A Mesoamerican Horoscope

by Bruce Scofield

When Western astrologers measure a planet's position in the sky they do it using a spatial background called the zodiac. Planets can move forward or backward on this grid. In Mesoamerican astrology, planet positions are measured in terms of time, not space. Their astrological value is evaluated according to the age of their synodic cycle, that is their cycle with the Sun. For example, the first quarter of the Moon is described in Western astrology as being a square between the Moon and Sun. This is a spatial measurement. In Mesoamerican astrology, the same thing would be described in terms of the "age" of the Moon, which in this case would be 7 days or 1/4 of the way through its cycle with the Sun. Consider Venus, which has a 584-day synodic cycle. I was born with Venus about 33 degrees of zodiacal space ahead of the Sun. From the Mesoamerican perspective, however, I was born 31 days (about 1/19th) into the 584-day cycle. Venus was 31 days old after being "reborn" at the inferior conjunction with the Sun.

The first horoscopes in Western astrology were simply lists that read like...."the Sun is in the Scales, Venus is in the claws of the Scorpion, Mars is at the Bull's eye, the Moon is in Aries," etc. Not much later (as early as about 200 AD) the Maya were inscribing astrological data on monuments called stelae. Dates of important events, along with planetary information, were recorded in heiroglyphs on these stone monuments. Many of there dates were given in terms of the distance in time (the number of days, and groups of days) from a specific time-anchor located in 3114 BC. This data is called the Initial Series. Additional information about the age of the Moon, and other planetary tidbits, were inscribed in what is called the Supplementary Series.

The Maya inscriptions are astronomically precise and from them we are able to determine how far away in time a date was from their time-anchor. We can also learn something about what was going on in the sky at the time. A large number of Maya inscriptions are very much like horoscopes because the way they organized the unfolding of time is basically astrological. To non-astrologers it all looks like a calendar, but that time-anchor is really a marker that divides the cycle of the precession of the equinoxes into fifths.(1) Mesoamerican archaeologists and archaeoastronomers call this Mayan organization of time (from the anchor point) the Long Count. Overall, the Long Count is quite an impressive bit of astrology, astronomy, and calendrics that was created in America at least 1500 years ago.

Several years ago I had the idea that these Maya lists of time-counts, lunar, and Venus positions in time could be described in horoscopic form. Western horoscopes evolved from lists into diagrams showing the spatial positions of the planets. Perhaps the same thing would have happened in Mesoamerican astrology if history had unfolded differently. Following up on this idea in 1996, I created a Mesoamerican horoscope that is true to the system's time-based qualities but is visually accessible. I attempted to design a chart that Maya astrologers would understand, and maybe the least conservative among them might even approve of! So let's take a look at my proto-type Mesoamerican chart, version 2.3 (May 1998). The chart shown is that for President Clinton.

To cast the president's chart I used a listing of planetary conjunctions (including Moon) with the Sun, courtesy of Astrolabe Software, Inc. From the date of birth, I went backwards in the calendar and counted the number of days that had elapsed since the previous conjunction of each planet with the Sun. I then divided this figure by the actual synodic period of each planet. Finally, I multiplied this decimal by 260 to arrive at the position of the planet within the 260-degree Mesoamerican grid.

The approximate average synodic periods of the planets in days are: Moon: 29.5, Mercury: 115.9, Venus: 583.9, Mars: 780, Jupiter: 398.9, Saturn: 378.1, Uranus: 369.7, Neptune: 367.5, Pluto (varies over the years): 366.7.

You will notice a ring of 20 signs with numbers at their cusps on the outside of the example chart. These are the signs of the trecena that establish the order of the 260-day Mesoamerican astrological cycle. You'll find this arrangement, in box form, in many of the surviving codices from ancient Mexico. I've used Maya glyphs here, but I could just as well have used the Aztec symbols, or my own shorthand glyphs. The trecena are periods of 13 days that appear to have lunar qualities (see my book "Signs of Time.") Within each trecena are 13 day-signs (not shown, but figured easily enough) which appear to have a solar quality. There are 20 days which cycle against the 13-day trecena, the two meshing as they began after 260 days.

