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The Maya kept time with a combination of several cycles that meshed together to mark the movement of the sun, moon and Venus. Mayan calendar of rituals, known as the Tzolkin, was composed of 260 days. This Mayan calendar pairs the numbers from 1 through 13 with a sequence of the 20 day-names shown below. It works something like our days of the week pairing with the numbers of the month. Thus you might have 1-Imix (similar to Sunday the 1st) followed by 2-Ik (just as you would have Monday the 2nd). When you get to 13-Ben, the next day would start the numbers over again, thus 1-Ix, 2-Men etc. It will take 260 days before the cycle gets back to 1-Imix again (13 x 20).

The symbols shown below represent the 20 day-names and are identified with their Yucatec names, pronunciation and approximate translation. The name, meaning and symbol can vary in different Maya languages. Also, each day can be represented with more elaborate glyphs known as "Head Variants" - a formal writing system which can be loosely compared to our script alphabet versus our print alphabet.

   
IMIXee mesh
waterlily, world IK'eek'
wind AK'BALok bol
night-house K'ANk' on
maize
   
CHIKCHANcheek chon
snake KIMIkee medeath MANIK'ma neek'hand LAMATla mot
Venus
   
MULUK'mul ok'water OKak
dog CHUENchew inmonkey EBebtooth
   
BENben
reed IXeesh
jaguar MENmen
eagle KIBkeeb
soul
   
KABANkah bonearth ETZ'NABehts' nob
flint, knife KAWAKkah wok
storm AHAWah how Lord 

The Classic Mayan civilization was unique and left us a way to incorporate higher dimensional knowledge of time and creation by leaving us the Tzolkin calendar. Mayan calendars we use today. The present calendar ends in the year 2012.

By tracking the movements of the Moon, Venus, and other heavenly bodies, the Mayans realized that there were cycles in the Cosmos. From this came their reckoning of time, and a calendar that accurately measures the solar year to within minutes.

The "Calendar Round" is like two gears that inter-mesh, one smaller than the other. One of the 'gears' is called the tzolkin, or Sacred Round. The other is the haab, or Calendar Round.

The Tzolkin consisted of 13 months each 20 days long, and the Haab of 18 months each 20 days long, and five rest days, thus making 365 days. The date was written using both rounds. For example, "6 lk 10 Camber" might be the same as if we wrote "20 June 30 Gemini." (Haab - Calendar round / 20 June, and Tzolkin - Sacred round / 30 Gemini.) As both thesewheels turned so passed the Mayan calendar years. Every 52 years the cycle began again. It was on one of these auspicious years that Cortez landed, thus giving credence to his god image.

Archeologists - claim that the Maya began counting time as of August 31, 3114 B.C. This is called the zero year and is likened to January 1, AD. All dates in the Long Count begin there, so the date of the beginning of this time cycle is written 13-0-0-0-0. That means 13 cycles of 400 years will have passed before the next cycle begins, which is December 27, 2012. The new cycle will begin as 1-0-0-0-0.

A day was called a "kin", and still is today. A 20 day month was a "uinal", one solar year was a "tun", 20 tuns a "katun", and 20 katuns were a "baktun", 13 of which take us back to the August 13, 3114 B.C. date.

Another notable date is 9-9-2-4-8 or July 29, 615 AD when the great King of Palenque, Lord Pakal ascended to the throne.

These dates are carved in stone throughout the Mayan territory, and the numbers can be seen by anyone. Using a vestigial system (they counted all the fingers and toes) and only three characters (we use ten) the Maya could string together very large numbers, these were read from the bottom up. So Pakal ascended on 9-9-2-4-8, that would read:

9 baktuns - 3600 years 
9 katuns - 180 years 
2 tuns - 730 days 
4 uinals - 80 days 
8 kin - 8 days

The Maya also understood the concept of zero, and wrote it like a shell.

With the new century almost upon us time takes on more meaning. January 1, 2000 would be written 12-19-6-1-0 in the Long Count.

