Earth
Timekeepers

Indigenous knowledge · living cycles

Keeping time with Mother Earth.

A continental network of wisdom keepers, community leaders, researchers, and educators renewing our relationship with sacred time-space.

Enter the study circle Discover our journey ↓
2010Our journey begins
AmericasCanada to Chile
LifeCyclesOur shared practice

Our purpose · Nuestro propósito

An ancient understanding,
carried into a new dawn.

Earth Timekeepers supports communities reclaiming the philosophies, knowledge, and practices of the Cycle of Life through on-site, cross-cultural dialogue and teaching.

Sunrise over Mt. Tepayo from a sacred site in the Teotihuacan Valley
01

Reconnect

Deepen collective relationships with sacred biocultural landscapes and ancestral territories.

02

Revitalize

Bring original calendars, thought houses, ceremonies, foodways, and ecological practices back into community life.

03

Regenerate

Build leadership grounded in kinship, place, joy, purpose, and the rights of Mother Earth.

“The future was recorded in the past.”

Our ancestors studied recurring celestial and ecological cycles so communities could prepare, respond, and care for life.

Quiénes somos · The people behind the work

Who We Are

The Colectivo Guardianes de la Tierra de la Península de Yucatán brings together Maya educators, artists, researchers, chroniclers, and cultural stewards. Their shared work keeps original calendars, community memory, ecological practice, and the knowledge held in ancient Maya texts alive across generations.

Portrait of Marcelo Jiménez Santos
01

Noh Cah · Quintana Roo

Marcelo
Jiménez Santos

Artist · educator · UNESCO consultant

Originally from the Maya community of Noh Cah, Marcelo trained with Mexico’s CUÑA group of painters, sculptors, and engravers. He served as UNESCO Mexico’s focal point in Quintana Roo from 2021 to 2023 and as a consultant from 2023 to 2025, while teaching and administering the Visual Arts Workshop at the Autonomous University of Quintana Roo.

Portrait of Norberto May Pat
02

Pino Suárez · Quintana Roo

Norberto
May Pat

Indigenous education · calendar practice

Born in the Maya community of Pino Suárez, Norberto holds degrees in mathematics education and a master’s in education. As Director of Indigenous Education for Quintana Roo, he brings the Original Maya Ja’ab Calendar into primary classrooms and also cares for the milpa, the forest, and melipona bees.

Portrait of Miguel Angel Cat Colli
03

Nenela’, Cantamayec · Yucatán

Miguel Angel
Cat Colli

Social anthropology · Maya textual research

Miguel is a professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Quintana Roo. He received the State Youth Award for Cultural Distinction in 2019 and an honorable mention for the Cecilio Chi Medal of Indigenous Merit in 2024. With Omar and Geraldine, he reads dated ancient Maya texts to recover the activities held throughout the year.

Portrait of Mario Chan Colli
04

Tekax · Yucatán

Mario
Chan Colli

Chronicler · journalist · documentary maker

A journalist since 1975, Mario has served as Chronicler of Felipe Carrillo Puerto since 2001 and leads the Quintana Roo Chroniclers Association. He founded the Casa de la Crónica and the José María Barrera Maya Holistic Center, and has produced books, historical capsules, and documentary films rooted in regional memory.

Portrait of Omar Alejandro Chan May
05

Felipe Carrillo Puerto · Quintana Roo

Omar Alejandro
Chan May

Cultural promotion · Maya hieroglyphic writing

Omar studied Arts Management and Development at the Intercultural Maya University of Quintana Roo. He promotes culture through the Casa de la Crónica and facilitates Maya hieroglyphic workshops across the bioregion. With Miguel and Geraldine, he reads ancient dated texts and creates cultural works with Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Portrait of Martha Leticia Chan Canul
06

Chancah Derrepente · Quintana Roo

Martha Leticia
Chan Canul

Early childhood education · Maya midwifery research

Martha directs the Leona Vicario Indigenous Preschool in the Maya community of Hondzonot. She represents Indigenous Preschool education in national courses, reviews Indigenous Language Teaching Service entrance examinations, and brings the Original Ja’ab Calendar into the classroom. She also researches Maya midwifery.

Portrait of Damixi Geraldine Patrick Encina
07

Earth Timekeepers · Mexico

Damixi Geraldine
Patrick Encina

Ecology · astronomy · Indigenous calendars

The daughter of Chilean parents, Geraldine was raised in Gran Canaria and became a Mexican citizen in 2002. She holds a doctorate focused on ecology, astronomy, and the calendars of the Maya peoples of Yucatán and the Otomí of central Mexico. Through astronomical calculations of Venus, the Moon, and the Sun, she has recovered ancient Maya, Otomí, and Mexica calendars and studies dated Maya texts with Miguel, Omar, and Norberto.

