or ‘tonalli’, as being a fire that was originally drilled in the heavens.

When the subject matter of the sky arises in our current westernized version of ancient calendarictic cosmologies, we wait patiently expecting to find a ‘zodiac’ within the Mesoamerican night sky that will lead us towards a greater understanding of how their calendarictic cosmology worked, and which of course would also demonstrate what their constellation systems meant to them, especially with respect to how we have been taught to perceive the heavens in our western world. However, if we are waiting to find a set, or a ring of perfectly symmetrical, and coordinated night sky symbols, like that which is found within our version of the Babylonian Zodiac, then we surly have missed the point of realization, which is to be found within the enormous and revolutionary night-sky visualizations that are at the very seat of the Mesoamerican Cosmological Heritage.

Therefore, it could be insisted that the 20-signs of the Mesoamerican Calendar are not to be found in any kind of circular zodiac, but rather are to be found heavily compiled within the distorted immensity of the night sky itself, as a remainder of an ancient and enduring tradition of heightened perception that brought about the initial realizations and visual experiences from within the darkness of the heavens. These perceptions not only found their way into the world of cultural mythology, but as well, somehow the mechanics of the celestial perceptions finally came to be understood as being integrated into the physical world, and were understood as being reflected in the very fabric of human DNA in the terms of the repeating patterns found within the allotted day-signs in the astrological traditions of Mesoamerica.
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For that matter, it must be ascertained somehow that DNA also absorbs and transmits thought patterns, or else the perplexing mystery as to how all of these astrological systems actually reflect their intended symbolic animal paradigms may not ever be understood. Therefore, when studying these ‘influences’ it is to be understood that we are recognizing something that amounts to the remnants of a kind of ‘ancient psychological graffiti’, which still yet every so subtly pronounces itself to those who aware of the ‘time frequencies’ that these can be seen in. The nature of the 20-day cycle was designed to integrate the immensity of the night sky into a specific enduring cyclic structure, therefore being in and of itself a kind of ‘converted zodiac’ in terms of time and degrees of space, which captures various psychological emanations arising from the collective concentration from within various planes of activity .

Finally, what might be surmounted here, is that most all ancient religious iconography (and especially that which is found in Mesoamerica) is the result of a process of what we should now be officially referring to here as “stellar pareidolia.” (See Wikipedia for definition on pareidolia). This phenomenon also produces an additional intuitive effect, resulting in what could be called “religious apophenia.” The process is somewhat 3-fold, in that it involves first, an acknowledgement of significant environmental objects and structures, which are then, projected outward psychologically onto the greater celestial star-scape, within and upon the extraterrestrial stellar formations that both exhibit and mimic the more mundane physical structures; this constitutes the process of the ‘stellar pareidolia’.

Finally, these more mundane physical structures are then given special credence, and are understood as possessing properties of divine intervention thru their assumed extraterrestrial origins, and are acted upon with the particular set of assigned rites and deeds that are designed to recognize their sacredness; and often being reinforced as well by some degree of superstition and fear; as in the case of the specific task of recognizing ‘the gods’. This final last step, of course would constitute the aspect of ‘religious apophenia’, which is characterized in most all ancient religions thru a process of religious ritual, and belief systems that stratify the community thru mass apprehension, which then becomes the subject matter of a personalized, and perhaps superficial religious paranoia, which has resulted in what we now call ‘superstition’.
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Spelling this out to within the simplicity of literary terms however, is in no way meant to degrade or derail the inherent context of actual and perceivable correlations that are shared throughout the psychic environment of perception, and the timing of events as measured thru astronomic calendar systems. The phenomenon of time itself, which comes down to us as being inherently understood as a stream of consciousness in human terms, may rest solely within the transformation of distant ancestral experiences, which now serve to reinforce the psychological substructures of our conscious focus, or what we like to call “consciousness.” This would be to imply that time as we understand it, has not always been perceived in the same way by all humanity, and for that matter it should also be mentioned that other sentient beings within our earthly existence, currently do not share our focus of time and space, in any such way with us what so ever.

Thus, for that matter, it is to be understood that our conscious focus and recognition is a product of evolution and experience, which has gone thru periods of expansion and contraction over the great ages of man’s entire existence. In the process, the exaltation of spiritual and religious experience has helped to reinforce certain perspectives, and to induce specific concentration points that have amounted to highlight the nature of reality as we choose to perceive it among the many other possibilities available. In recent times, it could in fact be said that too much religion has come to narrow our perception, whereby we have recently been forced to focus only on certain stimuli, at the expense of many others. Amounting now more recently, to an evolved form of scientific perspective where we are left mostly with a practical strategy of perception, which is mostly designed to sort and filter out, and which therefore mostly emphasizes survival in order to work within the physical environment.

