An Island in Time

Dear Friend and Client:

The other night Carol Burkhart (http://www.sacredtime.com/) showed up to help out with the annual horoscope and we wound up in a discussion about the Mayan calendar, my first in any depth. The discussion led straight to Wednesday morning's total solar eclipse in Sagittarius. The eclipse -- as of this writing -- has actually happened, but we are still under its intergalactic graces. The sphere of influence in immediate terms for how we experience almost all eclipses is usually a month on either side. But in reality, their energy ripples out much further in time in all directions, and we can even see and document their effects years later. So, if you think you've missed the main event, you can relax. We are still deep in the vortex.

What I learned from Carol is that this eclipse has occurred in what's known as the core days of the Mayan calendar year, at the very center-point of the year's backbone. The Mayans took time seriously, and conceived of the year as a spiritual framework for life in a way that is much more direct and structured than we are accustomed to. That this eclipse occurs at the midpoint of the year emphasizes the quality of 'one side or the other' that is already so prominent in this event. The suggestion is that we are at some kind of dividing line in time, or more accurately, a threshold into a new era, great or small.

The Mayans, a not-so-ancient but vanished empire once based in southern Mexico and Guatemala, produced great mathematicians, architects and astronomers (not to mention warriors) and were among the builders of pyramids. It was a society on par with our own. Like the Cherokees and other cultures, their purported stellar ancestry is a nearby system called the Pleaides. Then they vanished. And it was not known, until recently, what happened to their civilization. But some of their knowledge was left behind in artifacts (mostly stone writing) and a few scattered descendents of their people have maintained some of their traditions.

Their calendar system turns out to be simple enough to explain in a few paragraphs, but obviously has greater implications. On the most basic level it's a 260-day cycle that is their equivalent of our year, though one that's not timed to the four seasons. We try to fit our year into one Earth orbit around the Sun; the math is tricky, since a year is really 365.242199 days and, since we don't want the seasons and the months to get out of whack, we have a lot of rules to compensate for the odd decimal places (leap year and a wide variety of exceptions for when and when not to have leap year). The Mayans (according to Geoff Cornelius) were aware of the 365-day year, but their calendar works around the fact that one Earth orbit of the Sun is not evenly divisible into a whole number of days, and that the seasons and the natural months (the lunar cycle) are out of sync.

The Mayan calendar is a 260-day floating island in time. The seasonal and astronomical landscape changes around it. My sense is that it's based on a cycle we don't know about, maybe one not directly involving our star system. It may be an imported product. Or, it may be the result of their mathematical prowess, combining several cycles into one, a kind of harmonic. This 260-day structure is not the total system; but it is the hub of the system. There are other day counts of much greater duration, including a count of 144,000 days, and the long-count, which takes time in nearly 5,000-year portions. By whatever means they attained it, these people had the long view.

The Mayans had discovered the wheel, but did not use it for transportation or labor because they considered the circle to be a sacred symbol. To them, time itself was a religious or mystical entity, not merely a consumable commodity like it is for us. For the Mayans, the wheel and time were connected; time was not perceived as a line, but considered in circular, spiral and cyclical terms. At its essence, time was a mystical transportation device and certain days in the rhythm were used as points beyond the normal grid.

The 260-day Mayan year is divided into twenty, thirteen-day 'time pulses' which are equivalent to our week. Their days are named. There are 20 possible names for a day, and 13 possible numbers. The cycle of 20 days is called a 'solar cycle' so there are two concurrent cycles within the year, both based on 13 and 20. Days have a name and a number. In our system, a Monday (one of seven possible names) can have any of 31 possible numbers. There is a similarity, but that's about as far as it goes.

The whole calendar fits on one sheet of paper (or a small stone tablet) and it's the same every year. The names of the days go down the left side of the chart, and to the right there are a bunch of numbers in a grid pattern. Some of those numbers are highlighted in black and others in red, creating a visual pattern that's always had a haunting familiarity to me. The black days are 'galactic activation portal days'. The red ones are the 'core days' of the year. As I mentioned, we are now in the core days -- at the very center.

The basic grid looks like this: http://www.galacticalchemy.com/MayanTzolkin2.htm

Reading down the chart, the year starts at the top left, on 1 Imix, and then the second day is 2 Ik and the third is 3 Akbal and so on. When you get to the bottom of the list of days (a 'solar cycle', since the last day is Ahau or Sun), you go back to the top and start working down the next column of numbers in a new solar cycle and the day count continues at 8 Imix, 9 Ik and so on.

