Maya and Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology barely looks at the position of the planets. It follows cycles of time: the years, the months, the days and the hours, each with a sign of its own.

Maya astrology also reads time, but in another way: by the day of birth, inside a wheel of 260 days. Both ask what time it was, not where the sky stood.

Both read time, each with its own wheel.

In the Chinese tradition, each year brings one of the twelve animals, and with it a stem and a branch, the pieces that build the sign. The animal of the year is the best remembered, but the day and the hour have theirs too.

The Maya unit is the day, with the nawal that gives the character, and the tone, from 1 to 13. Twenty names turn with thirteen numbers, in place of the twelve animals.

There an animal opens the year; here a nawal opens the day.

The fullest Chinese reading rests on four pillars: one for the year of birth, one for the month, one for the day, and one for the hour. The hour comes in as one of the four, so it counts.

Maya astrology asks for neither the hour nor the place. The day is enough, and your nawal is the same whether you were born in the morning or at night.

There the hour is a pillar; here the day holds it all.

The Chinese tradition turns on two numbers: the twelve of the animals and the sixty born from joining them with the five elements. Those cycles follow the return of Jupiter, about twelve years.

Maya astrology turns on another number, 260, which comes from thirteen tones with twenty names. It is not the return of any planet: it is a count all its own.

One follows Jupiter; the other, a wheel of 260 days.

Chinese astrology was born in ancient China. The way of marking time with stems and branches appears already on bones used for divination, more than three thousand years ago.

Maya astrology was born in Mesoamerica, far away and with no contact with China. Two ancient civilizations, each with its own count, came to read life by time.

Two ancient peoples, two counts of time, neither a copy of the other.

In the Chinese tradition, the sign of birth tends to speak of tendencies and good times for each thing, not of a written fate. Maya astrology thinks much the same: the day inclines, and you choose the step.

To compare is not to choose the best. Maya astrology does not contend with Chinese: it is another way to know yourself, and each tradition deserves respect for what it is.

Neither decides for you; they only tilt the path.