Your Mayan Daykeeper

Mayan Daykeeper glyphs in the Ourobus of Time-Space, by LjL

You have a birthday every 260 days in the Mayan Scared Calendar. You can work it out by going to the bottom of this page and following the instructions. This involves going to another website, which has a calendar converter. You put your birth data into the left hand side, click calculate and look at the relevant box on the right hand side, the one labelled Tzolkin.

Your signature includes one of the 20 Daykeeper glyphs and one of the 13 numbers, which can be thought of as tones.

But What Does it Mean?
Alternatively, you can download a free Maya-Aztec astrology report, which gives you your Daykeeper glyph and number, as well as a sample astrological report. Here is Bruce Scofield's free report on Aztec Astrology, which has the same characters and meanings as the Mayan Sacred Calendar.

Follow the instructions and your report will appear on screen (you can also get it emailed).

However, I want to emphasize that the Mayan Scared Calendar, as well as the Aztec astrology emphasized by Bruce Scofield, come from a different place than does astrology as we know it.

Experience It for Yourself
I urge you to experience the numbers and the glyphs of the Mayan Sacred Calendar for yourself, simply by following the calendar, its rhythm and flavour for each day.

The personality type descriptions are interesting and useful; however, that is not the juice of the Tzolkin. Instead, the 260-day calendar is an experiential shamanic tool to access symbolic reality. The most relevant question is not 'What does my Daykeeper glyph mean?', but 'How can I experience it and enter into the realms of symbolic four-dimensional reality?'

The 20 Daykeeper glyphs are totems; spirits rather than planet-based archetypes. The emphasis and the foundations of the glyphic characters are Earth, Nature and Mayan cultural entities. The Wind is not like Mars, for example, which can be plotted through celestial mechanics as it moves around the Sun.

Another term that describes your Mayan Daykeeper is the nagual, the dreamer that roams the astral realms. By following the 260-day pulse, you awaken your nagual.

Although the 260-day calendar is a synchronizer of celestial motion in linear time—that is, 260 days is suggested to be the galactic constant, the fractal that is found in all planetary cycles—it is not rooted in linear mind–related time. The 20 glyphs in particular are really a product of what José Argüelles calls ‘radial time’. The symbolic nature of the glyph expands out in all directions because it originates outside linear time. So, although based in the land of the Maya, the 20 Daykeeper glyphs expand in all directions in time and space, encompassing archaic, modern and futuristic global essences.

If you start following the cycle intuitively and creatively, it will gradually reveal itself to you. Taken together and followed on a daily basis, the 13-day pulse and the 20 Daykeeper characters will create a resonance within you, revealing the potentials and essences that move behind the curtain of what we call manifest reality.

I recommend you surrender to your intuition and synchronicity, keeping open and not being too serious. It will then reward you with a profound sense of consciousness—especially after about three cycles of the 260 days.

Remember: the Sacred Mayan Calendar is rhythmic, synchronizing and mystical.

Your Mayan Daykeeper

Go to the calendar converter on Straydog's website here and enter your birth details on the left. Click 'Calculate' and look at the relevant box on the right hand side, the one labelled Tzolkin.

There you will see your number and your traditional Mayan Daykeeper glyph name.

Below is the running order of the 20 Daykeepers, using the traditional Mayan names and the names we mainly use on this site. We also provide some alternative names for each Daykeeper.

Imix is Crocodile (or Dragon)
Ik is Wind
Akbal is Foredawn (or Dark Night, In the House, Dark House)
Kan is Lizard (or Seed)
Chicchan is Serpent (or Snake)
Cimi is Skull (or World Bridger)
Manik is Deer (or Hand, Grasp)
Lamat is Rabbit (or Star)
Muluc is Water (or Moon)
Oc is Dog
Chuen is Monkey
Eb is Good Road (or Human, Grass, the Long Good Road)
Ben is Reed (or Skywalker)
Ix is Jaguar
Men is Eagle
Cib is Vulture (or Warrior, Owl, Turkey)
Caban is Earthmover (or Earthquake)
Etznab is Obsidian (or Obsidian Mirror, Flint)
Cauac is Storm (or Rain)
Ahau is Flower (or Sun, Lord)

Glyphs and image, copyright © Laurence James Lucas and Carey Vail

Your Timewave Tone 

Your own Mayan birthday is comprised of one of the 20 Daykeepers (or ‘Lords of the Day’), as well as one of the Timewave numbers (from 1 to 13). Each of the Timewave numbers evokes a different ‘tone’, ‘face’ or ‘frequency’ of each of the Daykeepers. 

If you have any problems working this out let me know, I will help. You can email me on this email address:

Please write 'Mayan Sacred Calendar' in the subject line.

Thank you and every blessing to you,