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Kaban (No'j): The Earth Day, Seventeenth 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. Kaban is the seventeenth of the 20 day signs in the 260-day Maya calendar; in K'iche' it is No'j. Its glyph is identical to the hieroglyph for kab, "earth, ground", and David Stuart traces both to the painted eye of a god. In highland Guatemala No'j is one of the four year bearers and a day associated with thought and good judgment. Dreamspell calls this slot "Red Earth". [1][3][5]

Is Kaban your day sign? Enter your birth date

Kaban at a glance
Position in the 20-day cycle 17 of 20 [1]
How often it returns Every 20 days; a pairing such as 6 Kaban returns every 260 days [2]
Yucatec name Kaban (16th-century spelling Caban) [1]
Classic-period reading Uncertain; the sign is the same as the logogram KAB, "earth" [1][5]
Highland Guatemala (K'iche') No'j; Noh in colonial calendars [3]
Other names Kixcab (Chuj, "earthquake"), Noh (Jakaltek) [6]
Meaning of the names kab, "earth, ground"; K'iche' no'jibal, "idea; intelligence; wisdom" [5][7]
What the glyph depicts A curl and dark patch, the remnant of a deity's painted eye [5]
Central Mexican counterpart Ollin, "movement" and "earthquake" [6]
Haab' days it can share Only day 0, 5, 10 or 15 of a Haab' month [1]
Highland role Year bearer; "third ranked Mam" [3][7]
How we calculate it GMT correlation 584283, proleptic Gregorian dates [8]
Dreamspell alias (modern, José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987) "Red Earth", seal 17; a separate system with a different count [9][10]

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Where Kaban sits in the 260-day count

Kaban follows Kib and precedes Etz'nab; 3 Kib is followed by 4 Kaban. [1] In the 365-day Haab' Kaban can only fall on positions 0, 5, 10 or 15 of a month, the same set as Ik', Manik' and Eb. [1] Those four are the K'iche' year bearers, No'j, Iq', Kej and E. [3]

The names: earth and thought

The lowland name is transparent. Kaban and the Chuj name Kixcab contain the root kab, "earth"; Kixcab means "earthquake" in Chuj. [6] Thompson concluded in 1950 that "there is fair unanimity in associating the day with the earth or with earthquake", and the central Mexican day in this position, Ollin, meant "movement" and "earthquake". [6] K'iche' keeps the same root in kab raqan, "earthquake; tremor". [7]

The highland name points somewhere else. Christenson's K'iche' dictionary lists No'j as a day and as the "third ranked Mam", and gives no'jibal as "idea; intelligence; wisdom". [7] The K'iche' records below use No'j for prayers about judgment and thoughts.

The glyph: from a god's face to "earth"

The Kaban day sign is identical to the logogram KAB, "earth, ground", and Stuart treats them as "basically a single sign operating in different contexts". It shows a curl at the upper left and a semicircle at the lower right. [5]

Thompson, following Eduard Seler, held that the curl was the lock of hair of the young moon goddess, and called Kaban "the day of the young goddess of the earth, the moon, and the maize". [6] In his 2024 study Stuart points out that the resemblance appears only in Postclassic images of the goddess: "Thompson only considered very late examples." [5]

Stuart's alternative starts from rare animated Kaban signs, such as the full-figure 8 Kaban on Quiriguá Stela D. They show a young man with a curl behind the eye. The same head appears as the god of the number 11, as the patron of the month Sek, and as "God R" of the codices. Stuart argues that the profile came first and that the standard sign kept only "the distinctive dark patch and curl", the god's painted eye. He adds that "there is no well-defined 'earth god' in Maya mythology", so this Kaban deity "might qualify for such a role". [5]

Kaban in the inscriptions

On Altar T at Copán, a sculptor turned two Kaban dates into full-figure glyphs. The earlier is 6 Kaban 10 Mol (9.16.12.5.17), the accession of the ruler Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat; the later is its anniversary, 4 Kaban 10 Sip. [5]

Stuart also suggests, tentatively, that a day sign painted in the Late Preclassic murals of San Bartolo, which he had earlier read as 1 Ajaw, may instead be 1 Kaban. He notes that 1 Kaban served as the base date of the 819-day count in a four-column table of numbers painted in Structure 10K-2, and ends: "There is more to ponder, clearly." [5]

No'j in highland tradition

The 260-day count is still kept in highland Guatemala by Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers). [2] No'j is both a year bearer and a day of the mind:

