INTERLUDE 1

A calendar must be meaningful in a culture, but that is not necessary in a civilization. A first criterion for a meaningful calendar is to be easy to understand.

I now have read in Kelley about 168, and nothing new of importance has emerged. 6 * 28 is noted between the zodiacal signs. Presumably they were written in black, because the Maya wrote time distances in black while points in time were written in red. They seem to have gone from culture to civilization - there is a dynamic in red which black does not have.

Among thousands of potentially valuable facts (in Kelley) it is difficult to chose a handful of especial value for us, trying to understand rongorongo. In one place there is a discussion about 'Twenty Deities in the Dresden':

"... Barthel (1968b) has now shown that the intervals associated with this deity sequence are those of sidereal lunar months ..."

This is interesting. The sidereal month has a duration of 27.3 nights. It is inconceivable, I think, to use multiples of 28 for a distance which is 27.3 nights long - the method in a culture is to use 27 and then add an extra night now and then. The basic number 6 * 28 = 168 cannot refer to sidereal lunar months, because the number is rooted in culture. And the intervals between the 20 deities in Dresden prove that Maya had reached the stage when cities were created (i.e. civilization). Merchants (those who flourish in cities) know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

The Polynesians had no cities, therefore they had culture. Therefore the calendars are selfsimilar - easy to grasp.

The year has 364 + 1 nights. 364 = 13 * 28, i.e. structurally regarded there are 13 months in a year.

The sun is 'incorporated' in the hands. 20 means the 4 'quarters' of the sun.The sun year is therefore 13 * 20 = 260 days. Then comes 261 = 9 * 29 - and the idea explodes in our face: 9 means 'darkness' (death). The 29th (20 + 9) night in the month she has vanished. 261 = 9 * 20 + 9 * 9, maybe this is the origin of the 3 wives of the sun.

Some counted with only 20 nights in a month. We can see the reason. It is not just because 20 is the sum of all fingers and toes. The 29 nights in a months can be regarded as 1 * 20 + 1 * 9 (in congruence with 9 * 20 + 9 * 9). The greater month cycle must have 8 * 20 + 8 * 9 = 232 nights. 364 - 232 = 132 is a confirming sign, and - we can conclude - the month cannot have more then 20 countable nigths. The rest are in the dark.

Let as put it in a table, it is important:

104 in a way unites moon with sun. As moon has two halves (waxing and waning), so does the sun:

There are 4 * 13 = 52 cards in a deck of cards, but they often sell them in pairs.

The 260 days of the sun were established as 13 * 10 (in analogy with 13 * 28), and 2 * 52 is equal to 104 = 26 * 4. We can conclude that outside the enlighted 260 days of the sun there must be a 4 quarters with 26 nights in each. The year is therefore 26 * (10 + 4) = 26 * 14, not 26 fortnights but 14 periods with 26 'days' in each:

But we shouldn't think in terms of a year but in terms of two halfyears:

The unlucky number 13 is here defined, it implies the 'end'.

The selfsimilarity breaks down downwards here, because there are no quarters in 182, 130 or 52 - they can only be divided into halves (like the seashells on the beach):

We must conclude that the selfsimilarity does not contain quarters - only halves.

Halves is the other side of the grains on the chessborad. Going downwards (descending) you work with halves, going upwards (waxing) you double.

2 * 2 = 4. 2 * 5 = 10. 2 * 7 = 14.

Then follows 8, 20 respectively 28.

The 16 nights of waxing moon is not an important measure primarily by reason of being twice 8 - because 40 and 56 do not carry much weight. (Nor, of course, is it because 16 = 4 * 4.) Another explanation is needed.

Realizing that 260 days is less than a whole year, the singleminded sun thinkers switched from twice 182 to once 360 - i.e. 100 more than 260:

Expressed in 'decades' and disregarding extracalendrical days:

The next natural step - we in the civilized world would think - ought then to have been this: 36 sun decades, 24 sun hours, and 12 sun months.

But 26 must in a culture not disappear - it establishes a necessary link between sun and moon. The singleminded threat from the sun thinkers must have energized those who understood the value of 26. One way was to compromise (and remain in control) by relying on moon's established capacity to give growth during her waxing phase. 16 is the 5th term in the growth series: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 ..., a fact which secures both sun and moon as participants in the agreement of 16 being the best number for counting waxing moon.

The month cannot have 2 * 15 = 30 days, it is against the facts of nature and it undermines the meaning of moon. 16 is not of value on the ground that 16 = 2 * 8, because that would threaten the sun thinkers - the sunny 24 would then, of course, be 3 * 8, with an odd number of perfect eights. A blasphemy, hakaturou.

16 became acceptable for the sun thinkers because 16 + 10 = 26, the old established fundamental number of enlightenment in the sun, while the moon lovers are respected because 16 means 5-folded growth: