The classical Tzolkin Calendar round is one of the two most important calendars of the many Mayan Calendars, for modern people to understand and utilize. It is the oldest of all the Mayan Calendars is referred to as, "the personal calendar" and is the master calendar, around which all the other calendars revolve.

One of the first things you'll want to wrap your mind around, is the fact the Tzolkin is not a calendar - carved in stone - as in a physical thing. Certainly the Tzolkin is codified into the stonework of the ancient Mayan pyramids and ancient stelea but there is not one singular carving that you can see a picture of, per se.

The Tzolkin calendar is a set of mathematical equations, based on the 13:20 ratio that permeates the whole sacred Mayan calendrical system.

The 2D grahpic below shows what the Tzolkin would look like visually as well as how it functions, as a round-within-a-round... a wheel-within-a-wheel. The Tzolkin, is the hub of all the Mayan calendars which serves to connect and clarify what the true Mayan Calendar actually is. Without taking the Tzolkin into consideration, the Mayan calendar becomes a set of numbers disconnected from profound deeper meaning.

The inside round is the 13 numbered Tones, while the outside round is the 20 Day Signs or glyphs.

As the wheels turn, the 13 Tones and 20 glyphs match up producing a unique day, each day, for 260 days.

The Basic Mathematics :

13 tones
x 20 glyphs
= 260 Kin
(Kin translated means "day")

The Tones
In the image above, you see the dots and lines that represent the 13 Tones, in the inner wheel. One dot equals 1. 2 dots equals two. 3 dots equals three and so forth around the wheel, up to the number thirteen. The image below shows how the numbers 1-13 are written:

Names of the Day-Signs/Glyphs
The outer wheel is the Day Signs or gyphs. The names of the glyphs, in order 1-20. The Maya name first, then the English translation:

1. Imix/Crocodile
2. Ik/Wind
3. Akbal/Night
4. Kan/Seed
5. Chicchan/Serpent
6. Cimi/Transformer
7. Manik/Deer
8. Lamat/Star
9. Muluc/Offering
10. Oc/Dog
11. Chuen/Monkey
12. Eb/Road
13. Ben/Reed
14. Ix/Jaguar
15. Men/Eagle
16. Cib/Wisdom
17. Caban/Earth
18. Etznab/Flint
19. Cauac/Storm
20. Ahau/Sun

The first day of a new Tzolkin round would be: 1/Imix

Day two of a new Tzolkin round is: 2/Ik

This matching process continues through the first 13 days and the 14th day would be called: 1/Ix or Jaguar, which is the 14th glyph. The 13 Tones start over, while the Day Signs follow through to 20 before starting again at the first Day Sign "Imix".

Don't worry if this sounds confusing at first. It is confusing because its unfamiliar territory for the modern mind! It will get clearer as you become more familiar with the Tzolkin round - an effort well worth making.

Each day in the Tzolkin calendar is unique just like you
There are 260 combinations of Tones and Day Signs as noted above in the mathematical equation 13x20=260. You were born on one of those 260 unique days. You have a "tone" and a "day sign" and that represents your true Mayan Calendar birth-date.

While modern people in this modern age are relatively familiar with western astrology, the Maya had a different view of the relationship between ourselves and the cosmos that was not based on physical time.

In western astrology, the date-of-birth is determined by how the planets are aligned on the day you were born. Planets are physical bodies moving through space and therefore rooted in physical-time.

Your Mayan birth-date on the other hand, is not based on how the planets are aligned but rather upon where you stepped into the River of Time, according to energetic patterns encoded in the Tzolkin calendar round. You will often see the Mayan birth-date calculations referred to as Mayan or Aztec 'astrology', which is technically correct but easily misunderstood. Mayan astrology isn't astrological in the sense we think of astrology today because your Mayan birth-date is rooted in a concept of time that is sacred rather than physical.

The combination of the tone and the glyph or day-sign, determine the energy of the day. This is the reason it is important to find out the tone and glyph of the day you were born. The energy of the specific day you were born

Turning of the wheel
Now that you have a few basic facts about the Tzolkin calendar, let's consider what this calendar might be timing.

Since there is nothing in our Solar System that goes around anything else in 260 days, many modern scientists dismissed the Tzolkin early on, as having liitle to no importance whatsoever.

Why would the Maya use a 260 day calendar? And why would this serve as the hub for all their other calendars? That question remained unanswered for years. Without investigating the true Mayan Calendar with an open mind to discover the deeper, hidden meaning of the calendrical system, accessing hidden knowledge would be impossible.

The Mayan Calendar, for the ancient Maya, was the source and basis of their religion, and the prophetic and sacred process of life. The Tzolkin was/is the "personal calendar"; the calendar used daily by everyone.

It is not a "frozen" version of time by any means; that is to say it is not a version of time based on where our planet is, in relation to our Sun. It expresses fluid, spiralling-cycles of time that continuaously flow and encompasses the ever-changing evolutionary process of living beings.

Here are some basic points about the Tzolkin calendar round...

What's the purpose in YOUR journey?
When a person was born in the ancient Maya culture, their name became the Day Sign of their birth. This practice instilled the individual's purpose in life into their name. Therefore, as an individual grew, their purpose was clear to them from birth. Further, when people met and told their names, each knew the other's purpose and could thereby assist one another in fulfilling it.

