Calleman Wrong About End Date of Mayan Long Count Calendar

In his first book, Carl Calleman concludes that the Mayan Long Count calendar ends on October 28, 2011, and not on December 21, 2012, the generally accepted date. Both this conclusion and assumption upon which it is based are, however, erroneous.

Calleman contends that the 2012 date, 4 Ahau in the long count, is wrong because it is not harmonically synchronized with the tzolkin, which ends on 13 Ahau. He incorrectly assumes that the only way the two can be synchronized is if they both end on the same day.

Calleman falsely concludes: "If the 260-day tzolkin count s a true temporal microcosm, a true overtone of the vibrations of the World Tree generating the Great Cycle, the Great Cycle would have to begin on the same day, 13 Ahau, as a tzolkin round does." (Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our Time: The Mayan Calendar, 237).

True, the Long Count and tzolkin calendars should be harmonically synchronized because the Long Count is composed of 260 katuns, making it a large-scale version of the 260 day tzolkin.

Nevertheless, his assumption that the only way the two calendars can be synchronized is by ending on the same tzolkin day, according to Calleman, 13 Ahau rather than 4 Ahau.

The Burner Day Cycles and 4 Ahau

What Calleman overlooked are the 65-day cycles of the tzolkin known as the Day Burner cycles. The tzolkin’s 260 days are divided into four cycles of 65 days each. The first Burner Day is 4 Ahau, which puts the first day of the Long Count in agreement with the tzolkin.

The Burner Days were among the most important cycles of the tzolkin. Across MesoAmericca, the Maya began preparing for the celebration of each 20 days in advance. On the Burner Day, a huge bonfire was built. Fire-walking and other ceremonies took place. (In some parts of Central America, the Maya still observe these ceremonies).

Then they spent the 20 days following the Burner Day in what Bruce Scofield calls “re-acclimation to ‘regular life’.” (How to Practice Mayan Astrology, 2007, page 90) In each of the four Burner Day cycles, therefore, they devoted 41 days to celebrating that cycle. In the four annual cycles, they spent 164 days—almost 40% of their entire lives—in preparing for and celebrating the process, which underscores the significance of Burner Days such as the first one each year, 4 Ahau.

More proof Calleman is Wrong about 2011

Another proof that Calleman is wrong when he says the Long Count must end on the same end date as the tzolkin—but the tzolkin is a circle, and a circle has no objective beginning or end. (Though this observation was arrived at independently, it turns out that John Major Jenkins made the same argument in an online debate on Dire Gnosis in 2001.)

A start and end date may be assigned on a subjective basis for practical purposes, as various ancient did and contemporary Maya continue to do: the Yucatecan Maya in Mexico started their tzolkin on 1 Imix (Imox in Quiche); the Quiche in Guatemala, on 8 B'atz (Chuen in Yucatecan). Reference from contemporary Mayan Spiritual Guides in Guatemala: First Day of Quiche Tzolkin.

It might be argued that if the tzolkin has no true start or end dates, then how can 4 Ahau be considered the first of the four burner days? Easy: Ahau represents the sun, which logically manifested before the serpent, dog and eagle, the other three burner days.

Conclusion: Calleman Wrong About 2011 End Date for Maya Long Count Calendar

The Long Count’s beginning date of August 11, B.C., its end date of December 21, 2012 A.D., the tzolkin’s end date for the Yucatecan Maya, and the first Burner Day of each tzolkin are all 4 Ahau, which makes the Long Count harmonically synchronized with the tzolkin as Calleman correctly states is should be—though not in the way that Calleman deduced.

There are more problems with his thought processes regarding this subject and others, but this alone is sufficient to disprove his assertion that the Long Count ends in 2011. This does not mean that all of Calleman’s assumptions, speculations and conclusions are wrong, but it does cast a growing shadow of doubt on them. We’ll consider these in a future column in this series, Whose 2012 Is It, Anyway?.

Shay Addams
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
4 Ahau 18 Pax 2010