The planets (I'm using Western symbols here) are placed inside the "260-degree" grid in proportion to their "age." For example, Bill Clinton's natal Moon is a third quarter Moon. In this chart it is located about 3/4 through the wheel near the end of the trecena Vulture (Cib), a sign of hard-ball politics and ambition. This is highly suggestive that the feminine principle in his life (his wife, among others) is quite tough. Mercury was located fairly early in its 116-day synodic cycle and in the trecena Flower (Ahau), a sign that has Venusian qualities. Perhaps this symbolizes his silver tongue. Venus was located in the 4th quarter of its 584-day synodic cycle and so is located fairly close to the Moon, but in a different trecena, the one called Water (Muluc). Between Venus and the Moon are Mars and Jupiter, suggesting that Clinton's emotional life and dealings with the feminine (Moon and Venus) are subject to strong biological impulses characterized by both the sign Water and the planet Mars. The trecena Water also implies a tendency to run emotional risks.

Notice the circle with the T in it that is located at point 109 in the trecena Serpent. This is Clinton's Tonalli or day-sign which happens to be 5-Water (Muluc), the fifth day of the trecena 1-Serpent (Chicchan). This sign is also noted in the top portion of the central square of the chart. The Tonalli Point (TP) is the key to all of Mesoamerican Astrology, but this is not the place to discuss its supreme importance (see my book "Day-Signs"). For now let's just say it has both solar and Ascendant-like qualities. Carlos Casteneda's teacher Don Juan Mateus told him that existence was composed of two things, the tonal and the nagual. The tonal is the form that things take, the nagual is the invisible reality behind the form. A person's Tonalli is the form that the individual takes in this world - it is the mask in front of the deeper self that lies behind it. Since the TP moves ahead every day, completing the grid in 260 days, it can also act as a transiting point, triggering off the planetary positions.

The natal TP is also subject to "transits" from the planets. For example, Mars was at a point in its 780-day synodic cycle that corresponds to Clinton's TP in November of 1994, the month of the Republican election victory. According to my calculations, Mars actually entered the trecena 1-Serpent, in which Clinton's tonalli is located, on November 2nd and ran over his TP on the 13th. The Republican landslide at that time began a period of serious political conflict for the president. Mars was running opposite this point (in its synodic cycle) in December 1995 when Clinton was in the midst of a major Congressional budget battle. Mars was passing over his natal Mars and Venus positions during January of 1998 when the Monica Lewinsky scandal first made news. Transits of this order also work well for the natal planetary positions.

Now go to the central square in the chart. At the top is 5-Water, Clinton's Tonalli or day-sign. The top of the square points in the eastern direction (east is up in Mesoamerica) which symbolizes emerging selfhood. Below and opposite is the West where the collective (opposite of personal) destiny is noted. The W-12 there indicates that his birth occurred in a year ruled by the western direction, at the 12th of 13 possible numbers that may be descriptive of levels of operation. West is the direction of merger and relationship and it might be said that 1946 was a year when people were born who are, as a group, more drawn towards others, social life, and partnerships. 12 is a complete number, containing many harmonics within itself. This "year astrology" is like the popular side of Chinese astrology.

In the left part of the square, the northern direction, you will see L-6. This indicates that Bill Clinton was born when the 6th Lord of the Night was ruling. In the Aztec tradition, this was the goddess Chalchiuitlicue, a water goddess who ruled sudden storms. The 9 Lords of the Night are a cycle that may symbolize the nature of a person's unconscious mind. They may also be an astrological factor that is influenced by sect, that is the relative differences between day and night births. If Clinton was born during the night, which he wasn't, this factor might carry more weight. In either case, it probably says something about his unconscious and darker side, which, according to my observations, tends to suggest a hardened and pragmatic perspective on the inevitable crises in life.

The opposite corner of the square shows 1-Serpent, the trecena of the birth (see the outer 260-degree grid). It symbolizes the president's outward emotional and instinctive patterns, a part of him this is publicly visible. Serpent is a power sign, suggestive that Clinton is one who throws his weight around. This trecena is also symbolic of a charismatic or magnetic personality.

Notice the progressed (day for a year) Tonalli Point located early in the trecena called Earthquake (Caban) at 161 degrees. What I find interesting about this is that it has been passing over one of the burner points (a kind of cardinal axis) located at 4-Flower (Ahau) of the trecena 1-Earthquake (160 degrees on the grid). In Aztec mythology, this day-sign was associated with the god who guarded the entrance to the underworld. Perhaps Clinton's progressed Tonalli Point in this region of the 260-degree grid symbolizes his current prominence in world affairs.

There are many things that can be done to the Mesoamerican chart to extract more information. Current planetary positions can be placed against the grid and used as transits. For example, on the 1992 election day, Mercury was exactly in the same phase of its 116-day synodic period as was Jupiter at Clinton's birth. This shows as a conjunction of synodic Mercury with natal synodic Jupiter. Also, the positions of synodic Uranus and Neptune, then in conjunction, were on his natal synodic Jupiter and Mars. Could it be said that he was the collective choice to represent the influx of Uranus/Neptune energy into the world at that time? For the 1996 election, synodic Saturn was opposite his natal Mercury. That is, Saturn was 50% ahead in its synodic cycle at the time of the election as Mercury was in its synodic cycle at his birth. Also Synodic Mars was opposite natal Mars and Jupiter, but synodic Jupiter was conjunct natal Jupiter and Mars. The above suggests a difficult second term, one characterized by restrained speech (Saturn to Mercury) and legal problems (Jupiter and Mars interactions).

One way of using transits to the Mesoamerican horoscope is to construct a graphic ephemeris like the one shown here. In this graph the 20 trecena are on the vertical axis while time runs along the horizontal axis. The graph is for 1998. Notice that the planets Mars and Venus have lower angles than the other planets. This is because they have longer synodic periods. The outer planets have relatively short synodic periods, not much longer than a year. Here's a real difference from Western astrology - Mars and Venus move faster than Neptune and Pluto! Crossings on the graph show when planets reach the same proportion of their synodic cycle. Also notice the Tonalli Point which moves through all the signs every 260 days. Remember that each synodic cycle begins with a conjunction with the Sun. These conjunctions are shown on the graph where each planet line begins at 0 degrees of Imix or Alligator, the first sign of the series that is located at the bottom of the graph.

Some readers may be wondering if I'm mixing systems by using Western planetary symbolism in this supposedly unbiased Mesoamerican astrological methodology. I don't think I am because the astrological natures of the planets are, more or less, the same from culture to culture. Mars is a fire planet, and war planet, in Chinese, Hindu, and Babylonian astrology. The Aztecs may have linked Mars with their warrior god Tezcatlipoca. Even the Mesoamerican Venus, which most academic writers regard as being vastly different from the Western Venus, isn't really so, as I've described in my articles on this subject, including on this website. (Beware of astronomers who think they can speak authoritatively about astrology.)

Calculating a Mesoamerican horoscope as described above is not difficult. If you have a computer program that can print an aspectarian, set it to print only conjunctions of all the planets with the Sun. For each planet, find its conjunction with the Sun prior to and after birth and count the number of days and hours between the two. Call this A. Then determine the number of days and hours between the previous conjunction and the birth. Call this B. To find the position of each planet in the grid use the following formula:

A
----- X 260 = planet's position
B

There's one major element of this horoscope that still needs to be included. I'm presently working on a satisfactory way of locating the time of birth on the grid in a way that is consistent with Maya and Aztec tradition.

Obviously, this chart form is my invention, but it is based on my careful and, hopefully, unbiased investigation of Mesoamerican time-based astrology. Eventually, computations for this sort of chart may be incorporated into the Maya/Aztec Astro-Report program that Dr. Barry Orr and I have been developing since the mid 1980's. Here's a whole new astro-ball game and the rules haven't all been written yet.

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