Pateo.nl : Wholly Science - Johan Oldenkamp

Exposing the Thirteen Moon / Dreamspell Calendar

On Friday June 27, 2014, I received an article by Carl Johan Calleman about the nature the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell Calendar. Since 2008, I am also exposing the artificial nature of both calendar systems. Calleman’s article inspired me to dedicate my newsletter in Dutch of this week (link) to these false Mayan calendars. This is what Calleman, who is affiliated with the Pateo Academia (link), wrote:

“Many people with an interest in the Mayan calendar have at some point or another come in contact with the so-called Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar, a calendar that was created in the early 1990’s by José and Lloydine Argüelles. The proponents of this calendar have claimed that it is a female, natural and Mayan calendar and that it has such advantages that we should replace the Gregorian calendar with it. The purpose of the present article is to examine these claims and explain what this calendar is actually based upon. The height of popularity of this calendar may now be gone and yet it remains important to create clarity about its origin and nature, especially if we now are to develop a calendar that serves the evolution of humanity in a better way.

The structure of the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar should then here first be briefly described: This calendar system is a combination of thirteen so-called “moon” periods of 28 days, every year taking their beginning on July 26. Thirteen moons of 28 days amounts to a total of 364 days to which one day, the “day-out of-time” has been added on July 25, a day which is especially celebrated. Combined with these thirteen moons is then the Dreamspell calendar, a so-called tzolkin count. This calendar is a modification of the traditional Mayan tzolkin count of 260 combinations of twenty day-signs (or glyphs) with thirteen numbers. Based on the Dreamspell tzolkin count the adherents are assigned “galactic signatures” that supposedly define their identities, qualities and fates or at least aspects of those. Every four years, when there is a leap day in the Gregorian calendar on February 29, the Dreamspell count is interrupted and makes a jump in its flow as this day has no tzolkin energy. In addition to this basic structure, the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar includes a number of cycles of lesser importance. These are however created against the background of the cycles outlined above and need not be detailed here. Here we will instead look more closely at the basic structure of this calendar and scrutinize the claims that it is: 1/ female, 2/natural and 3/ Mayan, since in the rhetoric of its adherents these are its strong points compared to other calendars.

Claim 1: The Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar is a female calendar.

The claim that the Thirteen Moon calendar would be a female calendar is based on the fact that modern medicine often gives 28 days as a rule of thumb for the durations of the female cycles of ovulation and menstruation in their fertile age. It seems however that the proponents of the Thirteen Moon calendar have not really examined if this claim is true. To begin with, each woman in fertile age has an individual cycle with a duration that may vary between 22 and 31 days, which she often keeps a calendar of herself. It is already somewhat questionable if an abstract ideal of a 28-day cycle codified in a general calendar serves a good purpose. Moreover, considering that few women would have periods starting at the same time as the thirteen moons it would seem that the number of women whose cycles actually follow this calendar would be very small, maybe less than one per cent.

More profoundly problematic is the fact that the 28-day rule of thumb of modern medicine is not the actual natural cycle of women. Studies performed in the 1950’s with hundreds of thousands of women have shown that their cycles instead on average are 29.5 days long. The reason the female cycles have that duration is that they are connected to the full moon cycle of 29.52 days. Thus, studies were performed in the 1960’s with Chinese women living without electrical lights that showed not only that their cycles on average are 29.5 days, but also that their excretion of hydroxymelatonin, originating from the melatonin of the light-sensitive pineal gland, occurred in response to the light of the full-moon. This connection between the female and the full moon is sometimes expressed in ancient myths, but may be too magical for modern medicine to accept and so it has created the idea of a 28-day cycle. Today many women may in fact also have shorter cycles than 29.5 days. This is because of the current prevalence of electric lights (and computers) in the night time (having the same effect as the full moon) as well as the spread of hormone disruptors (such as contraceptive pills) that have perturbed the connections of the female cycles with the full moon. Yet, these are hardly factors that can be qualified as female or natural. It can thus be concluded that the Thirteen Moon calendar is not a female calendar, despite the rhetoric of its adherents. If anything, this calendar tends to alienate women from their natural connection to the full moon cycle and replace it with a purely abstract mathematical cycle of 28 days.

Claim 2: The Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar is a natural calendar.