We first came together to discuss the vision and mission back in 2013 - 2016. Our founding members are Jorge García, Mindahi Bastida and Geraldine Patrick Encina.

See some historical pictures of us

Our history · Nuestra historia

A movement shaped by meetings, research, and ceremony.

From the headwaters of the Mississippi to Mesoamerican communities, each gathering has strengthened an alliance around original calendars and sacred places.

  1. The vision takes root

    Support for Jake Swamp’s Peacemaker vision at the headwaters of the Mississippi; conversations deepen around the New Dawn, original principles, calendars, and sacred sites.

  2. The first circles gather

    Timekeepers meet in Hotevilla, Arizona, and later Santa Fe, New Mexico, alongside documentary research and dialogues with Yucatec-speaking students.

  3. Knowledge in place

    Field research expands through Maya communities in southern Mexico and Guatemala, with visits to traditional authorities and sacred sites marked by original calendars.

  4. Research recognized

    Support arrives from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

  5. Immersive learning

    A full-dome production on the Otomí worldview is completed with the permission, guidance, and participation of Otomí community authorities.

Begin with a date

What day is it in the original Maya calendars?

Convert a Gregorian date into the Long Count, Calendar Round, Tzolk’in, and Ja’ab with Damixi.

Learn in relationship

Timekeepers
Study Circle

A learning space for students, educators, and community members studying Indigenous calendars, archaeoastronomy, and the living ecological knowledge held within cycles.

Ask to join the circle
Geraldine Patrick opening a calendar workshop with participants in Xocén
01ObserveSky, season, land
02StudyTexts, calendars, codices
03GatherDialogue and reflection
04PracticeKnowledge in community

Study library

Begin with the archive

Four Spanish-language publications from the Earth Timekeepers collection.

01

¿Se puede justificar el ciclo de 11,952 k’ines en la Tabla de Eclipses?

Geraldine Patrick Encina · Arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomía

PDF · ES ↗ 02

La Pirámide de la Serpiente Emplumada, Teotihuacán

Venus vespertino, las lluvias y el cierre de 13 Bak’tun

PDF · ES ↗ 03

Muye, el Tláloc Otomí en los códices

¿Qué papel juega en las veintenas?

PDF · ES ↗ 04

Tlaloque Nº 13

Three studies on sacred landscape, color, water, and lunar iconography

PDF · ES ↗
Tzolk’in diagram showing twenty day signs around the four elements and cardinal directions

In development · Próximamente

Tzolk’in Circle
for Healers

A future circle for healers to explore the 260-day count in relation to wellbeing, responsibility, ceremony, and the wisdom carried by day signs.

Express your interest ↗

Watch · Escuchar · Learn

Teachings you
can return to.

Lectures and conversations on Otomí and Maya calendars, sacred sites, Venus, eclipses, and the structure of Mesoamerican time-space.

Browse the full video archive ↗

A living instrument

Convertidor de
Calendarios Damixi

Move between a Gregorian date and the original calendar systems used by Maya, Otomí, and Mexica relatives of Turtle Island.

01

Maya Long Count, Tzolk’in, Ja’ab, and the Nine Lords of the Night

02

Otomí year beginning in Anttzayo on March 29

03

Mexica year beginning with Izcalli on February 12

Damixi · Maya · Otomí · Mexica
The Damixi 2 converter showing Maya, Otomí, and Mexica calendar results for August 15, 2026

Example: 15 August 2026 → 4 Muluk · 2 Pop

Damixi keeps the Ja’ab synchronized with solar dates: 0 Pop on August 13, and in the Yucatán Peninsula system, 2 Pop on August 15.

From the circle

News & field notes

A growing archive of ceremonies, publications, and community work.

Community members in Felipe Carrillo Puerto raising and carrying the sacred Yax Ché tree

Ceremony

Levantamiento del Yax Ché

Communities in Felipe Carrillo Puerto and beyond raised the sacred ceiba, reaffirming the responsibility of the People of Maize to hold up the sky and care for the cycles of life.

Read the original story ↗
Cover of Ja’ab Libro Ilustrado

Publication

Presentation of Ja’ab Ilustrado

Ten years of collaborative work became an illustrated book about the activities, ceremonies, and ecological character of every winal in the Maya year.

Read the original story ↗

Keep the circle growing

Knowledge lives
when it is shared.

