DREAMSPELL / LAW OF TIME (Argüelles' Lunar-Solar Matrix)

Dreamspell ("The Enchantment of the Dream") is a system developed by American artist and mystic Jose Arguelles (1939-2011) together with Lloydine Arguelles and published in 1992. Arguelles took the structure of the Mayan Tzolkin — 20 signs and 13 tones — as a foundation, but created his own interpretive system that differs fundamentally from how the Tzolkin is used in traditional Mayan communities.

Arguelles's central idea is the "Law of Time": the assertion that modern civilization lives in an erroneous 12:60 rhythm (a 12-month year with a 60-minute hour), which destroys harmony with nature and the galaxy. The true rhythm is 13:20 (13 lunar months of 28 days), and returning to it through the use of the 260-day Tzolkin is said to be capable of transforming human consciousness. Each day in Dreamspell receives a "kin" — a combination of sign and tone — and people are encouraged to orient their lives by this rhythm.

The birth "kin" in Dreamspell is calculated differently from the traditional Tzolkin: the starting points differ, which means that most people will receive a different "sign" in the two systems. Traditional Mayan practitioners (ajq'ijab) clearly distinguish their practice from Dreamspell and do not consider it a continuation of their tradition. Nevertheless, Arguelles's system has gained an international following and continues to be actively practiced.

In Errarium, Dreamspell (#48) is presented separately from traditional Mayan astrology (#22) — a principled distinction reflecting the real difference between the two systems. Dreamspell is closer to authorial synthetic systems — Human Design (#13) and other new 20th-century systems — than to the living traditional practices of Mayan peoples.