Blog | Carol Chapman

What is a Mayan Daykeeper?

Since I’ll be presenting excerpts from my interview with Mayan Daykeeper Hunbatz Men, author of Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion at the Edgar Cayce Forum on October 26th, at 7:30 p.m., I wondered what a Mayan Daykeeper was. This how Wikipedia defines a Mayan Daykeeper:

A daykeeper was the name for a diviner in the pre-Columbian Maya culture. The Mayans are renowned for their advanced skills in the fields of mathematics and astronomy, and had come up with a complex system of tracking days. The Maya calendar actually consisted of three individual calendars, the most sacred of the three being the Tzolkin or divinatory calendar. It was a daykeeper’s task to keep count of the days with coral seeds according to this sacred calendar, as well as to perform divination rituals based upon the dates of the sacred calendar. In this respect, their role was not unlike that of a modern astrologer, in that they attempted to use the day of a person’s birth to divine certain traits they would inherit as a result of that day, as well as what might befall them in the future. Daykeepers, unlike astrologers, would not take into account the position of the stars.
Daykeeper

That’s pretty interesting considering that each of the days are ruled by both the number and god of two different calendars. So, who needs to consult the stars! There’s a lot of divinatory information simply through knowing about the meaning of the numbers and gods of the two calendars, the Haab and Tzolk’in.

My talk is called, “Do Mayan Shamans believe the world will end in 2012?” and it will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and sponsored by the Edgar Cayce Forum.

Movie of Mayan Elder prophecy for 2012

I’ve had a very enjoyable day, because my video footage of interviews with Mayan Elders are inserting successfully into my Powerpoint Presentation. I will be speaking at the Edgar Cayce Forum on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 (2 days away) at 7:30 p.m. at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My topic: Do Mayan Shamans believe the world will end in 2012?

An explanation of why the Mayan Tzolk’in calendar has 260 days

I have read that the reason the Mayan religious and ceremonial calendar called the Tzolk’in has a cycle of 260 days is because it refers to the gestation period of a human baby. According to Wikipedia’s Gestation, the average gestational age of a human baby is 40 weeks or 40 weeks x 7 days in a week = 280 days.

Since the human gestational age includes the two weeks before conception, the actual gestation period of a human is 260 days. BINGO! The length of the Tzolk’in.

But why make a calendar the length of a human baby’s development in the womb from conception to birth? Granted, that is a very important time for us. However, since the Maya were such astronomers and daykeepers, I wondered if there might be another explanation for the 260-day long Tzolk’in.

And, I felt hopeful when I saw the Ancient World Mysteries website, which at first seemed to say that the 260 days coincided with the orbit of the planet Venus. However, when I read the site’s article, The Mayan Calendar: 260 Days & the Venus Orbit, I realized it was much, much more complicated than that since the orbit of Venus is approximately 224 earth days. According to Keith M. Hunter, author of the above article, the 260 day cycle refers to a relationship between the orbit and the earth.

I’m interested in the Mayan calendars because I will be talking on “Do Mayan Shamans believe the world will end in 2012?” on October 26th at 7:30 p.m. at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., in Virginia Beach, Virginia, sponsored by the Edgar Cayce Forum.

Don Alejandro Cirillo Guatemalan Mayan Elder prophecies

When I read Mark Heley’s online article on Don Alejandro Cirillo prophecies for 2012, I was reminded of my interview of an American man who had been married to a Mayan woman for 10 years. I had asked the man if he knew of any predictions the Maya made for 2012. He replied that, although he was not allowed into the sacred observances of the Maya he lived among for 10 years while he was married to his Mayan wife, he did hear the Maya talking among themselves about “2000 and then a little bit” in reference to predictions of upcoming earth changes. I wrote about my experience with this man in my book When We Were Gods. I interviewed him in 1999.

Interestingly, Don Alejandro Cirillo, who is a revered elected leader of the Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala and a thirteenth-generation Quiche priest, also refers to a vague “some time that is coming soon” rather than to a definite date such as December 21, 2012 in making his prophecies of earth changes. In fact, according to Heley’s article, Cirillo does not have strong feelings about events specifically occurring on December 21, 2012 at all. Furthermore, he does not believe that this date is necessariy the accurate date for the end date of the Mayan calendar.

He does say that we need to prepare ourselves of a time of major earth changes, such as earthquakes and floods, and characterized by a number of days in which the sun will be darkened. He suggests that we remain indoors during this unusual time when the sun is darkened and in anticipation to have stored food and water on hand. After this time of the sun’s darkening, there will be a new world.

