Beginning with an aside, I realize that some of my esteemed astrology colleagues are talking about the nonexistent galactic alignment that didn’t happen Friday, as if it did happen. Someone even wrote to me and said, to see the alignment you have to be off of the Earth — which, if you’re talking about astrology, defeats the point. Um, like, entirely.

There were these two Mayan guys talking one day…

Now, I ask you, why do we need a galactic alignment when the point of the Mayan calendar is a positively gorgeous day count? That’s the whole idea…they counted days. They worked in long spans of time. That’s how they did calendars, one of which, a 260-day cycle (the tzolkin), could keep you busy for years studying and working with and exploring it. The galactic association is what I would call an intellectual construction.

But I will not rant; I will not go against the misinformed marketing concepts of my most beloved colleagues. I may even be wrong; I know of no past lives as a Mayan mathematician-shaman/daykeeper. I have, however, long been marveling at the beauty of the day count method, which is organized (among other measures) in 144,000 day spans, one of which ended Friday and another one of which began Saturday.

The one that ended Friday was the 13th [see article from Friday, That Was One Heck of a Baktun], which began in Sept. 1618. The baktun that ended Saturday began at the dawn of the colonial age, when corporations became as powerful as governments.

Saturday began the 14th baktun, which lends in 2406. We have many problems deriving from colonialism that we need to resolve, including the fact that corporations are doing a fine job of colonizing the New World known as our minds. I say in the 14th baktun it’s time to claim back that territory.

The 13-baktun span of 5,125 years may also be a piktun, the next unit up. I know there is a debate about how many baktuns there are to the piktun (we don’t even know the real names for these units; the ones we use are concocted by archeologists), but if there are 20 of them, then a Great Cycle of 26,625 years is not evenly divisible in piktuns; that’s not the Mayan way. With the Mayans, the math was always elegant. If there are 20 baktuns to the piktun, as some suggest, a Great Cycle — the precession of the equinoxes — would be 3.25 piktuns long. This is like starting the work week at 2 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon.

My point is not to bore you or impress you with maths; my point is that Saturday began a rather special new era. At least, that is, in the calendrical sense. Given that we usually begin eras when loads of people die (the post-9/11 era, for example, and the postwar era, for another example), using a calendar is, if nothing else, a friendlier approach. The piktun that just ended started back in 3114 BCE, right around when upper and lower Egypt were joined into one kingdom, and figured they could make more food by applying the concept of irrigation. I know that (as you rush to get to relatives’ homes, or do your last-moment holiday shopping) you’re probably not that interested in what the new piktun will bring, but I mean, the option is open.

I am open to the idea that there is a vibrational shift associated with these day counts, something we can actually work with. That’s not so much about something being applied to us from the outside, but rather, the conscious use of a tool.

Astrology as we do it is another tool. Let’s tune in to local time.

Sun square Uranus, which will make for a revolting or revolutionary holiday, or day of the week, if it’s not a holiday. This chart shows the Sun and Uranus in a square, as well as the yod pattern that I refer to in the article (consisting of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto).

The Cancer Full Moon happens Dec. 28, with the Sun in a close conjunction to Pluto — a fitting end for 2012, with the Sun aligned exactly in the 2012 aspect (Uranus square Pluto) and Mercury aligned with the Galactic Core. The Sun is currently passing through the Uranus-Pluto square. The Sun is square Uranus Christmas Day at 8:31 pm EST, meaning that the aspect is developing all day. If you’re visiting your ancestors and tribe, this is a fine opportunity to spring free from family patterns, to come out of the closet or to revolt and/or recreate yourself in some clear way.

Then comes the Full Moon; and then soon after, the Sun is conjunct Pluto and sextile Saturn. This engages the yod pattern (Jupiter in Gemini, Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn), one of the famous patterns in the 12/21/12 chart. That yod continues for months, which will hold the energy pattern of the solstice, but we’re how in one of its great moments.

Looked at one way, this is about the evolutionary process (Saturn and Pluto) that will lead us to revise our story of who we are, what we know and what we are doing here. Jupiter in Gemini says: get along with your neighbors, or nothing else is possible.

This message is emphasized by Mars arriving in Aquarius (the sign of groups and collective ideas) Christmas Day, just in time to stir up the dynamics of the group known as the family. Note, this is synchronous with Sun square Uranus.

Mars in Aquarius is a reminder that cooperation is a matter of initiative. In order to work together, people have to want to do so. Usually it doesn’t happen spontaneously. Mars will be square Saturn through the first week of the month, so we need to get below any emotional resistance to doing that, which would include this thing we need to deal with known as authority issues.

The Capricorn New Moon is Jan. 11. For that event, Mercury, Venus, Juno and Pluto will also be in Capricorn. The lunation is conjunct asteroid Requiem, indicative of all that we will simply have to leave behind as we enter a new era in the history of the Mesoamerican calendar tradition.