  • Year bearer. Each K'iche' year is named after its first day, and only No'j, Iq', Kej and E can begin a year. [3] Among the Ixil of Chajul, Robert Burkitt recorded in 1913: "Éh, Noh, Iq, and Txéh, are the lucky days." [3]
  • 1854 manuscript. Vicente Hernández Spina's calendar calls No'j "a propitious day, dedicated to the presiding genius of the soul. On this day they pray that the suppliant and his family may be endowed with good judgment." [3]
  • 20th-century fieldwork. Weeks, Sachse and Prager, summarizing Bunzel (1952) and Tedlock (1992), describe No'j as "symbolic of the ambivalent moral forces in the human mind. The day 8 No'j is when to ask for good thoughts." 9 No'j closes a run of days for prayers for protection. [3]
  • Marriage requests. Thompson noted that among the K'iche' it was a day suitable for asking a girl's parents to consent to her marriage. [6]

These are records of practice, not predictions for people born on Kaban. We are not daykeepers. Our reports use the pairing of earth and thought as modern reflective writing.

Traditional Kaban vs Dreamspell "Red Earth"

"Red Earth" is seal 17 in the Dreamspell, a modern system begun by José and Lloydine Argüelles in 1987 and published as a kit in 1990. [10] Dreamspell gives it the keywords Navigation, Evolves and Synchronicity. [9] Its name "Earth" happens to match kab, but the keywords are Dreamspell's own.

The counts differ: Dreamspell fixes 26 July 1987 as "Kin 34, White Galactic Wizard" and skips 29 February. [10][11] 26 Oct 2026 is 4 Kaban in the traditional count; Dreamspell calls it Kin 61, Red Solar Dragon. The next Dreamspell "Red Earth" day, 22 Oct 2026 (Kin 57, Red Overtone Earth), is 13 Ben 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 seventeenth day in the east. [4] Contemporary K'iche' practice gives the east to Aq'ab'al instead. [4]
  • Color. "Red" follows the east–red pairing of colonial Yucatec texts; assigning it to one day is a modern reconstruction. [12] Dreamspell also colors this seal red. [9]
  • Element. Some charts, including earlier versions of this site, give Kaban the element "earth". The day's link to the earth comes from the word kab, not from a system of elements; we found no traditional source for Greek-style elements on day signs. On this site the element appears only as a labeled modern convention.

Upcoming Kaban days

Calculated with the GMT 584283 correlation, the same method as our calculator, as of 10 October 2026: [8]

Gregorian date Tzolk'in (traditional) Haab' Dreamspell, for comparison only
26 Oct 2026 4 Kaban 10 Sak' Kin 61, Red Solar Dragon
15 Nov 2026 11 Kaban 10 Keh Kin 81, Red Electric Dragon
5 Dec 2026 5 Kaban 10 Mak Kin 101, Red Planetary Dragon
25 Dec 2026 12 Kaban 10 K'ank'in Kin 121, Red Self-Existing Dragon
14 Jan 2027 6 Kaban 10 Muwan Kin 141, Red Spectral Dragon
3 Feb 2027 13 Kaban 10 Pax Kin 161, Red Overtone Dragon
23 Feb 2027 7 Kaban 10 K'ayab Kin 181, Red Crystal Dragon

The date tables use your local date when JavaScript is available. Without it, they stay at the 10 October 2026 snapshot.

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

Kaban with each of the 13 numbers

Each number links to its page. 8 Kaban (8 No'j) is the highland day to ask for good thoughts; 6 Kaban is the Copán accession date. [3][5]

Kaban 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 Kaban, Caban and No'j the same day? Yes. Kaban (Caban in older spelling) is the Yucatec name and No'j the K'iche' name for the seventeenth day. [1][3]

Does Kaban mean "earth"? Yes; the day sign is the same as the glyph for kab, "earth, ground". [5][6]

What does No'j mean? It is related to no'jibal, "idea; intelligence; wisdom", and highland records tie the day to judgment and thoughts. [3][7]

Is "Red Earth" the same as Kaban? It fills the same slot in Dreamspell's list, but Dreamspell's count differs, so a "Red Earth" birthday is usually not a Kaban day. [9][10]

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. [8][13]

Is Kaban 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, 57. 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, 15–16. https://www.upcolorado.com/media/acfupload/9780870819969.pdf
  4. 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
  5. Stuart, David. "Day Sign Notes: Caban." Maya Decipherment, 12 Aug 2024. https://mayadecipherment.com/2024/08/12/day-sign-notes-caban/
  6. Thompson, J. Eric S. Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1950, p. 86.
  7. Christenson, Allen J. K'iche'–English Dictionary. FAMSI, s.v. "No'j", "no'jibal", "kab raqan". https://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf
  8. Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
  9. Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
  10. "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (citing Argüelles & Argüelles, Dreamspell kit, 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
  11. Argüelles, José. Rinri Project Newsletter II.2.1. Foundation for the Law of Time. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
  12. 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/
  13. 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