5-Noj (9 July 2020): Mindfield

Born 5-Noj: Byron Katie, Fernando Torres, (The Cure’s) Robert Smith, Demi Moore, Michael J. Fox, Nikos Kazantzakis, (Astronaut) Michael Collins, Elliot Gould, Gilda Radner

“Jimi Hendrix changed my life. Each generation influences the following one and as a consequence brings it back to the past.” – Robert Smith (5-Caban) venerating Hendrix (9-Lamat, previous trecena)

As a father, I watch my young children and reflect on my own upbringing and younger years. How it was back then compared to our current confusing era, in sync and in step with each passing year.

The differences are numerous and vast. But one in particular is closely related to today’s nawal: Noj.

It was fairly early in my earthly tenure, when I first learned from my teachers to assign to my own intuition its proper, benign role in life. I was born into a secular, irreligious society that has long since relegated intuition to something you should either keep to myself, or share only with those who care to listen.

Some walks of life in My West still found this basic human ability useful and worthwhile, like detective work, music and art in general, the priesthood, and animal care-taking. But somehow, somewhere along the road, intuition got a bad rap, and was henceforth seldom picked for the team.

The ones that were picked for the team were not considered peripheral by any parameter. They were Logic, Organization, Analysis, Precision, and Division (captain).

This meant that, if I wished to be successful, I had to be good in math, to think, ponder, consider, and analyse as much as possible, to make sound, explainable decisions, based on unbiased observation, and to categorically leave intuition out of serious matters.

For me personally, I know today that this conditioning proved debilitating. In many ways, I’m still reeling from it. Its voice often speaks louder than my better, more delicate judgments. But now it is exposed and more easily spotted. I’ve slowly and meticulously exercised my intuition back into shape. I’m out of rehab, every day increasing my trust in this priceless birthright appendage of mine.

And I use every chance to show my children how never to lose it in the first place.

Brains vs. Brawn

Nawal Noj is related to divination. According to Ken Johnson, on Noj days people traditionally went to seek advise from their community day-keepers and divination practitioners. Noj is also associated with thought and (like its year-bearer counterpart Iq) good ideas.

Obviously, to practice these arts one must trust their intuition, and customize their readings to each visitor on the spot. They live their days learning about people, relationships, and the world.

On the flip side, Noj types (especially men) are notorious for having a cerebral bias. Very few of them have patience for spiritual stuff like astrology, hunches, and anything insubstantial.

Somehow, where I find division on one level, the Tzolkin abides in harmony on another level.

The mind as master constantly plays tricks on me. Showing me certainty where more questions beg. Proving repeatability in the midst of quantum chaos. Talking and  debating where silence and a hug are wiser.

The mind as friend is an altogether different story.

1-Iq: A new surge of spirit (20 July 2019)

Born 1-Iq: Pink, Sade, Robert Johnson, Mick Jones (The Clash), Otto von Bismarck, Scott Bakula, Lesley Stahl

“A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.” – Otto von Bismarck (1-Iq)

For the past ten or-so years, much has been written and said about the Maya culture, and in retrospect, too much of that has been speculation and misleading mirages that lead nowhere, while causing a lot of intellectual and spiritual damage.

Anyone who’s been interested in ancient cultures and knowledge in general, and the Mesoamerican variety in particular, has immediately sensed deep wisdom when first tapping into the Maya civilization. For me, it has always been numbers and mathematics. Since I started studying the various cycles of the Maya count of days, I’ve found many amazing insights into these subjects, while new insights are still being discovered at unknown intervals.

However, I feel I must right off the bat highlight some of the words I jotted above so incautiously, like tapping into, civilization and mathematics. These immediately draw specific pictures within Western minds, but can mean very different things to just about anyone else. Which is why any type of caution and self-reflection have always been good ideas in such studies.

Like any other student of new and radically different knowledge, early western scholars of the Maya culture (my early self included 😉 ) sought creative ways to bridge the cultural gap between, let’s say, the people in the tribe they were visiting in Guatemala and their western audience and peers back home. It wasn’t an easy task by a long shot; the basic worldviews at the heart of each of the cultures are mutually alien to one another.

Some (my early self included) got way too creative.

Also, the strive to ‘keep it real’, and be as authentic and as close to the living Maya as possible, has always been professed by any and everyone serving as ambassadors in the west of the Maya culture and calendars. But naturally, there’s always a difference between simply professing something and actually living by it.

And, like any European or North American fad, the bulk of Maya calendar followers and ‘fans’ jumped ship on December 22nd, 2012, when ‘nothing happened’, and it was high time for a new and different spiritual fix.

My guess is that only a handful of us die-hard, English-speaking Tzolkin Maya freaks are out there – speaking many tongues, scattered far and wide over the globe, and left to navigate this ancient but rock-solid vessel to a new port of call.

Today, sound, serious, and (perhaps most crucially) willing sources of Maya knowledge are still very hard to come by. Which is why I highly recommend you pay a visit to Living the Tzolkin’s new blog.

The blog’s author and owner Paul has been interviewing Mayan scholars on his podcast for some time now, but only recently has he began publishing posts based on his accumulated material, like show-notes and podcast transcriptions.

On 1-Iq, the trecena of good ideas and transmissions, I put in words my own personal wish, that serious Maya students strive to maintain a wiser, humbler, and more sensitive approach to the living Maya culture.

Click here to go to Living the Tzolkin’s new blog.

The new trecena

I like good quotes, which is why I keep copying them into my posts. A good quote puts into words good ideas and points to wise and deep courses of thought. The day of good communications is known as Iq, the sign of the wind and spirit (among other meanings).

In the glyph, the horizontal line represents the wind, and the perpendicular line is a tree. Trees and winds are intimately related in the Mayan culture, and might even be considered to be one organism. The wind carries seeds across great distances, and they fall to become new trees at new locations. The trees reciprocate by ‘calming’ strong and destructive winds down, softening and dispersing them, as they pass through them.

In the same way, good ideas are like seeds that fertilize new lands when they are communicated (like a quote).

A good idea moves mountains and meets deadlines with great gusto. It’s a glimpse of what a better reality could look like, which sets wheels in motion.

Good communications are key in any community, be it a community of brain cells (as in good thinking) or a beehive (good honey) or a Kibbutz (good parties).

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Here’s the godfather of Blues – Robert Johnson (1-Iq):