Have an Abysmal New Year

the 260-Week Countdown to 21 12 2012

Greetings cousins. This New Year, Dec 21st 2007, marks the official countdown to theAbysmal+1 Calendar’s launch on 21 12 2012.

The next 5 Years
= 20 Quarters
= 65 Months
= 62 Lunations
= 260 Weeks
= 1825 Days + 2 Leap Year Days

Although theAbysmal+1 Calendar has many components, not any one person need necessarily follow all of them. The most common would likely continue as the 7-day market week, the 28-day month. The cycles of 13 days and XX, the glyphs which have sub-cycles of IV and V, also create daily progressions of days that one might use in their scheduling of the Year.

Some notes on the functionality of theAbysmal+1 Calendar:

The last day of one year bears the number & glyphs (13-XX) which become assigned to the following year, which for this year falls on 8-XIV.

Herein lies the notion that the New Year germinates from a seed from the Old Year. This gives the last Friday of the Year stands for the entire year to come. This might prove the best time to consider one’s plans for the Year to come.

New Year’s Day, which falls on 9-XV, stands in the space in between.

First Calendar Day of the Year, Saturday, Day 0, Month 0

Year 8-XIV

This assignment to the years increases by 1 and V from year-to-year. If we consider the Gregorian Calendar Year in comparison to the 13-XX, they do align somewhat. The Abysmal+1 Calendar begins with Dec 21st, such that 10 days fall on one Gregorian Calendar Year, and the next 355 on another. This Abysmal+1 Year 8-XIV loosely corresponds with the year 2008. Note the 8s in common. And so this continues until Zero Year.

8-XIV 2008
9-XIX 2009
10-IV 2010
11-IX 2011
12-XIV 2012
13-XIX 2013 - Year 0
1-IV Year 1
2-IX Year 2
3-XIV Year 3
4-XIX Year 4

Year 0 13-XIX begins on
Saturday Day 0 Month 0 2-I

Year 1 1-IV begins with the first number & glyph of the 52-year cycle (1-13 by IV, IX, XIV, XIX)

Year 2 2-IX begins on
Saturday Day 0 Month 0 3-XI
New Moon
this marks the beginning of associating lunations with years over longer peroids

Year 12 12-XIX begins on
Saturday Day 0 Month 0 1-I
the first day of the 13-XX calendar

~Year 17,640 12-IV begins on
Saturday Day 0 Month 0 1-VI
The Sun enters Aries

The End of theAbysmal

365 Days of theAbysmal weblog.

TheAbysmal Calendar has taken a final form at this end. It’s up to everyone else, and their kids to decide what portion or portions to adopt or transmogrify.

The research into and development of theAbysmal Calendar (nee Synaptic Calendar) has lead to the creation of a concentration of information regarding our perception, understanding and marking of time, the days,  months, years and aeons.

The Summer Solstice burns a mere fortnight away.

Something to Plan For:

the- upcoming -Abysmal New Year’s Day - December 21st 2007 CE - has particular significance. It marks the point 260 Weeks prior to theAbysmal Calendar’s official Inception date, December 21st 2012 CE.

260 has significance in calendrical systems, as it represents the number of Days it takes a human being to form in the womb.

The self-similar structure of theAbysmal Calendar thus reflects this periodicity as follows:

260 Weeks = 5 Years
260 Months = 20 Years
260 Centuries = the Precession of the Equinoxes

This brings us yet further into unfamiliar territory. What can one do with this? If 260 Days makes a person, what do 260 Weeks make?

7 humans? or something an order of magnitude greater?

Ultimately, the advantage in such self-similarity lies in relating the various orders of magnitude to one another through a common image-system. To rely exclusively on numbers would prove efficient from the perspective of the Internet, yet less easy for human memory.

Calendars appear to incorporate a particular culture’s creation story, particularly the emergence of light from within the darkness or abyss or void, and the separation of the Heavens and the Earth. The Zodiacs of the world bear striking similarities across cultures, and have rich mythologies attached.

