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| INAH's drawing of the Calendar Stone |
A Short Introduction to the Calendar Stone
However. if one is going to understand the story behind the calendar stone, one must read at least Part I, Part II and probably Part III. Then when you think you know about both; try filling in the information with J, Henry Phillips, Jr. (1983) The History of Mexico according to its Paintings. which is the Ramirez Codex with calendar length of years for each of the four central events. It is always good to learned a little bit more about the rest of the world.
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There are 4-day columns of 3-year units rotating during each of the 52-weeks in a common year [even with extra 5.25 day added] to the day counts. Each column rotates in the same manner that the vertical Trecena uses.
One can find the correct method for the horizontal method in the Madrid Codex in its Serpent calendar pages [M-12 to M-18]. Once you realize that all twenty days have to be settled into a five week span, beginning with IK then put in the second named unit MANIK of the four year count; [i.e.: IK, Manik, Eb, Caban]. your month spans should start with IK and end with Ahaw after each four units are completed with its twenty days. The third section would be started with EB with its twenty days. hm.m.m.m.
Why go into the Aztec Sun Stone Calendar? For the best reason in the world.; It also contains the full story of the arrival of two comets: one of the Night and one for the Day. Glyphs are always meant to be read. Yet, at most, students are contents to translate the more difficult to decode items with de Landa's spelling rules, even though there are usually easier to read basic components.
The weird system is the Four Ages of the Sun (here one segment only). Five day names of the week as a corrected number of days per week; Ten squares another 10 days. Five 4-day columns were only for farming time per week as in the horizontal Trecena; the knotted bundle tying each of the five monthly 4-day week rotating day columns of each quarter of the Sun Stone calendar; in other words:
There are many 3-year units rotating each week of the 52 in a common year (ever with after 5.25 day-columns. Each column rotates in the same manner that the vertical Trecena does. Each column uses the style and form of the "One-armed Bandits" in gambling establishments except that the 52 weeks are not free rotating. They must follow the vertical and the horizontal counts exactly.
Its arachaeastronomy-names are brought down to common nominators like numbers found in the Codex Ramirez as the 1883 paper The History of the Mexicans through their Paintings.
1 Central unit = Coatlicue
3 Ages of the Sun
A EhecatL - Wind,= 676 days/yrs;
(B [1/2] Tlaloc Fire Rains = 364 +)
(C [2/2] Chalchuitlque Water 314 = 676 days/yrs
D Ocelotl Caves, Cats, Hunger = 676 days/yrs
I attended a lecture on the Aztec Sun Stone recently. An observant student who attended ask a question about the tiny circles of squares and points circling the stone between the compass points. She was told they did not mean anything; they were only there to fill the spaces. Hm.m.m
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| Chalchuitlque, Wife of Tlaloc, Second half of Third Age-Sun of Water, 2/2= 324 days |
I had to think about that answer for a while. When I thought I knew what it was, I did a count of the four different Ages, then the tiny squares, and then, the Trecena count of 12. No, that is not a mistake, it is only necessary for a 12 count because there are only three 4's for one harvest and then there are two years needed to bring back the nutriants needed to repair the depleted soil after the first year of a good harvest. During the second year the land must lay fallow and the third was "slashed" and "burned." [This is a Norse/Saxon method of farming called "svithinn." Karle Taube mentioned it in one of his earlier papers.]
The number 13 that which computer programming call a "continuous loop." The vertical Trecena can go on for centuries in groups of three years using the 13th number of the Trecena for looping the pattern as many years as was necessary.
I chose to color the above segment of the calendar stone because it was one of the two truncated, by the two comet gods iconography. It truncated the ten square units [no color] after the five day names which together equaled the number 15. Just above the square units of ten, are three specifically "bundled" units of four [green] arrowheads separated by an "A" unit and a possible temple glyph.
Underneath the pointed units of four, there is a knotted "bundling" cord [brown] and under that is the [blue[ set of 5 loops. Over all are the [orange] flames of the burning serpentine comets as the two circled the known world.