Initially, before the advent of language, a great interrelatedness was perceived throughout the environment of mans evolving consciousness, whereby the very nature of physical existence itself was explored through the different varieties of consciousness found throughout nature. These varieties may have included gradations and hierarchies of every sort, yet most important to man would be his shared existence with the closest of all his relatives, the animals. Pointing out this fact, reinforces the notion of the traditional approach to most all forms of astrology found throughout the world, which demonstrate an attendant affiliation between the individual and certain animals, depending on the time birth of the individual within the structure of the year. Throughout the ages, this magical affiliation of the ‘astrological animal double’ has fascinated onlookers with its inherently perceived psychic mystery, and which has always prompted the study of individual behavior, in relation to the nature and unfoldment of time.

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The highly selective, and stratified nature of our current conscious focus, still yet contains the bits and pieces of the ancient religious experiences and perceptions that earlier had helped to color the whole spectrum of the evolving human consciousness, even as it now, still continually derives its essence from the greater psychological paradigm of psychic creativity, which has always helped to define its boundaries. Carried along within these bits and pieces of the ancient psychic heritage, are the aberrations of time recognition, which have taken the form of the earlier structural concepts that once stabilized the ancient perceptions. Within these psychic forms, are the building blocks of time recognition that might now amount to more of what we would tend to think of as an ‘ancient world view’ of expanded perception.

In other words, we have by our very nature, inherited ‘ancient conscious energy structures’, which are the very frameworks that carry the substance of what could be described as an ancient space-time concept, which defines and reinforces man-animal, and other latent associations to be found throughout the human psyche and its creatively diverse environment. In short, we have inherited the perceptual concepts that reflect traditional astrolologic (space-time oriented perceptions) and their attendant concepts, as a psychic phenomenon that involves the perception of time as a stream of structured consciousness that is rooted in the past from various types of human growth and exploration; and as well by the available latent potentials of human awareness as well.

The traditional westernized astrological notion of reality has come to be typically understood in terms of the interrelationship of planetary cycles. However, the integral concepts of ‘astrological signs’ have come to dominate the human psyche over the millennia and throughout many cultures particularly for their symbolic bases, and for a quality which reflects the 3-dimensional physical orientation of perceived reality that is found within the everyday world, and as well within the more mysterious world of dreams. In fact, the greater freedom that is often exercised within the dream world, can amount to mirror the more liberated version of consciousness that comes about through the inebriated consciousness that is affected by the ingestion of hallucinogens. Within these altered states of awareness, are brought about the levels of awareness that warrant the unfoldment of perception that has in the past amounted to the rectification of symbols that were maintained for their value in describing a transcendental reality, which in turn could refer to a greater authority and source of civil stability.

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For this matter, the structuring of time became especially vital to the structuring authority within the community, and for the maintenance and development of civility as was to be found later throughout the world. When the ancients anticipated the need for a time-keeping mechanism they did so through the unfoldment of physical time as it is found within nature and its ongoing celestial cycles – not simply through clocks. Therefore the heavens themselves, which had long been decorated with various perceptions, and other symbolic comparisons would come about to serve as the bases of time keeping and as well serving as a map for the development and unfoldment of human awareness.

In Mesoamerica, we have something of a different situation with regards to the kind of time keeping mechanism that was used, since it appears that normal function of the planets through the 360° of the zodiac was altered in some way to bring about another kind of astrological result to be recognized, via a 260-day cycle. There has been some degree of speculation as to where such a calendar system like this may have developed, and while many would prefer to see this enigma as originating within its particular indigenous vicinity, it would nonetheless appear that what had come about was the result of a mass shared industry of astrological, and astronomical concepts developed world wide, which then made it into the New World through the trade and transmission of overseas civilizations.

Therefore, like the greater bulk of worldly cosmological concepts and astronomical / astrological calendars as well, the Mesoamerican Calendar should also come to be understood as cross-referenced, and cross-engineered, and which then finally evolved to represent something of the product that we think we perceive within the eroded structure of this ancient puzzle, which is constituted now with what are in essence its forever missing pieces, and the legacy of the invisible hand or hands, which had constructed it in the first place so-long ago.

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                                                                The Structure of the Calendar

The Mesoamerican Calendar is well-known for its unique quality of structure that divides the year into eighteen substructures of 20-days each, for a year that is 360-days long with an empty period of five days left over, to complete the year of 365-days. These years of 365-days are then bundled into a 52-year period, generically accounting for what is a total of 18,980-days. Within this 52-year cycle, there also runs the course of an allotted series of days, which numbers into the amount of 260-days, and which continues to stand as being numerically unique and unparalleled by any other calendar in the world as a form of reliable counting procedure, and which is also astrological in its nature.