Replacing the Gregorian in one capacity only

theAbysmal Calendar replaces the Gregorian in its capacity as Global default Calendar. TheAbysmal remains, ultimately, numerical, with allowance for expression of all of the world’s cultures  to adorn it with the richness of our imagery, symbolism, stories and imagination.

Friday October 15th 1982 - Does this date have any significance? Did anyone throw a huge celebration?

It marks the beginning of the 401st Year, which represents the conclusion of one full 400-Year Cycle of the Gregorian Calendar. It repeats itself exactly once every 400 Years.

Yet, no celebration.

January 1st, 2000 CE - this represents the date of the largest disappointment shared by such a large number of people, when we may have had a celebration to fill the streets of the world’s cities.

January 1st 2001 CE - the beginning of the new millennium - again, a disappointment, perhaps a foreshadowing of the year, and indeed beginning of the millennium to come.

December 21st 2012 CE - this date represents the last Day of the Gregorian Calendar as a global standard, and the first Day we should truly celebrate. together.

which requires some planning…

260 Weeks… we have half a year to think about it.

The- revised & final -Abysmal Calendar pends…

any thoughts? throw them into theAbyss:

theAbysmal
a t
gmail
d o t
com

Nanakusa no Sekku

The Japanese Festival of Seven Herbs.

Traditionally observed on the Seventh Day of the first month of the New Year, currently observed on January 7th.

An observance of this festival is the ritual preparation and sharing of Seven-Herb Rice Soup (called nanagatsu-gayu).

The customary* Seven Herbs are as follows:

Chickweed
Cudweed
Daikon
Nipplewort
Shepherd’s Purse
Turnip
Water Dropwort

* substituting local herbs is a common practice and encouraged.

The Abysmal Day

the Abysmalest Day on the Internet

Happy Twixt Years!

The Abysmal Day, which acknowledges the Winter Solstice, falls between Year -7 and Year -6 of the Abysmal Calendar (formerly Synaptic Calendar).

8 Hours and 12 Minutes of Daylight- 15 Hours 48 Minutes of Night

492 Minutes vs 948 Minutes = 34% to 66%

Watch Ahead for upcoming Abysmal Holidays:

Wednesday    Month 1 Day 17
Sunday            Month 3 Day 7
Wednesday    Month 4 Day 24
Sunday            Month 6 Day 14
Wednesday    Month 8 Day 3
Sunday            Month 9 Day 21
Wednesday    Month 11 Day 10
theAbysmal Day

Y2K flopped horribly, and 2001 quietly passed by. Let’s celebrate our Days vivaciously.

2192 Days until Zero Day

Remember Remember the Days of Darkness

Holidays as a function of Calendar Structure

The 8 points of the year

the observations of significant Days, that is to say, the Solstices and Equinoxes, suggest other eloquent Calendar patterns of the Reformed Structure.

The Synaptic Reform Calendar marks the Winter Solstice as December 21st, the day that falls after Saturday, before Sunday without any weekday assigned to it. It is exceptional. In the following examples, the remaining 364-Calendar Days are referred to.

The first Calendar Day becomes
Sunday Day 0 Month 0*
Equivalent December 22nd.

*28 Days per month, counted from 0-27 and 13 months per year counted 0-12.

The quarter technically ends/begins at midnight between the Saturday and the Sunday. The so-called “weekend” has long been a time of celebration. How fortuitous that this should work out!

Each of the dates below designates the first day of a new quarter, and therefore the Sunday of the weekend wonderland.

Dec 22nd - Winter Solstice (as observed on the Calendar)
91 days later
Mar 23rd - Vernal Equinox
91 days later
Jun 22nd - Summer Solstice
91 days later
Sep 21st - Autumnal Equinox
91 days later
December 22nd

In dividing each of these in half, as each quarter is an uneven number of Days, the middle Day is designated the Holiday, 45 Days marking the eighths. Each of these days falls on a Wednesday, middle day of the 7-Day Week. This Day could be designated a Holiday, or better yet, the entire Week should be.