Once Rome decided in 1583 to add February 8th date as IMIX to the beginning of the count, as found in the Madrid Codex, it made a blithering mess at the end of the 52 proposed weeks, leaving 8 empty glyph blanks ready to accept the 5 extra days. It was an unnecessary step, since 1.015 degrees has already been added to each 360-day.
One can still use the correct method simply by omitting the IMIX from the horizontal method so the end result at 52 weeks will end either in AHAU or IMIX, even in the Madrid , using its Serpent calendar pages [M-12 to M-18].
One other item I remembered. Finally, I found a decent explanation from 1956 about the “Distance Numbers” for the Maya Calendar system
“Let us permit our calendar year to gain
run the true year as fast as it will.
We will allow our calendar to function without change.
But when we erect a monument,
we will engrave on it,
In addition to the official calendar date of its dedication,
A calendar correction for that particular date.”
[Morley, Sylvanus Griswold (1956) The Ancient Maya,
Wonder Books: Frederick, MD, 3rd Edition, (Revised by George Brainerd), Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, USA]
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[As an afterthought: I finally figured out the 60 year cycle of the Chinese Calendar thanks to the above five day names per quarter of a year. I had thought it was much too complex for me to assimilate, but it works fine using the five day names under the guise of Air, Water, Wood, Metal and Central. Each of the year names had to carry one of the five day names for 12 months of the 360 or 365 days of the year. Therefore, every year had to complete sixty cycles, before the next set of day names were used. It seemed to me to be the vertical Trecena with five year names instead of four. i.e.: 5 years X 12 months = 60 units]. Whether it works out that way or not, it is now an understandable calendar in a very foreign language base.
Please note the Calendar cycle of four, I simplified to only three Ages of the Sun. i. e.;
A EhecatL - Wind,= 676 days/yrs;
(B [1/2] Tlaloc Fire Rains = 364 +)
(C [2/2] Chalchuitlque Water 314 = 676 days/yrs
D Ocelotl Caves, Cats, Hunger = 676 days/yrs
It most important number was 676 and it only appears in the sequence of Ages three times.
The Flood of Chalchuitlque and the subsequent "salida de las cuevas" occurred after the "rains of Turpentinea" or "of resin", which Tlaloc produced from the double comet as IYKOR, or long burning ash was just before the dropping of the huge stones into the Caribbean Sea; a natural sequence of events as a comet loaded with debris from another star; yet, said to be by Chalchuitlque, the Goddess of Water.
Ehacatl has become the First Age of the sun because as noted in 2008 comet over Washington and Oregon and later in 2013 in Russia, the wind and the roar of the comet came first. Since the comets are illustrated by the two serpents surrounding the Aztec stone, [one night and one day equaling both to be the same comet with different names] it is unlikely that the Sun itself was what the stone was informing us about. It was only the double comet brighter than our Sun which came with a violent wind and a roaring discordant noise.
That which following the roaring wind was the ash fallout of Tlaloc's "rain of resin" or of "turpentine:" which could only be extinguished by the waters of his wife, Chalchuiltque and was called a deluge because so many people expired in it.
The last was the first part of the preparations to make a safe area for those who wanted to survive the horrible rains of resin and the flood. Astronomers warned the people, but most with expensive homes thought they were safe anyway. The poor who had mud and reed dwellings took what food they thought would be needed, water and fuel, to the caves on the mountainsides. They were told to seal up the entrances.
All was recorded in the Popol Vuh, as it occurred. The rich, when they found their roofs of straw burning, ran for the caves but it was too late. Only one person attempted to survive the mud from the bottom of the sea. and he sunk back into the mud, because others were afraid he was a spook.
Those who survived, found that their supplies did not last very long. They were on the verge of starvation along with the jaguars and ocelots who had also repaired to the caves for safety. When men attempted to find their milpas, they found them destroyed. by the flooding.
Food was non-existent for the nativeswho had survived, but the jaguars found that men walking alone were free food for the taking. The men had to travel in groups to the milpas and eventurally food of a sort was found. The Maise God then became more important than Tohil, the old god.
The reason will be discussed in the other article here, as the "52-Year Cycle."
Calendar Stone of the Aztecs.
and in the Article "4 Ahau and 8 Kumk'u"