This 260-day series is also known to run concurrently with the periods of the 365-day year, and accounts for an astrological matrix that is created between the eighteen substructures of 20-days, and which then repeats itself after the commencement of the 52 year cycle. Within a 52-year period of 18,980-days, there are 73-cycles of this 260-day series, and just over 949-cycles of the continuing 20-day periods. The concise character of the 260-day period is a result of multiplying the 20-day cycle by 13-numbers. It is often the question about the mysterious origin, and meaning of this particular set of 13-numbers, which are in turn held within a multiple with the 20-day period that remains to be the underpinning of the essential enigma about the 260-day series, which in turn contributes to the most vital basis of the Mesoamerican Calendar.

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However, in recent times it is the particular feature of the Mesoamerican Calendar which exhibits this unique 260-day cycle that has lead many of us to believe that this interesting cycle is the only aspect of the calendar that should actually demand any kind of authority for its correlation with other world calendars in the counting of time. In the wake of this misnomer, many pertinent elements of the Mesoamerican Calendar go on misunderstood, and unevaluated due to a modern obsession with finding a calendar that never has to be recalibrated with the inconsistent cycles of nature. To this day, many people feel that they have found the perfect calendar within this 260-day cycle, ever since very recently, Mayan scholars have declared that the 260-day cycle always for every case of the Mesoamerican Calendar goes on repeating itself endlessly without any correction with regards to the 52-year cycle, which all other cycles of the calendar are assembled to.

This is idea is implicated as well, with regards to any amount of subordination to other time cycles that the 260-cycle may have within this calendar, which was meant specifically, to delineate the terms of the natural 365-day year as well. This is to say, that in recent times that the 260-day cycle has been chosen as the leader of this calendars direction, endowed with an authority that oversees the outcome of all the other cycles in their cohesion with natural time. For this matter, we may be obstructed from understanding the more elaborate elements of the calendars rectification, as it was used traditionally as a consistent manmade framework designed to help work against the inconsistencies of natural cycles of the year, and the seasons within it.

At the crux of the Mesoamerican Calendar is the 20-day cycle, which carries a meaning that has recently eluded our ability to understand its astronomic foundations. Despite this however, the 20-day cycle holds a great amount of significance for us, as it carries within each one of its houses a symbol, which resembles at least in principal, one of the 12-fold signs of the natural western zodiac. This kind of resemblance redirects our attention towards understanding what appears to be a worldwide phenomenon of symbolic and astrologic time keeping. The value of this astrologic symbolism then helps to implement our purpose in restoring the functionality of this calendar as an effective astronomical instrument.

The traditional rulerships of the 20-day cycle are listed below, which have their incorporation with the 9- Lords of Night, and the 13-Lords of Day, as is listed in the Tonalamatl.

1.    Alligator – Tonacatecuhtli: Lord of our Subsistence

2.    Wind – Quetzalcoatl: Feathered Serpent, Lord of Wind

3.    House – Tepeyollotl: Mountain Heart, Midnight Sun Eruption Deity

4.    Lizard – Huehuecoyotl: Laughing Drum Coyote, Lord of Festivities

5.    Serpent – Chalchiuhtlique: Water Goddess

6.    Death/Turtle – Tecciztecatl: Conch Shell Sea Crab Deity

7.    Deer – Tlaloc: Lord of Rains and Thunderous Eruptions

8.    Rabbit – Mayahual: Maguey Goddess of Drunkenness

9.    Water – Xiuhtecuhtli: Old Fire Lord at the earth’s center

10. Dog – Mictlantecuhtli: Lord of the Land of the Dead

11. Monkey – Xochipilli: Flower Prince, Lord of Music

12. Grass – Patecatl: Medicine God, Healing Deity

13. Reed – Tezcatlipoca: Smoking Mirror, Lord of Provinces

14. Jaguar – Tlazolteotl: Filth Goddess of Sex and Birthing

15. Eagle – Xipe Totec: Flayed God of Spring and Resurrections

16. Vulture – Itzpapalotl: Obsidian Butterfly, Fire Goddess

17. Movement – Xolotl: Twin Deity, Evening Star Duality

18. Flint /Turkey – Chalchiuhtotolin: Jeweled Turkey Deity, Lord of Battles

19. Rain – Tonatiuh: Sun God or, Chantico: Goddess of the Hearth Fire

20. Flower – Xochiquetzal: Flower Feather, Precious Lady of Renewals

However, once again we are here misled by our own fascination with the particular features of the Mesoamerican Calendar, which excite our attention with their uniqueness, and those particular resemblances that motivate our attention to explore the foundational implications of their inherent astronomical cycles. But in the case of the 20-day cycle, we have been continually eluded of any pertinent astronomic correlations, and left with only a comparison of what appears to be a reduced moon cycle of 29.5 days. With this implied connection however, we are forever left wondering what happened to the other 9.5 days. Why should a reduced moon cycle be any more important than a regulated full cycle of the moon? In any case, without answering that question, we at least know that eighteen of these ‘20-day reduced moon cycles’ comprise of a 360-day year, minus of course, the leftover 5-days that do not fit in evenly. Therefore, the 20-day cycle is cohesive to the ‘astrological and astronomical’ 365-day year, via the division of the year into 18-sections.

Finally then, it is specifically the number eighteen in this case, which for some reason has failed to excite our attention to explore its astronomical meaning, and yet it is the number eighteen, which is nonetheless of a particular astronomical significance to the structure of the Mesoamerican Calendar. Those of us who have studied and explored this calendars meaning, and astronomic content, are well aware that it was the eighteen 20-day divisions of the Mesoamerican year that were filled with the most exotic of community rituals and tradition, and which expressed an implied seasonal connotation that is to be found illustrated within the later Aztec traditional recollection of ceremonies. And as well, for those of us who are honest enough to admit to the plausible seasonal functionality of this calendar, we can also see the details of the suns yearly journey, which were inscribed within these traditional activities that are outlined within the position, and altitude of the sun within any given particular ‘20-day month’ as it occurs within the natural year of the 18-subsets of 20-day months.

   These 18-subsets of the year, or ‘20-day months’ were referred to as in the Nahuatl tradition as the “Metztli,” meaning specifically, ‘moon’. Therefore the reference to them as a ‘month’ is for the most part appropriate. The problem we must confront however is whether or not it is the astronomical reality of a 20-day cycle, which is to be responsible for the accumulation of the eighteen subsets that comprise of the 360-day year. Or, if on the other hand, whether it is in fact an astronomical quality of the eighteen subsets, which in fact would be responsible for the creation of a more, conceptualized value for the numeric functionality of the number 20, for in the case of this calendar. For that matter, it is worthy at this point to take special note of the slight difference of the sum of ‘2’, which lies between the numbers 18 and 20. There is in fact a special kind of duality to be found here. Below are the eighteen 20-day months with their Gregorian counterparts listed with respect to their earliest and latest beginnings within a given 52-year cycle from 2-Reed over to 3-Flint after the addition of a correction dating.

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Atlcualco – Water Abandoned – earliest: February 12th or latest: February 26th
Tlacaxipeualiztli – Resurrection of Xipe – March 4th or March 17th
Tozoztontli – Small Perforation Vigil – March 24th or April 6th
Huey Tozoztli – Great Perforation Vigil – April 14th or April 26th
Toxcatl – Dry Thing – Drought – May 4th or May 16th
Etzalcualiztli – Eating EZTALLI Bean Porridge – May 23rd or June 5th
Tecuilhuitontli – Small Feast of Kings – June 12th or June 25th
Huey Tecuilhuitl – Great Feast of Kings – July 2nd or July 15th
Micailhuitontli – Small Feast of the Dead – July 22nd or Aug 4th
Huey Micailhuitl – Great Feast of the Dead – Aug 11th or 24th
Ochpaniztli – Sweeping of the Ways – September 1st or September 13th
Pachtontli – Small Feast of Tree Moss –September 21st or October 3rd
Huey Pachtli – Great Feast of Tree Moss – October 10th or October 23rd
Quecholli – Tlaquecholli: Red Spoonbill Swan – October 30th or November 12th
Panquetzaliztli – Feathered Banners Raised – November 19th or December 2nd
Atemoztli – Waters Downward Falling – December 9th or December 22nd
Tititl – Withered – December 29th or January 11th
Izcalli – Stretching – January 17th or January 31st

We know well by now that at the foundations of our annual calendar, which brings along with it a traditional zodiac or ‘circle of animals’ would tend to imply that the number 12 is the essential product, which fulfills the mathematical functionality of the year with its 12- (lunar) month divisions. All aspects of the 360° of our ecliptical circuit revolve around this number 12, which ascribes 30° for each 12-fold section of the zodiac, reflecting the general or mean 30-day (degree) period for each lunar month of 29.5 days. Therefore, for the most part, it can be argued that in fact our calendar is lunar, in at least its most general structure. On the other hand, we have the Mesoamerican Calendar with a 20-day cycle, instead of a 30-day cycle; and an 18-fold substructure comprising of the year, rather than a 12-fold substructure. What could be the difference?

The problem in reconciling the difference between these two calendar equations lies specifically within our inability to come to terms with the precision and depth of ancient Mesoamerica’s astronomic heritage. We know of some of the great things that were achieved within their civilizations, which reflected a refined knowledge of astronomy that was unsurpassed within any other part of the Americas at that time. We see much of this within the Mayan Codices, and yet however, with such a small handful of these precious books we cannot really say what it was precisely that had at that time been planted historically within those ancient cultural foundations for the appearance of such incredible astronomic achievements. Therefore, where the handful of sacred books cannot take us, we must go ourselves with our faith and assumptions, which are often masked in the form of decent scientific hypothesis.

