Mayan Astrology: Seeding Time

I know virtually nothing about it.

Tonight, while out to dinner, I was introduced to an art school friend of my companion, Elizabeth, who knew quite a bit about Mayan astrology. Elizabeth had described me to this woman as her 'other astrologer friend'. Astrology just seems to keep coming at me from every angle lately, which is part of the reason I find myself sitting here writing about it.

Now, usually, when Liz suggests I meet one of her old "art school friends", something in my stomach tenses, and I immediately resist, unable to forget the night I spent with her and said friends at a bar in Fredericton, NB, back at the turn of the millenium, listening to tall tales about nipple rings and abstract art being cliché, and lesbian chic (i.e. lesbianism as fashion statement and instrument of instant credibility-as-an-alienated-political-artist), and an awful lot of booze-soaked whining about repression and true expression. I can be a bitch, I know this, and I tend to half-assedly pre-judge people, but these girls were art-school caricatures, stereotypes so bang-on they were nearly parodies. Which is not to say that while I was completing my English degree I didn't utter phrases such as "generic fusion" or "subtle trope" from time to time, but come on.

Anyhow, for whatever reason, I had no such sensation of dread regarding this particular friend, and as it turned out, she offered me some pretty interesting insight into the Mayan astrological tradition.

Now, I still know nothing about it, but my interest has been piqued. Or shall we say, re-piqued. From what I can glean, in this system my sign is The Yellow Spectral Seed. Essentially, this means I am a "sower of seeds", and a disseminator of ideas that will eventually evolve into firm structures. Man, I should have so been a reporter. But this is interesting, because the fact of the matter is that I am certain I have planted a small seed of curiosity about the larger universe in my 29 years on this planet. Iknow I have gotten at least a few to wonder about the stars. Not dogmatically, or argumentatively, but in passing, in jest even.

Something I have always told myself when I get impatient with the progress of life's events is that you cannot yell at a seed to make it grow. You can't, in fact, do anything, short of tamper with its natural processes by using harmful growth-hormones on it. All you can do is wait, when it comes to seeds.

This has been one of the major themes of my life: "wait for it." As a Capricorn, I know all about delays, Saturnine detours, red-tape and frustration. It seems there is always just one more form to fill out, one more test to take, one more interview to survive, one more conversation that needs to happen, one last thing that remains unsaid.

This can be annoying.

Leave it to the Mayans, however, to help me put things into perspective.

There is something about their tradition that absolutely fascinates me. I have always wanted to learn more about their lunar calendar, and in fact, there's a blogging project for me: I can write one entry about each of the 13 moons in their system, and learn about it along the way.

I sense that there is something very important buried in their stories and beliefs, something I need to uncover in order to add a new layer of meaning to my already multi-layered life.

It is a tradition that, for some reason, eludes me. I have gone out of my way to try and learn more about it, but something always prevents me. This is odd, because I have been able to absorb the gists of pretty much every other culture I have taken an interest in, from Greek to Roman to Judeo-Christian to Native Canadian Wabanaki, Acadian and Inuit, to Hindu and Taoist, to Rosicrucian and Wiccan. But the Mayan eludes me. Perhaps it is just a matter of the right book not having come along yet, or it not having been quite time.

Perhaps, too, it is something I am simply not meant to master. When it came to learning Western Astrology, I was so immediately drawn in that I had gained a working knowledge of the system and its symbols within a month. Not so with Mayan lore. Funnily, whenever I do try to learn about it, I am overcome with very strong feelings, and visions of the sun, and the colours orange, gold and yellow fill my mind's eye. I think of cornfields and sunflowers and bright blue skies, beaten metals, animal masks, and ferocity of spirit.

It is a powerful sensation, and not altogether pleasant. Something in it unnerves and fascinates me.

There is a lot of information out there about the 13 Moons. As we move in 2007 , I will continue to explore their meanings. That's a resolution. Or: a seed.