José Argüelles is a visionary artist who popularized the Mayan calendar in the early to mid-1990s. He was first bought to the global New Age populations’ attention as organizer of the Harmonic Convergence in August 1987.
In the years that followed the Harmonic Convergence, José actively campaigned to get people to change their calendar system from the conventional Western Gregorian 12-month, 365-day annual cycle to the Mayan Sacred 260-day calendar.
My Connection
My first encounter with the 260-day Tzolkin in 1992–1993 was thanks to a small book by Bruce Scofield called Aztec Astrology. The twenty Aztec Daykeeper glyphs immediately captured my imagination and spoke to my developing shamanic sense, but also confounded my usual astrological understanding.A year or so later, just at the inception of José’s underground following, I was exposed to his version of the Maya glyphs. Within two years, a significant section of the New Age population had become “Mayanists”.
The interlinked 2012 end-date and Maya calendar phenomenon is so intoxicating and emotionally riveting that the subject draws great controversy and heated debate.
Dreamspell versus Traditional Indigenous
José Argüelles’ Dreamspell gives many of the Maya glyphs new names and alters the interpretation of them to some degree. His correlation with the Western Gregorian calendar is also different from that of the traditional count of the indigenous people. For example, he drops 29 February, which means that every four years his correlation changes by a further day. By correlation, we mean the way the 260 days are coordinated with the Western calendar — the way the days are counted.For example: Compare the version of say 3 May 2009 in both counts:
Dreamspell: 3 May 2009 is Yellow Spectral Sun (Sun; Flower 11); Kin number 180
Traditional Sacred Calendar: 2 Eb (Human; Tooth); Kin number 132
So we can see that the Dreamspell calendar on that day was 48 days ahead of the traditional Sacred Mayan Calendar that I use in my work.
My Work
I was inspired by José’s interpretations of the calendar, particularly some of his glyph names and aspects, and I have kept a lot of his influences in my work. However, what I teach is a fusion of traditional Maya meaning and Dreamspell. In 1996, in preparation for my six-month visit to the classic Maya areas of Guatemala, Chiapas in Mexico and Honduras, I started to follow the indigenous count, simultaneously with the Dreamspell. I began an intense period of research into the authentic interpretation of the glyphs and how they are used.
Having followed the Dreamspell calendar assiduously for three years, I did find it to be of value. It does put you in synch with the 260-day pulse, which is the Galactic pulse as experienced from Earth. However, the traditional count is anchored in probably thousands of years of daykeeping, which gives it a much more grounded shamanic resonance.
That said, the modern futuristic expression of the glyphs that is José's work does add something to the calendar that to me at least feels as if it were inherent from the beginning.
So, while I personally prefer to follow the traditional Sacred Mayan Calendar system rather than the Dreamspell calendar, I believe José has brought out qualities from the glyphs that were waiting to be brought out. His mathematics, though, is highly questionable and often downright inaccurate, so you will find a lot of academic work discredits his whole thesis.
While I consider that José has become too isolated with his ideas and has made the mistake of not responding to critics, nor of refining his work, I also believe that José’s genius is in his intuitive connection to the emerging Noosphere or planetary lightbody (see his website). I am referring to a whole Earth awakening—a planetary awakening—which, in my work, is directly linked to what I call the Turquoise Chiron Enchantment.
The 2012 end-date represents an opportunity for the acceleration of planetary awakening. This is not necessarily obvious, because the new consciousness is the Galactic Frequency as experienced from Earth, which is to say Earth as a totality waking up to itself. A fuller understanding of this is offered in my Enchantments of Life work (link to come).
I suggest that the 260-day Tzolkin is the tool to help you tune into the frequency of the reality that Earth is not separate from the Cosmos. Although intellectually our culture understands that Earth is a planet in a solar system, which is part of the Galaxy, there is no experiential feeling of it.
The 260-day pulse—the Galactic pulse on Earth, in which we are immersed during our gestation in our mother’s womb—can be consciously evoked by following the sacred 260-days and to this end the essence of José’s work is wholly appropriate. I prefer the traditional correlation when counting days and yet still remain open to some of the inspiration of Dreamspell.
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