These Wednesdays fall on:

Feb 5th - i.e. Groundhog’s Day
91 days later
May 7th - i.e. May Day
91 days later
Aug 6th - Midsummer
91 days later
Nov 5th - i.e. Hallowe’en/All Souls’ Day

Curiously, the celebrations at August 1st have fallen out of popular observation as October 31st has gained celebrants, except, alas, for the French, who had had the festival forced upon them from corporate interests. Encouragingly, Hallowe’en was cancelled in France due to lack of interest from the public in purchasing a new holiday for themselves, which their ancestors had observed several centuries prior.

Felicitations!!

These four Wednesdays mark the gateways to the Seasons of Light and Reflection.

Today, Wednesday Day 10 Month 11 Year -7
(Gregorian Sunday Nov 5th 2006)
marks our descent into the Abyss of Winter, into the seasons of Darkness, into the Obsfuscated, the Abysmal, and the Unknowable.

“There is nothing man fears more than the touch of the unknown.” Elias Canetti from Crowds and Power.

We shall descend until the New Year.
Then we shall ascend out of the Darkness, out of the Abyss, and out the other side on
Wednesday Day 17 Month 1 Year -6
(Gregorian Monday Feb 5th 2007)

If our collective cultural tale continues to be one of descent and redemption, then perhaps compatible imagery would suit in garlanding the calendar.

Today, in acknowledgment of our impending descent, wish all who travel through the underworld well - the veil is thin, we see those who have travelled the path of darkness before, and they are us, ever us, year after year, in our blood and our twin, coiling dragons.

Tomorrow, we begin our descent. Choose your companions, tools and food well, and may your journey be one of learning and development, and may you see the events of your inevitable ascent.

Go out and play.

The 8 Points of the Year

the Wheel of the Year and the Wheel of Change

the wheel of the year

What in the abyss is the Synaptic Calendar Reform Project?

in the following table, the dates of the eight points of the Year, typically the Winter & Summer Solstice, the Vernal & Autumnal Equinoxes, and the midpoints between them.

The midpoints have been observed at the beginning of a Gregorian month, as seen in the table below. If the 365 Days are counted and divided evenly, then the Solstices and Equinoxes divide the 364 Calendar Days into 4 quarters of 91 Days each.

4 x 91 Days = 364 Days + 1 New Year’s Day = 365 Days

the 91 Day quarters are divided into two halves of 45 Days each, with the Day falling on the midpoint becoming the observed Day.

Gregorian Dates for traditional observation	Synaptic Observation as Gregorian Dates	Reform Day.Month
December 21st	December 21st	New Year’s Day
February 1st	February 5th	17.1
March 21st	March 23rd	7.3
May 1st	May 7th	24.4
June 21st	June 22nd	14.6
August 1st	August 6th	3.8
September 21st	September 21st	21.9
November 1st	November 5th	10.11

On the Synaptic Calendar, the Solstices and Equinoxes are observed on Sunday at the beginning of a new Week. The days marking the midpoints all fall on Wednesdays, at midweek. Appropriate, no?

By Daylight, it looks like this:

full-scale Wheel of the Year

Definition of Health for the Masses

societies’ symbioses +1

see also: space, time and medicine, ayurveda, gestation, time and health.

A healthy society, as a city, can be measured by the nature of the relationships between its constituent members.

Using natural ecosystems as a model, the longer-lived old-growth regions, such as in the Pacific NorthWest in North America, a general idea of health can be defined.

Old-growth ecosystems have a number of characteristics in common: expansive diversity of lifeforms and a low incidence of disease. Dis-ease, in this case, refers to relationships the organisms have with one another.

