Daykeeper
Encyclopedia
A daykeeper was the name for a diviner in the pre-Columbian
Maya
culture. The Mayans are renowned for their advanced skills in the fields of mathematics
and astronomy
, and had come up with a complex system of tracking days. The Maya calendar
actually consisted of three individual calendars, the most sacred of the three being the Tzolkin or divinatory calendar. It was a daykeeper's task to keep count of the days with coral seeds according to this sacred calendar, as well as to perform divination rituals based upon the dates of the sacred calendar. In this respect, their role was not unlike that of a modern astrologer
, in that they attempted to use the day of a person's birth to divine certain traits they would inherit as a result of that day, as well as what might befall them in the future. Daykeepers, unlike astrologers, would not take into account the position of the stars.
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
culture. The Mayans are renowned for their advanced skills in the fields of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, and had come up with a complex system of tracking days. The Maya calendar
Maya calendar
The Maya calendar is a system of calendars and almanacs used in the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala. and in Chiapas....
actually consisted of three individual calendars, the most sacred of the three being the Tzolkin or divinatory calendar. It was a daykeeper's task to keep count of the days with coral seeds according to this sacred calendar, as well as to perform divination rituals based upon the dates of the sacred calendar. In this respect, their role was not unlike that of a modern astrologer
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, in that they attempted to use the day of a person's birth to divine certain traits they would inherit as a result of that day, as well as what might befall them in the future. Daykeepers, unlike astrologers, would not take into account the position of the stars.