How the Mayan Indians think about the universe. Mayan ideas about the Universe. Social organization and religious beliefs

The universe - yok kab (literally: above the earth) - was imagined by the ancient Mayans as worlds located on top of each other. Just above the earth were thirteen heavens, or thirteen “heavenly layers,” and beneath the earth were nine “underworlds” that made up the underworld.

In the center of the earth stood the “Primordial Tree.” At the four corners, strictly corresponding to the cardinal points, four “world trees” grew. In the East - red, symbolizing the color of the dawn. In the North - white; Perhaps the white color of snow, once seen by their ancestors who came from the north, was preserved in people’s memory? An ebony tree - the color of the night - stood in the West, and a yellow tree grew in the South - it symbolized the color of the sun.

In the cool shade of the "Primal Tree" - it was green - was paradise. The souls of the righteous came here to take a break from the backbreaking labor on earth, from the suffocating tropical heat and enjoy plentiful food, peace and fun.

The ancient Mayans had no doubt that the earth was square, or at most rectangular. The sky, like a roof, rested on five supports - “heavenly pillars”, that is, on the central “Primordial Tree” and on four “colored trees” that grew along the edges of the earth. The Mayans, as it were, transferred the layout of their ancient communal houses to the visible universe around them, modeling it in their minds in the image and likeness of what in ancient times was concrete reality. Apparently, the central “Primary (world) tree,” which in the Mayan concept was the beginning of all beginnings, had an equally real and completely earthly “model” - the central pillar of the most primitive and ancient dwellings with a circular layout.

The most surprising thing is that the idea of thirteen heavens arose among the ancient Mayans also on a materialistic basis. It was the direct result of long-term and very careful observations of the sky and study of the movements of celestial bodies in the smallest details accessible to the naked human eye. This allowed the ancient Mayan astronomers, and most likely the Olmecs, to perfectly understand the nature of the movements of the Sun, Moon and Venus across the visible horizon. The Mayans, carefully observing the movement of the luminaries, could not help but notice that they were not moving along with the other stars, but each in their own way. Once this was established, it was most natural to assume that each luminary had its own “sky” or “layer of the sky.” Moreover, continuous observations made it possible to clarify and even specify the routes of these movements during one annual journey, since they actually pass through very specific groups of stars.

The Mayan star routes of the Sun were divided into segments equal in time for their passage. It turned out that there were thirteen such periods of time, and in each of them the Sun stayed for about twenty days. (In the Ancient East, astronomers identified 12 constellations - signs of the Zodiac.) Thirteen twenty-day months made up a solar year. For the Mayans, it began with the spring equinox, when the Sun was in the constellation Aries.

With a certain amount of imagination - and the ancient Mayans did not suffer from a lack of it - the groups of stars through which the routes passed were easily associated with real or mythical animals. This is how the gods were born - the patrons of the months in the astronomical calendar: “rattlesnake”, “scorpion”, “bird with the head of a beast”; “long-nosed monster” and others. It is curious that, for example, the familiar constellation Gemini corresponded to the constellation Turtle among the ancient Mayans.

If the Mayan ideas about the structure of the universe as a whole are clear to us today and do not raise any particular doubts, and the calendar, striking in its almost absolute accuracy, has been thoroughly studied by scientists, the situation is completely different with their “underground worlds.” We cannot even say why there were nine of them (and not eight or ten). Only the name of the “lord of the underworld” is known - Hun Ahab, but even this still has only a tentative interpretation: “God of the planet Venus” (?).

Now the time has come to answer the question, what does the death of the Japanese admiral have in common with the religious beliefs of the ancient Mayans? What is the connection between the memorable events of the early forties of the 20th century for all of us and the worldview of the ancient people, which developed in the first centuries (and perhaps earlier) BC?

It turns out that such a connection exists. Moreover, it has a very specific and very real character.

American pilots were able to detect, attack and destroy the plane in which the Japanese admiral was located, and modern scientists and researchers ancient civilization American continent, were able to study the religious views of the Mayans only due to the fact that in both the first and second cases there was a successful decipherment of unknown texts.

For a long time, historians of science argued that only the countries of Africa and Asia were the centers of world culture. Historians of astronomy believed that their science originated in the countries of the Middle East (Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt), as well as in Ancient China and India.

However, in recent decades this view had to be revised, as another center of culture was discovered. It turned out to be located on the territory of the “New World” - in Central America, on lands now occupied by Guatemala, southeastern Mexico and British Honduras. Particularly interesting is the Yucatan Peninsula, which was once inhabited by the Mayan Indians, who created their own unique culture.

Until the 2nd - 10th centuries AD. in the southern part of Mexico and in the territory of modern Guatemala, Honduras and Belize, there was a very high and extremely unique culture of the Mayan Indians. The Mayan civilization was a network of city-states, most of which were destroyed at the end of the 9th century. Already in the 16th century, the Mayan culture was destroyed by the Spanish colonialists, who, eradicating the local religion, burned almost all the manuscripts containing both knowledge and the very history of the people. And only when in the 19th century. The ruins of Mayan cities began to be discovered, and the remains of colossal observatory temples were discovered. One of the most famous Mayan cities, founded in the 8th century, Chichen Itza (in the north of Yucatan) was already ruins by the time of the Spaniards. But the remains of its grandiose religious and astronomical buildings (including the Karakol observatory) still amaze researchers.

"The Mayan Indians all disappeared somewhere. For a long time - more than a thousand years ago. Since then, no one has seen them and it is not even known why they disappeared. Some historians claim that civil strife destroyed civilization, others - that the Mayans died as a result of some then natural disasters. And they left us their beautiful stone pyramids and fortresses, their writing, impressive knowledge of mathematics and astronomy for an ancient civilization. One of the most interesting and mysterious gifts of these ancient Indians to modern civilization is the Mayan calendar."

ABOUT ancient history The Maya became known due to the fact that they had a custom periodically in almost all populated areas erect stelae - stone pillars on which relevant records of the most important events were made and the date of installation of the stele was indicated. It is possible that many of these monuments of the ancient Mayan people are “anniversary” or associated with various historical events.

From these monuments it became known that during the first 8 centuries AD, various Mayan tribes built more than a hundred cities.

According to most archaeologists, the period of greatest prosperity of the Maya lasted from the 4th to the 10th centuries. n. e. The Mayans achieved especially great success in the development of astronomy related to the practical needs of agriculture.

In only four Mayan manuscripts (so-called codices) found so far, they were found dating back to different eras BC. information about the astronomical, cosmogonic and cosmological knowledge and ideas of this people.

Some of the confusion in the surviving astronomical and astrological information can be explained by the fact that the surviving manuscripts are incomplete, and most importantly, they are mostly simplified rural priestly “reference books.” A number of texts were also found on stone slabs-steles.

