Tzolkin and Dreamspell Calendars: Keys to Spiritual Growth

Anyone interested in the Tzolkin is guaranteed to encounter two different counts of the Tzolkin in books, lectures, or calculators on the Internet: the Dreamspell count and the Quiché or Classical count. Enter any date into a calculator and you will get a different result with each count. Confusion all around! Or is it?

For me, the existence of a classical and a "modern" tzolkin has always encouraged me to explore and experience both. By working with both calendars, I have found keys to spiritual growth. They represent different parts of ourselves, and each with its own energy makes us aware of our wholeness and wisdom. Since there is a lot of confusion about "the" Mayan calendar, I'd like to explain exactly what the differences are.

Two calendars

In late 1991, José Argüelles introduced the Dreamspell or 13 Moon calendar: a new calendar based on the classical Tzolkin calendar still used by calendar keepers in the highlands of Guatemala. This Dreamspell calendar eventually became the most common version of the Tzolkin in the Netherlands and other European countries, and has its own counting that differs from the classical Tzolkin. It is important to realize that this Dreamspell calendar is not an original Mayan calendar. When you encounter the Tzolkin in Mexico or Guatemala, it is always the classical Tzolkin calendar. The basis of both calendars is the connection between two cycles: our physical solar year of 365 days and the Tzolkin cycle of 260 days.

Relation to the Earth's Solar Year

In the Dreamspell calendar, the solar year of 365 days is divided into thirteen lunar periods of 28 days plus 1 day, July 25th. The following day, July 26th, is chosen as the beginning of the new solar year. Another pecu?liarity of this calendar is that the leap day - February 29 - has no day energy of its own. Argüelles sees leap day as a correction day that has no seal or tone of its own. This creates a mathematical rhythm in the Dreamspell calendar that José Argüelles calls the synchronous order: a cycle that repeats itself every 52 years. This rhythm creates special patterns that give you information about your core qualities, your life path and your life course in a completely different way than in the classical Tzolkin.

The Maya do not link their calendar to the 13 moon calendar, but to the Haab calendar. This is their earthly or agricultural calendar of 365 days. This Haab calendar is divided into 18 months of 20 days (Vinal) plus a period of five days (Wayeb), so 360 + 5 days. This calendar always lasts 365 days. In the classical Tzolkin calendar, each day is counted - including our Gregorian leap day - and each day has its own "face of the sun" with a seal (Nawal) and a tone (number).

Linking the Tzolkin to two different annual calendars (13 moons and Haab) and counting or not counting the leap day makes the interpretation of Dreamspell and classical Tzolkin very different.

The 52 Year Cycle

You may know that 52 is the age at which you become an "elder" and can pass on your wisdom. In the Dreamspell Count, the day energy of your 52nd birthday is the same as the day energy of the day of your birth. This is the first time this happens, and it happens again 52 years later when you turn 104. According to the classical Tzolkin, you complete this 52-year cycle 13 days before your 52nd birthday. In fact, in 52 Haab years, thirteen leap days are not counted and this has a special reason.

This is because the peculiarity of this period of 52 Haab years is that it coincides exactly with the orbit of Venus, the most important planet for the Maya. A complete orbit of Venus around the Sun takes exactly 104 Haab years, or 104 Gregorian years minus 26 days. This calculation can be found in the Venus table of the Dresden Codex. This codex contains tables showing the cycles of Venus and Mars and the eclipses upon which the Mayan priests based their predictions. So exactly thirteen days before your Gregorian 52nd birthday, you also celebrate a birthday of sorts: your Venus birthday, which falls exactly on half of a complete Venus orbit.

This important and exact correlation with Venus is the reason why the Mayans would never choose a leap day or a fixed Gregorian date like July 26th to start the New Year. Venus, not Sirius, is the benchmark for the Maya in their calendar reckoning.

The Power of Both

Together, these calendars help you strengthen the connection between your personality and your soul so that you can increasingly choose to live and create from joy rather than survive and create from suffering.

The Dreamspell Calendar awakens you. The twenty daysigns and thirteen tones show you that you have a choice. That you can choose the lightness and love within you. They invite you to shine and contribute to the world with your unique qualities.

The classic Tzolkin calendar connects you to your deepest drives. They reach beyond the life you are living here and now and help you to remember who you really are and how you can make your drives tangible in this life on a daily basis.

I am happy to guide you based on a personal question or theme. Look here for the possibilities.