Eb (E): The Twelfth Sign of the Maya Calendar

Prepared by the Mayan Astrology Calculator editors · Sources below · Reviewed 10 October 2026 · Calculation: gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1

Quick answer. Eb is the twelfth of the 20 day signs in the 260-day Maya calendar; in K'iche' it is E, which means "tooth". On Classic monuments the glyph is a head with a prominent jawbone and rain (kawak) markings. In highland Guatemala E is one of the four year bearers and was a favored day for marriage agreements. The English label "Road", common online, has no source we could find. Dreamspell calls this slot "Yellow Human". [1][3][4][5]

Eb at a glance

Position in the 20-day cycle	12 of 20 [1]
How often it returns	Every 20 days; a pairing such as 12 Eb returns every 260 days [2]
Yucatec name	Eb (same in 16th-century and modern spelling) [1]
Classic-period reading	Unknown [1]
Highland Guatemala (K'iche')	E; Ee, Ec in colonial calendars [3]
Meaning of the K'iche' word	e', "tooth" [4][5]
What the glyph depicts	A human head with a prominent jawbone and kawak (rain) elements [4]
Central Mexican counterpart	Malinalli, a kind of grass [4]
Haab' days it can share	Only day 0, 5, 10 or 15 of a Haab' month [1]
Highland role	Year bearer; "second ranked Mam" [3][5]
How we calculate it	GMT correlation 584283, proleptic Gregorian dates [7]
Dreamspell alias (modern, José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987)	"Yellow Human", seal 12; a separate system with a different count [8][9]

Your day sign is only half of your birth signature. The number from 1 to 13 is the other half.

Where Eb sits in the 260-day count

Eb follows Chuwen and precedes Ben; 11 Chuwen is followed by 12 Eb. [1] In the 365-day Haab' it can only fall on positions 0, 5, 10 or 15 of a month, the same set as Ik', Manik' and Kaban. [1] Those four, by name, are the four K'iche' year bearers: Iq', Kej, E and No'j. [3]

The glyph: jawbone and rain

J. Eric S. Thompson described the Classic sign as "a human head with prominent jawbone and with elements of the cauac sign inserted around the temple". In the earliest examples, he noted, the jawbone appears without the rest of the head. [4] The kawak element is the sign associated with storm and rain (see Kawak). [4]

Thompson read the combination as rain plus death. Drawing on Yucatec words such as yeeb, "mist" or "dew", and akab yeeb, "dark mist", he argued that Eb was "the day of the malignant rain deity who sends the mists, dew, and damp weather that produces mildew in the crops". [4] He admitted that the Mayanist Ralph Roys was less convinced, and that the Yucatec auguries for Eb were "entirely favorable", which he found "strange". [4] This is a mid-20th-century interpretation and should be read as such. Kettunen and Helmke leave the Classic reading of Eb blank. [1]

What the names mean

The highland name is simple. Christenson's K'iche' dictionary lists E as a day and e' as "tooth"; Thompson also noted that "E, the Quiche name, means tooth". [4][5] A tooth fits a glyph built on a jawbone, though we have not found a source that draws that connection explicitly.

The Yucatec name is less clear. Thompson connected it with yeeb, mist or dew. [4] A colonial Yucatec text, the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, associates the days with the creation of the world, and there "2 Eb is the day on which God made the first stairway"; Thompson commented that "it is abundantly clear that these were not the original meanings of the days". [4]

Where does "Road" come from?

Many websites, including earlier versions of this one, label Eb "Road". We have not found a published source that explains it. The Chumayel creation passage gives "stairway", which is a later, colonial association. [4] K'iche' has a separate word be, "road; path", listed in Christenson's dictionary, but it is a different word from the day name E. [5] Until a source turns up, we do not use "Road" as a meaning of Eb.

E as a year bearer

In the K'iche' calendar, each 365-day year is named after the day that begins it, and only four days can do so: No'j, Iq', Kej and E. [3] Christenson's dictionary calls E the "second ranked Mam", the year-bearer lords. [5] Among the Ixil of Chajul, Robert Burkitt recorded in 1913: "Éh, Noh, Iq, and Txéh, are the lucky days." [3]

E in highland tradition

The 260-day count is still kept in highland Guatemala by Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers). [2] Records of E are consistently favorable:

• 1854 manuscript. Vicente Hernández Spina's calendar calls E a "good day; on this day contracts of marriage are entered into, preceded by many sacrifices to the benign powers". [3]
• 20th-century fieldwork. Weeks, Sachse and Prager, summarizing Bunzel (1952) and Tedlock (1992), describe it as "symbolic of destiny as embodied in the day of birth, of one's personality and fortune". [3]
• Prayers for prosperity. Thompson noted that in Schultze Jena's K'iche' list it was a good day for prayers for prosperity and good advice. [4]

These records describe how some communities used the day. They are not forecasts for people born on Eb. We are not daykeepers. Our reports treat Eb as modern reflective writing about agreements, commitments and the shape of a life.

Traditional Eb vs Dreamspell "Yellow Human"

"Yellow Human" is seal 12 in the Dreamspell, a modern system begun by José and Lloydine Argüelles in 1987 and published as a kit in 1990. [9] Dreamspell gives it the keywords Free Will, Influences and Wisdom. [8] Neither "Human" nor these keywords translate the Maya or K'iche' name.