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   In the case of Mesoamerican Astronomy for that matter, it must be ‘assumed’ that there was much more that was understood about the moon’s cycles, and which were finally to be used within the Mesoamerican astronomic practice to contributed to the rectification of the calendar that we have come to recognize, or that can be readily available to us though the ancient works from the region.

Therefore, in this case, we are forced once again to let the numbers speak for themselves. Finally, when we let the numbers speak for themselves, we then can begin to hear the utterance of truth, which states that the Mesoamerican astronomers were aware of the 18-year eclipse period of what we now call the Saros cycle, and as well as a 18.6-year lunar nodes cycle that is in part responsible for it. The essential fact about the Saros is that it is in fact a cycle, meaning that it is in fact a ‘360°- circle’. The 18-year circle is created by a combination of orbital motions between the earth and the moon, which are completed in 18-years and 11.33 days. About at that time, is also when what are now called the lunar nodes (also known as the Head and Tail of the Dragon) complete 360° of retrograde motion in 18.6 years, helping to result with the full cycle of the Saros eclipses upon the ecliptic. Currently, to our way of thinking these cycles may not sound like the particular kind of lunar cycles that we are looking for in the astronomical foundations of a calendar. However, I have personally discovered to be what I believe is indeed at least part of the base of the 20-day cycle, through the inclusion of the significance of the number 18 as being a predominating factor within these nodal eclipse cycles, which is a personal realization as of March 30th 2005.

   This notion is to some degree very well reinforced, with the Nahuatl name of the of the 360-day unit, which was called the “ilhuitl,” being derived specifically from the word for ‘heavens’ which were called the “ilhuicatl.” When we look at the presentation of the eighteen 20-day cycles in written book form, we see what resembles an up and down matrix of eighteen 20-day cycles, or 360-ilhuitl total. However, it is a surprise of realization to know that what is actually being perceived within the up & down written matrix is in fact a depiction of the 360° heavens. This is indeed to say specifically that perhaps the eighteen 20-day cycles are the result of the 360° circle of the heavens being divided up into “18-sections” as a result of the ancient knowledge of the Saros, which was to be used to stand as a symbolic notation of its 18.031 year cycle, and which are in part fulfilled through the 360° of retrograde motion of the lunar nodes every 18.6 years. It is in this sense that the two numbers ‘18’ and ‘360’ are truly astronomically interrelated thru the ongoing motions of the lunar nodes, and therefore might have been divided against each other to create the 20-day cycle: 360° / 18-(years) = 20° of space. This is also somewhat relevant to the fact that an “eclipse year,” which is 346.6201 days, is actually 1/20 of a year.

The hypothetical equation actually goes to prove itself, when we understand that our current calendarictic 12-fold division of the year is simply being laid across the 360° foundation of the heavens, and thus resulting in a 30-day (degree) division of annual time. As a result, the consistent retrograde motion of the lunar nodes as they traverse backwards thru the 12-fold zodiac, takes an average of eighteen (18) 30-day months (or 1 ½ + years) to go through each one of the 12-signs of the zodiac; thus 1 ½ + years, times 12 = 18 + years. In the case of the Mesoamerican Calendar, the 18.031-years, which alludes to the Saros cycle, was here theoretically rounded off to the lowest common denominator of the number 18, and then this figure was used to divide the 360° of the heavens. As a result, we are left with a 20° section of space-time, rather then the higher dividend of 30°. With this, what we have left for the equation of the retrograding lunar node, is a cycle that retrogrades through a smaller 20° section, not in 1 ½ + years, but rather just in only 1-year. The official movement of the retrograde nodes is 19° per each 365.2422-day year. Thus variably, each Mesoamerican 20-day sign represents 1-year of retrograding motion of the lunar node in a circle of 360°, as each 20-day sign contains a shared space of 18° of the horizon and the ecliptic combined.

Now that we have established the 18 + years of the Saros, and the lunar node cycle as the dividend of the “20-day division cycle,” with respect to the 360° of the heavens, then surly we have also discovered the bases of the so-called “reduced lunar cycle,” and we even perhaps now know why it has been reduced! And yet, what is also of significance but has never been pointed out within any prominently advertised work, is that the amount of space-time that the ongoing pace of the moon travels at 13° per day covers within the allocated period of ‘20-solar days’ is in fact 260°. Thus, each 20-day period of the sun’s monthly passage (or Metztli), contains 260° of an altering lunar phase. This is to say that the moon traverses in 20-days, in what it takes the sun to traverse in 260-days; which is a personal realization of this author that goes all the way back to a time of a personal discovery of the ecliptical dragon on December 9th 1989. It very well may be for that matter that a growing season, which amounted to 260-days, was understood to contain 260° of space that sun traveled. When finally measuring this, the Mesoamericans then theoretically realized that the moon takes 20-days to complete this special cycle of 260°, and created a 20-day cycle from that.