The Sacred Round would be 9 Ahau and the Haab designation would be 8 Kankin. Thus the Calendar Round would be 9 Ahau 8 Kankin.
So for the Maya there was a time for everything and every thing had it's place in time. The priest used this to their advantage; due to their abilities to interpret the heavens and calendar, they could control the daily activities of the populace. Knowing when to plant, when to harvest, the rainy and dry seasons, etc. gave them total power and control. Their comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles was immense. If the reader is interested in further studies in this (admittedly, complex!) area, I recommend Linda Shele's fine books, A Forest of Kings and The Blood of Kings.
The Wheels of Time ground exceeding fine for the Maya. To be able to predict the seasons for farmers and astronomical events for religious rites, they utilized a calendar of two meshing, repeating cycles. Maya mathematicians could project this calendar millions of years in the past and the future, time had no beginning, no end. The Mays recorded numbers with a system of bars and dots. a dot equals one, a bar stands for five. The smaller wheels together represent the 260-day Sacred Round; the inner wheel, with the numbers one to thirteen, meshes with the glyphs for the 20 day names on the outer wheel. A section of a large wheel represents part of the 365-day year - 18 months of 20 days each (numbered 0-19). The five days remaining at year's end were considered evil. In the diagram, the day shown is read 4 Ahua 8 Cumka. As the wheels turn in the direction of the arrows, in four days it will read 8 Kan 12 Cumku. Any day calculated on these cycles would not repeat for 18,980 days - 52 years.
- "The Maya - Riddle of the Glyphs" National Geographic Magazine

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A steadily quickening flow of earth changes has become so apparent in 1995 that even traditional media are paying attention. Earth transformation was the cause of celebration of the Harmonic Convergence initiated by Jose & Lloydine Arguelles in August, 1987, and the Time Shift on July 26, 1992. The Time Shift marked the time in history when the planet entered a new sequencing of energy that after a magnetic pole shift in 2000, will be complete in December, 2012. With the energy sequencing complete in 2012, Timeship Earth will launch her voyage into fourth dimensional time in 2013.
The map of planetary transformation into a new dimensional time stream was plotted in the Mayan calendar and interpreted by Jose & Lloydine in the Dreamspell. In the 1950s, Euro-American astronomers ran headlong into the stunning reality that Native Americans were masters of a sophisticated astronomy previously unrecognized. Since the New World was conquered, the Europeans had believed that Native Americans were ignorant of astronomy. In fact, the Native American concept was completely different than the European and thus not recognized. Where European astronomers tracked large objects, such as the sun and moon, in direct courses, the Native Americans tracked small objects relative to large objects, a far more complex and accurate system. The two systems perceived the heavens from such radically different view points, that the Europeans did not recognize the Native American system as astronomy.

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THE MAYAN CALENDAR
The Ancient Maya, and the remains of their cosmic culture, are still enshrouded in mystery and confusion. To this day, much of what archeologists base their findings upon is founded on guesses, not facts. Theories and speculations fill the history books. It looks like we may never understand what the Maya are saying to us. Like a giant cosmic joke, the riddles and puzzles left behind by the Maya are still as much of a mystery today, as they were when they were first discovered by the Spanish.
Maybe understanding the Tzolk'in with only the mental body was not the approach the Mayas themselves intended. As we can see, the archeologists are still guessing, with decades of research behind them. If the Maya intended us to understand their knowledge of the universe, they would have to leave remains behind that would bridge all cultures, languages, and all levels of education. This is what the Maya have done. Without a doubt I can tell you the knowledge of the cosmos is available to all. It is available to those who can open their hearts to the wonder and curiosity of the universe once again. The encoding of the calendar is intuitive and is remembered with feelings. It is also very mental and can be learned with study. As daykeeper, Hunbatz Men has told me, we need to use all our bodies to remember everything. The physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies are needed. Without desire, wonder and curiosity there is no intention to remember. Without study there is no understanding. To reconnect to the cosmos and receive information from the Sun, as the Maya do, one must not only place intention by physical study, but desire to remember! As we move our physical bodies into action to study, the intuitive side will just kick in, but desire is most important and quite essential. That's it! This is what the Maya intended.
The calendar with it's twenty Sun/glyphs are cosmic memory activation tools that intuitively interacts with your body's memory, your DNA. The calendar is not only an incredibly accurate map of the cycles of the cosmos, but is also a tool to accelerate and activate your memory into recalling the truth behind the mystery of the cosmos. Each glyph is charged with precise information in the form of feelings or emotions to help active you in a very personal and individual way. Each person will remember their own personal perspective of the truth based on their place in the calendar system. This is not something you need to learn, it is something you will remember.
So here we are, all of us just itching to remember. We have a haunting feeling of something forgotten looming just out of reach, lying just beyond the veil of our own created, limiting reality. I am asking you to have to courage to plow thought this barrier of limitation and remember the totality of who you are, to live in your own personal integrity.

