As the final trecena of 2021, the Kimi (“Death”) trecena marks the end of a year that brought many people to their knees, due to the staggering loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and all the major disruptions to lives, caused by COVID-19. Perhaps the 5 Kimi energy that was in place on Christmas Day last year was trying to tell us something about what was to come, as that came in during a trecena aligned with communication. This time the last 12 days of the year are all part of the Kimi trecena itself, but Christmas Day 2021 has a very different flavour. This time this special day coincides with 6 Chuwen (aka 6 Monkey), an energy that is all about creativity and play, perhaps prompting us all to attempt to become more creative in how we are dealing with things. The last day of this trecena, which is an intense “dazzler”, will bring in New Year’s Day.

The first day of this time frame is symbolized by a skull, representative of “returning to Source”, going back to “bare bones” foundations in order to regroup. The principal patron of this time frame was seen as the Conch-shell Lord known as Tecciztécatl, who sacrificed himself to become the Moon. He is often seen accompanied by Tonatiuh, God of the Sun, so here we have the Moon and the Sun working together to generate new life.

Tying in with this idea of “returning to source” in order to regenerate, there is often a “letting go of restrictions” aspect to this time frame, in order to achieve a higher level of evolution. Often there is an emphasis on communicating with ancestors, which was something that could be seen, remarkably, in Egypt, the last time this trecena came into place (last April). That was when the mummies of many of Egypt’s royal ancestors (18 kings and 4 queens) were taking their places in the new Royal Mummies Hall in Egypt’s new Grand Museum in Al-Fustat, not far from the Great Pyramids of Giza, after being ceremoniously transferred in a spectacular “Golden parade” from Cairo’s old Egyptian Museum to the new one, starting at sundown the evening before. The timing was exquisite – fit for a King, or a Queen, or a Pharaoh, as fate and circumstance would have it.

In ancient Mesoamerica the power and potency of One Kimi were such that a great festival often accompanied the arrival of this trecena, often beginning the evening before, as happened in Egypt last spring. There was a “bare bones” aspect to this as well, and a connection to “resurrection”, echoed in that event through the idea of these royal personages truly becoming “immortal” through the nature of that re-entombment. Through the timing of all this we had a great opportunity to see how these types of energies apply to the world at large, regardless of cultural traditions. At that time this grand event took place just a few hours before Easter Sunday, which is also oriented around Death and Resurrection. This time this trecena is coinciding with the closing of the year, with the very last day bringing in the New Year.

Two cycles ago (July, 2020) the death and memorial events associated with civil right activist and “Conscience of the United States Congress” John Lewis were the focus of much attention in the US, as John Lewis had been a leading figure, over many decades, in the fight for equal rights and social justice. At that time the first day of this trecena marked the 200th day since the first warning from China regarding Covid-19. At that time the dumpster was aggressively pushing for Americans to start taking certain anti-malaria drugs — particularly hydroxychloroquine — despite the fact that such drugs had not been approved for treating covid. By then over 310,000 cases had been reported in the U.S. and that country was in a mad scramble to try to find respirators and protective equipment for medical workers. One cycle later (April of this year) Joe Biden was at the helm of the presidency and an aggressive vaccination program was underway. More than 56 million people in that country were fully vaccinated by then, and over 100 million partially vaccinated, so progress was definitely being made.

Unfortunately, however, such things as vaccine hesitancy, conspiracy theories, and political obstructionism have done much to slow down the momentum in the US, and as this trecena opens at this time the US still ranks highest in the world in terms of covid death rate, with over 825,000 deaths and close to 52 million cases having been recorded in that country. Despite all their resources only 61.4% of the population has been fully immunized. Moreover, restrictions and protocols were almost non-existent in many places and so the pandemic has continued to sky-rocket. Mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion, coupled with economic anxieties and grief, are all factoring into the overall state of affairs, not only in the US, but globally as well. The two days leading to the start of this trecena saw the UK registering the highest number of new cases in the world – higher even than the US! At the start of this trecena last April at least 23 countries in the world had registered over one million cases, but now, just one cycle later, that number has almost doubled, and for some countries vaccination programs have been either very slow or non existent.