This might instead suffice as a more believable theory, as it still may be hard for some to just simply except that this 20-day cycle is an incurred increment of a division of the numbers 18 and 360, and that as the base of the inherent year cycle that it should also be understood as the base of a lunar 260° spatial cycle. But we have yet nonetheless created a situation, in which we are able to perceive a high degree of collusion between the various cycles; and so for that matter it may just as well be part of the overall truth; just as long as we are willing to explore all other possibilities, and finally integrate them into the whole of all available numeric solar system functions since Venus tends to reveal a role in the scheme of the 260-day enigma.

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Also, for having been able to understand that the 260-day cycle can be actually more about degrees of space, rather than just only days of time, we are now then able to corroborate more information. Now it is possible to understand that the 20-sets of “13-solar day weeks,” which comprise of the 260-day cycle, (often referred to as the Spanish ‘trecena’), are commensurate to the amount of micro-degrees that the moon traverses in one solar day, which would now have been in this case, simply converted over to the function of the following slower macro-solar degrees to express the passage of 13-solar days. Therefore: 13° X 20° = 260°, and is then to be converted over to solar days of the sun, so that Yin is converted over to Yang, implying that the slower moving sun is mimicking the faster moon within this numeric function expressed within the 260-day calendar.

Now, when we multiply the 260° of altering lunar phases, by the amount of 20-day cycles in 1-year, which is of course 18, we get the number of 4,680° by simply multiplying 18 X 260° lunar degrees. The number of 4,680° then also comes to represent the number of degrees that the sun traverses in 13-years. So that in this case method of converted degrees, we have just seen that 1-day of the moon equals 13-days of the sun; and as well that 1-year of traversed lunar degrees also equals 13-years of traversed solar degrees.

This equation could then turn out to the bases of what is traditionally called the “Xiuhtlalpilli,” or the Mesoamerican 13-year period. Finally, when we multiply ‘4-years’ of the altering lunar phases of 260° each, we then get the equation of 18,720° of space traversed by the moon in four years, which is then converted over to the four 13-year periods of the Xiuhtlalpilli, which equal 52-years of 360-days, or 18,720 solar days. This could be seen as the result of 260° X 72, or (18 X 4 = 72 x 260). The addition of 5-extra days at the end of every year as a result of the earths orbital configurations that incurs an extra 260-day period after the final passage of 52-years, and therefore amounting to the equation of 260 X 73 to then equal the 18,980-symbolic day’s total in a 52-year period.

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Therefore, it can be seen that theoretically the numerical base of the 52-year Mesoamerican cycle is as much an enigma as the 260-day cycle, for being related to it via the traversed lunar degrees of the moon (in this case). But the 52-year cycle has recently up until this time only been regarded with very little conviction and understanding for its importance and contribution in the process of time keeping in Mesoamerica. Some have even gone as far to suggest that this cycle is simply an approximate one, which is an inadequate misnomer based on the perspective of counting only the available symbolic numbers supplied through the official Mesoamerican Calendar Cycles of (52 x 365) in relation to the actual passage of time. Actually, of course, there are in fact some approximate aspects to the 52-year cycle, numerically depending on whether one is including the count of only the official 360-days, which might have been used to symbolize the official degrees of space, and then equate to only 18,720-days. Or, if one is also including the 5-leftover days at the end of each year to then arrive at a new total of 18980-days.

Finally, there is to be the essential recognition that the 52-year period is not complete with out the accumulated days incurred at the end of each ‘4-year period’, which would bring the 52-year cycle up from 18,920-days, to a new amounting total of 18,992.6-days. When this figure is subtracted from 18,980, we get 12.5944-empty days at the end of each 52-year period, which are not fully symbolized within the Mesoamerican Calendar Cycles.

It is the subject matter of these accumulated 12.5944-days, or (12.6-days), which are to incrementally come about after every fourth year within the complete time-frame of an actual 52-period, and which is also at the bases of the ‘Corrected Count Theory’. This theory accounts for these accumulated packages of time with the addition of an altering blank set of 12 and 13-days at the end of each and every 52-year period, and which like the 5-leftover days at the end of each 360-day year, were principally designed as ‘wait periods’ of decreased activity to realign the calendar. (Burland.1980). Is it the subject matter of this waiting period, which occurred every 52-years within Mesoamerica that was called “The Xiuhmolpiliztli,” or ‘Binding of the Years’ which is to be explored in more depth within the following chapters on The New Fire Ceremony.

