Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Articles

The Tenth Tone of the Tzolk'in

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Learn More
The Tenth Tone of the Tzolk'in

This is the tenth of the thirteen numbers, or tones, that combine with the twenty day signs to build the 260-day Tzolk'in. In living Maya daykeeping the coefficient is simply the number ten, lajuj, often felt in the rhythm of the trecena as a day of manifestation, when what the period set in motion takes solid shape. The name recorded here, Planetary, and its keyword of manifestation belong to the modern Dreamspell system of Jose Arguelles, a New Age framework from the 1980s distinct from traditional Maya practice; the daykeepers reckon by the number itself. The authentic element is the coefficient ten and its place in the pairing of thirteen numbers with twenty day signs that generates the 260 distinct days of the sacred count kept in highland Guatemala.

The tenth of the thirteen numbers that combine with the twenty day signs to generate the Tzolk'in's 260-day count, marking the tenth day of its trecena, three days from its completion at thirteen. Ten is also, independently of the Tzolk'in, the base of the separate Heavenly Stem cycle used in the unrelated Chinese sexagenary calendar, a coincidence of small round numbers across two entirely independent calendrical traditions rather than evidence of any historical connection between Mesoamerican and East Asian calendar systems, which developed in complete isolation from one another.

Sources Time and the Highland MayaBarbara Tedlock with Dreamspell: The Journey of Timeship Earth 2013Jose Arguelles

Cross-Tradition Connections

Article On

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.