What Is Your KIN Number? The 20 Glyphs and 13 Galactic Tones of the Mayan Calendar

The Tzolk'in: a 260-day calendar

The Tzolk'in pairs 20 glyphs with 13 tones to form a 260-day cycle (20 × 13 = 260); once every combination has appeared, the cycle returns to its start. This 260-day cycle was, for the Maya, a fundamental unit of time.

There are several theories about why 260 was chosen — that it's close to the length of human pregnancy, and that it matched agricultural cycles in the Mayan region, among others. It was used as a separate calendar from the solar year, dedicated to ritual and divination.

The 20 glyphs point to the direction of your gifts

The 20 glyphs are Red Dragon, White Wind, Blue Night, Yellow Seed, Red Serpent, White Worldbridger, Blue Hand, Yellow Star, Red Moon, White Dog, Blue Monkey, Yellow Human, Red Skywalker, White Wizard, Blue Eagle, Yellow Warrior, Red Earth, White Mirror, Blue Storm, and Yellow Sun.

Red Dragon represents birth and nurturing; White Wind, communication through words; Blue Night, abundance and intuition; Yellow Seed, the power to plant possibility. Each glyph's name cycles through one of four colours — red, white, blue and yellow — which in turn correspond to the four cardinal directions of east, north, west and south.

The 13 galactic tones show how you approach things

The 13 tones are named Magnetic, Lunar, Electric, Self-Existing, Overtone, Rhythmic, Resonant, Galactic, Solar, Planetary, Spectral, Crystal, and Cosmic.

Tone 1, Magnetic, begins with deciding what you want; Tone 2, Lunar, finds its direction by first identifying the obstacle; Tone 3, Electric, generates energy the moment you start moving. As the tones progress they define form, radiate power, organise, integrate, declare intent, manifest results, release, cooperate, and finally, at Tone 13, Cosmic, transcend everything to simply be.

It helps to think of the glyph as showing "what kind of person you are" and the tone as showing "how you go about it."

How this site calculates it

January 1st, 1900 is set as KIN 1, and your KIN number is found from the number of days elapsed since then, taken modulo 260, plus one. Your glyph is the remainder of your KIN number divided by 20; your tone is the remainder of (KIN − 1) divided by 13, plus one.

Your fortune for a given day is judged from the remainder, modulo 13, of the difference between your KIN and today's KIN, with a bonus applied when your glyph's colour family (red, white, blue or yellow) matches today's. Your lucky colour comes from your glyph's colour family, your lucky item from your tone, and your lucky direction from your glyph's associated cardinal point.

Note that there is more than one convention for the Tzolk'in's start date, so KIN numbers can differ from site to site. This site prioritises internal consistency and uses the base date above throughout.

Frequently asked questions

Why do different sites give me different KIN numbers?

There are several conventions for the starting date, so the KIN depends on the system used. This site fixes one reference date for consistency. No single convention is 'correct'; what matters is reading consistently within one system.

What is the 13 Moon calendar?

A calendar proposed in Dreamspell with thirteen 28-day months plus one 'day out of time'. KIN readings are usually discussed alongside it, and this site follows the same system.

Did the Mayan calendar end in 2012?

The Long Count reached the end of a roughly 5,125-year cycle in December 2012, which is read as the start of a new cycle rather than an ending. The 260-day Tzolk'in continues to cycle.

Does the birth time matter?

No. KIN is fixed by the date. Sites may differ in how they treat births around midnight.

Did the ancient Maya read personality from the glyphs?

Inscriptions show that the Tzolk'in date of birth was tied to a person's name and patron. The modern interpretations of the twenty glyphs, however, come from a twentieth-century reworking and are not found directly in ancient sources.

What is a wavespell?

A thirteen-day cycle that begins with one of the twenty glyphs. The wavespell your KIN belongs to is read as a larger life theme. Compatibility can also be read through the guide, antipode, occult and analog KIN relationships; see the reading screen for what this site shows.