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At this time, the objective is to describe the numerological essence of the 52-year cycle as being in part, possibly the result of the smaller lunar configuration of spatial degrees, (as discussed above) and compare it with the another lunar cycles that it may contain. For that matter however, it might also be a good time to include the fact that the orbital cycles of the planet Saturn actually very much resemble the moon, with a period of 29.45-years that reflects the 29.5-days of the moon’s lunations. It has recently been discovered by this author that the 5125.366 (5200 x 360) Katun cycle of the Mayan Calendar, designates the sidereal position of Saturn for each Great Cycle ever to be counted. Therefore, it is to be assumed that Saturn as the slowest (and readily) visible planet of the night sky may indeed be at the bases of this 52-year cycle enigma and pertain specifically to the Great 5125.366-year cycle, and the 394.2-year Baktun in general, which then comes to resemble ‘a year of the sun’ with Saturn as its main satellite.

But when considered in relationship to the moon, the 52-year cycle can in fact to some degree be weighed against an important existing cycle of eclipses, which are called the ‘Exeligmos’ meaning the ‘Turn of the Wheel’, or the “Triple Saros,” and which being made up of 19,756 days, is basically 54-years, and 1 month of 30-days. The obvious closeness of the two cycles is exemplified by the approximate 19,000-days found in each, but although of course there is the difference of 764-days found in this eclipse cycle, when compared against a full 52-year cycle of 18,992.6-days, which therefore being a difference of a full 2.091-years is quite noticeable. This takes this particular calculation over into the opposite year-sign within any given Xiuhtlalpilli of the Mesoamerican Calendar, and accounts for interesting polarized calculations to be found when the 54-year cycle when it is measured against the 52-year cycle.

This astronomical factor of the Triple Saros brings on a similar eclipse within 30° of the last eclipse that was completed 54-years or (19,756-days) earlier. Obviously, for some, the approximation that is found here between the two cycles of the Triple Saros, and the Mesoamerican 52-year cycle are not to be seen as being proportionate. However, the fact may be that the Mesoamerican Calendar might have been actually in part, engineered to record the occurrence of this recurring eclipse family thru what are to become essentially 76-cycles of the 260-day Tonalpoualli. On the corrected count, the calculation arrives a little differently, due to the altering set of correction dates, and yet comes about once again to express the inherent duality which specifically lies in between the numbers of 18 and 20. For that matter, it will be noted here that the Mayan version of the linear Long Count handles various calculations more efficiently, and thus its astronomical purpose, which was to be found in the Mayan world.

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On the Corrected Count however, the equation works like this: Using the full solar eclipse that occurred within Mexico on July 11, 1991, which was the day 1-Jaguar, in the year 5-Reed, and occurring on the first day of the 8th 20-day Metztli of the “Great Feast of Kings,” (within the Corrected Count), we then simply count forwards by 52-years to the next 52-year period of 5-Reed, and add 2 years to come up with the opposite year sign of 7-House. Then locating 1-Jaguar within the year of 7-House, to be found generally within the same seasonal allotment of 20-day periods (but now to be found 30/40-days later within the 10th Metztli) we then ‘subtract 18-days’ from that 1-Jaguar position of the Tonalpoualli, to arrive at the Tonalli-date of 9-Vulture, which is the day August 12, of year 2045 C.E.

So, by adding the exact increment of 19,756-days, or 54 years + one 30-day month, we had arrived at August 12, 2045 with an eclipse in the same part of the world (Mexico), but of course it will only be partial at that time. This calculation is achieved easily with the availability of many kinds of astronomical computer software. But in the case of the “Mesoamerican Corrected Count,” various increments of this Triple Saros Family of eclipses can be predicted variably just by counting backwards by 18-days upon the Tonalpoualli, for a future eclipse occurring 54-years afterwards. Or, by counting forwards by 18-days upon the Tonalpoualli to come up with eclipses (or near eclipses) that had occurred 54-years previously. More often than not, it may be closer to a variable number of 18, 17, 16, or even 15-days in some cases.

The subject matter of eclipses cycles with regards to the Mesoamerican Calendar has been the subject of some degree of independent study by researchers. However, it hasn’t quit been promoted thoroughly yet that perhaps the calendar was invented specifically as an eclipse calendar in order to demonstrate the shared momentous space-time relationship, which is found between the sun and the moon. There are however examples of late native documentation, which go to prove just such an awareness about the configurations between the sun and the moon, and how these were to correlate to the calendar.

However, because in reality the Mesoamerican Calendar turns out to be a calendar that outlines the whole of the solar system as an integrated function of numerological coincidences in relation to the cycle of earth, the burden then upon each and every researcher is to discover all planetary correlations that lie within the frameworks of the calendar as being evidence towards the purpose of its initial rectification.

For this reason, principally Venus has been the subject of a special study, since it had been pointed out historically by native informants that its cycle was of a most specific study to all Mesoamerica. For that matter, some have attempted to claim that the Mesoamerican Calendar is specifically a Venus Calendar, since there are certain cycles of the planet which resemble an innate founding principal, such as the 263-day visibility phase of Venus as either a Morning or Evening star.

