Why does your kin change from one calculator to another?

The traditional Tzolk’in (GMT 584283 correlation)

This is the 260-day count that combines 20 nahuales (day signs) with 13 tones, and the one Maya daykeepers in the Guatemalan highlands still keep today. To convert a date from our calendar into that count you need a correlation: GMT (Goodman-Martínez-Thompson), constant 584283, is the one most Mayanists use and the one that matches the count that is still alive.

It counts every single day, February 29 included. It is the system Exsignum uses for your birth nahual.

The 13 Moon Synchronometer (Dreamspell)

José and Lloydine Argüelles introduced it in the early 1990s (1990-91) as the Dreamspell, and later expanded it into the 13 Moon Synchronometer. It also has 260 kins, 20 seals and 13 tones, but with different names (Red Dragon, Blue Hand, Skywalker…) and its own count.

It is what people usually mean by their “galactic signature” or “galactic kin”. It does not claim to be the calendar the Maya use today: it is a modern system inspired by it.

Why they give different kins

There are three differences, and any one of them is enough to change the number:

• A different anchor. The Tzolk’in is anchored by the GMT correlation; the Synchronometer by its own calendar of 13 moons of 28 days, which starts every July 26.
• February 29. The Synchronometer does not count it (it calls it “0.0 Hunab Ku”): that day uses up no kin. The Tzolk’in does count it. That is why the gap between the two is not fixed: it grows by one day every leap year.
• Different names. Even when the numbers match, the seal has another name: the Tzolk’in’s Imix is the Synchronometer’s Red Dragon.

What if the difference is two or three days?

Then the other calculator is probably using the Tzolk’in with another correlation: 584285 shifts your seal by two positions and Martin and Skidmore’s (584286) by three. They are academic proposals; GMT 584283 is still the one that matches the living count in Guatemala.

Which one is right?

It depends on what you are looking for. If you want the calendar Maya communities keep today, it is the Tzolk’in with the GMT correlation. If you follow the 13 Moon Synchronometer, your reference is its galactic kin. They are not two versions of the same thing: they are two systems, and it helps to know which one you are being shown.

That is why our calculator shows you both, each with its own name, so you do not have to guess.