The worship of the Sun and Moon by the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs dates back to ancient times. The priests at their observatories - sites located on the flat tops of grandiose step pyramids, tens of meters high, systematically monitored the sky, believing that all phenomena on Earth and in the state were determined by its laws. Particular attention was paid to eclipses and the movement of moving luminaries - planets, which were attributed big influence

on the life and affairs of people and the state as a whole. The Mayan priests used the celestial bodies to predict happy or unlucky days for certain actions, not for individuals, but for certain social strata or age groups of the population.

The Mayans paid great attention to issues of chronology and chronology. They were the creators of original calendar systems, significantly different from all other calendars known to us.

Scientists from a number of countries have put a lot of work into unraveling the secrets of the Mayan writing, their unique culture and, in particular, the calendar. A lot has been done, although a lot of work will still be required to fully clarify all the unresolved issues. However, a lot of interesting things are already known. The literature on the Mayan calendar is very extensive. What have scientists been able to establish about the Mayan calendar and chronology? It is now known that the Mayans simultaneously used two calendar systems that differed in duration: the long year and.

short year

One calendar - often called civil - was used for household needs. The Mayans used it to determine when to sow corn, when to harvest and do other household chores. The year of the Mayan civil calendar - "Haab" - had 365 days, i.e. was coordinated with the solar cycle, which is very useful for agriculture. "Haab" consisted of 18 months of 20 days. At the end of such a year, 5 more days were added, called “days without a name” and considered special. The priests knew that the “haab” is a fraction of a day shorter than the true solar year and that in 60 years there are approximately 15 extra days.

Twenty days in a month of the Mayan calendar were depicted in special hieroglyphs and had the following names:

1. Imish
2. Ik"
3. Ak "bal
4. K'an
5. Chikchan
6. Kimi
7. Manik"
8. Lamat
9. Muluk
10. Ok
11. Chuen
12. Eb
13. Ben
14. Ish
15. Men
16. Kib
17. Boar
18. Esanab
19. Kavak
20. Ahau

The year began on July 16. This day corresponded to the first day of the month Pop - the first month of the year. The year ended on July 10 - the last day of the month of Kumhu. The remaining 5 days of the year were “days without a name.” This “five-day week” was like the 19th, but short month of the year and was called “Vayeb”. This month was designated by the hieroglyph shown in the figure above under the number 19. All five days of Vayeb were celebrated as a holiday in honor of one of the gods - the patron of the next year.

Table 1. Months of the Mayan calendar

No.	Name of the month	Correspondence to Julian calendar dates





	Shul
	Yashk"in
	Mole





	K"an-k"in
	Muan

	K "ayyab
	Kumhu

The names of the months in Haab changed every 20 days, and not every day, as in Tzolk'in; so the day after 4 Soc will be 5 Soc, followed by 6 Soc... until 19 Soc, followed by 0 Sec.
The numbers of days in a month ranged from 0 to 19. The use of the 0th day of the month in the civil calendar is a unique feature of the Mayan system. The Mayans are believed to have discovered the number 0 and its uses centuries before it was discovered in Europe and Asia.
Years were not counted in the Haab calendar.

260-day year (“Tzolkin”).
The Mayan short calendar year, called “Tzolkin” and which had a ritual purpose, was structured quite differently.
The Tzolkin date is a combination of two "week" lengths.
While our calendar has a single week of seven days, the Mayan calendar used two week lengths:
a week of 13 days, in which the days are numbered from 1 to 13
a week of 20 days, in which each day has a name:

Since the named and numbered weeks were both “weeks,” both the numbers and names changed every day. Thus, the day after 3 Kimi is not 4 Kimi, but 4 Manik, and the next day is 5 Lamat. When Kimi comes again in 20 days, it will be 10 Kimi, not 3 Kimi. The next day 3 of Kimi will occur in 260 (13 x 20) days. Each day of this 260-day cycle had ideas of good or bad luck associated with it, and is therefore known as the “divine year.”

“Years” were not counted in the Tzolkin calendar.
From some Mayan hieroglyphic texts we can conclude that the ancient Mayans, in addition to the 13-day week, also had a 9-day week, in which they counted not by days, but by nights, and each night had as its patron one of the nine gods of the underworld.

Mayan calendar circle

There were two more larger cycles in the Mayan calendar: a 4-year cycle, in which the names of days and numbers of months were repeated, and a 52-year cycle (which was a combination of “Haaba” and “Tzolkin”). The latter consisted of thirteen 4-year cycles and covered a period of 18,980 days. It repeated not only the days and numbers of the week, but also the numbers of the month. In fact, the period of 18,980 days contained 52 “Haaba” (365 × 52 = 18,980) and at the same time 73 “Tzolkin” (260 × 73 = 18,980). This dependence formed the basis of the harmony of the Mayan calendar.

Every New Year could begin only with one of the following four days: K'an, Muluk, Ish and Kavak. Every year they changed sequentially, and then this order was repeated.

The dating of any event in the Mayan calendar always consisted of the number of the 13-day week, the name of the day, the day of the month and the name of the month. For example, if the date is written like this: “6 Lamat 14 Shul,” then this means the 6th day of the 13-day week, the day of Lamat, the 14th day of the month Shul. Such a date could only be repeated after 52 years, i.e. after 18,980 days.

Since in the Mayan civil calendar a year consisted of 365 days and a month of 20 days, every four years the first day of the year fell on the same day of the month, but on different days of the week. Therefore, the entire 52-year cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar can be represented in the form of a “perpetual calendar” (Table 2), called the “calendar circle”.

Mysterious prediction

While you are studying the culture of the American Indians, especially their calendar and chronological systems, your inner voice constantly whispers: shouldn’t we listen to ancient legends?

What if the Mayan Indians knew something that we don’t know, and we still can’t fully reveal their secrets? What if their prediction about the date when the Fifth Sun (Fifth Age of Creation) will end and at the same time two more cycles (q'atun and baktun) will end - December 21, 2012 - turns out to be accurate (plausible)? In other words, somewhere in the depths of the earth, a terrible geological catastrophe, predicted by the Mayan priests, is already brewing. They believed that they were able to calculate the date of the End of the World, because they believed that everything in the world comes down to numbers and that if you just look at what numbers are associated with events, it will be possible to accurately predict their time. The Fifth Sun will expire and, perhaps, terrible earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and giant tidal waves will put an end to humanity and proclaim the beginning of the Sixth Epoch of Creation (Sixth Sun, Sixth Mayan Era) - December 22, 2012.

