Home › Numbers (Tones) › Number 5
Reviewed 10 October 2026 · Calculation gmt584283-proleptic-gregorian-v1 · Prepared by the Mayan Astrology Calculator editors · Sources below
Number 5 in the Tzolk'in (Dreamspell: "Overtone" Tone)
Number 5 is the fifth day of every thirteen-day run in the Tzolk'in. It is the first number written with a bar, because in bar-and-dot notation one bar equals five. Its head variant wears the tun sign as a headdress, which Morley called one of the most constant head numerals. The Classic Maya word was ho'. Dreamspell calls it the "Overtone" tone, a modern label. [1][2][3]
Number 5 at a glance
| Place in each 13-day run (trecena) | Day 5 of 13 |
| Classic Maya word | ho' (Kettunen & Helmke 2020: 48) [1] |
| K'iche' word | Not yet confirmed from a published source we have checked |
| Bar-and-dot form | One bar [2] |
| Head-variant form | Wears the tun sign as a headdress; Morley called it "one of the most constant of all the head numerals" (Morley 1915: 99) [2] |
| Days with this number in 260 | 20 (once with each day sign) |
| Dreamspell name (modern, from 1987) | "Overtone" tone [3] |
How number 5 moves through the 260 days
The Tzolk'in pairs a running number from 1 to 13 with a running list of 20 day signs. Both advance by one each day, so a given pairing, such as 5 Chikchan, returns only after 260 days. [4][5] Number 5 therefore comes round every 13 days, each time with a different day sign: 20 times in each 260-day cycle. It is always the fifth day of a thirteen-day run. Spanish chroniclers called that run a trecena, "a group of thirteen", and Dreamspell calls it a "wavespell". [6] The day before a 5 is always a 4, and the day after is always a 6.
In the trecena that opened on 1 Imix, 10 October 2026, number 5 falls on 14 Oct 2026, the day 5 Chikchan (Haab' 18 Yax). [7] The next eight days carrying number 5:
| Date | Tzolk'in | Haab' |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct 2026 | 5 Chikchan | 18 Yax |
| 27 Oct 2026 | 5 Etz'nab | 11 Sak' |
| 9 Nov 2026 | 5 Chuwen | 4 Keh |
| 22 Nov 2026 | 5 K'an | 17 Keh |
| 5 Dec 2026 | 5 Kaban | 10 Mak |
| 18 Dec 2026 | 5 Ok | 3 K'ank'in |
| 31 Dec 2026 | 5 Ak'bal | 16 K'ank'in |
| 13 Jan 2027 | 5 Kib | 9 Muwan |
Today, 10 Oct 2026, is 1 Imix — trecena day 1. The next day numbered 5 is 14 Oct 2026, 5 Chikchan.
The bar: how 5 is written
Bar-and-dot numbers use only two value marks: the dot (1) and the bar (5). Every number from 1 to 19 is a combination of the two. [2] The 18th-century Yucatec description reprinted by Morley puts it simply: "one line meant five years, two lines meant ten years" (Morley 1915: 91). [2] So 5 is a single bar, and every number from 5 to 13 in the Tzolk'in contains at least one bar.
On monuments the bar was often decorated. Morley illustrated many fives with internal patterns and stressed that "all these decorations… in no way affect the numerical value" (Morley 1915: 88). [2] If you are looking at a carved date, count the bars and dots and ignore the ornament.
The head for 5
The head numeral for 5 carries a headdress shaped like the normal form of the tun sign, the glyph for the 360-day period. Morley found it so consistent that he called it "one of the most constant of all the head numerals". The same headdress marks the head for 15, which adds the fleshless jaw of 10 (Morley 1915: 99, 101). [2]
Number 5 in early calendar records
Two of the early 260-day dates gathered by Stuart, Hurst, Beltrán and Saturno have a 5:
- Jaina, Panel 3 (Campeche): a day sign read by its first publishers as 5 Imix. Stuart and colleagues note that "the identification of the day sign remains difficult". By its style it dates to about 100 BCE, although the stone was later reused. [8]
- La Mojarra, Stela 1 (Veracruz): 5 Deer (Manik') 15 Pop with the Long Count 8.5.16.9.7, which they correlate to 12 July 156 CE. The text is in Isthmian (Epi-Olmec) script, not Maya, but it uses the same 260-day count. [8]
Mesoamerican peoples shared the 13 × 20 structure of the calendar, though the names of the days differed from language to language. The paper gives Nahuatl Mazatl, Zapotec China and K'iche' Keej, all meaning "Deer". [8]
In living practice
We have not found a published source that gives the number 5 on its own a fixed meaning in highland daykeeping. The Dreamspell "Overtone" keywords (radiance, empower, command) are modern.
Dreamspell: the "Overtone" tone (a modern system)
This section describes the modern Dreamspell system (José & Lloydine Argüelles, from 1987; Dreamspell kit 1990), not the traditional Maya count. [9]
In Dreamspell, tone 5 is called "Overtone". The Foundation for the Law of Time lists its essence as radiance, its power as empower and its action as command. [3] These are Dreamspell teachings. They are not translations of a Maya word, and we have not found them in Classic, colonial or ethnographic sources.
Dreamspell also counts days differently. It fixes 26 July 1987 as Kin 34 and does not count 29 February. [10][9] So a Dreamspell tone 5 day is usually not a traditional number 5 day. For example, 14 Oct 2026 is 5 Chikchan in the traditional count but Kin 49, "Red Planetary Moon" in Dreamspell. Our reports show the Dreamspell name as a labelled alias next to the traditional number. Is "Overtone" a Maya term? How the two counts differ →
Number 5 with each of the 20 day signs
Each link opens the 5 section of that day sign's page. Dates are the next occurrence on or after 10 October 2026 (GMT 584283).
| Day | Next date | Day | Next date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Imix | 19 Mar 2027 | 5 Chuwen | 9 Nov 2026 |
| 5 Ik' | 8 Feb 2027 | 5 Eb | 18 Jun 2027 |
| 5 Ak'bal | 31 Dec 2026 | 5 Ben | 10 May 2027 |
| 5 K'an | 22 Nov 2026 | 5 Ix | 1 Apr 2027 |
| 5 Chikchan | 14 Oct 2026 | 5 Men | 21 Feb 2027 |
| 5 Kimi | 23 May 2027 | 5 Kib | 13 Jan 2027 |
| 5 Manik' | 14 Apr 2027 | 5 Kaban | 5 Dec 2026 |
| 5 Lamat | 6 Mar 2027 | 5 Etz'nab | 27 Oct 2026 |
| 5 Muluk | 26 Jan 2027 | 5 Kawak | 5 Jun 2027 |
| 5 Ok | 18 Dec 2026 | 5 Ajaw | 27 Apr 2027 |
Comparing two people? See the sample pair report →
Questions about number 5
Is "galactic tone" a Maya term?
No. "Galactic tone", and "Overtone" as the name for 5, come from the modern Dreamspell system (from 1987). [9][11] Maya sources speak of the days' numbers. The English word trecena comes from Spanish chroniclers. [6]
Why does another calculator give me a different number?
Most likely it uses Dreamspell, which anchors its count to 26 July 1987 and skips 29 February. The traditional count runs without a break and matches the dates published by Guatemala's Ministry of Culture. [10][12] A few calculators also use the 584285 or 584286 correlation, which moves results by two or three days. [13]
Is 5 a good or bad number?
We have not found a traditional source that ranks the thirteen numbers, and we do not rank them.
Why is 5 written as a bar?
Maya numerals combine dots (1) and bars (5). Five dots are replaced by a bar, just as five units become a bar in many tally systems. [2]
Does the bar change the meaning of numbers 5–13?
No source we know of says so. The bar is a counting mark. Meanings sometimes given to "higher" numbers are modern.
Sources
- Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs, 17th rev. ed. Wayeb, 2020, p. 48 (Table VI, Classic Maya numerals). https://www.mesoweb.org/resources/handbook/IMH2020.pdf
- Morley, Sylvanus G. An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 57. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1915, ch. IV (pp. 87–103, "Bar and Dot Numerals" and "Head-variant Numerals"). https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_the_Study_of_the_Maya_Hieroglyphs/Chapter_4
- Foundation for the Law of Time. "Learning the 13 Galactic Tones and 20 Solar Seals." https://lawoftime.org/infobooth/sealsandtones.html
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. "The Calendar System." Living Maya Time. https://maya.nmai.si.edu/calendar/calendar-system
- Morley, Sylvanus G. An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 57. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1915, ch. III (pp. 41–43, 79–82). https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_the_Study_of_the_Maya_Hieroglyphs/Chapter_3
- "Trecena." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trecena
- Mayan Astrology Calculator. "Calculation Methodology and Cultural Scope." https://mayanastrologycalculator.com/methodology
- Stuart, David, Heather Hurst, Boris Beltrán, and William Saturno. "An early Maya calendar record from San Bartolo, Guatemala." Science Advances 8, no. 15 (2022): eabl9290. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abl9290
- "Dreamspell." Wikipedia (used for dates of the system and 13 Moon structure; cites Argüelles & Argüelles 1990). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamspell
- Foundation for the Law of Time (Galactic Research Institute). "The Wizard's Count and the Triumph of the Synchronic Order." Rinri Project Newsletter, Phoenix Edition, vol. 2, no. 1. https://www.lawoftime.org/pdfs/Rinri-II-2.1.pdf
- AtitlanVida. "Two Distinct Streams: The Traditional Cholq'ij and the Dreamspell." https://atitlanvida.com/culture/tzolkin/traditional-vs-dreamspell/
- Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes de Guatemala. "La importancia Waqxaqib' B'atz en la cosmovisión Maya." 18 January 2025. https://noticias.mcd.gob.gt/2025/01/18/la-importancia-waqxaqib-batz/
- Van Stone, Mark. "2012 FAQ." FAMSI. https://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/faq.html