Tzolk’in · Cholq’ij
Your Maya day sign
Long before the calendars most of the world now uses, the Maya kept the Tzolk’in, a sacred 260-day count that pairs 20 day signs with 13 numbers. Your birthday falls on one of its 260 day-names: your kin, and that sign is read for its character. The count is still kept by Maya day-keepers today.
No birth time needed. The Tzolk’in counts whole days.
What is the Tzolk’in?
The Tzolk’in (Cholq’ij in K’iche’ Maya) is the sacred count that runs alongside the solar year. It weaves two wheels together: the 20 day signs, each with its own character, and the numbers 1 to 13, called the trecena, which give the tone. Because 20 and 13 share no common factor, a full turn of both takes 260 days, and only then does a day-name recur.
Your kin, your day sign and its number, is read as the energy you were born into. The sign gives the theme; the number gives its intensity and stage.
The twenty day signs
Two names each, and neither is a translation of the other. The Yucatec names are the ones you will meet in the archaeological literature; the K’iche’ names are the ones spoken today by the day-keepers who still run the count.
| # | Yucatec | K’iche’ | Read as |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Imix' | Imox | the primordial waters and the source: beginnings, nurture, and the deep unconscious. |
| 2 | Ik' | Iq' | wind and breath. Spirit, communication, and the life force that moves through things. |
| 3 | Ak'b'al | Aq'ab'al | night and dawn. The threshold, dreams, and what is hidden coming into light. |
| 4 | K'an | K'at | seed and net: ripening, gathering, and the entanglements we grow through. |
| 5 | Chikchan | Kan | the serpent: vital energy, instinct, and the body's own wisdom. |
| 6 | Kimi | Kame | death and transformation: endings that clear the ground, and the ancestors. |
| 7 | Manik' | Kej | the deer and the hand: grace, balance, and the four directions held steady. |
| 8 | Lamat | Q'anil | the star and the seed: abundance, harvest, and Venus rising. |
| 9 | Muluk | Toj | water and offering: payment, gratitude, and emotional depth. |
| 10 | Ok | Tz'i' | the dog: loyalty, guidance, and the guardian of the law. |
| 11 | Chuwen | B'atz' | the monkey and the thread: art, weaving, time, and playful creation. |
| 12 | Eb' | E | the road and the human, the path of life and the journey walked. |
| 13 | B'en | Aj | the reed and the corn: home, authority, and growth toward the sky. |
| 14 | Ix | I'x | the jaguar, the sacred earth, magic, and the strength that moves unseen. |
| 15 | Men | Tz'ikin | the eagle: vision, freedom, and a view from above. |
| 16 | Kib' | Ajmaq | the owl and forgiveness. The ancestors, conscience, and what is owed. |
| 17 | Kab'an | No'j | earth and thought: knowledge, movement, and the working mind. |
| 18 | Etz'nab' | Tijax | the flint blade: truth that cuts clean, healing, and clarity. |
| 19 | Kawak | Kawoq | the storm: community, renewal, and the gathering of families. |
| 20 | Ajaw | Ajpu | the sun and the lord: light, completion, and the fully realised self. |
A living count, not a lost one
The 260-day count was never broken. Maya day-keepers (ajq’ij) in the highlands of Guatemala and parts of Mexico still track it and use it for ceremony, naming and counsel. AsterNym computes your day sign using the standard GMT correlation, the anchor most widely used to line the Maya count up with the modern calendar.
If another site gives you a different sign, here is why. Most “Mayan astrology” online is not this count. It is the Dreamspell, devised in 1987 by José Argüelles, and it skips 29 February every leap year. The true count does not skip anything, so the two have drifted ten days apart since 1987 and go on drifting. Ten days in a 260-day count changes both your number and your sign, so the two systems will rarely agree about you. We compute the count the day-keepers actually keep. If you want the Dreamspell version you will find it easily; you will not find it here.
- Correlation
- GMT, constant 584283. That is the number that lines the Maya count up with the modern calendar, and you can check it: it puts 21 December 2012 on 4 Ajaw, the end of the thirteenth b'ak'tun, and 1 January 2000 on 11 Ik'.
- Leap days
- Counted. 28 February 2024 is 8 Kimi, the 29th is 9 Manik' and 1 March is 10 Lamat. The count runs straight through, which is exactly where the Dreamspell parts company with it.
- Names
- Both sets. The Yucatec names are the ones in the archaeological literature; the K'iche' names are the ones spoken by the day-keepers who still use the count. Neither is a translation of the other.
- Not computed
- The 365-day Haab' and the Long Count. A full Maya date pairs the Tzolk'in with the Haab' and sits inside the Long Count; this page reads the 260-day count only, and says so rather than implying it is the whole calendar.
AsterNym explores these as cultural and metaphysical traditions, not scientific predictions.