The claim that the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar is a natural calendar is a little bit more difficult to examine since it is not really clear what would be meant by natural time. If natural time is sacred metaphysical time like the Mayan, then as we shall see under Claim 3, the Dreamspell does not reflect this. Here we will instead scrutinize the claim that the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar is a calendar that follows the seasons or astronomical cycles in a way that would make it natural. To argue that it is a natural calendar you can of course say that it has a set starting date in the solar year, July 26, based on which you can follow the passage of the seasons, but all calendars, including the Gregorian, that are based on the solar year allows for the same thing. In this regard July 26 does not seem to be preferable to or more natural than for instance January 1 or March 21.

Why then has the July 26 date been chosen as a New Year’s day for the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar? To answer this we need to know about the origin of this date. It goes back to the cycle of following the solar year, the so-called Haab calendar of 365 days that was used in ancient times by the Maya. Since this cycle is shorter than the solar year of approximately 365.25 days, and the Maya did not use leap days, the beginning point of this Haab calendar would move one day in relation to the solar year every four years. Thus, prior to the arrival of the Europeans there would be no set New Year’s day for the Haab calendar.

It then so happened that as the Spanish conquered Yucatan in 1540 the beginning day of this Haab calendar had moved to the day that was July 16 in the Julian calendar (corresponding to July 26 in the Gregorian). Since from a European perspective, where the Julian leap day had been in use for some time, a year with a moving starting point seemed irrational it seems that the decision was then made to fix this at July 26. Thus, the July 26 date is described as a New Year’s date of the Maya in Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, written in 1566 by the infamous Bishop de Landa as well as later in the Books of Chilam Balam (which Argüelles quotes as his source). This means that ever since the conquest the starting day of the Haab no longer moved and became frozen at July 26 in contrast to prior to the conquest. Landa, incidentally was the instigator of the burning of all Mayan books to prevent this people from continuing their traditions and not the least their calendrical culture. What then is “natural” about July 26 as a starting point for the Thirteen Moon year? What its adherents are really doing is celebrating that after the conquest the Mayan Haab calendar came to an end. How can a calendar celebrating such an event call itself Mayan?

There is nothing astronomically natural with the 28-day “moon” either. The 28-day period is different both from the full moon cycle of 29.5 days and from the orbital period of the Earth’s moon of 27.3 days. The 28-day cycle thus has no biological or astronomical meaning and is merely an artificial mathematical number without any relationship to the cycles of nature. Moreover, the New Year’s day of the Thirteen Moon calendar was set as the date when the Mayan Haab calendar was frozen and adapted to the European calendars. In conclusion, there is nothing natural about the Thirteen Moon calendar.

Claim 3: The Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar is the Mayan Calendar.

Initially, in the early 1990’s, the Dreamspell calendar was often presented as if it were the Mayan calendar, but as it later became more widely known that the living Maya were following a sacred calendar tradition that went back thousands of years and was different from that of the Dreamspell this was corrected. Yet, as it still had a pretense of being a Mayan calendar it came mostly to go by the name of the Mayan Dreamspell calendar. Presumably this was because it uses the day signs and numbers of the true Mayan calendar although it assigns those to different dates. Purportedly, the new tzolkin count that it presented came out of a “New dispensation” of divine knowledge. Yet, it has never been explained by its creators what advantage the Dreamspell calendar would have compared to the true Mayan, or why this old tradition was simply ignored. Clearly, the Dreamspell has never been followed by any traditional group of Maya and we shall now see why.

A significant difference between the sacred 260-day calendar of the Maya and the corresponding Dreamspell count is that the latter makes a jump every four years at the leap day of the Gregorian calendar. Hence, in this system the day of February 29 has no energy, as if it was not part of the divine flow of time. This disruption is a very significant difference especially if the tzolkin is looked upon as a matrix of spiritual, metaphysical energies describing the unbroken underpinnings of this creation. In practice what ignoring the leap day means for the Dreamspell calendar is that all of its “galactic signatures” are subordinated to and in fact determined by the Gregorian calendar.