Thus, the Mayan Indians, and possibly other peoples of America (Aztecs, Incas, Olmecs, Toltecs, etc.) were constantly concerned about how to calculate - and, if possible, push back - the End of the World. Maybe this is exactly the problem that this whole mysterious unique calendar-chronological system of the Mayan Indians was designed to solve. Perhaps it was conceived as a mechanism, a tool for predicting a terrible cosmic or geological catastrophe. The method of using this instrument was the Great Secret of the “redskins”.

Many Mayan experts claim that these ancient Indians knew very well the structure of the Universe. This allowed them to predict that on December 21, 2012, global events would occur on Earth that would dramatically change the course of history. Of course, the details of this message have not reached us, and researchers are still trying to figure out what the smart Indians meant. Many are inclined to believe that this is how the Mayans predicted the “end of the world.” Others believe that a new era will come on Earth, an era of spiritual insight. What do our astronomers say?

First of all, this is the time of the winter solstice. But this happens every year - it doesn’t seem to be the best idea for a space revolution. But besides this, on December 21, 2012, our Earth and the Sun will be in line with the center of our Galaxy. But this is already impressive. Imagine, the Mayans predicted such a non-trivial cosmic phenomenon more than a thousand years ago! But they didn’t even have lenses or telescopes. They carried out their observations of stars and planets using narrow slits. What this astronomical event promises us, modern scientists do not know. As they say, we'll wait and see.

How, why and why?

The answers to these and other questions do not lie on the surface. All the secrets that the Mayans once possessed will obviously never be solved due to the physical loss of much evidence of this civilization.

The construction of all calendars is based on the patterns of movement of the celestial bodies and, first of all, the planets of the solar system: the Sun, Earth and Moon. Since their movement is not strictly uniform, an error accumulates in the calendar from year to year. To maintain the accuracy of the calendar, it is necessary to have knowledge about the “structure” of the Universe and the laws of planetary motion. To do this, it is necessary to somehow measure their movement. But the Mayan Indians did not have any special technical, in the modern sense, astronomical instruments, for example, telescopes.

Surviving manuscripts and monuments indicate that the astronomical knowledge of the Mayans was at a very advanced level. high level. For example, judging by Stela A in the city of Copan, Mayan astronomers knew the metonic cycle (repetition of the same positions of the Sun and Moon), determining that 19 solar years = 235 lunar months. A study of mathematical calculations in some inscriptions of the Dresden manuscript suggests that the Mayan astronomer priests were able to predict the onset of solar eclipses.

The results of the study of civilizations indicate that since the emergence of the genotype - Homo sapiens about forty thousand years ago, people have paid no less attention to measuring time periods indicated by the movement of celestial bodies than to obtaining food and making tools. An unusually wide distribution in civilizations around the world of a special set of verbal conventions designed to encrypt astronomical observations within the framework of mythology has also been established. For Indians both Northern and South America It is characteristic that all the most important events that happened to them, as well as knowledge from various fields, were encrypted in the form of a myth. It can be assumed that the Mayan Indians used myth as a technical language, a way of transmitting information about the past to the present and to the distant future.

It is clear that all the accumulated knowledge had to be somehow transferred without distortion into the distant future and descendants taught how to use this knowledge. This is precisely what constituted the main secrets of the Maya. To do this, they used various methods: calendar cycles were marked by the installation of steles, all architectural buildings marked time, events were recorded both on paper and in stone, etc.

Now let's try to answer the most difficult, but most important question - why were such gigantic, by human standards, time intervals used?

It may be that astronomy, a deep understanding of time and long-term calculations were integral part a specific system of knowledge that the Mayans inherited more or less intact from an older and wiser civilization. It is known that the Mayans inherited their calendar from the Olmecs, who used it a thousand years before the Mayans. But where did the Olmecs get it from? What level of technical and scientific development of civilization is required to develop such a calendar?

The Mayans were obsessed with time and repeating cycles.

They kept detailed records. Every hour, every day, every month, every century, every millennium was counted and numbered, connected to a set of specific signs, Every date was cross-checked using a completely different system to make sure that not a single mistake was made. Since it is possible to predict the seasons by their repetition, and even to foresee repeated weather changes over a number of years, is it not also possible to predict when the conditions will be ripe for the recurrence of social, political, and even simply everyday phenomena? For centuries, sacred books, copied by hand and passed on by one priest of the Sun to another, served as both perpetual calendars and “books of human destiny.” Using systems of chronology, astronomy, astrology and divination, the Mayan priests engaged in prophecy and predicted people's future. The prophecies were passed down from generation to generation, were strictly guarded and constituted the Great Secret of the Mayan priests, as well as other American Indians. It is the rules for using astronomical knowledge to predict the future of both an individual person and humanity as a whole, both in the near future and in the distant future (on the time scale of the precession of the earth’s axis and more) that constitute the essence of this Great mystery

Mayan Indians. It is possible that some of this information was passed down from generation to generation orally.
“The timing of various rituals was coordinated with the position of Venus... The calendar was corrected according to the position of the Sun in the sky... The Milky Way was symbolized by the Mayans as the World Tree...” The Mayans were aware of the global cataclysms that had occurred, for example, the “flood” of 650 AD .e., volcanic eruptions and others, which were marked by them on the time scale of precession of the earth's axis. And they observed the inevitable approach of critical points (cataclysms) on the precession scale for the sake of saving secret knowledge.

The Mayans deified time.

Mayan spiritual heritage

The year of the Gregorian calendar, according to which almost the whole world now lives, consists of months of different sizes: sometimes 30, sometimes 31, sometimes 28 days. This sequence of numbers was chosen arbitrarily by a person and is in no way consistent with natural rhythms. In addition, a person divides the clock dial into 12 parts, and an hour into 60 minutes. And people also took these numbers as if from nowhere. Jose believes that living in this artificial time, a person loses touch with nature, with the cosmos, and forgets his highest values. And a civilization that has lost contact with its native biosphere enters a phase of self-destruction.

J. Arguelles notes that: "for us, the calculation of time consists of counting successive quantitative units - minutes, hours, days and years - but for the Mayans, what we call time is a function of harmonic resonance."

These words reflect the deep essence of the sacred calendar of time. They indicate that time is a relative category. In this case, time will not be the fourth dimension. It may not have a serial number of measurement at all.

TIME IS NOT A SPECIAL DIMENSION. IT HAS "EQUAL AMONG EQUAL" RIGHTS.

It can be used to measure the "width", "height", "length" of a 3-dimensional self-space. It can also be used to measure your own space-time, where time will act as the fourth dimension. those. Time can have a multi-level, multi-dimensional, cyclically repeated structure.

The Mayans used the Tzolkin matrix to measure time. Based on this matrix, they created many other calendars, including the Calendar of the Pleiades constellation, about which esotericism creates legends.

Considering that planetary and stellar cycles do not seem to be directly interconnected, it is difficult to get rid of the mystical premonition of these calendars. And yet... Maybe we should take a closer look at this ancient people- what else has reached us, his descendants?

