Five (5) Days Out of Time
The Mayans and the Egyptians described their calendar year with 360 days plus 5 extra days. They singled out these five days to make sure that it was known that they were liminal, portal-like and created by something other. They knew a circle was defined by 360 degrees, and they also seemed to know that we on Earth went beyond that circle in our yearly orbit.
In the Mayan calendar year, the 5 days were called Uayeb. Uayeb was also a god of Misfortune. These 5 days were considered dangerous and unlucky, and a portal between the living and the dead, which could allow ill-meaning deities in. For this reason, it was a time when the Mayans would fast, abstain from sex and celebration. It was said that they didn’t wash their hair or even leave the house. The Ancient Egyptians also considered these days to be dangerous and practiced rituals to protect themselves. They wore amulets made of linen knotted 12 times, and they performed rituals to pacify the Goddess Sekhmet. The dates of misfortune in the Mayan culture were July 21 to July 26, and similarly, in Egypt, they were the 5 days before the heliacal rising of Sirius. In ancient times, both occurred around the same 5 days in July.
In Ancient Egypt, the Egyptian Civil Calendar was tied to the Sothic Calendar of 360 days, but in 2773 BC, the Civil Calendar was standardized to 365 days. Five epagomental days were added dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Seth and Horus. The establishment of the calendar was not associated with a Pharaoh making a declaration in order to fix the year, but rather by a myth. The myth went like this: the god Geb (Earth) and Nut (Sky) were forbidden by the Sun god Ra from having children during the 360 days of the year. Thoth tricked Ra by gambling with the moon to gain extra light, adding five extra days to the year. Nut then gave birth to the five gods that represent the five epagomenal days. The Egyptian calendar year was divided into three sections with three 30-day months within each, and then further broken down to 36, 10-day weeks for the entire year to make up the 360 days. Five 5 epagomental days were added to each year at the end.
The Mayans also had a calendar called the Haab with 360 days. This calendar was divided into 18 months of 20 days plus one month of 5 days.
Where did these perfectly round 360-day calendars with 5 extra days singled out come from?
The Tychos Explains
The Tychos model explains this elegantly – The Earth moves around its long 25,344-year PVP orbit in one direction, and the Sun moves in the other. Earth has two motions; While Earth is moving in its direction around its orbit, it is also rotating counterclockwise about its axis, moving west. The Earth spins around its own axis 366.256363 times in one year and moves along its orbit at a speed of 1.6 km/h. On the other hand, the Sun also has two motions. It is moving in the opposite direction, also rotating but clockwise and moving east. As the Sun moves in its direction, it does so by 1 degree per day as measured against the stars. There are 360 degrees in a circle, so it seems it should take 360 days to complete one year and return to meet up with the same star as viewed from Earth. But a solar day is 4 minutes longer than the sidereal day. The solar day is 1440 minutes, and a sidereal day is 1436 minutes. Taking into account all of these motions – Earth’s spin counterclockwise and its movement west, and the Sun spins clockwise, and a 1-degree motion east – 5.2 extra days are created. These 5.2 describe the relationship between the Earth’s two motions and the Sun’s motions.
As a metaphor, you can imagine that you are on a ride at a fair. You are in a ride car that spins around in circles. As it does so, you also move forward a small amount. It’s a kiddie ride, so the platform around the outside spins more dramatically, making a full round and giving a view of all the images around the sides moving in a full circle. When the ride stops, because the car you’re in has been spinning, it does not face forward towards the entrance/exit. So you have to wait as your car spins for it to line up. And because you’ve moved a small amount and the outside has spun completely around the circle, everything now has to also line up there for you to face the entrance/exit. You haven’t gone any farther than the 360-degree circle that is the ride, but because everything is moving, extra time is needed for everything to line up again for you to get out. That is what is happening with the Earth and what causes the 5.2 extra days.
The five days out of time shift forward due to the movement of the Earth (what we know as precession against the stars). Sirius now has its heliacal rise in August. added to that, if you are further North, it will take longer for you to see it rise, appearing later in the same month; in Cairo, Egypt, it is about August 8th, what some refer to as the Lion’s Gate portal. In northern locations, it will not be seen until late into August.
We use a 360-degree circle to describe the year in astrology, fitting the extra 5.2 days into that circle. Who knows, this concept may have been born in those times. People born during those days are welcomed into the circle. But as calendar days in a 365 plus calendar year, we can recognize these as days as something that connects us to our larger cycle of time (25,344 Tychos Great Years) and with moments that require realignment (due to our spin that needs time to realign). This time can be described as slow movement forward, but out of alignment. Five days each year are required for when we must be patient, wait, notice, and integrate.
Take the time before the Heliacal rising of Sirius to meditate and integrate the year. Find the rising of Sirius (called Sothis in Egypt) here.
Four chapters of my book The Path is the Way are available, where I can connect the spiritual path to the Tychos. I call it Binary Star Astrology, and it’s all about connecting a spiritual path to a new understanding of the cosmos, revisiting elements such as the 5 days out of time and many others.
In astrology, we use a 360-degree circle to describe the year, fitting the extra 5.2 days into that circle.
I have not found a heliocentric explanation for the 5 days beyond the 360-day circle… The tropical (solar) and sidereal years are explained… but leave questions! They say that in the tropical year, the stars shift against the background (the equinox precesses), but they don’t explain the 5 extra days of the year.
The Tychos Explains
The Tychos model explains this elegantly – The Earth moves around its long 25,344-year PVP orbit in one direction, and the Sun moves in the other. Earth has two motions; While Earth is moving in its direction around its orbit, it is also rotating counterclockwise about its own axis, moving west. The Earth spins around its own axis 366.256363 times in one year and moves along its orbit at a speed of 1.6 km. On the other hand, the Sun also has two motions. It is moving in the opposite direction, also rotating but clockwise and moving east. As the Sun moves in its direction, it does so by 1 degree per day as measured against the stars. There are 360 degrees in a circle, so it seems it should take 360 days to complete one year and return to meet up with the same star as viewed from Earth. But a solar day is 4 minutes longer than the sidereal day. The solar day is 1440 minutes, and a sidereal day is 1436 minutes. Taking into account all of these motions – Earth’s spin counterclockwise and its movement west, and the Sun spins clockwise, and a 1-degree motion east – 5.2 extra days are created. These 5.2 are elegantly described by the relationship between the Earth’s two motions and the Sun’s motions.