You will need to commit to this for a while. Memory activation does not create instant results. Activation takes place in stages and layers. At first you will find the sacred calendar quite mental. If you find yourself mentally fuzzing out when you begin to place your attention on these teachings, understand that this is a common problem. You are just coming face to face with your own personal limitation program. You are hitting a time/space dimensional barrier and your body is saying I can't do this, I can't remember everything. I can't be limitless." I say you can, and you will. It is you destiny to do so.
This is a new year challenge. Commit yourself to remembering the totality of who you are by following these calendars for one earth cycle, just a short 365 days. Place your intention for just a few minutes every day on the Mayan day instead of the linear Gregorian day. Get your body cycling with the cosmos again, instead of the ticking clock. Move into the undulating, spiraling, ascending energy of the cosmos. Watch the sun rise and set. Watch the moon rise and set. Soon you will begin to dream with more detail. You will feel more deeply. Understand more clearly. You will feel a part of a much bigger whole. You will remember little pieces of information. They will just pop into you head. If this sounds good to you, lets get started.

The Basics of the Mayan Calendar
The Maya understood 17 different Calendars based on the Cosmos. Some of these calendars go back as far as ten million years and are so difficult that you would need an astronomer, astrologer, geologist, and a mathematician just to work out the calculations. Lucky for us we only need to work with three of these calendars. The calendars that are most important to beings of earth are the Haab, the Tun-Uc and the Tzolk'in. The Tzolk'in is the most important and the one with the most influence.
The Haab is based in the cycles of earth. It has 360 + 5 days, totaling 365 days. The Haab uses 18 months with 20 days in each month. There is a 19th month called a Vayeb and uses the 5 extra days. Each month has it's own name/glyph. Each day uses a sacred sun/glyph.
The Tun-Uc is the moon calendar. It uses 28 day cycles that mirrors the women's moon cycle. This cycle of the moon is broken down into 4 smaller cycles, of 7 day each. These smaller cycles are the four phases of moon cycle. Portal days (p), on the calendar provided marks days using mathematics of 28 and their fore have a connection with the moon cycles.
The Tzolk'in is the Sacred calendar of the Maya and is based on the cycles of the Pleiadies. The cycle of the Pleiadies uses 26,000 years, but is reflected in the calendar we are using by encompassing 260 days. It uses the sacred numbers 13 and 20. The 13 represents the numbers and 20 represents the sun/glyphs. The Tzolk'in has four smaller cycles called seasons of 65 days each guarded by the four suns of Chicchan, Oc, Men and Ahau. There are also Portal days within the Tzolkin that create a double helix pattern using 52 days and the mathematics of 28. This sacred calendar is still being used for divination by the traditional Maya all over the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize, and Honduras.
The Tzolkin calendar was meshed with a 365-day solar cycle called the "Haab". The calendar consisted of 18 months with 20 days (numbered 0-19) and a short "month" of only 5 days that was called the Wayeb and was considered to be a dangerous time. It took 52 years for the Tzolkin and Haab calendars to move through a complete cycle.
These are the Mayan words for periods of time: Day = Kin (keen)
Month of 20 days = Uinal (wee nal)
Year of 360 days = Tun (toon)
20 Tuns = K'atun (k' ah toon)
20 K'atuns = Baktun (bock toon)
During their stay on earth the Cosmic Maya carried the burden of time. Cosmicly aware of cycles of time they were bound, as we are, by walking through time in a linear fashion. They were aware that beings of earth had lost the natural ability to ride the cycles of time/light/energy, to time travel. It is also known by the Cosmic Maya that this present linear fashion of time will transform into multidimensionality, and will not be limited to linear time on earth much longer. Now isn't this why we came here to remember and to witness at this time? Do you remember? "Evam maya e ma ho" All hail to the harmony of all mind and nature. 