As has been eloquently pointed out in the book “Signs of Time,” by Bruce Scofield that the late Edward Seler had devised a method by which the 584-day phase of Venus could be used to create numeric divisions, which resemble and mimic other numerological elements of the calendar. First of all, there is the fact that the Venus cycle of 584-days when divided by 29.2 = 20. Thus, this might tend to show evidence for some researchers that the 20-day cycle was derived by dividing the Venus year created by the synodic 584-earth days, and the approximate set of lunation’s found in that time, which would be just about 20 or even more precisely: 584 / 29.53 = 19.77-days, (resembling the amount of years in a Katun cycle) and therefore being just under a full 20-day equation. This equation can be reversed by dividing the 584-day period by 20, to come up with the approximate days in a lunation, (29.2 in this case). This then would give the planet Venus and its cycle a great deal of authority over the initial concept of the calendar and the 20-day period.

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However, Seler even goes further to suggest that it was the 584-day Venus cycle that was used to devise the 260-day Tonalpoualli. The argument comes about thru the well known Earth / Venus cycle where 8-solar years, nearly equates to 5-Venus cycles being 2,920-days. Eight solar years actually amounts to 2921.9376-days, showing a discrepancy of 2.3-days. Interestingly, there is a reversal in the equation when the number 73 is taken into consideration, where 5 x 73 equals the amount of 365-days within the solar year, and 8 x 73 equals 584, or the amount of days in a Venus year. When a logical move is made to add the two cycles of a solar year of 365-days, along with the Venus year of 584-days, we come up with equation of 949-days. As we saw earlier, 20 times this amount of 949-days adds up to the amount of days in a 52-year period, which is of course then to be 18,980-days.

When each of these 20-periods of 949-days found within the 52-year cycle is then to be divided by what is in this case the enigmatic number of 73, we get 13-cycles of 73-days as in 949 / 73 = 13. Therefore, when we add the combined cycle of the Earth / Venus periods, which equaled 949-days, and times them by 20, and come up with 18,980-days or a 52-year period, then finally we are to divide that figure of the 52-year cycle by the number of 73, to arrive at the amount of 260-days; which refers directly to the amount of Tonalpoualli cycles in that time of 52-years, and which is of course is 73-in number. As we saw earlier, this is the result of the extra 5-days that are added at the end of each year, otherwise the figure would be 72 cycles of 260.

  While the equations do go to show an extreme form of astronomic congruency, I have a problem in understanding the meaning of the application of the number 73 in this case, except for it being responsible for a even division of the year in to 5-parts, which of course would resemble the five-stations of the 584-day period that are fulfilled in 8-years. Therefore, I see such an equation as being more mathematically contrived than anything else. Though indeed beyond my current comprehension it may nonetheless provide good details.

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Moreover, there is the fact not yet expressed that 100 x the amount of 949-days, which equals 94,900-days is a near perfect equation of 260-solar years of 365.2422-days. The true equation is 94,962.972-solar days, and which contains of course 13-Jupiter / Saturn approximate conjunctions. So that basically, within the time of 260-true solar years, there are as many cycles of the Tonalpoualli that occur in that time, as there are days in a year, meaning that: 260 x 365.2422 = 94,962.972 / 260 = 365.2422. There are 162.6 cycles of 584-day cycle in this time as well, and these can be multiplied upon itself to deliver equations that resemble further calendrical equations. The Mesoamericans recognized this cycle for what it is, and furthermore it was specifically understood that were exactly 14-cycles of the retrograding lunar node, which also occurred at that time of 260-solar years, which is in part expressed on the Aztec Sunstone. (Authors Discovery). These calculations might go to prove that the Mesoamericans discovered intricate decimals thru larger calculations and multiplications of the number 10, which were then back calculated for the attainment of their numerical products.

On Christmas morning of 2010, meditation with a cup of tea brought about the vital realization to this author that within 160-earth years, there are exactly 260-revolutions of the planet Venus (of 224.7-days each) around the sun. This would go to show that the 260-day cycle is related to the Venus synodic cycle with respect to the fact that there are exactly 1.6-earth years in that time of 584-earth days, and also that there are to be 2.6 Venus years (or Venus revolutions around the sun of 224.7-days each) in that time of 584-earth days as well. Therefore, this would go to show that the numerology of the 260-day cycle is an intrinsic multiple brought about through the 2.6 sidereal cycles of Venus, (of 224.7-days) within the span of the synodic 584-day period. In essence this would represent a numerological conversion of years into days.

This loans also a new significance to the period of 160-years, which contains 58,438.752-days, while reinforcing the 260-year period as well. The significant numerological element of the number 160, as it pertains to the cycles of Venus that perhaps are to be seen expressed on the peripherally of the Aztec Sunstone; although it must be admitted that this author has not been able verify fully the amount of these embedded dots that circle the complete round of the Sunstone.

  All original information Copyright. 2011 Matlactli Omome Cuauhtli / Tonal Inquiry Mesoamerican Experiences