Anibis
10-30-2006, 12:04 PM
Okay, MythMath asked me to detail my calendars. In a way, I've been building to this for a while, it's fundamentally the core of my work as a magician. I take the I Ching's claim that 'magicians are calendar makers' seriously. There is no more fundamental structural filter than a calendar.
Brief theoretical grounding: I propose that the natural world is made up of Time as a primary force (And not understood as being derivitive of space). All is becomming. There are no 'things' per sey except such that are given a contingent existence by receiving a name. Language as we use it creates nouns. In truth reality is a constantly evolving hypercomplex process. When human try to simulate these processes in an effort to create a domain in which they are in control, they begin by identifying a naturally occuring cycle or oscillation such as the Lunar, or Solar cycles. Once this is identified, all naturally occuring phases (Like the seasons, or the waxing and waning) are included. Then the critical jump occurs. The cycle gets aesthticized, or imbued with image and idea proper to the culture in question. A numerical overlay is placed upon the cycle. For example, in the case of the 365.4 day year, the Egyptians would divide it into 12, 30-day periods plus an additional 5 days, the Maya and Aztecs used a similar division only with 18, 20-day periods (The Haab) + 5 extra days. The druids used 13, 28 day periods and had a single extra day. The Julian/Gregorian Calendars use, as we know 12 months of varying day lengths.
The point here is that the natural cycle is primary, and then a division of that cycle is made along aesthetic/mythical lines. Also, there is at least one calendar that is not mapped onto a physical cycle: the Tzolkin of 260 days is, as far as I can see purely abstract, however it ends up functioning with a natural cycle by being combined with a natural calendar such that it meshes! The 13/28+1 count has an interesting relationship with the Tzolkin, because it engenders a 52 years cycle. If today is (and it is) 6 serpent in the Tzolkin, and (it is) the 13th day of the 4th moon (which will always happen at this time of year, since the 13-28 is actually keyed to the earthly cycle around the sun), then we know that this will not happen again until 52 years from now! And so, for every 73 tzolkin cycles, there are exactly 52 year cycles. This is an example of calendrical symbiosis!
In order to construct a calendar, you really need to know at least three key pieces of information. First you need to know what you are building the calender around. This is usually (always?) a celestial object orbiting another (it's axis) with a regular period. Next, you need to know the length of that period, if it is, say 364.25 days, or 29 days, or 88 days, or whatever. Finally, you need to know where the NODES of that object are.
'Node' is the astrological term for what is basically the equinox of a planet. An equinox is the same, ultimately as the dawn or dusk of a day, only applies to the whole year (I think this is an important analogy to bear in mind since it helps give a sense of how the cycles flow). For those of you who dont know, nodes of an object only appear when you measure that objects rotation relative to a primary object around which it rotates. In other words, the earth's nodes are only meaningful in relation to the sun, and the moons nodes are only meaningful in relation to the earth. Similarly the Sun's nodes could be known in relationship to the galactic centre. Basically if you have any object with poles, it has an equator. If we project that equator outwards from the object into space, it forms an imaginary disk. This is called the 'ecliptic'. any object rotating around the primary object will be moving in an elipse at some particular inclination to the ecliptic. This is what regulates the seasons. The equinoxes are the two points where the path of the object intersect with it's primary's ecliptic. There are thus two such points, and they are opposite one another in the object's orbit. The node which marks the planets passing 'upwards' (ie towards the North pole of its Primary) is called the North Node, and the point at which it travels 'downwards' is called the South Node. The first is The Spring Equinox, and the second, the Autumnal equinox.
To make a calendar, then, you simply have to know what the object is, how long it's year is, and when it's seasons are. Then, depending on the length of year, you can impose an algorythm onto the cycle which divides it into symbolically significant regions. In other words, once this is done, the orbit of the object is such that it 'charges' an array of symbolic regions which have been scripted onto it's orbit!
Okay, this is 101 material. Next, I will be describing the system which I have devised called the Thoth count, which is based on Mercury's orbit. I have chosen to put it here, in Abrahadabra Modern rather than in the Psionics board since, as I will demonstrate, the Thoth count is intimately related to Abrahadabra.
-Ibisis-
P.S. How do you find out all this information? Well, for the earth it is well known, for the moon it is marked in any ephemeris (as Caput and Cauda Draconis, perhaps), and for the other planets in our system, I refer you to 'The American Heliocentric Ephemeris 2001-2050', By Michelsen and Peters, published by ACS Publications, 1996. The perios of the planets can be found in lots of places. NASA has very accurate listings...
Brief theoretical grounding: I propose that the natural world is made up of Time as a primary force (And not understood as being derivitive of space). All is becomming. There are no 'things' per sey except such that are given a contingent existence by receiving a name. Language as we use it creates nouns. In truth reality is a constantly evolving hypercomplex process. When human try to simulate these processes in an effort to create a domain in which they are in control, they begin by identifying a naturally occuring cycle or oscillation such as the Lunar, or Solar cycles. Once this is identified, all naturally occuring phases (Like the seasons, or the waxing and waning) are included. Then the critical jump occurs. The cycle gets aesthticized, or imbued with image and idea proper to the culture in question. A numerical overlay is placed upon the cycle. For example, in the case of the 365.4 day year, the Egyptians would divide it into 12, 30-day periods plus an additional 5 days, the Maya and Aztecs used a similar division only with 18, 20-day periods (The Haab) + 5 extra days. The druids used 13, 28 day periods and had a single extra day. The Julian/Gregorian Calendars use, as we know 12 months of varying day lengths.
The point here is that the natural cycle is primary, and then a division of that cycle is made along aesthetic/mythical lines. Also, there is at least one calendar that is not mapped onto a physical cycle: the Tzolkin of 260 days is, as far as I can see purely abstract, however it ends up functioning with a natural cycle by being combined with a natural calendar such that it meshes! The 13/28+1 count has an interesting relationship with the Tzolkin, because it engenders a 52 years cycle. If today is (and it is) 6 serpent in the Tzolkin, and (it is) the 13th day of the 4th moon (which will always happen at this time of year, since the 13-28 is actually keyed to the earthly cycle around the sun), then we know that this will not happen again until 52 years from now! And so, for every 73 tzolkin cycles, there are exactly 52 year cycles. This is an example of calendrical symbiosis!
In order to construct a calendar, you really need to know at least three key pieces of information. First you need to know what you are building the calender around. This is usually (always?) a celestial object orbiting another (it's axis) with a regular period. Next, you need to know the length of that period, if it is, say 364.25 days, or 29 days, or 88 days, or whatever. Finally, you need to know where the NODES of that object are.
'Node' is the astrological term for what is basically the equinox of a planet. An equinox is the same, ultimately as the dawn or dusk of a day, only applies to the whole year (I think this is an important analogy to bear in mind since it helps give a sense of how the cycles flow). For those of you who dont know, nodes of an object only appear when you measure that objects rotation relative to a primary object around which it rotates. In other words, the earth's nodes are only meaningful in relation to the sun, and the moons nodes are only meaningful in relation to the earth. Similarly the Sun's nodes could be known in relationship to the galactic centre. Basically if you have any object with poles, it has an equator. If we project that equator outwards from the object into space, it forms an imaginary disk. This is called the 'ecliptic'. any object rotating around the primary object will be moving in an elipse at some particular inclination to the ecliptic. This is what regulates the seasons. The equinoxes are the two points where the path of the object intersect with it's primary's ecliptic. There are thus two such points, and they are opposite one another in the object's orbit. The node which marks the planets passing 'upwards' (ie towards the North pole of its Primary) is called the North Node, and the point at which it travels 'downwards' is called the South Node. The first is The Spring Equinox, and the second, the Autumnal equinox.
To make a calendar, then, you simply have to know what the object is, how long it's year is, and when it's seasons are. Then, depending on the length of year, you can impose an algorythm onto the cycle which divides it into symbolically significant regions. In other words, once this is done, the orbit of the object is such that it 'charges' an array of symbolic regions which have been scripted onto it's orbit!
Okay, this is 101 material. Next, I will be describing the system which I have devised called the Thoth count, which is based on Mercury's orbit. I have chosen to put it here, in Abrahadabra Modern rather than in the Psionics board since, as I will demonstrate, the Thoth count is intimately related to Abrahadabra.
-Ibisis-
P.S. How do you find out all this information? Well, for the earth it is well known, for the moon it is marked in any ephemeris (as Caput and Cauda Draconis, perhaps), and for the other planets in our system, I refer you to 'The American Heliocentric Ephemeris 2001-2050', By Michelsen and Peters, published by ACS Publications, 1996. The perios of the planets can be found in lots of places. NASA has very accurate listings...