Connect with Earth Timekeepers to learn, collaborate, or share a community initiative.

geraldine@earthtimekeepers.org

Earth Timekeepers video

Canal Once · Xochicalco

Transcript · Transcripción

Spanish transcription and English translation. Punctuation and proper names have been lightly edited for clarity.

ES

Transcripción en español

Presentador

Bueno, nos vamos a Xochicalco. Estuvimos ahí hace unos días, y el 14 de mayo y los primeros veinte días de mayo son significativos para las culturas prehispánicas. Geraldine Patrick tiene los detalles en la siguiente historia.

Narrador

Ella es Geraldine Patrick Encina, arqueoastrónoma desde hace más de veinte años.

Geraldine Patrick

Empecé a partir de observar cómo, en el pueblo otomiano, es tan importante Venus como la Luna, como el Sol.

Narrador

Al estudiar códices mayas y otomís retomados por mexicas, encontró que refieren cómo Venus y la Luna emergen a la creación e indican que este proceso se complementó 5,128 años después, en un 3 de mayo del año 2013, y no en diciembre del 2012, como se nos dijo. Esa fecha resultó de una interpretación distinta a las culturas de Mesoamérica.

Geraldine Patrick

Interpretadores españoles que llegaron y, con su sistema de cuenta lineal, obligaron a acortar.

Narrador

Los glifos de la explanada de Xochicalco refieren una fecha.

Geraldine Patrick

Aquí podemos presenciar y leer una fecha que ahora podríamos decir: la plaza del 14 de mayo del 747. Quién sabe si además fue una fecha fundacional.

Narrador

Las culturas prehispánicas observaron que los primeros veinte días de mayo el Sol alcanza la altura máxima.

Geraldine Patrick

Abarca desde el 30 de abril, que es cuando hay un paso cenital sobre Izapa, en Chiapas, y también sobre Copán, en Honduras.

Narrador

En ese entonces, las culturas aún distantes tenían conexión exacta, exacta en cuanto a la medida del tiempo.

Narrador

Xochicalco, lugar estratégico para descifrar el discurso celeste. La Pirámide de la Serpiente Emplumada alude a las observaciones que desde aquí se hicieron del cielo.

Geraldine Patrick

Los astrónomos de todas las regiones de México confluían aquí, y no por un ratito; probablemente aquí se formaban.

Narrador

Aportaciones de una arqueoastrónoma en constante investigación. Con imágenes de Raúl Mejía y Cristian Meléndez. Once Noticias, Miguel de la Cruz.

EN

English translation

Anchor

Well, we are going to Xochicalco. We were there a few days ago, and May 14 and the first twenty days of May are significant for pre-Hispanic cultures. Geraldine Patrick has the details in the following story.

Narrator

She is Geraldine Patrick Encina, an archaeoastronomer for more than twenty years.

Geraldine Patrick

I began by observing how, among the Otomian peoples, Venus is as important as the Moon and the Sun.

Narrator

While studying Maya and Otomí codices later adopted by the Mexica, she found that they describe Venus and the Moon emerging into creation and indicate that this process was completed 5,128 years later, on May 3, 2013—not in December 2012, as we had been told. That date resulted from an interpretation different from that of Mesoamerican cultures.

Geraldine Patrick

Spanish interpreters arrived and, with their linear counting system, forced the count to be shortened.

Narrator

The glyphs on the Xochicalco plaza refer to a date.

Geraldine Patrick

Here we can witness and read a date that we could now call the plaza of May 14, 747. Who knows whether it was also a founding date?

Narrator

Pre-Hispanic cultures observed that during the first twenty days of May, the Sun reaches its greatest height.

Geraldine Patrick

It spans from April 30, when the Sun passes through the zenith over Izapa in Chiapas and also over Copán in Honduras.

Narrator

At that time, even distant cultures had an exact connection—exact in their measurement of time.

Narrator

Xochicalco, a strategic place for deciphering the celestial discourse. The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent refers to the observations of the sky made from here.

Geraldine Patrick

Astronomers from every region of Mexico gathered here—and not just briefly. They were probably trained here.

Narrator

Contributions from an archaeoastronomer engaged in constant research. Images by Raúl Mejía and Cristian Meléndez. Once Noticias, Miguel de la Cruz.

Convertidor de Calendarios Damixi

De Calendario Gregoriano a Fechas Mayas en CL y RC

El Convertidor de Calendarios Damixi 2 funciona localmente en esta ventana. También puedes abrirlo en una pestaña nueva ↗

Convertidor de Calendarios Damixi 2

De Calendario Gregoriano a Fechas Maya, Otomí y Mexica

Este convertidor funciona localmente en esta ventana. También puedes abrirlo en una pestaña nueva ↗