Maya priests observed the positions of the sun, moon, and stars. They made tables predicting eclipses and the orbit of the planet Venus.

The priests also used mathematics and astronomy to develop two kinds of calendars. One was a sacred almanac of 260 days. Each day was named with one of 20 day names and a number from 1 to 13. Each of the 20 day names had a god or goddess associated with it.

The priests predicted good or bad luck by studying the combinations of gods or goddesses and numbers. The Maya also had a calendar of 365 days, based on the orbit of the earth around the sun. These days were divided into 18 months of 20 days each, plus 5 days at the end of the year.

The Maya considered these last 5 days of the year to be extremely unlucky. During that period they fasted, made many sacrifices, and avoided unnecessary work.

The Maya Indians of southern Mexico and Central America used mathematics and astronomical observations to formulate two kinds of calendars--a sacred almanac of 260 days and a solar calendar of 365 days.

Born of Mexican-American descent, the Mayan calendar became a childhood passion for Jose Arguelles in the 1950s during the decade in which astronomers began to realize that Native Americans practiced a sophisticated astronomy. After more than 30 years of research, he is known by many as one of the world's foremost authorities of the Mayan calendar. The overwhelming evidence of Mayan prophecy in the last decade of the millennia supports the accuracy of the calendar and the Arguelles' interpretation of the Dreamspell and Time Shift of July 26, 1992. After perceiving the final sequencing of the Mayan calendar in 1987, the Time Shift in 1992 was an adjustment of the annual calendar's be ginning to July 26, so that the Dreamspell New Year falls on that date each year.

Since the codices of the Maya were destroyed in the European Conquest, the tables of dates and interpretations of codes were mostly destroyed. The few surviving codices are still "owned" by European museums and removed from the Maya, who have the cultural framework for interpreting them. During the 500 years since the Conquest, various Mayan tribes have adopted various new- year dates and interpretations. In 1992, the University of Guatemala identified the July 26 date based on an eclipse of July 11, 1991 and the Dresden Codex. The Arguelles' interpreted that date as the new beginning of the solar year. The month of July has heralded major earth changes and astronomical events since 1992. The most devastating storm season in history started with Hurricane Andrew immediately after the Time Shift in 1992.

The flooding of the American Midwest broke all records in July, 1993. In July 1994, the Comet Shoemaker -Levy collided with Jupiter. In July, 1995, the Comet Hale-Bopp became visible near Jupiter on amateur telescopes.

Photographs of this comet reveal a spiral formation at times and a square in the comet at other times. Reports of this comet were rumored as far back as 1985 from military sources, that it came close enough to be seen by amateurs in July may be a measure of a larger timing cycle. The sheer weight of physical evidence leans heavily towards the accuracy of Jose and Lloydine's July 26, 1992 date as the point when a new sequencing of planetary time and, therefore events, accelerated.

Equating an end-date for the Mayan calendar round with a date in the European-based Gregorian system has been a heartbreaker for astronomers. Since the European and Native American systems are so different, the only truly accurate method of synchronizing the two was to identify a significant astronomical event, such as an eclipse, recorded on both calendars. This has been impossible due to differences in locations and calendars until July 11, 1991. "In 755 A.D. Maya Priests prophesied the total solar eclipse of July 11, 1991 would herald two life altering events for humankind: Cosmic Awareness and Earth Changes. Shortly after 1:00 P.M., on July 11th, the prophecy began unfolding.