Once upon a time, at a tender age, hearing the expression “at the end of the world” in fairy tales, I thought – where is this edge and what does it look like? If it's just the end of the Earth and the void begins, then did they put a fence there so that no one would fall? Childhood is over, I learned about planets And solar system, galaxies and Universe. Even now it is difficult to imagine the immensity and imagine where is the edge of the universe. Probably, in this matter we are all like ancient people, imagining the Earth and universe.

How our ancestors imagined the world

Scientific attempts to describe the Universe

Some peoples have advanced knowledge of the world deeper than a convenient legend from old wives' tales. The most advanced in this area were:

Greeks. Officially, they were the first to suggest that The earth is round. But their theory was geocentric– it was believed that the Sun and planets revolve around the Earth. Atomists assumed that our system was not the only one, and imagined the Universe as a cluster of systems, which they were not far from the truth.
Hindus. In the Vedas and Puranas it was described in an allegorical form solar system model like planets moving around the sun, and the Sun itself - around the Earth. As the priestly level degraded, the servants themselves began to perceive projection drawings as flat objects, from which the version of flat earth.
Romans. Like the Greeks, they claimed geocentric Universe, while quite accurately calculating time length of orbits planets and their distance from Earth.

Today

The fact that today much is known about our solar system, our and nearby galaxies, does not give confidence in the correctness of our ideas about the universe. Most of them are just guesses. It is quite possible that our ideas will also find their way into someone’s discussions in 300 years.

Social organization and religious beliefs

A feature of the Mayan social organization was the combination of secular and spiritual power. This harmonized the vertical subordination of the lower strata to the higher ones, sanctified the social order, sacralized everything government structure. So, for example, each Mayan city-state was headed by a “halach-vinik” (“real man”), who united in his person the highest administrative power and combined with the highest priestly rank. Priests of various ranks, the most common name of which was “ah kin,” formed a complex apparatus of government. The reasons for this concentration of power predominantly in the hands of the priests, as well as its origins, should be sought in the agricultural nature of the Mayan religion itself. The economy of the society was based on agriculture, maize made up 65% of the Mayan diet. It was cultivated using the slash-and-burn system, with all the ensuing consequences: soil impoverishment, decreased yields, and forced change of plots. This pronounced agrarian nature of the economy and its focus on the natural productivity of the soil made it highly dependent on natural factors and force majeure circumstances. The microcosm of the human world here coexisted with the macrocosm of supernatural circumstances, so agriculture needed special knowledge and rituals to maintain a fragile balance between these two worlds and hope for a good harvest.

Among the Mayans, knowledge and religion were inseparable from one another and constituted a single worldview, which was reflected in their art. Ideas about the diversity of the surrounding world were personified in the images of numerous deities, which can be combined into several main groups corresponding to different spheres of human experience: gods of hunting, gods of fertility, gods of various elements, gods of heavenly bodies, gods of war, gods of death, and so on. At different periods of Mayan history, certain gods could have different significance for their worshipers. The Mayans believed that the universe consisted of 13 heavens and 9 underworlds. In the center of the earth there was a tree that passed through all the celestial spheres. On each of the four sides of the earth there was another tree, symbolizing the cardinal points - a red tree corresponded to the east, a yellow tree to the south, a black tree to the west, and a white tree to the north. Each side of the world had several gods (wind, rain and heaven holders) who had a corresponding color.

One of the important gods of the Maya of the classical period was the god of corn, represented in the guise of a young man with a high headdress. By the time the Spaniards arrived, Another important deity was Itzamna, represented as an old man with a hooked nose and a goatee. As a rule, images of Mayan deities included a variety of symbolism, which speaks of the complexity of the thinking of the customers and performers of sculptures, reliefs or drawings and is not always understandable to our contemporaries. So, the sun god had large crooked fangs, his mouth was outlined by a strip of circles. The eyes and mouth of the other deity are depicted as coiled snakes, etc. Among the female deities, especially significant, judging by the codes, was the “red goddess,” the wife of the rain god; she was painted with a snake on her head and with the paws of some kind of predator instead of legs. Itzamna's wife was the moon goddess Ish-Chel; it was believed to help with childbirth, weaving and medicine. Some Mayan gods were represented in the form of animals or birds: jaguar, eagle. During the Toltec period of Mayan history, the veneration of deities of Central Mexican origin spread among them. One of the most respected gods of this kind was Kukulkan, in whose image elements of the god Quetzalcoatl of the Nahua peoples are clear.

An example of Mayan mythology of the pre-Hispanic period is provided by the epic of one of the peoples of Guatemala, the Popol Vuh, preserved from colonial times. It contains stories of the creation of the world and people, the origin of the twin heroes, their struggle with the underground rulers, etc.

The veneration of deities among the Mayans was expressed in complex rituals, part of which were sacrifices (including human ones) and playing ball. I would like to note one more phenomenon that was common in those days - a ball game, which was similar in appearance to modern basketball. The players had to hit the ball into a stone ring attached to the wall of the stadium - a special playing field. At the same time, they had to touch the ball not with their hands or feet, but only with their hips, buttocks, shoulders and elbows. To ensure their safety, members of the “teams” wore special protective clothing - a mask and bibs. At the same time, they became more like baseball players. Some believe that at the end of the game the winner cut off the head of the loser - like the gladiators of the Roman Colosseum. However, in this case we could only talk about a religious sacrifice. The competition itself was of a ritual, magical nature. This ritual was closely connected with the cult of the fertility of the earth - images of scenes of the game and beheading always contained elements of floral ornament.

Mayan astronomy and mathematics

In all of Mesoamerica there was no people who would have achieved more significant success in the sciences than the Mayans, a people of extraordinary abilities, managed. The high level of civilization was determined primarily by astronomy and mathematics. In this area, they truly found themselves in pre-Columbian America beyond any competition. Their achievements are not comparable to any others. The Mayans surpassed even their European contemporaries in these sciences. At least 18 observatories from Petén's heyday are currently known to exist. Thus, Vashaktun occupied an exceptional position and was considered a particularly important center, since it was the names that determined the solstice and equinox points. Researcher Blom conducted a series of experiments in the central square of Vashaktun. Based on calculations of the exact latitude and longitude of the city, he was able to unravel the fascinating secret of the ancient ensemble, which consisted of temples and pyramids surrounding a square square oriented to the cardinal points. The “magic secret” turned out to be the way in which the priests located on top of the observatory pyramid, thanks to the landmark temples, established with mathematical accuracy the point of sunrise during the solstices and equinoxes.