And as if that isn’t enough we can now see some major echoes coming through, from as far back as the Kimi trecena in February of 2014 when the first day of this time frame saw the beginning of Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula, with Putin’s takeover of that region taking place over the next few days. What had been announced as being a day of mourning in the Ukraine (for One Kimi at that time), for victims of anti-government clashes with riot police, turned into a deadly day of fighting, with at least 75 people killed and hundreds wounded in 3 hours of fierce combat. And now Russian military forces are again amassing near the Ukrainian border, this time in far greater numbers. It’s a tense and frightening situation for Ukraine. The rest of the world is watching closely as the US and its NATO allies engage in intense negotiations with Russia in efforts to avert another Russian attack.

Many times in the past we have seen this trecena associated with both natural disasters and even knee-buckling events that have forced people into positions of profound loss (as when Puerto Rico suffered the full force of Hurricane Maria in 2017). Such losses have brought many to the point where the only option available was to “start again”, pushing them to build new foundations in order to “regenerate”. Currently it seems that type of thing has happened just ahead of this trecena, with events such as the horrendous flooding in British Columbia recently, the massive destruction from tornadoes in the U.S. Midwest, and the super typhoon that caused such chaos in the Philippines.

In all those areas the process of regeneration is already beginning as cleanup continues. All of these things are forcing people to take a good hard look at many aspects of their own lives. Many have no choice but to reassess their values and priorities, and make hard decisions about changes (and even sacrifices) that may be needed. Many are having to restructure on various levels, including personal, local, national, and international, as well as on mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.

As always, Kimi represents a key genesis point for regeneration. As always, this is a time frame that tends to bring things “back to basics” so that restoration and renewal can be addressed. It is for this reason, as difficult as it may seem at times, that this trecena has often been associated with “luck” and even good fortune as it presents an opportunity to “pause and regroup”, to review one’s overall “state”, and even to clean out whatever is not wanted or needed in order to set up new foundations for what you want to rejuvenate or bring into your life. For many this may mean simply finding new ways to live with the changing “landscape” of covid and the uncertainties that it brings.

There can be no doubt that many events unfolding during this period will be life changing for millions of people, particularly if there is a “tsunami coming for unvaccinated people”, as has been warned, with regard to the Omicron variant. Fortunately, progress has been made in the fight against this virus as testing is now more widely available, vaccines and anti-viral drugs are more readily available, people are learning to be cautious, and millions have already been fully vaccinated, so the foundations for the next chapter in this fight now look quite different than they did two or three cycles ago.

No doubt much of what unfolds during this current period will again set new foundations for the restoration and renewal that is so greatly needed. It appears that it will also be opening up avenues for completely new ways of knowing, through such actions as the launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope that will enable us to learn more about the universe than ever before. During this period these are the energies that will come into play:

One Kimi (Dec. 20th) – the “initiation” of “death/return to Source” foundations (the point at which new life can be engendered), on what was to be the day when delegates from Canada’s Inuit, Assembly of First Nations (AFN), and Métis National Council were to meet in a joint session with Pope Francis at the Vatican, but that was postponed due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

However, it is noteworthy that this day marks 19 cycles exactly since One Kimi in 2008 when then-Prime Minister Harper, on behalf of the Government of Canada, delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons to former residential school students and their families for the abuses they had suffered. That was 69 Tzolk’in cycles after his own One Kimi birth. On that same day members of the Tseycum tribe flew home with the remains (some 2000 years old) of their ancestors that had been in the American Museum of Natural History in New York for 100 yrs.

Currently this energy coincides with the UN’s International Human Solidarity Day
on the tenth Gregorian anniversary of the day when some 10,000 women in Egypt staged a massive rally in Tahrir Square to protest against military rule and its violence against women. One cycle earlier (last April) Egypt was in the process of transferring its pharonic mummies from the old museum in Cairo to its new Grand Museum in a “Golden Parade” that began the evening before.

This energy also marks 11 cycles since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, which is more than a little worrying with Russian military forces again amassing in large numbers near the Ukrainian border.

This also marks 69 cycles since 1972 when a much younger Joe Biden first defeated an older, more established, candidate in Delaware, when he won the race for the US Senate.

As we are now now heading into another period of intense solar activity, called a solar maximum, where solar events are triggering some gorgeous aurora borealis displays, it is noteworthy that the “Carrington event”, the biggest space super-storm ever recorded, occurred when this energy was in place, in 1859.

2 Manik’ (Dec. 21st) – a dynamic type of energy aligned with the idea of reciprocity, which can sometimes tilt towards “polarization”, coinciding with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year for sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, with the lowest noonday sun, at the start of the winter season. This marks two Gregorian years since the first cluster of patients with
“pneumonia of an unknown cause” was first identified (later labelled as COVID-19).