Another point, somewhat unrelated but interesting to note when considering a society where people are aware their lives have purpose from birth. The ancient Mayan society held an extremely high regard for art and artisans.

An artisan was revered in the way a lawyer or doctor would be revered today and treated with great respect. The arts, artisans and the creative process were considered central and sacred to the classical-period culture.

It does reveal an interesting difference societally, when people are born with their purpose codified into their names and living their lives in this knowledge. Art was valued and supported very differently than it is in our current culture. The roots of the ancient Mayan civilization were grounded in a sacred perspective of time, encoded in the Tzolkin together with the Tun (for more information about the Tun calendar see this article).

Following the Tzolkin...
At the beginning of any journey into an unfamiliar world, the best way to begin is with simplicity. The Tzolkin is beautifully constructed as it provides an immediate way to start using it in your own life. Let me explain...

Following each day, as it turns in the Tzolkin calendar, is a powerful step in aligning your life with your purpose. This is about much more than counting "time" as you may think of time now. Following each day in the Tzolkin will become ...an experience as you pay attention to the movements of energy from day-to-day within your own life. You open yourself to working with the days by first simply being aware of what they are, according to the Tzolkin calendar round.

As you follow the days one-by-one, your sense of time and your sense about time, will begin to change. The subtle changes are collective; meaning this builds.

For example: if you start following the Tzolkin days and stop, then begin following again, what you already established will still be there to further build upon. Whatever you build is built and remains with you.

There is no reason to complicate this at first. Simply follow the days, read the meanings for the "tones" and "glyphs" and investigate them for yourself one day at a time.

Encoded in our DNA?
As mentioned earlier, the Tzolkin calendar is a 260 day calendar. There is nothing in our Solar System - or for that matter, anywhere in the Universe that we know of that goes around anything else, in 260 days.

The limited view of time, based on the physical movement of our planet around our Sun, made early investigations by scientific minds miss why a 260 day calendar might be valuable.

Looking beyond the commonly accepted view that a calendar only counts physical time, there are other interesting connections to be seen in a "personal calendar" that is 260 days in length. Two examples...

How do these two points relate to a calendar?
In point of fact, the Tzolkin is really something quite unique. It is accurate to say the Tzolkin is less a calendar and more an energy-tracking-device.

In fact, according to Dr. Calleman's research, the Tzolkin is the measure, intention and flow of Creation, for each day. Said another way, it has been keeping track of the bio-rhythms that exist within Creation's entire evolutionary process for billions of years.

The Tzolkin offers a profound and solid foundation upon which to build your personal intent and flow. It is a way to see how you are involved in the flow of Creation. It opens up more potential for how to live in harmony with that flow.

Today, people everywhere in our modern society, disconnected from Sacred Time and hypnotized by physically-based time, are actually working against the flow of Creation and entirely unaware that is the case. One simple action-step you can take to move your life in the direction of alignment is:

SIMPLE STEP: Follow the Daily Tzolkin everyday - Know what DAY it is according to the wave-cycles of Sacred Time.

You can start doing this simple step now.

Action STEP! - Know what day it is...

Follow the Daily Tzolkin.

To begin your own personal experiment in working with the Tzolkin we have created a "Daily Tzolkin" that gives you the Tone and the Day Sign for each day.

Go ahead and try it right now. Click here to view today's Daily Tzolkin.
(opens in new window)

Depending on where you are in the world and the date on your computer, the Mayan Calenadr Code "Daily Tzolkin" will move from one day to the next.

Double-check the date at the top of the page, to be sure which Gregorian calendar day you're looking at. The Gregorian date is located at the top of the page in the following format: (month)(day)(year) or 7/8/2006

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere or outside the US
The Daily Tzolkin moves forward based on the time on "your" computer. You may need to check several times in one day to see when the day actually moves forward for you.

I have found the date moves about mid-day for the Southern Hemisphere. As I hear from more people using our Daily Tzolkin in the Southern Hemisphere, I will be able to give you a more precise time when the day actually changes.

Example: If it were 2:00 PM, January 1, 2006 in the US, it would be 7:00PM, January 2, 2006 - 17 hours later, in Australia. Check the "Daily Tzolkin" to see when the day changes for you, so you'll know when to view the current day.

What this Action STEP is exactly

Check the DAY, each day, read the meanings of the "tone" and "day-sign" aka "glyph" and reflect on the meanings throughout your day.

More about the Daily Tzolkin will be coming soon to this web site. If you'd like to stay updated as Mayan Calendar Code grows online get our Newsletter...

Want to send me your feedback about this article?
Feel free to write me at thecode@pobox.com.

Enjoy the journey,
Andi Mac
Mayan Calendar Code Explorer!

NOTE: There is another Daily Tzolkin online, run by friends of ours. You may want to check it out as well. It's located at MayanMajix. Here is a link to have a look at the web site.

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©2005-2006 FreshAir Ent./MayanCalendarCode. All Rights Reserved. Wouldn't you love to stumble upon a library filled with hidden messages revealed about the Mayan Calendar? Find bite-sized-insights into the ancient calendar of the Maya, and purposeful strategies for tuning your life to the wave cycles of Creation. Go to http://www.mayancalendarcode.com today and find out for yourself!

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