I will give a simple example to illustrate this: In the true uninterrupted Mayan tzolkin calendar someone who is born on March 1, 2012 (which is a Gregorian leap year) will have the tzolkin energy of 8 Chicchan (serpent). If on the other hand the preceding leap day of February 29 would have been ignored and jumped over in the tzolkin flow (which is what the Dreamspell does) that energy would instead have been 7 Kan. The consequences of ignoring the energy of the leap day in fact extend to all of the “galactic signatures” calculated according to the Dreamspell count and we may realize that they are all determined by the date that the Gregorian calendar arbitrarily chose to place the leap day. Paradoxically then, despite the extensive rhetoric adherents of the Dreamspell use against the Gregorian calendar, the former calendar has in fact replaced the sacred energies of the Mayan tzolkin with energies defined by the Gregorian calendar. For this reason, it is simply absurd to talk about the Dreamspell “galactic signature” as Mayan.

None of the claims of the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar thus hold up against scrutiny. Underneath all of its anti-Gregorian rhetoric this calendar is not what it portends to be. Its 28-day cycle is purely a mathematical abstraction, which denies the female connection to the full moon cycle. Its beginning date of July 26 reflects the oppression of the Mayan Haab and lacks a natural basis as does its 28-day cycle. Most importantly, its galactic signatures are determined by the Gregorian calendar rather than the Mayan.

The Passing of the Creators of the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell Calendar and Possible Future Directions

The most controversial of the claims of the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar has always been that it is a Mayan calendar or even the Mayan calendar of our time. This is adamantly denied by Mayan elders and tradition keepers such as Don Alejandro Oxlaj (click here for a 6 minutes video showing this). The question must then be raised why the traditional Mayan tzolkin count was not used as the Dreamspell calendar was designed? Why was it altered in such a way that its day-signs and numbers became defined by the Gregorian calendar? Why was it deemed better to subordinate the Dreamspell tzolkin to the Gregorian calendar than to follow the true Mayan tzolkin? There seems to be a lead to answer this in the fact that the two creators in the system they developed had been given the energies 11 Chuen and 9 Ik, which correspond to the master numbers 11 and 22, totaling 33. It is known that José Argüelles regarded the number 33 as the key number of spiritual initiation and the two would sometimes sign their articles by “kin 11 and kin 22” to highlight this. This explanation to the Dreamspell count as being based on the birthdays of its creators to give them the kin numbers 11 and 22 would explain why this count would not give an energy to the Gregorian leap day. Without making a jump at the leap day the two co-creators would not have these master numbers based on their birthdays.

Through my contacts with Lloydine Argüelles several years ago it was made clear that she did not actually know why the Mayan tzolkin was not followed in their calendar system. This means that José Argüelles was the only person who knew why the ancient Mayan tzolkin had been rejected and since he has passed away we will never know his motives for this with certainty. When he was confronted with my suggestion that this happened in order to give its creators the master numbers 11 and 22, he neither denied it nor admitted it. He merely stated his view that there was no conflict between the two tzolkin counts.

If the above explanation to why the Dreamspell is different from the true Mayan calendar is the right one, and no other explanation has been given than its primary connection to its creators, we should not be surprised that outsiders may perceive this calendar as very ego-based. Hence, the “galactic signatures” serve as identities for its followers and also provide a sort of daily mantras like: “I empower in order to catalyze. Commanding energy, I seal the matrix of self-generation, With the overtone tone of radiance, I am guided by the power of accomplishment, I am a galactic activation portal enter me” This definition of tzolkin energies in terms of “I’s” is very different from how they are looked upon by the Maya as sacred energies of the divine. Given that the Ninth wave activated in 2011 is the one whose purpose it is to generate unity with the divine (which really is a pre-requisite for humans to generate unity with one another and nature), it is may be expected that as this wave progresses and to the extent people are able to connect with it, it will be increasingly difficult to uphold the Dreamspell calendar.

Yet, we may return to the suggestion that there really is no conflict between the two tzolkin counts. To begin with, the suggestion that a certain day such as today could be both Manik (in the true count) and Ix (in the Dreamspell count) at the same time gives the impression that the day-signs would simply be artificially made-up energies without foundation in the metaphysical stream of tzolkin energies. Given that the Dreamspell tzolkin energies indeed are simply made up based on the arbitrary placement of the Gregorian leap day it is however not very surprising that some of its adherents feel that there is not such a thing as a true tzolkin count. To experience the truth of the traditional Mayan tzolkin energies requires that you follow it for some time and those that have followed the Dreamspell count may have been too confused by double energies to be able to recognize this.