The priests, who made up the highest stratum of society, kept the great-great-grandfather's astronomical knowledge about the movement of the stars, the Sun, the Moon, Venus and Mars. Based on centuries of observations, they calculated the length of the solar year with an accuracy superior to the Gregorian calendar that we currently use. According to their calculations, the length of this year was 365.2420 days; according to the Gregorian calendar it is 365.2425 days, and according to modern astronomical data - 365.2422 days. They knew how to calculate the attack solar eclipses, came close to understanding the 19-year Metonic cycle. In 682, the priest-astronomers of Copan introduced a formula according to which 149 lunar months were equal to 4400 days. This formula was soon adopted in almost all cities of the classical period. According to it, the length of the lunar month was on average 29.53020 days - a figure very close to the data of our astronomers (29.53059 days). The cycle of the planet Venus with an average duration of 583.48 days was used as a calendar; on sheets 24-29 of the Dresden manuscript there is a remarkable calendar of Venus, correct for a total of 384 years. The Mayans also knew other planets: Mars, Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter. However, here, as in other astronomical issues, the opinions of researchers differ so greatly from each other that only one thing becomes clear: the work has only just begun.

One of the researchers specializing in the study of Mayan calendar systems, Spinden, suggests that the Mayans knew a zodiac, however, consisting not of twelve, but of thirteen. On leaves 23 and 24 of the Paris manuscript, in his opinion, the signs of the zodiac are depicted. And in this case, his first houses should have been: Scorpio, Turtle and Rattlesnake.

Astronomical observations were made by the Maya from the tops of their pyramidal temples with the naked eye; the only instrument may have been two crossed sticks to fix the observation point. At least, similar tools are depicted in the Nuttall, Selden and Bodley manuscripts near the priests observing the stars. In addition, there were special architectural complexes, designed to determine the turning points of the seasons.

Such a significant significance of astronomical science would not have been possible without a perfectly developed counting system. The Mayans created such a system. It is similar to the one that the Arabs adopted from the Indians and later passed on to the Europeans, who only then were able to abandon the primitive Roman system.

The Mayans surpassed this system before the Romans conquered Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula, and long before the Arabs brought the decimal counting system to Europe. It is believed that it was invented in India in the 7th century. AD and that the Arabs passed it on to the Europeans only several centuries later. The Mayans used their own decimal system at least from the 4th century. AD - in other words, 1600 years ago.

Both the decimal system we use and the twenty-digit Mayan system are based on a single principle, according to which the sign itself does not mean anything, but when accompanied by another number it becomes the basis for mathematical treatment, which made it possible to accomplish all the achievements of modern sciences. This sign is zero, whose property of increasing the number associated with it tens of times in our system and twenty times in the Mayan system by positionally moving the indicated number to the left in the first case and upward in the second makes it possible to record infinite sets and carry out the most complex astronomical calculations.

Our decimal system has nine digits and a zero. Mayan consists of only two - a dot and a line - and a zero. The invention of this sign at such a remote time raises the mathematical genius of the Maya to astonishing heights. This meant the greatest progress in the field of abstract thinking.

The Mayans could perform complex arithmetic calculations. Landa also noted the Maya’s ability to easily operate with huge numbers: “Their counting is carried out in 5 to 20, 20 to 100, 100 to 400 and 400 to 8000. They widely used this counting for cocoa trading. They have another count, a longer one, which they continue ad infinitum, counting 8 thousand 20 times, which is 160 thousand, then, returning to 20, they multiply 160 thousand by this number and so continue to multiply by 20 until they get a huge numbers. They count on the ground or anything smooth.” Elsewhere, speaking of the calendar count, Landa writes: “With these returns and intricate counting, it is surprising to see the freedom with which those who know count and deal.” Mayan arithmetic was based on the 20-digit number system, which apparently arose from the comprehension and consolidation of the sum of the number of fingers and toes of one person (it is no coincidence that the number 20 in some Mayan languages is called hun uinic, winak - literally “one person”). Similar to our units, tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, the Mayans had nine levels of counting, of which each subsequent one was equal to the previous twenty, so that the highest of them was 25,600,000,000, if counted in the decimal system.

Mayan calendar system

The Mayan calendar system represents a unique and significant chapter in the history of world science. In all Mayan calendar systems the basic unit is the day, whether it is defined as a period of time or as a numerical interval expressed as the interval between two dates. We know nothing about the division of the day into certain parts (hours, minutes) among the Mayans; Landa's message about the parts of the day speaks only about his time (like our morning, noon, evening). Probably, one day began and the other ended in all systems at the same time: presumably at the moment of sunrise or sunset. The names of days and months in different calendars are somewhat different from each other, and in the inscriptions of the classical period they are still deciphered rather tentatively.

The Mayans skillfully combined two calendars: Haab - solar, consisting of 365 days, and Tzolkin - religious, of 260 days. The basis of the religious calendar, older than the solar one, was a period of 260 days, consisting of a combination of a weekly cycle (13 days) and a monthly cycle (20 days). The days of the first were designated by numbers from 1 to 13, and the days of the second had 20 names. In combinations with other cycles, the days of the month were also designated by numbers from 0 to 19 (the first day of the month was considered zero). The 260-day period was widespread throughout Mesoamerica and, obviously, was the seed from which all other calendar systems grew. Its origin is unclear; some researchers associated it with the normal period of pregnancy, but it is more correct, of course, to look for its origins in the agricultural activities of the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica, i.e. consider it a simple agricultural calendar.

The 365-day annual cycle was established from the 6th or 7th century. in accordance with the decisions of the learned Council of Xochicalco. By means of a complex system of calendar correlation, later called the supplementary series, they brought this year into conformity with the actual length of the solar year, which, according to modern calculations, is 365.2422 days. This calculation turned out to be more accurate than the leap year calendar, introduced according to the calendar reform of Pope Gregory XIII 900 or even 1000 years later, in the last quarter of the 16th century.

The year of the solar calendar system consisted of 18 months of 20 days each. In the Mayan language, the time periods were called: 20 days (kin) - vinal; 18 Vinal - Tun. To align the solar year, 5 days were added, called mayeb, literally: “unfavorable.” It was believed that on this five-day period the year “dies”, and therefore on these last days The ancient Mayans did nothing to avoid bringing trouble upon themselves.

The tun was not the last unit of time in the Mayan calendar. With an increase of 20 times, cycles began to form: 20 tuns made a katun; 20 katuns – baktun; 20 baktuns – pictun; 20 pictuns – kalabtun; 20 kalabtuts – kinchiltun, etc. The Alautun included 23,040,000,000 days.

The combination of the solar and religious cycles constituted a calendar cycle of 52 indeterminate years, or 18,980 days. Thus, the Mayan date consisted of the number of the 13-day week, the name of the day, the day of the month, and the name of the month. This method of designation recorded not only a specific day in the year, but also a specific day in the 52-year cycle, since an unambiguous combination of two numbers and two names could be repeated only after 52 indefinite years.