On October 26th, I will be speaking at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on “Do Mayan Shamans believe the world will end in 2012?” The event starts at 7:30 p.m. and is sponsored by the Edgar Cayce Forum.

Carlos Barrios speaks on 2012 on behalf of Guatemalan Maya Elders

Although I did not have the opportunity to interview Mayan Elders from Guatemala on 2012 and the end of the world, here is an excerpt from an online article about Carlos Barrios who is Day Keeper of the Eagle Clan of the Mam Maya in Guatemala. The article is by Mark Heley.

Evidently Carlos, who is Spanish rather than Maya, has, nonetheless, studied the Mam Maya Eagle Clan for 25 years. As their spokesman, he says that the Elders of the Maya Mam Eagle Clan do not believe the world will end in 2012 but that it will be transformed from the fourth to the fifth world of creation, and that a new element, ether, will be part of our understanding of life on earth.

According to Barrios, as we transition between the fourth and fifth worlds, the old economic order will break down and the world banking system will collapse. He also foretells the melting of the polar ice caps and a general rise in sea level, though this has been a mainstay of climate-change prediction for some time.
Carlos Barrios

I will be speaking at the Edgar Cayce Forum on this Wednesday, October 26, at 7:30 p.m. on: Do Mayan Shamans Believe the World Will End in 2012? at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Galactic Alignment and 2012

The sun precesses through the Galactic equator

The sun, on the December solstice, will take 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator

I am surprised that the actual Galactic Alignment of the sun with the Galactic Equator on the winter solstice occurred in 1998. That’s 13 years ago. According to the John Major Jenkins article accompanying the image on the left, What is the Galactic Alignment?, the great Galactic Alignment is occurring in the “era-2012.” Furthermore, according to the image at the left, our sun will be on the verge of leaving the alignment with the Galactic Center in 2012. By the word-of-mouth and media buzz, it seemed as if the sun would be perfectly lined up with the Galactic Center on the 2012 winter solstice. As I understand John Major Jenkins’ article, the sun will be long past the perfect alignment with the Galaxy’s center in 2012.

Conflicting online information on 2012 and the Chilam Balam

I am trying to make sense of all the information on the 2012 prediction … and there is TONS of information on the topic, many of it conflicting. No sooner do I rejoice becasue I have found what appears to be a genuine Mayan prophecy on the end of the world 2012 in the Books of Chilam Balam (see The Short Count and the Books of Chilam Balam — Guide to 2012) than I become confused when I read a Wikipedia article (the 2012 Phenomenon), which doesn’t seem to have anything on Chilam Balam and 2012 even though a Google search lists Wikipedia’s 2012 Phenomenon first for my “Chilam Balam 2012” search.

During my 2009 visit to Yucatan, I videotaped a Maya man who talked about the Books of Chilam Balam as being very important to him. His mother tongue is Mayan, his second language is Spanish. He reads the Chilam Balam. If I remember correctly, when I asked him if there was a 2012 end of the world prediction in the Chilam Balam, he said that there was no specific date … if my memory is correct. I’m going to have to take a look a my video footage of that interview. Maybe I can get some clarity on the Chilam Balam since there seems to be conflicting views on the internet as concerns the Chilam Balam and any 2012 prophecy contained within it.

Do you have any information on the Books of Chilam Balam and the 2012 end of the world prophecies?

The Books of Chilam Balam were written in Latin script but sound out Mayan words

The Books of Chilam Balam where written in the Yucatecan Mayan language but using Latin script. The books were written in the 1700s and include prophecies about the end of the world, some believe associated with 2012.

In the Mayan language, Chilam means a priest that makes prophecies. Balam means jaguar and is a common name among the Maya.

Chilam Balam contains a 2012 end of the world prophecy!

A 2012 end of the world prophecy in the Maya’s Chilam Balam, the prophecies of the Jaguar Priesthood:

“In the final days of misfortune, in the final days of tying up the bundle of the thirteen (baktuns) on 4 Ahau, then the end of the world shall come and the katun of our fathers will ascend on high.” — The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin (Makemson)

Wow! If that isn’t an end of the world prophecy, I don’t know what is!

This is also from the online article, The Short Count and the Books of Chilam Balam. The article is by Mark Heley. According to the article, the prophecy is for the calendar cycle beginning on December 21, 2012.

Chilam Balam on the end of the world and 2012

Although the 2012 prophecy on Tortuguero’s Monument 6 does not seem to foretell an end ofthe world, the Chilam Balam does. Here’s a quote from the Chilam Balam from the online article entitled, The Short Count and the Books of Chilam Balam:

“These valleys of the earth shall come to an end. For those katuns there shall be no priests, and no one who believes in his government without having doubts.” — The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin