The 13 Moon Calendar
The Mayan thing started for me when a friend and colleague Sean O'Mahoney gave me a book to read called The Mayan Factor - Path Beyond Technology by Jose Arguelles.
The book is not the best starting point if you want to learn about the Mayans, but is a fantastic book full of concepts, opinions and interpretations and is well worth a read. Some of the content is way out there, but it is a book to keep and come back to. There are a couple of profound things in there that Jose shares with the world that are key to the journey we can choose to take and I am very grateful to Jose for his work.
Whilst digesting the book I was also searching the internet for information. I found out about the Long Count, the Haab, the Tzolkin and something that Jose created called the 13 Moon Calendar. The site www.13moon.com is a good starting point and is worth a read. There is a lot of good information on there and there is a strong community out there.
It was at this point that I started getting a bit confused as I was getting differing information across the internet. I'm a Mac user and found a fabulous program called Chac by Warren Anderson which gives you a variety of Mayan Calendar dates for a given Gregorian date (Long count, tzolkin, haab etc). The calculations are based on the most widely recognised date mappings (that the long count started on 4 Ahau, 8 Cumhu and finishes on 21/12/2012).
Using Chac my birth date is 8 Kan 7 Xul, which in 13 Moon terms would be Yellow Galactic Seed. However when I use the 13 Moon date decoder I came out as 2 Akbal, Blue Lunar Night. This sent me off on a load more research into the differing opinions between scholars, the various correlation numbers that can be used and found this article by Carl Johan Calleman.
For whatever reason, Jose has created the Dreamspell Calendar and for some reason moved the Tzolkin so that the date decoder will give you an inaccurate Tzolkin energy for a given date. He has also created the 13 Moon Calendar which has no relation to any of the Mayan calendar systems and has chosen a Day 1 of 26 July which has no relation to anything Mayan.
From the research I've done and the answers I have been given, the Dreamspell Calendar may be a helpful way of getting people interested, but I cannot see how it can help you live by the energies of the day. By moving away from the Haab Year to the 13 moon year you are disconnected from the month energies and by shifting the Tzolkin (59 days backwards) every day energy will be wrong. If you believe that your birth date contributes to the day energy it gets even worse.
I was really disappointed when I found this out as it knocked my confidence in all of Jose's work. I was also a bit miffed having bought www.bluelunarnight.com.... Having reviewed what I have learnt and experienced from Jose, I do believe is that Jose has played a key roll in sharing some fabulous Mayan knowledge with us all. The Dreamspell Calendar is not, in my opinion, one of those fabulous things. So I would encourage you to read Jose's books, but sift the information carefully. Don't let his obsession with Dreamspell put you off as he has some real gems hidden in the mud.
If you do like the Dreamspell Calendar, I wish you the best of luck with working with it and hope it works for you. I would encourage you to read further on this site and on the other sites linked as well as through the magic of google and I hope you will find information that resonates within you.
Mike
4 Men 13 Mak
12.19.16.16.15
The Mayan thing started for me when a friend and colleague Sean O'Mahoney gave me a book to read called The Mayan Factor - Path Beyond Technology by Jose Arguelles.
The book is not the best starting point if you want to learn about the Mayans, but is a fantastic book full of concepts, opinions and interpretations and is well worth a read. Some of the content is way out there, but it is a book to keep and come back to. There are a couple of profound things in there that Jose shares with the world that are key to the journey we can choose to take and I am very grateful to Jose for his work.
Whilst digesting the book I was also searching the internet for information. I found out about the Long Count, the Haab, the Tzolkin and something that Jose created called the 13 Moon Calendar. The site www.13moon.com is a good starting point and is worth a read. There is a lot of good information on there and there is a strong community out there.
It was at this point that I started getting a bit confused as I was getting differing information across the internet. I'm a Mac user and found a fabulous program called Chac by Warren Anderson which gives you a variety of Mayan Calendar dates for a given Gregorian date (Long count, tzolkin, haab etc). The calculations are based on the most widely recognised date mappings (that the long count started on 4 Ahau, 8 Cumhu and finishes on 21/12/2012).
Using Chac my birth date is 8 Kan 7 Xul, which in 13 Moon terms would be Yellow Galactic Seed. However when I use the 13 Moon date decoder I came out as 2 Akbal, Blue Lunar Night. This sent me off on a load more research into the differing opinions between scholars, the various correlation numbers that can be used and found this article by Carl Johan Calleman.
For whatever reason, Jose has created the Dreamspell Calendar and for some reason moved the Tzolkin so that the date decoder will give you an inaccurate Tzolkin energy for a given date. He has also created the 13 Moon Calendar which has no relation to any of the Mayan calendar systems and has chosen a Day 1 of 26 July which has no relation to anything Mayan.
From the research I've done and the answers I have been given, the Dreamspell Calendar may be a helpful way of getting people interested, but I cannot see how it can help you live by the energies of the day. By moving away from the Haab Year to the 13 moon year you are disconnected from the month energies and by shifting the Tzolkin (59 days backwards) every day energy will be wrong. If you believe that your birth date contributes to the day energy it gets even worse.
I was really disappointed when I found this out as it knocked my confidence in all of Jose's work. I was also a bit miffed having bought www.bluelunarnight.com.... Having reviewed what I have learnt and experienced from Jose, I do believe is that Jose has played a key roll in sharing some fabulous Mayan knowledge with us all. The Dreamspell Calendar is not, in my opinion, one of those fabulous things. So I would encourage you to read Jose's books, but sift the information carefully. Don't let his obsession with Dreamspell put you off as he has some real gems hidden in the mud.
If you do like the Dreamspell Calendar, I wish you the best of luck with working with it and hope it works for you. I would encourage you to read further on this site and on the other sites linked as well as through the magic of google and I hope you will find information that resonates within you.
Mike
4 Men 13 Mak
12.19.16.16.15