Dating according to the calendar circle was common among many peoples of Mesoamerica. The imperfection of such a chronology is clear: after a while it is difficult to determine which calendar circle a given date belongs to.

In addition to these main cycles, the Mayans also used a number of others of a very diverse nature. Among them are the 9-day week (obviously associated with the Ennead of the gods of the night, like the Nahua), the cycle of 819 days, the 17-day week of the gods of the earth, the cycle of the planet Venus with an average duration of 583.48 days, and the lunar cycle. By combining such cycles into one system with a calendar circle, significantly larger time periods can be obtained. Thus, the inclusion of a 9-day week forms a cycle of 468 years, and adding another designation of a day in a 7-day cycle, we get a circle of 3276 years.

All dates preserved on steles, monoliths, codices and in records made by the Spaniards of the early colonial period have a single point of reference. According to our chronology, it falls at 3113 BC, or, according to another system of correlation, at 3373 BC. It is interesting to note that these dates are close to the first year of the Hebrew calendar, which falls in 3761 BC. – the year of the supposed creation of the Bible.

The mystery of time and the mystery of the Mayans. For a long time, historians of science argued that only the countries of Africa and Asia were the centers of world culture. Historians of astronomy believed that their science originated in the countries of the Middle East (Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt), as well as in Ancient China and India. However, in recent decades this view had to be revised, as another center of culture was discovered. It turned out to be located on the territory of the “New World” - in Central America, on the lands now occupied by Guatemala, the southeastern part of Mexico and British Honduras.

Particularly interesting is the Yucatan Peninsula, which was once inhabited by the Mayan Indians, who created their own distinctive culture. Until the 2nd - 10th centuries AD. e. in the southern part of Mexico and in the territory of modern Guatemala, Honduras and Belize, there was a very high and extremely unique culture of the Mayan Indians. The Mayan civilization was a network of city-states, most of which were destroyed at the end of the 9th century. Already in the 16th century, the Mayan culture was destroyed by the Spanish colonialists, who, eradicating the local religion, burned almost all the manuscripts containing both knowledge and the very history of the people.

And only when in the 19th century. The ruins of Mayan cities began to be discovered, and the remains of colossal observatory temples were discovered. One of the most famous Mayan cities, founded in the 8th century, Chichen Itza (in the north of Yucatan) was already ruins by the time of the Spaniards. But the remains of its grandiose religious and astronomical buildings (including the Karakol observatory) still amaze researchers. "The Mayan Indians all disappeared somewhere. For a long time - more than a thousand years ago. Since then, no one has seen them and it is not even known why they disappeared. Some historians claim that civil strife destroyed civilization, others - that the Mayans died as a result of some then natural disasters. And they left us their beautiful stone pyramids and fortresses, their writing, impressive knowledge of mathematics and astronomy for an ancient civilization.

One of the most interesting and mysterious gifts of these ancient Indians to modern civilization is the Mayan calendar." The ancient history of the Mayans became known due to the fact that they had the custom of periodically erecting steles in almost all settlements - stone pillars on which corresponding records of the most important events were made. events and indicated the date of installation of the stele. It is possible that many of these monuments of the ancient Maya people are “anniversary” or associated with various historical events. From these monuments it became known that during the first 8 centuries of our era, various Mayan tribes built more than a hundred cities. According to most archaeologists, the period of greatest prosperity of the Mayans lasted from the 4th to the 10th centuries AD. The Mayans achieved especially great success in the development of astronomy related to the practical needs of agriculture. Special hieroglyphs were found in various Mayan inscriptions to indicate the planets, the North Star and a number of constellations. One of the found manuscripts even preserves a list of upcoming solar eclipses.

Astronomical observations were carried out in structures reminiscent of the towers of modern observatories. Franciscan monk Diego de Landa, who arrived in 1549 from Spain to the Izamal monastery (Yucatan), burned the richest library of the pre-Columbian era, which contained all the achievements of the Mayan civilization, “since the books contained nothing but superstition and devilish lies...” ! Thus, a priceless archaeological treasure was destroyed. Although to date it has been possible to decipher only four incomplete manuscripts (without beginning and end) of the Maya, but still two-thirds of the hieroglyphs with which something important was written down in a temple, tomb, stele, plate, beads, etc. - remain inaccessible to understanding; therefore, some of the secrets of the Maya will not yet be recognized. Until other inscriptions or manuscripts are found.

Which, let us hope, exist... In only four Mayan manuscripts (so-called codices) found so far, they were discovered dating back to different eras BC. e. information about the astronomical, cosmogonic and cosmological knowledge and ideas of this people. Some of the confusion in the surviving astronomical and astrological information can be explained by the fact that the surviving manuscripts are incomplete, and most importantly, they are mostly simplified rural priestly “reference books.” A number of texts were also found on stone slabs-steles. The worship of the Sun and Moon by the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs dates back to ancient times. The priests at their observatories - sites located on the flat tops of grandiose step pyramids, tens of meters high, systematically monitored the sky, believing that all phenomena on Earth and in the state were determined by its laws. Particular attention was paid to eclipses and the movement of moving luminaries - planets, which were credited with a great influence on the life and affairs of people and the state as a whole. The Mayan priests used the celestial bodies to predict happy or unlucky days for certain actions, not for individuals, but for certain social strata or age groups of the population.

As a result of systematic observations, the Mayan astrologer priests determined with fairly high accuracy the periods of all planets visible to the naked eye. Particular attention was paid to observations of the “Big Star” - Venus (mainly for astrological purposes). In addition to Venus, according to the Mayans, the Moon and shooting stars had a particularly strong influence on people. The Mayans paid great attention to issues of chronology and chronology. They were the creators of original calendar systems, significantly different from all other calendars known to us. Scientists from a number of countries have put a lot of work into unraveling the secrets of the Mayan writing, their unique culture and, in particular, the calendar. A lot has been done, although a lot of work will still be required to fully clarify all the unresolved issues. However, a lot of interesting things are already known. The literature on the Mayan calendar is very extensive.

What have scientists been able to establish about the Mayan calendar and chronology? It is now known that the Mayans simultaneously used two calendar systems that differed in duration: a long year and a short year. 365-day year (“haab”). One calendar - often called civil - was used for household needs. The Mayans used it to determine when to sow corn, when to harvest and do other household chores. The year of the Mayan civil calendar - “Haab” - had 365 days, i.e. it was consistent with the solar cycle, which is very useful for agriculture. "Haab" consisted of 18 months of 20 days. At the end of such a year, 5 more days were added, called “days without a name” and considered special. The priests knew that the “haab” is a fraction of a day shorter than the true solar year and that in 60 years there are approximately 15 extra days.

