The 8 Calendars of the Maya

MAYAN STUDIES / NEW AGE "As a traditional Mayan teacher and daykeeper, Hunbatz Men sheds light on the great mystery of Maya/Cherokee oral tradition--the sacred relationship between Earth and the Pleiades." --Barbara Hand Clow, author of the bestselling The Mayan Code The Mayan calendar has taken on special prominence with the imminent arrival of 2012, a date that many claim is the end of that calendar. However, as Mayan elder and daykeeper Hunbatz Men shows, the cosmological understanding of his ancestors was so sophisticated that they had not one, but many calendars, each based on the cycles of different systems in the cosmos. In this book he reveals the Tzek'eb, or Pleiades, Calendar of 26,000 years, which charts the revolution of our solar system around Alcyone, the central star of the Pleiades system. He also discusses the calendrical information in the Pyramid of Kukulcan, marking the 4 seasons of the solar year and the K'altun, or Wheel of the Katun, which is composed of 13 cycles of 20 years each that form a calendar of 260 years. In traditional Mayan culture the computation of time was not determined by simple economic or social motives. The calendars served the higher purpose of synchronizing the lives of human beings and their societies to the great cosmic pulsation, to the rhythm of the annual seasons, and to the other cycles that dictate changes upon Earth. Mayan understanding of the cosmic cycles was so exact that this knowledge could be used to influence all stages of life--from planning when to conceive (parents could choose not only the sex of their child but also its vocation and future destiny) to plotting out the course of the entire society. Pyramids played a crucial role in applying this wisdom because, as Hunbatz Men shows, they were able to produce and transform energy in accordance with the cosmic cycles charted by the calendars. This book reveals the wisdom of the multi-calendar Mayan system and how it can help guide our modern world. HUNBATZ MEN is a Mayan daykeeper--an authority on the history, chronology, and calendars of Mayan civilization. He is also a ceremonial leader, founder of the Mayan indigenous Community near Merida, Mexico, and the author of Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion.