Change the calendar? What’s the point?

So…. Why bother changing your calendar?

The very idea sounds silly, believe me, I know. I’ve been talking to people about it for years. The most common response is some version of “Why?” or “What will that accomplish?”

Of course when I first began talking to friends and family about the 13 Moon Calendar, it was discouraging to hear this. Not because I just WANTED them to use the 13 Moon Calendar. It was because I had fun(!) and unique experiences as a result of using it, and I wanted to share that with them.

Back in 2002 when I was first learning about the 13 Moon Calendar, the “Why” question didn’t really have a chance to get in my way. This was because I was the only person I knew who had even heard of it, so all the discussion and questioning happened in my own mind.

See, I voraciously read up on the 13 Moon Calendar as soon as I heard of it. In that self-study, I am sure at some point I wondered “why?” but to me the more interesting question was “what?” – as in: “What can we DO with this?” In fact, even now, after 15 years of 13 Mooning, I still explore that question. In any case, my “why” was satisfied as part of my own studies, and since I wasn’t as interested in the “why” as I was with the “what”, I didn’t even take note of what satisfied MY “why?”.

So, whenever someone would ask me the very important question “Why?” my response was usually WAY more complex than necessary. But, now I know better – and the answer is simple:

Your understanding of Time directly affects your experience of it. This is because, as Jose Arguelles said it best: Time is the atmosphere of the mind.

For example, if you think Time is nothing more or less than What-A-Clock-Measures, then that’s how you’ll experience it.

Probably the first thing you ever “learned” about Time, was how to read a clock. But, before that you surely had already experienced Time moving faster or slower, or twisty or turny, or even backwards or upside-down. You probably even had déjà vu experiences before you were taught about the clock.

The tragedy is that the first time any well-intentioned guidance was given to you about Time, a most fundamental aspect of your reality, it was only to teach you something as boring as how to be punctual.

And yeah, using a clock is necessary and practical (for now…). But, if it’s the only tool we’re given, our baseline understanding of Time is that it is just tick-tocking away, forever. As if a machine humans invented could really CREATE AND DEFINE a fundamental property of the universe. (Which touches on an even deeper topic… maybe I’ll try to unpack that later!).

But here’s the punchline: The clock was first invented as a mechanical toy, not as the engine to run human civilization, nor, indeed, the human mind!

You can re-think Time. You can “upgrade” your relationship to it.

OK: You were taught the clock. Then maybe in Physics class you were given the dusty old “arrow of time”. But most likely nobody ever acknowledged or explored the fact that you sometimes experience days going faster or slower, or that you ever feel like you had “been here before”. Generally speaking, no consideration is given to the actual, direct experience of Time. But you can give yourself that chance, if you’re so inclined.

By changing your calendar, you throw a figurative wrench into the literal gears of mechanical time – giving your mind the chance to not only entertain the notion that there is more going on here than Time just ticking away, but to interact with Time in a more meaningful way.

As foreign as it may first appear at first glance, the 13 Moon Calendar simply provides a means for re-thinking Time on your own terms, based on your own direct experience.

If you don’t yet have a 13 Moon Calendar, here you go! Begin your own experiment to enrich your relationship to Time.