The counts also differ: Dreamspell fixes 26 July 1987 as "Kin 34, White Galactic Wizard" and skips 29 February. [9][10] 21 Oct 2026 is 12 Eb in the traditional count; Dreamspell calls it Kin 56, Yellow Self-Existing Warrior. The next Dreamspell "Yellow Human" day, 17 Oct 2026 (Kin 52, Yellow Cosmic Human), is 8 Lamat in the traditional count. [Link: Dreamspell vs traditional converter → /dreamspell-vs-traditional-maya-calendar]

Colors, directions and "elements"

• Direction. Prehispanic calendars assigned the days to east, north, west and south in turn, which places the twelfth day in the south. [6] Contemporary K'iche' practice gives the south to Q'anil instead. [6]
• Color. The south is yellow in colonial Yucatec texts; assigning that color to one day is a modern reconstruction. [11] Dreamspell also colors this seal yellow. [8]
• Element. Some charts, including earlier versions of this site, give Eb the element "fire". We found no traditional source for Greek-style elements on day signs; on this site it appears only as a labeled modern convention.

Upcoming Eb days

Calculated with the GMT 584283 correlation, the same method as our calculator, as of 10 October 2026: [7]

Gregorian date	Tzolk'in (traditional)	Haab'	Dreamspell, for comparison only
21 Oct 2026	12 Eb	5 Sak'	Kin 56, Yellow Self-Existing Warrior
10 Nov 2026	6 Eb	5 Keh	Kin 76, Yellow Spectral Warrior
30 Nov 2026	13 Eb	5 Mak	Kin 96, Yellow Overtone Warrior
20 Dec 2026	7 Eb	5 K'ank'in	Kin 116, Yellow Crystal Warrior
9 Jan 2027	1 Eb	5 Muwan	Kin 136, Yellow Rhythmic Warrior
29 Jan 2027	8 Eb	5 Pax	Kin 156, Yellow Cosmic Warrior
18 Feb 2027	2 Eb	5 K'ayab	Kin 176, Yellow Resonant Warrior

Each falls on day 5 of its Haab' month, one of the four positions (0, 5, 10, 15) open to Eb. [1]

Eb with each of the 13 numbers

• 1 Eb · next: 9 Jan 2027
• 2 Eb · next: 18 Feb 2027
• 3 Eb · next: 30 Mar 2027
• 4 Eb · next: 9 May 2027
• 5 Eb · next: 18 Jun 2027
• 6 Eb · next: 10 Nov 2026
• 7 Eb · next: 20 Dec 2026
• 8 Eb · next: 29 Jan 2027
• 9 Eb · next: 10 Mar 2027
• 10 Eb · next: 19 Apr 2027
• 11 Eb · next: 29 May 2027
• 12 Eb · next: 21 Oct 2026
• 13 Eb · next: 30 Nov 2026

Each number links to its page.

Eb and relationships

Our compatibility tool compares two full birth signatures with a modern reflective method, not a documented historical Maya formula. [Compare two birth dates → /compatibility]

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FAQ

Are Eb and E the same day? Yes. Eb is the Yucatec name and E (Ee) the K'iche' name for the twelfth day. [1][3]

Does Eb mean "road"? Not in any source we found. K'iche' E means "tooth"; a colonial Yucatec text links Eb with a "stairway", a later association. [4][5]

What is a year bearer? In the K'iche' calendar, a day that can begin and name a 365-day year. E is one of four, with Iq', Kej and No'j. [3]

Is "Yellow Human" the same as Eb? It fills the same slot in Dreamspell's list, but Dreamspell's count differs, so a "Yellow Human" birthday is usually not an Eb day. [8][9]

Why does another calculator give me a different day sign? It may use the Dreamspell count, or a correlation constant other than 584283, which shifts results by a day or two. [7][12]

Is Eb a zodiac sign? No. It names a day that recurs every 20 days. → How we calculate

Sources

1. Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs, 17th rev. ed. Wayeb, 2020, pp. 49, 51, 56. https://www.mesoweb.org/resources/handbook/IMH2020.pdf
2. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. "The Calendar System." Living Maya Time. https://maya.nmai.si.edu/calendar/calendar-system
3. Weeks, John M., Frauke Sachse, and Christian M. Prager. Maya Daykeeping: Three Calendars from Highland Guatemala. University Press of Colorado, 2009, pp. 2, 3 (Table 1.1), 5, 14–15. https://www.upcolorado.com/media/acfupload/9780870819969.pdf
4. Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, pp. 80–81, 90 (citing the Chumayel manuscript, p. 61).
5. Christenson, Allen J. K'iche'–English Dictionary. FAMSI, s.v. "E", "e'", "be". https://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf
6. Estrada Peña, Canek. "Anima' ri cho, anima' ri plo: Imox y el agua entre los k'iche'." Estudios de Cultura Maya 45 (2015): 191–224, pp. 202–203. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2813/281336894007.pdf
7. Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
8. Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
9. "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (citing Argüelles & Argüelles, Dreamspell kit, 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
10. Argüelles, José. Rinri Project Newsletter II.2.1. Foundation for the Law of Time. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
11. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Imix / Imox." Maya Decipherment, 14 Aug 2025 (on the colors of the imix che' world trees). https://mayadecipherment.com/2025/08/14/day-sign-notes-imix-imox/
12. Van Stone, Mark. "2012 FAQ." FAMSI. https://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/faq.html

Reviewed: 10 October 2026 · Calculation: gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1 · Corrections: contact us