The beauty of the system to me is that the cycles move beautifully within one another, and at the same time, it's so off kilter from everything we expect. A time pulse has 13 days but there are 20 possible names for days, so every pulse is a little different. Our natural lunar cycle is based on the approximately 14 days between the new and full moons, but their time pulses are 13 days -- so the their calendar is always a beat ahead of the Moon. Their year is always beginning in a different season. And so on. But within the calendar itself, all the days and numbers and time pulses have mystical implications, like Tarot cards. Not a bad idea at all. It's kind of like astrology: astrology is all about the study of cycles and the meaning of time.

Midyear, the solar cycle in center column in the grid, is called the 'core days'. We now happen to be in the core days, which are in solar cycle which began Monday, Nov. 25 and ends Dec. 14. And -- what got my attention -- is that the total solar eclipse in Sagittarius that took place at about 2:33 am New York time Wednesday morning and 7:33 a.m. GMT, is at the very heart of the calendar, on the day 13 Oc (just take a look at the link above and see for yourself, though the conventional calendar date is not indicated in this chart).

So if you imagine that the Mayan year is an island in the mystical ocean of time, this eclipse is like a volcano on the center of the island that erupts right when we're standing there. So don't forget your umbrella.

Now, I know we're all tempted to ask, BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

I'll tell you. It means GEE FUCKING WHIZ.

As I have said before, I am the founder of the Gee Whiz school of astrology. We don't need to know what everything means; meaning is a big distraction a lot of the time. We just need to wait till our mind looks at something and says Gee Whiz, and groove on the mystery of it all. Well, this gets a little extra whiz. This fine example of a major total solar eclipse, with both the Great Attractor (an intergalactic point) and the Milky Way's galactic center both directly aspected, is a rare event, indeed, one of a kind, and turning on Sagittarius like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, with Pluto, Saturn, Chiron, Neptune, and many other planets involved in the energy pattern. With more asteroids than there are rocks in the University of Utah Geology Dept. collected around the lunar nodes. Right smack in the core days. Gee whizzz.

We could be standing on the very threshold to anywhere. It could be that anything we think or take action on is magnified a zillion times, like when you do a ritual in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid while chewing gum. I have always viewed eclipses as times to set intentions and then take action on them. That's how eclipses work. They are the bonus moments, the triple-word score, the big moment of clarity. Do something to improve your life. Do something different. Solve a problem and make it a big one. Call a politician and tell him to make love, not war. Hey, while you're at it, make love, not war. The Mayan calendar seems to be emphasizing the point that big stuff is possible right now, and those people knew a few things we don't.

(They also didn't know a few things we also don't, but that's another essay.)

And now -- some quinoa for lunch. ++

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Planet Waves by Eric Francis
http://www.PlanetWaves.net/

Dec. 5, 2002

Sagittarius birthdays this week. One of the propensities of the Great Attractor, which is written all over your birthday chart this year and in bright colors to boot, is a tendency to polarize reality. People have strong reactions to you, and they will especially do so this year. There is little you can do other than work with that energy, as a means of sorting out right from wrong, helpful from harmful, positive from negative, in your life. The contrast will be so great, I doubt there is much you'll miss, if you're looking. Birthdays are always a time to set intention, as the Earth re-aligns with the cosmos in a way very close to the alignment the day you were born. It's a powerful reminder of your point of origin, your perspective, your sense of reality, but the difference is that this year is as close to actually being reborn you will get in a very long time, speaking astrologically. So there's a kind of imperative to birth yourself, to create yourself with new intention and awareness. And, beyond what you intend, there is the promise of change. It takes the right attitude to make change into progress, but I think you've got what it takes.

Aries (March 20-April 19)
The shift of the past few days is likely to have tilted how you feel about yourself just enough to have you standing straight up. It is amazing what distorting power fear can have, particularly how it obscures our inner view, and as a result our perspective on the experiences of other people. Someone needs your support right now, and based on the strength of your convictions you should have no problem offering it. That this person may be struggling with a sense of loss has nothing to do with how you feel about them, so there's no need to take it personally if they don't accept your help.

Taurus (April 19-May 20)
How do you react when others approach you at full-strength, with commitment, or even with polite enthusiasm? This would be a worthy self-investigation, because it seems like you're experiencing a challenge when it comes to accepting flattery and maybe playing a little hard to get. After what you've been through recently, I don't blame you. If you can get your mind off the past for a little while, you'll see that you have nothing to be afraid of, and that making contact is not an act of sacrifice. That you may question someone else's motives is only a clue that you may doubt your own.

Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You're holding the solution right in your hand, even though it may seem too good, too big or too impossible to be true. Part of what you've been struggling with is your sense of scale. If you could think a little bigger, a lot more would seem possible, even probable. I guess it's fair territory for an astrologer to say the universe is bigger than you had imagined, but the point is that you're a lot bigger than you had imagined. The tests of the past few weeks have only proven that you have strength and endurance beyond what you thought. But you also have talent and imagination, if you'll only notice.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
If you're wondering what's drawing people to you, or what has the power to do so, it might be heat, hormones, your newborn sense of adventure or plain old charm. And even someone who you would not dare reach out to would be willing to accept an invitation from you, if you can mix just a little of your usual sweetness with the fire in your heart. Desire is not manipulation, even though it does change people; expressed honestly, it's a form of strength and gives those less bold than you're currently feeling an opening to make contact with you. In truth, you have nothing to be afraid of, and neither do they.

Leo (July 22-Aug 23)
Recent events may be enticing you to pull in your boundaries and live a less risky life, emotionally speaking. You're still working through a complicated tangle of feelings and may not believe others have been entirely fair or honest with you. All of that is good reason to take a breather, get your priorities straight and most important, to size up a health issue that's actually emotionally rooted. If you don't push yourself any harder, and give it a few days or a week, you'll get all the information you need to take care of yourself, then get on with what will prove to be an exciting next round in the game of life.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
As a Virgo, you might not agree that real information comes from the emotions, and not from the mind. Emotions can seem unreliable, too shaky and a bit overwhelming compared to the clean, rational hum of the brain. This would be a good week to experiment with a new theory, that is, if you're really interested in solving some of the more perplexing problems that have vexed you recently. The difference between thinking and feeling is that to feel, you don't have to work so hard. They're really not that different, but one is like squeezing the orange, and the other is like sipping the juice.

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
One particular situation that seems to be close on your heels is simply not going to catch up with you, and you have no need to run or hide. Even though you may still feel like a newborn nymph, vulnerable and hopefully desirable, try to take in that currently you're the one who has the power in just about every situation in your life. The greater challenge will be slowing down long enough to take advantage of what's available to you, and that may be difficult. When the time is right, you'll still have the opportunity to take up an offer you may not be ready for today, but only if you choose. For now, there is no rush.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Don't be writing me emails asking what the freak planets just went by, just please be glad you're feeling a lot more like yourself, all at once and suddenly, go figure. And yourself is a good thing to feel like. No matter what kinds of difficulty people may have dealing with your Scorpionic beingness, rest assured that we who have the privilege of knowing you count on your tenacity, your single-minded determination and your (shall we say) intricately-braided sense of justice. Just smile if people complain. They count on you to tell them the difference between right and wrong, even if you screw up every now and again.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
Well the big news is that the world did not end. I am writing this before the colossal solar eclipse of Wednesday morning, kind of like news reporters sit around on Election Day and compose fabricated articles about who they think will be declared the winner, but it seemed worth the chance. The world did not end. But your world has in fact changed. You may not be able to put your finger on it, your house may still be in the same place, and your dog will still show up when you whistle, but you live on a different planet. Sagittarius is the Sultan of Subtle -- feel it in the tips of your hair, or taste it on your lips.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You're under a lot less pressure, so there's no need to keep acting like you're sitting on the bottom of the ocean in a little diving bell, or like you're the lone canary in the coal mine. I still don't suggest playing any games with your heart or your soul. Less pressure doesn't make you less vulnerable; to the contrary, vulnerable is what you need, and in fact is what you are. That is an asset, because most of the pain in the world is caused by a combination of people walking around in full armor and trying to love one another at the same time. Please, leave the armor in the museum, and put on your suit of amour.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Take a second look if you think you're lacking for friends, allies, supporters and people who are willing to do anything you need. They know that what's good for you is good for them, but that's based, in part, on how consistently you've kept their best interests at heart. Now it's true that not everyone is fawning over you, but part of being an influential person means that you can let some misguided ill feelings go past you or through you without getting hung up on them. If, over the next few days, you find that's not quite possible, just take a step back and let it pass. Greater horizons await you, and I am not kidding.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Whatever you've begun over the past couple of weeks, or whatever ideas you may have had, you must follow through. Take everything to the next step, at least; one step will lead to another, and small progress will be rewarded by greater. A number of different planetary factors are pushing you to expand your world, and are offering you enormous support in the process. Pay particular attention to developments that may involve foreign countries or people from them. Americans (assuming you are one) have a dreadful tendency to think there's nothing south of Florida, east of New York or west of California. I've never been there but I've heard it's true.