Preface

Prior to the Spanish Conquest, a distinctive Native-American astrological tradition existed and flourished in ancient Mesoamerica, today's Mexico and northern Central America.  Like Western astrology, it offered a guide to timing as well as a system of personality classification.  It was a way of self-knowledge.  In recent years, a few writers have attempted to fuse Western astrological ideas onto Native-American traditions.  While this may serve a useful purpose in the lives of some, it is not truly representative of the indigenous tradition.

The 260-day astrological calendar with its 20 day-signs is unique to the high Native-American cultures, including that if the Maya, Toltec, Zapotec and Aztec, of Mesoamerica.  For millenia it served the people of this region, giving structure and meaning to civilized life.  The Spanish Conquest stopped its use in all but the most remote areas where remnants of ti are still carried on by an oral tradition.  Today, most astronomers and archeologists regard it as a strange and curious relic of the ancient Mesoamericans, not as something worth restoring.

During the past 10 years I have tried in various ways to piece together the few strands of information about the calendar and its components.  Using historical documents, reports from oral tradition, psychic-archeological techniques and common sense, I have slowly uncovered what I believe to be some of the key concepts associated with the rich symbolism of this system of named-days.  Reports and summaries of my investigations appear in three books, including this one, and a computer program.

The present work concentrates only on the 260-calendar as an astrological device.   I have tried to present the material clearly and simply and with an emphasisi on practice, not theaory.  The delineations of the day signs are, to my knowledge, far more detailed than anything published previously and, I believe, they open up a new human typology for astrlogers, psychologists and others who work with human nature.  The West has much to learn from the Native-American tradition.  In this book I share my own personal discovery of one aspect of their cultural and cosmic perspective.

Bruce Scofield