This is actor/activist Jane Fonda’s 84th Gregorian birthday; her Maya birth day is the day before (One Kimi).

It has now been two cycles since the historic launch of the United Arab Emirates’s Amal (Arabic for Hope) mission to Mars, its first interplanetary mission, the first of three missions to Mars that launched during this trecena in July of 2020.

3 Lamat (Dec. 22nd) – the “activation” of the “bright star” heralding energy often associated with leadership, particularly in a “signalling capacity”, now marking two cycles since a global team of astrophysicists released the largest ever 3D map of the universe, marking the culmination of 20 years of cosmology surveys with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Currently this is the peak of the Ursid meteor shower.

This is the Calendar Round anniversary of the Beatles’ last recording session, in early January of 1970, for their Let It Be soundtrack. Only three of them were there (Paul, George, and Ringo) to record their final song together.

4 Muluk (Dec. 23rd) – a “defining” day associated with the shape-shifting energy of water, one of the five energies at the centre of the Aztec Sun Stone, coinciding at this time with Kisan Diwas, National Farmer’s Day in India, in celebration of the birth of Chaudhary Charan Singh, who became the fifth prime minister of India, the establisher of farmer-friendly policies and welfare programs.

This is the day set for the National Archives to turn over the dumpster’s White House papers to the Jan. 6th committee (unless he makes an appeal to the Supreme Court, which they could refuse to take since all earlier appeals have been adamantly rejected by other courts).

5 Ok (Dec. 24th) – the “blessing of love”, also associated with fire, protection, guidance, and justice, coinciding at this time with Christmas Eve.

This was originally the scheduled launch date for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, but is now postponed for one day, at which time a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket will carry the telescope into orbit, ushering in a new era of astronomy as this telescope will have a field of view 15 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, and is capable of detecting faint infrared light from very early galaxies. It will be able to view the sky primarily in this infrared spectrum rather than in visible light. This will allow it to see things that are invisible to the unaided eye. It will also allow it to look at the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets, distant worlds orbiting distant stars.

This is National Consumer Rights Day and the Maya birth energy of Uğur Şahin, the CEO and one of the founders of BioNTech, the company that developed the Pfizer vaccine against Covid.

At this point it has been two cycles since 48 senators introduced legislation in the US to restore the Voting Rights Act after it was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. The lawmakers called the bill “The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act”, named after the late civil rights icon John Lewis who had presided over the Democratic-controlled House when it passed legislation to restore the VRA. Unfortunately Republicans refused to take up the bill in the Senate.

Once again at the top of the Democrats’ agenda, this bill would require any state with a history of voting discrimination within the past 25 years to seek federal approval before making any changes to its voting procedures. It would mandate that any state, regardless of its history, obtain clearance from the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington, DC, before making any changes that would tend to burden voters of color, such as strict voter ID laws or closing polling places in areas with large numbers of minority voters.

6 Chuwen (Dec. 25th) – a “six directions” type of energy aligned with creativity and play, but
sometimes associated with the unexpected, coinciding at this time with Christmas Day.

One cycle since the death of Prince Philip and the start of 8 days of mourning in the UK. Two cycles since the launch of China’s Tianwen 1 mission to Mars.

This is now the new launch day for the James Webb Space Telescope.

7 Eb’ (Dec. 26th) – a “self-generating stream-of-consciousness” type of energy; a revitalizing force representative of the fertile “mid-point” in this trecena; sometimes a turning point towards the opening up of new possibilities, now coinciding with Boxing Day in British Commonwealth countries.

Three cycles (780 days) since a judge in New York ordered the dumpster to pay $2 million in damages for misusing his charitable foundation, referred to as “a shocking pattern of illegality”.  In retrospect that seems almost minor compared with what had been revealed since then – with much more being uncovered on almost a daily basis at this time.

8 B’en (Dec. 27th) – the “resurrection” of personal authority, as was in place in 2014 on the day when formal approval was given to the new interim government in Ukraine, at the same time as dozens of armed pro-Russians seized the Crimea regional parliament, as Russian fighter jets were engaged in massive war games near the border. Given Russia’s current demand that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries, coupled with the buildup of Russian military forces near the Ukrainian border, this has the potential to bring an echoing of those earlier events.

Two cycles ago this energy brought the first of several commemorative events pertaining to the life and death of Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.

