The 13 Moon Calendar, Explained

What is the 13 Moon calendar?

The 13 Moon calendar is a solar calendar of 13 moons, each exactly 28 days long. Thirteen times twenty-eight makes 364 days, and one more day, the Day Out of Time on July 25, completes the year. Every moon has the same shape, four perfect weeks of seven days, so each date falls on the same day of the week, every moon, every year.

It was brought forward by José and Lloydine Argüelles as part of the Law of Time, as an alternative to the irregular months of the Gregorian calendar. Living by it is a daily practice of noticing time as a cycle of nature rather than a measure of money and deadlines.

The 13 moons and their dates

When does the 13 Moon year begin?

The year begins on July 26, aligned with the heliacal rising of Sirius, and ends on July 24. July 25 is the Day Out of Time, a day of celebration and forgiveness that belongs to no moon and no week.

Each year is named for the kin of its first day. Those year bearers always come from four seals, the White Wizard, Blue Storm, Yellow Seed and Red Moon, turning in sequence through the 13 tones.

The 13 moons

Each moon takes its name from one of the 13 galactic tones and is guided by a totem animal. The moon's tone sets the question for those 28 days: the Magnetic Moon asks for your purpose, the Lunar Moon for your challenge, and so on, until the Cosmic Moon brings the year to presence.

Plasma weeks

The seven days of each week are named for the seven radial plasmas: Dali, Seli, Gamma, Kali, Alpha, Limi and Silio. The four weeks of each moon take the four colors in order, red, white, blue and yellow, to initiate, refine, transform and ripen.

Kin, the Tzolkin and wavespells

Alongside the 365-day solar round runs the 260-day Tzolkin, the sacred count of 13 galactic tones and 20 solar seals. Each day carries one kin, such as Red Magnetic Dragon or Yellow Lunar Human. The kin of your birth date is your galactic signature.

The Tzolkin moves in wavespells, 13-day waves of creation that each begin with a Magnetic tone. Twenty wavespells make the 260 days, gathered into five castles of 52 days. The two cycles mesh like gears: the same kin and moon date return together only once every 52 years.

Leap day: 0.0 Hunab Ku

February 29 is set outside the count and called 0.0 Hunab Ku. It has no kin and no moon date, so the 13 Moon calendar stays aligned with the Gregorian year without ever breaking the rhythm of its moons.

Dreamspell and the traditional Maya count

The 13 Moon calendar and its Dreamspell count of kin are a modern system, inspired by the Maya Tzolkin rather than copied from it. The day count kept by K'iche' Maya daykeepers runs on its own and gives different days. This site follows the Dreamspell count of the Law of Time, the count most 13 Moon practitioners share.

How to start living in natural time

Begin with today. Look up today's moon, day and kin, and notice the tone and seal you are living in. Find your own galactic signature, then watch for your kin as it returns every 260 days. Keep a simple journal of each wavespell. Within a few moons the cycles start to feel like weather you can read.

Questions