Disease represents an imbalanced relationship between two or more organisms, in which one or more organisms suffer as a result. The most common example of this is parasitism, as with mosquitoes or tapeworms and their host.

Health, in opposition to disease, represents harmonious relationships, in which each participating organism benefits, as with mycorhizal fungi and plants nourishing one another.

Parasitism, in a social context, can be identified as competitive behaviour over the basics of life, such as shelter, land, food, clean water, as opposed to the luxuries.

Health, then, can be identified as cooperative behaviour over the basics, that all might be fed, never thirst, find shelter from harsh circumstances.

Synaptic Calendar and a redefined +1 rule.

The Synaptic Calendar’s synapse, the intercalary green day on the Winter Solstice provides a means for observing our social progress by stepping off the path for a day. It is a pause for thought, of reflection back and forward, to the year past, our memories, and the year ahead, our dreams.

The perpetual structure of the Synaptic Year can only maintain itself with the addition of the exceptional day. With the notion of an intercalary day, acknowledged, yet still outside the calendar, we are including the “other” in our observation of the days

that there always be room for one more: one more day, one more person at the table, one more voice in the choir, one more thoughtful idea.

Call this the +1 rule*.

The Abyss, as the Abysmal, represents all that we do not, and can never know or understand. To acknowledge this is to acknowlege the “other” in its most fundamental form. However, the other can be transformed to acquaintance to friend to intimate to family. The Abyss remains ever unknowable.

Synapsis:
cooperation, mutual beneficence, +1 rule

* the +1 rule refers to the discovery of an subtle differentiating cultural subtext.

every New Year’s a new year

New Years in December, January, March, April, June, July, November.

The Synaptic Calendar fixes the Winter Solstice (Gregorian 21 December) as its New Year’s date. Curiously, the 12 days of Christmas signify the days from Christmas to the Epiphany (January 6). If these days are shifted to coincide with the Winter Solstice (i.e. the birth of the Sun), January 1st falls 12 days after.

Solar & Lunisolar New Years:

December 21 - Winter Solstice
Synaptic Calendar

January 1st
Gregorian, Japanese Calendars

January 14
Julian Calendar

January 21 - February 21 - New Moon
Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese Calendars

January - March
Tibetan Calendar

March 14
Sikh Nanakshahi Calendar

March 21 - Vernal Equinox
Persian calendar, Assyrian, Baha’i, Thelema

March - April
Telugu

April 12 - 15
Tamil, Sri Lanka, Bengal, Punjabi, Thai, Cambodia

July 25
13-Moon Calendar

September 11 (12 in year before leap year)
Coptic Calendar (Ethiopia)

November 1
neo-pagan

mid-November
Gujarati

Lunar New Years:

Hebrew - Rosh Hashanah
163 days following Passover

Islamic - 1 Muharram
A Comparison of proposed calendars and proposed 13-Month Calendars.

Dog Days of Summer

Does this have anything to do with Richard III?

Various dates, somewhere between July 3 (unrelated, but coincident with the aphelion) and August 11.

Generally, these are the hottest days of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere.

Coincides with the heliacal rising of Sirius, the dog star.

could be translated quite simply to Month 7 of the synaptic calendar, which spans July 6 until August 2. one more week extends it to August 9.

Month 7 could become the month of the dog.

Scientific Synapse

Helions of Helios or Souls of Sol.

A scientific view of the year may observe the Perihelion and Aphelion as the points of reference for determination of the calendar.

January 4(ish) = Perihelion = Earth at her closest point to the Sun
July 3(ish) = Aphelion = Earth at her furthest point from the Sun

Synapsis:

The intercalary day would fall on July 3, or the Aphelion, in order to maintain the Abysmal symbolism - the point furthest from the Sun represents the Abyss for the Earth in her orbit.

An interesting metaphor describes planetary motion as falling. The planets fall towards the Sun, ever falling towards it, then past, then towards it again.

The lapse permeates our year, as we fall up and down.