In practice it must be considered as impossible to follow two different tzolkin counts at the same time. To say for instance that a certain day is both Manik and Ix is like saying that a day in the common week is both Tuesday and Thursday. For someone who wants to keep his or her sanity such a statement is clearly not recommendable. It is better to be honest and recognize that there indeed is a conflict between the sacred Mayan tzolkin and the Dreamspell tzolkin whose energies instead are based on the Gregorian calendar. Given that the Dreamspell is based on the usurpation of the Mayan tzolkin by the Gregorian calendar, and honors the day that the Mayan Haab came to an end, the Dreamspell will always be in conflict with the Mayan calendar, whether people recognize this or not. Regardless of the motives its creator had for designing it the way it is, it is not the true Mayan calendar and is thus misleading. It seems obvious that a calendar that is not fully transparent and explains how and why it was designed can never truly serve as a calendar of peace.

A problem with discussing the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar with followers of this is however that they often make it into an issue of the value of the life mission of a particular person, in this case José Argüelles as if the issue was the person rather than the calendar. I feel this is not a very constructive approach and that it really stays within the confines of an ego-based old paradigm. It is a good spiritual practice to see things the way they are rather than passing judgment about the past. In the case of José Argüelles there are several other things to consider than the design of the Dreamspell/Thirteen Moon calendar for instance that he introduced a discussion of time and its relationship to the society we are living in that we may still have. To make the discussion of this calendar into an issue of a particular leading individual comes from the old paradigm where individual responsibility is shunned and placed on the leaders. What is constructive is instead to look at the facts about this calendar rationally leaving all the rhetoric and proclamations that may have been given in the past on the side. To do this honestly is the responsibility of each individual. What is constructive is to ask if a calendar with the qualities that we have seen above serves humanity at the present time.

Since we have seen that the Thirteen Moon/Dreamspell calendar is not female, natural or Mayan, and in many cases directly suppresses those very things, it may now be in its place to discuss what possible alternative there is for it in the future. This is all the more relevant since after the activation of the Ninth wave, allowing for unity consciousness, which ultimately will generate a society that is more female, natural and Mayan and less leader-led. José Argüelles did admit towards the end of his life that there was a value in the Mayan calendar system of nine waves. Yet, he passed away on 1 Ahau in the true calendar (since it was morning in Australia). Also Lloydine Burris recently passed away (on May 16, 2014). Lloydine, who was not perfectly comfortable with the fact that she could not explain why the Dreamspell had replaced the Mayan tzolkin, notably passed away on the day 8 Batz in the latter calendar. This is the day when the Mayan tzolkin calendar is celebrated by the Maya in Guatemala and the training of new day-keepers begins in a tradition that goes back thousands of years. It is open to interpretation, but maybe there is a message also in the energy of the day a person passes away and that she wanted to acknowledge the celebration of this calendar.

Regardless, as the Ninth wave has now been active and we have gone through the very significant shift in the Mayan calendar, it seems that a calendar that reflects our inner shifts and helps us identify when we are experiencing unity consciousness would be of great value. For the reasons given above the Dreamspell calendar is not able to meet such requirements. The calendar of the future, I believe instead, must be based on the true Mayan calendar following the continuous stream of time energies emanating from the Source of creation, the divine. And yet, since we are now at a fundamentally new point in time, this ancient calendar system will have to be used in a new way, without falling back on the authorities of the past. It has to be used in such a way that it serves the spiritual transformation of each one of us into unity consciousness. To do so will however require that we have gained clarity and fully understand the meaning of the Mayan calendar. Part of this clarity, especially for coming generations, will have to come from gaining clarity about the kind of alternative calendars that were created before the shift and if this has been attained this article has served its purpose.”

In this article written by Calleman, I have removed the dates that refer to the timing of what Calleman named the “Nine Waves”. In my work, I named these nine hierarchical calendar systems of 13 Tones each as the Tzol’tun, in which the length of each Tone of the eighth calendar equals 1 Tun, meaning a period of precisely 360 natural days. According to Calleman, the Nine Waves were completed on October 28, 2011. According to my work, this completion of the Tzol’tun was precisely 1 Tzol’kin period later, namely on July 14, 2012. I reached that conclusion also on the basis of the timing of the inside job of 9/11. To learn more about this, read for instance my book titled “Wholly Science”, which is freely available as an online e-book (pdf).

Click here to listen to a radio interview that I had with Calleman, which was live broadcasted on April 16, 2014.