Many researchers of Mayan culture believe that the Mayan calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar. They explain this by the fact that, although the Mayans did not have astronomical instruments, they learned to achieve high accuracy in their observations of the celestial bodies, using a special method that consisted of observing through long and narrow slits, a kind of “sights”. Twenty days in the month of the Mayan calendar were depicted in special hieroglyphs and had the following names: 1. Imish 2. Ik" 3. Ak"bal 4. K"an 5. Chikchan 6. Kimi 7. Manik" 8. Lamat 9. Muluk 10. Ok 11. Chuen 12. Eb 13. Ben 14. Ish 15. Men 16. Kib 17. Boar 18. Esanab 19. Kawak 20. Ahau The year began on July 16th. This day corresponded to the first day of the month Pop - the first month of the year. The year ended on July 10 - the last day of the month of Kumhu. The remaining 5 days of the year were “days without a name.”

This “five-day week” was like the 19th, but short month of the year and was called “Vayeb”. This month was designated by the hieroglyph shown in the figure above under the number 19. All five days of Vayeb were celebrated as a holiday in honor of one of the gods - the patron of the next year. Table 1. Months of the Mayan calendar No. Name of the month Correspondence to the dates of the Julian calendar 1 Pop July 16 - August 4 2 Vo August 5 - August 24 3 Sip August 25 - September 13 4 Social "September 14 - October 3 5 Sec October 4 - October 23 - December 6 Shul October 24 - November 12 7 Yashk"in November 13 - December 2 8 Mol December 3 - December 22 9 Ch"en December 23 - January 11 10 Yash January 12 - January 31 11 Sak February 1 - February 20 12 Keh February 21 - March 12, 13 Mak March 13 - April 1, 14 K "an-k"in April 2 - April 21, 15 Muan April 22 - May 11, 16 Pash May 12 - May 31, 17 K'ayab 1 Nun - June 20, 18 Kumhu 21 June - 10 July The names of the months in Haab changed every 20 days, and not every day, as in Tzolkien; so the day after 4 Soc will be 5 Soc, followed by 6 Soc... until 19 Soc, followed by 0 Sec. The numbers of days in a month ranged from 0 to 19. The use of the 0th day of the month in the civil calendar is a unique feature of the Mayan system. The Mayans are believed to have discovered the number 0 and its uses centuries before it was discovered in Europe and Asia.

Years were not counted in the Haab calendar. 260-day year (“Tzolkin”). The Mayan short calendar year, called “Tzolkin” and which had a ritual purpose, was structured quite differently. The Tzolkin date is a combination of two "week" lengths. While our calendar has a single week of seven days, the Mayan calendar used two week lengths: . a week of 13 days, in which the days are numbered from 1 to 13. a week of 20 days, in which each day has a name: 0. Ahau 5. Chikchan 10. Ok 15. Men 1. Imish 6. Kimi 11. Chuen 16. Kib 2. Ik 7. Manik 12. Eb 17. Boar 3. Akbal 8. Lamat 13. Ben 18. Etznab 4. Kan 9. Muluk 14. Kish 19. Kavak Since the named and numbered weeks were both “weeks,” both the numbers and names changed every day.

Thus, the day after 3 Kimi is not 4 Kimi, but 4 Manik, and the next day is 5 Lamat. When Kimi comes again in 20 days, it will be 10 Kimi, not 3 Kimi. The next day 3 of Kimi will occur in 260 (13 x 20) days. Each day of this 260-day cycle had ideas of good or bad luck associated with it, and is therefore known as the “divine year.” “Years” were not counted in the Tzolkin calendar. From some Mayan hieroglyphic texts we can conclude that the ancient Mayans, in addition to the 13-day week, also had a 9-day week, in which they counted not by days, but by nights, and each night had as its patron one of the nine gods of the underworld. Mayan Calendar Circle The Mayan calendar had two larger cycles: a 4-year cycle, in which the names of days and numbers of months were repeated, and a 52-year cycle (which was a combination of “Haaba” and “Tzolkin”). The latter consisted of thirteen 4-year cycles and covered a period of 18,980 days. It repeated not only the days and numbers of the week, but also the numbers of the month.

In fact, the period of 18,980 days contained 52 “Haaba” (365 x 52 = 18,980) and at the same time 73 “Tzolkin” (260 x 73 = 18,980). This dependence formed the basis of the harmony of the Mayan calendar. Each New Year could begin only with one of the following four days: K "an, Muluk, Ish and Kavak. Every year they changed sequentially, and then this order was repeated. The dating of any event in the Mayan calendar always consisted of the number of the 13-day week, the name day, day of the month and name of the month. For example, if the date is written like this: “6 Lamat 14 Shul,” then this means the 6th day of the 13-day week, the day of Lamat, the 14th day of the month Shul. Such a date could only be repeated after. 52 years, i.e. after 18,980 days Since in the Mayan civil calendar a year consisted of 365 days and a month of 20 days, then every four years the first day of the year fell on the same day of the month, but on different days. days of the week.

Therefore, the entire 52-year cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar can be represented in the form of a “perpetual calendar” (Table 2), called the “calendar circle”. A mysterious prediction While you are studying the culture of the American Indians, especially their calendar and chronological systems, an inner voice constantly whispers: shouldn’t we listen to ancient legends? What if the Mayan Indians knew something that we don’t know, and we still can’t fully reveal their secrets? What if their prediction about the date when the Fifth Sun (Fifth Age of Creation) will end and at the same time two more cycles (q'atun and baktun) will end - December 21, 2012 - turns out to be accurate (plausible)?

In other words, somewhere in the depths of the earth, a terrible geological catastrophe, predicted by the Mayan priests, is already brewing. They believed that they were able to calculate the date of the End of the World, because they believed that everything in the world comes down to numbers and that if you just look at what numbers are associated with events, it will be possible to accurately predict their time. The Fifth Sun will expire and, perhaps, terrible earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and giant tidal waves will put an end to humanity and proclaim the beginning of the Sixth Epoch of Creation (Sixth Sun, Sixth Mayan Era) - December 22, 2012. Thus, the Mayan Indians, and possibly other peoples of America (Aztecs, Incas, Olmecs, Toltecs, etc.) were constantly concerned about how to calculate - and, if possible, push back - the End of the World. Maybe this is exactly the problem that this whole mysterious unique calendar-chronological system of the Mayan Indians was designed to solve. Perhaps it was conceived as a mechanism, a tool for predicting a terrible cosmic or geological catastrophe. The method of using this instrument was the Great Secret of the “redskins”.

