All calendars are creations as ways of engaging with the days. There is no one right calendar. What seems important is that we recognize that there are many ways of keeping time, and that how we keep time has a profound impact on our experience of life.
There are many versions of the traditional Mayan Calendar, and there are several "new age" or modernized versions as well that are often called the Mayan Calendar, when in fact they are not.
Many years ago, Jose Arguelles adapted the Mayan calendar (giving new names to many of the 20 Day Signs) and meshed it with a 13 Moon calendar (which is not Mayan), and then set where we are in that cycle (differently than what day the traditional calendar would say it is) in a way that totally aligns with Western astrology. He calls it the Dreamspell 13 Moon Calendar, and sometimes the Wizard Count.
That is the "modernized" calibration that I use. Not because it is right or wrong, but because it's what life presented to me, and in living it for over 13 years, has told truly the story of the unfolding moment.
I've evolved my own way of keeping time. The calendar taught me directly through my experience of living it. Sp, how I speak about, work with, and live the calendar is very different from Jose's or other modernized approaches.
It's good to know what's what. Some say only the traditional calendar is correct, but then again, none of us who have not been initiated Mayan peoples with all of the stories and knowing how to feed the gods should perhaps even be messing with the traditional calendar. A traditional Mayan person would never even say the names of the 20 day signs outside of ritual context.
Following a modernized version of the calendar is like world fusion music, we're playing to a Mayan beat, but singing a melody of energies and archetypes perhaps more appropriate to us culturally.
After more than 13 years of living the calendar, I have begun to be invited into the traditional calendar, and it is only through invitation that I will enter. Having lived this calendar of mine has prepared me well to begin to step respectfully into the traditional living Mayan calendar.
Another implication of the difference between the traditional and modernize calendars is that "your" birth sign (kin) and numbers will be different in the two systems. So, you will have a different kin and number for your birth using the traditional count versus the modernized approach. The traditional names of the kin are different and their meanings as well. In fact, there are numerous versions of kin names as each village might have slightly different names. It's important not to interpret your traditional count kin using my approach and vice versa. They're two different systems.
I think of my calendar birth signs like Western Astrology, looking at our personalities and development. I think of the traditional count as our deeper indigenous soul and more akin to Vedic astrology. Both speak to very real layers of our beings.
The reason I've gone the route that I have is that this is what the universe presented to me, and asked me to make a calendar using, I went with it. You will notice that I am careful not to say that my calendar is "the Mayan calendar" as I know that this is a modernized newageified version. But, it is rooted in a Mayan time cycle of 260 days, and learning that rhythm is profound and important, and learning to be a part of a story is huge as well. The story is very real. And this calendar of mine has told a true story for over 13 years.
Many non-Maya who follow the traditional count have not been initiated by Mayan daykeepers and are using a combination of intuition, channeling, their own research interests and what they've read about the calendar, mostly from non-Mayan people. So, they're not necessarily following "the" traditional Mayan calendar either.
My sense is that what is important is engaging with life, is following what life is offering us. So, if you're invited into the more traditional, go with that. Otherwise, a modernized version is a good place to start. You can learn much about the calendar rhythms and living within a story. But know that it's not "the" Mayan Calendar.
What I would offer along the lines of becoming more familiar with an indigenous Mayan sensibility, yet that is accessible to a non-Mayan person, are the teachings of Martin Prechtel, who does not speak of the calendar directly, and yet everything he writes about is connected and is bringing one deeper into connection with what the Mayan calendar is all about. That foundation is needed before one could truly approach the traditional calendar. His website is
www.floweringmountain.com His books are all great!
