Following the Wavespell
One way of experiencing the energies of the Tzolkin is to follow a whole thirteen-day trecena or wavespell and record the experience in a diary. Learning to use a new calendar is probably something many people have not done since they were very young. Adopting a child-like mindset can be very useful for this process. Here are some suggestions for learning the calendar:
Draw and color the glyphs. This helps activate the right hemisphere of the brain to experience these energies.
Keep a diary of anything significant that seems like it might relate to the energies of the Tzolkin.
Meditate on the energies of the day.
To help familiarize yourself with the meanings of the signs, use the birthdays of friends and family to find out what their day signs are.
These practices help bring attention to the pattern of synchronicities that may begin to evolve as the calendar is studied. Dreamspell is designed as a fully integrated system for following the calendar in this way, but it is also possible to follow the traditional count in this manner. In the beginning, it is probably a good idea to start with one calendar, to avoid confusion. There are many guidebooks available to help do this for both the Dreamspell and traditional counts. Other resources, such as The Mayan Oracle, are useful for both.
Using a calendar on a daily basis is different from attempting an intellectual understanding of it. The subjective, personal part of the experience is a crucial component. By experimenting with following a Tzolkin cycle for thirteen, twenty, or even 260 days, you'll gain different insights than you would from approaching the calendar academically. These may be useful in understanding more about the differences between the Mayan experience of time and the one created by the Gregorian calendar currently used by our global society. Ultimately, this may help prepare you for the predicted changes of 2012 by bringing the frequency of the Mayan calendar system into daily awareness.