Beneath the eclipse of the century, that Mayas had labeled 'The Sixth Sun', a silvery disc shaped object hovered silently above the world's larg est city. 17 different people, unknown to each other, in deferent locations of Mexico City, videotaped the structured ship - Cosmic Awareness had begun.

The wave of UFO activity continued in the skies over Mexico and, due to the video camcorder, became the most documented mass sighting ever.

For months, a team of international investigators from the U.S., Mexico, and Japan followed the trail of the UFO sightings through the volcano zone to Mount Popocateptl, the fourth largest volcano in the world... Once dormant... Now awakening...' (Messengers of Destiny Video, Genesis Ill).

Based on the July, 1991 eclipse, Jose & Lloydine identified the July 26, 1992, Time Shift. Using a day-by-day count, Euro-American astronomers could finally synchronize their calendars with the Maya Priests. The visitors from the sky that Jose called the Galactic Maya in 'The Mayan Factor', had made good on their promise to return on that date and evidenced the reality of galactic culture that Jose prophesied in his 1988 letter to the World Community after Harmonic Convergence.

December 2012 is the end-date projected by Jose & Lloydine for the Mayan calendar. With many astronomers and scientists now paying attention to the Mayan calendar, much debate has brewed over its end-date; this deserves some explanation.

Without diverting to the many internal flaws and confusions of the European Gregorian calendar, neither of these issues are relevant to the Mayan calendar, seventeen solar years on the Mayan cal-endar is seventeen solar years, no matter what name is given the year in the Gregorian calendar.

No matter what the number of the year on the Gregorian calendar may be, a day-by-day count references real astronomical events in solar days, bypassing the problem of year names in the Gregorian system. The only true point for correlating the two calendars is an astronomical event, which was identified by the July 11, 1991 eclipse.

You've probably heard of it, but what is 4G? In short, it's the name given to the fourth generation of mobile networks, just as the previous generation is called 3G.

Another piece of jargon, which you will see tagged onto the end of 4G is 'LTE'. This stands for Long Term Evolution and is a type of 4G technology. It's arriving in the UK for the first time at the end of October and will be available to around a third of the population by Christmas 2012. See also: iPhone 5 review

4G LTE aims to offer users faster, more reliable mobile broadband internet for devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Loosely speaking, 4G is around five times faster than existing 3G services. Theoretically it can provide download speeds of up to 100Mbps but you won't achieve this in real-world use.

Unless you've just bought an iPhone 5, a Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE (not a regular S3) or one of the other brand new 4G-capable smartphones, your existing handset won't work on a 4G network.

4G networks use different frequencies to transmit data than 3G so you need a handset which has a modem that supports these new frequencies.

Here, we'll explain everything you need to know about 4G. We'll be taking an in-depth look at how the technology works, where and when you can get it as well as telling you which devices support it.

We've been able to test out the first 4G network, run by EE, formally Everything Everywhere,  so we can also reveal how fast it is and how it will benefit you in practice.

Although 4G is new to the UK and we Brits like to think we have the latest technology, it has actually been around for many years. Two forms of 4G been developed and are in use: WiMAX and LTE.

In fact, you may recognise the first technology, as WiMAX was trialled in the UK in 2009. However, the first WiMAX network was launched by South Korean firm KT in 2006.

The first LTE network was deployed in Scandinavia in 2009. However, it was debatable whether the speeds on offer back then were really 4G or not.

Across the Atlantic in the US, Sprint has been using WiMAX since 2008 and MetroPCS was the first operator to offer an LTE service in 2010. Verizon and AT&T also offer LTE 4G.

In the UK, 4G networks will use LTE technology, which is why devices such as smartphones are already popping up with LTE suffixes to their names to show they are 4G capable.

3G has, of course, been around for a lot longer than 4G. In the UK the first 3G network was launched by Hutchinson Telecommunications, branded as Three or '3'. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) was the first technical standard used for 3G.

It's now more commonly known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). More modern forms of 3G are High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and HSPA+. The latter allows for faster speeds up to 42Mbps, twice that of HSPA. Common spectrum used for 3G connective include: 850MHz, 900MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz.

4G's headline download speed is 100Mbps and a blistering 50Mbps for upload. This makes 4G is more than twice as fast as the latest 3G technology and many more times faster than previous versions.

Of course, these speeds are theoretical, and such speeds won't be reached in real-world use. However, that doesn't mean 4G isn't twice as quick. In our tests, which we'll get to later, we saw speeds around three times faster on 4G compared to 3G, and an even larger improvement with uploads.

What does this mean in practice? The faster speeds mean websites load quicker, and that you'll be able to stream videos and podcasts without first waiting for them to buffer.

Plus, you'll be able to download large email attachments or other content from the web faster. Apps which need to download data, such as maps, will work more smoothly, especially when zooming in or out as this generally requires a lot of data. The speed differential should be akin to switching from 3G to Wi-Fi.

Taking a more demanding task like video streaming, the BBC recommends a connection speed of 3.5Mbps for HD content. Although 3G can offer speeds in excess of this, the average speed across all forms of 3G in the UK is around 3Mbps.

For video streaming and similar tasks, where you would typically require Wi-Fi for smooth performance, 4G should allow you to have a 'home broadband' experience on the move. EE expects the average speed to be between 8- and 12Mbps, potentially faster than the 5.9Mbps average for ADSL home broadband.

Faster upload speeds will also be a boon. If you hate waiting for pictures to be posted to Facebook or Twitter, for example, then this should be a much faster process over 4G.

The main reason 4G is faster than 3G is because of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM). It sounds complicated, but it's the same technology used in Wi-Fi, ADSL broadband, digital TV and radio.

OFDM is a technique for squeezing more data onto the same amount of radio frequency. It also reduces latency and interference. Data is split up and sent via small chunks of frequency in parallel, therefore increasing the capacity of the network.

Multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO, is another reason 4G is able to provide faster speeds. It is simply the use of multiple antenna arrays at both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance.

This allows more data to be transferred without requiring additional bandwidth or drawing more power. The most common configuration currently is a 2x2 MIMO, found in many smartphones and some tablets. A 4x4 setup is also possible and promises even faster speeds but is still a little way off making its way onto devices. Since different setups are possible, one phone could provide faster 4G speeds than another.

With 3G handsets, most of us take roaming for granted. We take our phones travelling around the world, and expect to be able to pick up emails and browse websites as soon as we land. Things are different with 4G.

Although there are 4G networks in many countries around the world, your UK 4G smartphone won't necessarily work wherever you go. The reason is that 4G doesn't operated on the same frequencies in every country.

If your phone's 4G modem doesn't work on the same frequencies as those used in the country you're visiting, then you'll have to live with 3G instead. Even if the numbers do match, there needs to be a 4G roaming agreement between operators. Currently, there is no such agreement in place and even when there is, expect data prices to be high.

EE says it will provide 4G coverage in a total of 10 UK cities at launch, with 16 switched on by Christmas. The firm says it means 20 million users will be able to get the faster speeds before the year is over. The lucky cities to get 4G before the rest of the country are:

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.

Belfast, Derby, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle and Southampton should be 4G'd up before 2013.

12 cities will have wide-ranging coverage. London 4G's signal will stretch beyond the M25, for example. The remaining four (which four haven't been announced) will have city-centre coverage only to start with.

Don't assume that if you have good 3G coverage now you will also get good 4G coverage when the new network launches in your area.

Ofcom - the independent regulator - has set a requirement that 98 percent of the UK must have 4G coverage by the end of 2017. However, EE has promised the fastest ever roll-out of a mobile network in the UK claiming it will reach 70 percent of the UK by the end of 2013. It says 98 percent of the UK will have 4G available by the end of 2014, three years ahead of Ofcom's goal.

You can check 4G coverage in your area on EE's website.