The Year Lord in Mayan Astrology

One element which is too often forgotten in the practice of Mayan Astrology is the Lord of the Year.

A Destiny Chart as currently constructed among the Maya consists of five basic day-signs and four supporting signs. Most important are the three day-signs which occupy the vertical arm of the Mayan Cross or World Tree diagram – our past sign, our day-sign of birth, and our future sign. A right hand power and a left hand power support the day-sign’s natural energies, with the right hand symbolizing the practical side of life and the left hand the more intuitive or mystical. The four supporting signs are beyond the scope of this blog.

There are of course 260 combinations. Yet many people born on the same day may seem radically different. A good example lies with the two founders of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Both men were born upon 10 Ben. It is Ben’s nature to act as an authority figure, both in the material and spiritual realms but especially in the spiritual. These natives are deep thinkers. Since 10 is both a high number and an even number, it easily manifests itself as both stability and power. Some Daykeepers have asserted that there is a certain “sensitivity” or “fragility” to the 10s as well.

The past sign will be 2 Chicchan, and since the serpentine symbolism of this day-sign is regarded among the Maya as very similar to kundalini serpent symbolism among Tantric Hindus, we can see here the importance of human sexuality which became a part of early psychology. Since Chicchan is just as much the scientist as the sexual mystic, it is not surprising that both men were medical doctors at the outset of their careers. Their future sign was 5 Imix, and this is the sign of “the left hand of the Divine,” a sign which lends itself towards mystical visions and the “deep waters” of the unconscious. Both men eagerly embraced their destiny sign of Imix, building upon its energy to explore the world of dreams and visions. Their right hand power was 4 Manik, and their left hand power was 3 Cauac. Manik is always regarded as an especially masculine sign, and Cauac as quintessentially feminine. It is no wonder, then, that both men worked with the fine distinctions between male and female consciousness.

So much for the similarities granted to them by sharing the same tzolk’in birthdate. But there were abundant differences between them. Jung was large and athletic, jolly and gregarious, always a “hail fellow well met.” Freud was of fragile health, nervous and introverted, difficult to get along with. How shall we explain all of this?

It is the Lord of the Year which makes all the difference. Freud and Jung may have been born on the same tzolk’in date, but they were born in different years, Freud in 13 Caban (1856) and Jung in 6 Eb (1875).

Different sequences of Year Bearers or Year Lords have been used throughout the history of Mesoamerica. Today, the K’iche’ Maya use Manik, Eb, Caban, and Ik. (I give the Yucatec words rather than K’iche’ because most readers are more familiar with the Yucatec.) Though the Aztecs, among others, used a different sequence of Year Lords, there is strong evidence that the present K’iche’ sequence was the one used by the Toltecs of Teotihuacan as well as the Classic Maya of Tikal. Since each of the four Year Lords will combine with all 13 numbers, this works out to 4 (Year Lords) x 13 (numbers) = 52 (which is called a Calendar Round). If 260 potential combinations seems substantial, it should be recognized that each of the 260 days will recur at least once (sometimes more often) during every year. This brings us to 52 x 260 = 13,520 potential combinations. And at this point Mayan astrology becomes genuinely complex!

Freud was born in a Caban year, and Caban is the sign of the Thinker. Freud’s philosophy was a product of deep thought; an introvert, he required plenty of solitude in order to do his work. Caban is regarded as a somewhat “tricky” year, in the sense that our thoughts may be either positive or negative. Freud’s mental world shows signs of a dark and somewhat pessimistic outlook on human nature, and he certainly enjoyed upsetting others’ vision of reality. The world-wide impact of his thinking lies partly in the fact that he was born in a 13 year. This highest of all the numbers lends itself to a deep connection with the mystical side of life; though Freud pretended to be a scientific rationalist, his insights into the human mind were more likely based upon pure intuition. His close relationship with the otherworldly side of life accentuated the “fragile” aspect of his 10 birth number; he was notorious for his nervous sensitivity.

By contrast, Jung was born in the year 6 Eb. Of all the Year Lords, Eb is the mellowest. This day-sign symbolizes the Road of Life. The outgoing Jung was an enthusiastic world traveler, literally walking the Road of Life by visiting many different nations and discoursing with wise men at every possible opportunity. 6 is a middle number and an even number; there is stability here, and strength, lessening the potential “fragility” of his 10 birth number. Eb also walks the Road of Life in terms of a deep appreciation for the everyday challenges and joys of human existence. Though we think of Jung as the great proponent of the collective unconscious (his future sign Imix), he was deeply concerned with integrating the unconscious into the round of “ordinary” human existence, which he cherished. This is in sharp contrast to Freud, whose Caban intellectualism was oriented entirely towards self-examination and self-discovery, with little concern for a larger society into which he himself did not fit. Some Daykeepers have written that the number 6 stands for the six life factors of health, understanding, vocation, property, and good or bad actions. All of these were important to Jung, for whom the exploration of the collective mind required harmonization with the demands of daily life.

Thus two men, both born on 10 Ben and both pioneers of modern psychology, had extremely different temperaments. It is the Year Lord which gives us an understanding of these differences, and it should never be neglected in the practice of Mayan astrology.

Kenneth Johnson
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Day 6 Oc, Year 10 Ik
(Dec 27, 2009)
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