I saw this photo on DCist this morning. Take a good close look at the layout of the Washington Monument.

Is that not the Vesica Piscis run through with the monument?

Who knew that from above we have the chalice well design right here larger than life.

ETA link to wikipedia above.

In my previous post about the oddity that is the DC Flag and the Mayan number 13 I wrote that I didn't know where Pinchbeck got this information that the number 13 was a signifier of transformation. I now think I understand why he said that, though it's a bit fuzzier than that.

It all has to do with the Mayan Calendrical system known as the Tzolkin. See, the Maya used a synchronized dual calendar system. One was a 365 day solar calendar, and the other was a 260 day religious calendar (the Tzolkin). The way that the Tzolkin is constructed is in a repeating, interlocking sequence of thirteen numbers and twenty day names. These cycles are part of the calendar system that was carved onto the massive temple structures from whence the New Age movement has gotten their massive 2012 meme.

In the Mayan calendar the day of creation was a day where everything was set on the number 13. As the cosmos goes clicking on through time these wind around like an odometer and the numbers change, the names change. On certain dates throughout history the cycles roll over, and December 21 (or 23rd depending on who you read) 2012 is one of those odometer moments when a thirteen rolls over to a zero. (See Maya Cosmos, Freidel 61-65).

Interestingly also, the 260 day cycle of the Tzolkin is tied to the movement of the planet Venus.

While writing this I remembered the Aztecs as well, and that they used the 260 day calendar called the Tonalpohualli, and a 360 day calendar as well. This line from Wikipedia is quite interesting.

"The xiuhpohualli [the solar calendar] and the tonalpohualli would coincide every 52 years. The 'year' 1 Reed was the 13th in that 52 year cycle."

The year 1 Reed is the year that Quetzalcoatl is said to return.

I'm sorry that this is all so complex and jumbled. I feel like I'm just disgorging information without really assembling it.

Suffice it to say that 13 plays an ENORMOUS role in the Mayan calendar. Thirten was their starting point and that the transition from 13 to 0 marks the end of an era. The numbers in these pyramids go on and on, far beyond 2012. No one in the Mayan culture thought that 2012 would be the end of anything (much less everything). Rather it was a demarcation of a vast achievement in the development of the universe. One inscription goes on so far as to calculate dates 41 Octillion years out when the cycles progress from 0 to 1 in the count. Theoretically it could go on infinitely. Of course once our planet dies out, whenever that happens this construction would be somewhat meaningless unless all human life at that time migrates to a planetary system with the exact same rotations, cycles, distance from the sun, etc.

What does this mean about DC? I still don't know for sure. If anything it means that there's a deeper subconscious level to the city that is harmonized with forces greater than we can even comprehend.

This morning during my commute I continued to read Daniel Pinchbeck's "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl." I ended on the following passage and had to put the book down because I was just overcome with a feeling of synchronicity.

Meditating inside [a crop circle], he asked for some guidance to the meaning of the formations. He received a strong image of three dots hovering over two solid bars. "In my mind, I kept trying to change the image and move it around, but it wouldn't change," he said. He didn't recognize it--but I did. I told him it was the number thirteen, integer of transformation, written in Mayan characters.

Those of you who live in DC will recognize that pattern as being very familiar as well. It's the pattern of the DC flag.



Because I was dumstruck with the fact that the DC flag and this weird Mayan numeral share this striking resemblance I had to go and look up the meaning of the flag. What was the symbolism? Did it have something to do with the branches of government or something?

No, actually. The wikipedia entry on the DC flag says that the three stars, two bars motif is actually carried over from the coat of arms of the Washington family.

From what source Pinchbeck claims that this number represents transformation I can't say, but it certainly was an interesting tidbit, and one that seemed important for me to remember.