9 Ix (Dec. 28th) – an “outwardly projecting” type of energy often associated with deep mysteries, this is marking six cycles precisely since Puerto Rico took the full force of Cat. 4 Hurricane Maria, called “the storm of the century” in 2017 as it delivered a devastating blow that killed over 3000 people, shattered homes and infrastructure, and completely destroyed Puerto Rico’s power grid.

Events that take place under this energy influence can have long range consequences, as when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Immigration and Nationality Act under this influence in 1965.

Two cycles ago Congressman John Lewis made his “Final Crossing” of the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge under this influence, in a processional ceremony that preceded his Lying in State at the Alabama State Capital.

Currently this is Dame Maggie Smith’s 87th Gregorian birthday. Happy Birthday Dame Maggie!

10 Men (Dec. 29th) – “foundational higher vision” – a Burner Day aligned with “taking the fire” in conjunction with the “high vision” of the Eagle, a strong energy that has the potential to open up far-reaching possibilities, marking one cycle exactly since Ukraine announced that Russia had moved 80,000 troops to the border. At that time President Biden pledged “unwavering support” for Ukraine and a NATO emergency meeting was held in this regard. Since then it seems that Russia has doubled the number of troops in that area and Ukraine-Russia tensions have escalated considerably.

11 Kib’ (Dec. 30th) – an energy that can be either change-oriented or “inspirational” (or both), often aligned with Kib’s orientation around shedding a kind of “first light” on things towards the restoration of order. This marks two years since December of 2019 when Dr. Li Wenliang in Wuhan, China issued the first emergency warning to colleagues that there were 7 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city (he later died after contacting it himself).

12 Kab’an (Dec. 31st) – a “dedication” type of energy associated with movement, particularly “Earth movement” – often a powerful energy associated with moving new ideas forward, coinciding at this time with New Year’s Eve. This marks two years since China alerted the World Health Organization about the detection of a “pneumonia of unknown cause” in the area surrounding a seafood market in the industrial city of Wuhan, which prompted the Chinese government to lock down that area. To date China has reported just over 100,000 cases and 4,636 deaths overall, while the global number of cases has risen to over 275 million, with over 5 million deaths. The US alone will have registered well over 52 million by this time, with well over 820,000 deaths.

13 Etz’nab’ (January 1st) – “transformational flint”, a “heavy-duty, knife-edged” (and often “dazzling”) force for change, coinciding at this time with New Year’s Day.

Back in 1861 this was the Maya calendar energy in place when Abraham Lincoln appointed General McClellan to lead the Union Army forces, at the start of the U.S. Civil War. Four years later, in 1865, this was in place at the time of the Grand Review of the Armies, when Union Army troops paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate the end of the American Civil War.

Eight cycles ago, in 2016, this was in place at the signing, by 175 nations at that time, of the historic global accord to fight climate change (the Paris Climate Change Agreement).

This is not only civil rights icon and long-serving Congressman John Lewis’s Maya birth energy, but it also marks four cycles since the introduction of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (aka H.R.4) on Feb. 26, 2019, which is designed to restore and strengthen parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Although passed by the US House of Representatives this past summer, this bill has yet to be passed by the Senate. Amazingly, this energy was again in place on the day of John Lewis’s final Celebration of Life in July of 2020, when a private ceremony was held at Ebenezer Baptist Church Horizon Sanctuary in Atlanta, with eulogies given by former presidents Bush, Clinton, and Obama. The ceremony was followed by John Lewis’s internment.

Of note, as well, is the fact that this was Fidel Castro’s Maya birth energy, and, as it happened, this was the energy in place last April when his brother Raúl Castro announced that he is ending over six decades of rule in Cuba, and spoke of progressive new freedoms.

So as this powerful energy, the final day of the Kimi trecena, brings in this New Year the question might be: what does this energy potend? Is it telling us that this new year will finally bring an end to the pandemic, that it will bring an end to the widescale death and hardship that has accompanied it?  Is it telling us that justice will prevail in the US, and bring an end to all lying, skulduggery, and angst that has plagued that country over the past few years? Is it telling us that humankind as a whole must make rapid and widescale changes to deal with climate change? Is it all of the above? Only time will tell.

Happy New Year to all.

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[Please note that the brief descriptions of the days provided above are only “thumbnail sketches”. Much greater detail can be found in Manual for the Soul: A Guide to the Energies of Life.]