But this happens every year - it doesn’t seem to be the best idea for a space revolution. But besides this, on December 21, 2012, our Earth and the Sun will be in line with the center of our Galaxy. But this is already impressive. Imagine, the Mayans predicted such a non-trivial cosmic phenomenon more than a thousand years ago! But they didn’t even have lenses or telescopes. They carried out their observations of stars and planets using narrow slits. What this astronomical event promises us, modern scientists do not know. As they say, we'll wait and see. How, why and why?

A number of questions arise from the description of the Mayan calendar-chronological system: - why such a complex system of chronology and chronology was needed; - why several calendars were used simultaneously; - why such gigantic, by today’s human standards, time intervals were necessary in chronology; - why the base-20 number system was used; - due to which high accuracy of the calendar was achieved. The answers to these and other questions do not lie on the surface. All the secrets that the Mayans once possessed will obviously never be solved due to the physical loss of much evidence of this civilization. The construction of all calendars is based on the patterns of movement of the celestial bodies and, first of all, the planets of the solar system: the Sun, Earth and Moon. Since their movement is not strictly uniform, an error accumulates in the calendar from year to year. To maintain the accuracy of the calendar, it is necessary to have knowledge about the “structure” of the Universe and the laws of planetary motion.

To do this, it is necessary to somehow measure their movement. But the Mayan Indians did not have any special technical, in the modern sense, astronomical instruments, for example, telescopes. Surviving manuscripts and monuments indicate that the astronomical knowledge of the Mayans was at a very high level. For example, judging by Stela A in the city of Copan, Mayan astronomers knew the metonic cycle (repetition of the same positions of the Sun and Moon), determining that 19 solar years = 235 lunar months. A study of mathematical calculations in some inscriptions of the Dresden manuscript suggests that the Mayan astronomer priests were able to predict the onset of solar eclipses. The results of the study of civilizations indicate that since the emergence of the genotype - Homo sapiens about forty thousand years ago, people have paid no less attention to measuring the time periods indicated by the movement of celestial bodies than to obtaining food and making tools. An unusually wide distribution in civilizations around the world of a special set of verbal conventions designed to encrypt astronomical observations within the framework of mythology has also been established. It is characteristic of the Indians of both North and South America that all the most important events that happened to them, as well as knowledge from various areas, were encrypted in the form of myth.

It can be assumed that the Mayan Indians used myth as a technical language, a way of transmitting information about the past to the present and to the distant future. It is clear that all the accumulated knowledge had to be somehow transferred without distortion into the distant future and descendants taught how to use this knowledge. This is precisely what constituted the main secrets of the Maya. To do this, they used various methods: calendar cycles were marked by the installation of steles, all architectural buildings marked time, events were recorded both on paper and in stone, etc. Now let’s try to answer the most difficult, but most important question - why were such giants used? , by human standards, time intervals?

"By the time of their birth, the Mayans had already calculated the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets with an accuracy accessible only to modern science and the latest computers. They were simply obsessed with the movement of celestial bodies, obsessed with calculating time." It may be that astronomy, a deep understanding of time and long-term calculations were part of a specific system of knowledge that the Mayans inherited more or less intact from an older and wiser civilization. It is known that the Mayans inherited their calendar from the Olmecs, who used it a thousand years before the Mayans. But where did the Olmecs get it from? What level of technical and scientific development of civilization is required to develop such a calendar? The Mayans were obsessed with time and repeating cycles. They kept detailed records. Every hour, every day, every month, every century, every millennium was counted and numbered, connected to a set of specific signs, Every date was cross-checked using a completely different system to make sure that not a single mistake was made.

Since it is possible to predict the seasons by their repetition, and even to foresee repeated weather changes over a number of years, is it not also possible to predict when the conditions will be ripe for the recurrence of social, political, and even simply everyday phenomena? For centuries, sacred books, copied by hand and passed on by one priest of the Sun to another, served as both perpetual calendars and “books of human destiny.” Using systems of chronology, astronomy, astrology and divination, the Mayan priests engaged in prophecy and predicted people's future. The prophecies were passed down from generation to generation, were strictly guarded and constituted the Great Secret of the Mayan priests, as well as other American Indians. It is the rules for using astronomical knowledge to predict the future of both an individual person and humanity as a whole, both in the near future and in the distant future (on the time scale of precession of the earth’s axis and more) that constitute the essence of this Great Mystery of the Mayans. It is possible that some of this information was passed down from generation to generation orally. “The timing of various rituals was coordinated with the position of Venus... The calendar was corrected according to the position of the Sun in the sky...

The Milky Way symbolized the World Tree among the Mayans..." The Mayans were aware of the global cataclysms that had occurred, for example, the "flood" of 650 AD, volcanic eruptions and others, which they marked on the time scale of the precession of the earth's axis. And they observed the inevitable approach of critical points (cataclysms) on the precession scale for the sake of saving secret knowledge. The Mayan Indians deified time. The spiritual heritage of the Mayans. The Mexican writer, artist and mystic Jose Arguelles, having studied the Mayan heritage, created a whole spiritual teaching. We live in mechanistic time. What does he mean? The year of the Gregorian calendar, according to which almost the whole world now lives, consists of months of different sizes: sometimes 30, sometimes 31, sometimes 28 days.

This sequence of numbers was chosen arbitrarily by a person and is in no way consistent with natural rhythms. In addition, a person divides the clock dial into 12 parts, and an hour into 60 minutes. And people also took these numbers as if from nowhere. Jose believes that living in this artificial time, a person loses touch with nature, with the cosmos, and forgets his highest values. And a civilization that has lost contact with its native biosphere enters a phase of self-destruction. J. Argüelles notes that: "for us, the calculation of time consists of counting successive quantitative units - minutes, hours, days and years - but for the Mayans, what we call time is a function of harmonic resonance." These words reflect the deep essence of the sacred calendar of time. They indicate that time is a relative category.

In this case, time will not be the fourth dimension. It may not have a serial number of measurement at all. TIME IS NOT A SPECIAL DIMENSION. IT HAS "EQUAL AMONG EQUAL" RIGHTS.

This hypothesis qualitatively changes the attitude towards the Mayan calendar. The uniqueness and universality of the Mayan calendar suggests that the Great Cycle of the Mayan Calendar can be used to measure all other dimensions. It can be used to measure the "width", "height", "length" of a 3-dimensional self-space. It can also be used to measure your own space - time, where time will act as the fourth dimension. i.e. Time can have a multi-level, multi-dimensional, cyclically repeated structure. The Mayans used the Tzolkin matrix to measure time.

Based on this matrix, they created many other calendars, including the Calendar of the Pleiades constellation, about which esotericism creates legends. Considering that planetary and stellar cycles do not seem to be directly interconnected, it is difficult to get rid of the mystical premonition of these calendars. And yet... Maybe it’s worth taking a closer look at this ancient people - what else has come down to us, their descendants? poan. ru

It might be useful to read: