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between Earth and Venus and the possible reason it was chosen. Imagine the planets are two racehorses running around a track. Venus will pull ahead of the Earth quickly and by the time the lat- ter makes a complete circuit the former will be more than half way toward completing its second lap. Here the key astronomical and mathematical element of the cal- endar system is identified—Venus moves 1.62 times faster than the Earth as they spiral around the Sun. This means that Venus races around the track 13 times to the Earth's eight, producing a 13:8 ratio. Native peoples in Central and North America ascribed the number 13 to Venus and eight to Earth. In essence that is how the Maya reckoned the 104 years in terms of synodic periods, (13 x 8), the structure of the base-13 series. This is a close approximation of the Golden Mean ratio. The series moves from the ratio generated by 13:8 increasingly toward the 1.618 constant. Why is this ratio a critical value? Phi is actually the mathemati- cal "limit" (rate of change or "slope") for the exponential growth curves that are derived from the Fibonacci series and it is these growth curves that control things like natural spirals, the whorls of pine cones, planetary cycles and even musical scales. Phi is related to how the universe controls units of growth. It would appear that by placing Venus in a central role as a pivotal cycle and realignment point and linking the sacred and solar calendars to it, the priest-astronomers embedded phi into the calendar. It has been long accepted that the synodic period of Venus was the key cycle that was used to coordinate and synchronise the Tzolkin and Haab calendars. Almost no attention has been given to the transit of Venus and yet I have found that this cycle was known and considered equally important. To date the fact that the next transit of Venus occurs in 2012, the end date of the Long Count calendar has not been much appre- ciated or discussed. Yet this is a fact and it can hardly be consid- ered coincidental given the importance that the Maya themselves placed upon the planet. It cannot be denied that it occupies a cen- tral position in the calendar system. A key historical event proves that the calendar was deliberately configured with the transit of Venus playing a key role. In 1519, in the year One Reed according to the Aztec calendar, Hernan Cortez showed up on the coast of the Yucatan with his band of conquistadors. Is it an accident that the previous year was the first of a pair of transits, 1518-1526? Hardly, since this is when they looked for Quetzacoatl—to return with a great deal of anxiety. (The Mayan calendar is similarly structured.) Returning to the table and Venus, the number 364 is found; this time it represents the years between the 1518 and 1882 transits. The 10th number in the series (130) is the number of years sepa- rating the 1631-1761 and 1874-2004 transits. Note that 130 is also the number of days in half a sacred 260-day year. There are many more examples of the numbers in the series representing days or years depending upon the context (presented in additional papers). In addition to the above, the number 13 is the 6th sum in the Fibonacci series, which yields the Golden Mean, 1.618. I believe that this is another reason this number was chosen as the root; and making Venus an integral component of the calendar system embedded the phi ratio at the centre of the calendar. Further proof of this is found in the 29th number of the base-13 series (377), which is also the 15th number in the Fibonacci series. With 13 at the base and 377 in the series, this demon- strates that the two series are intermeshed. JUNE — JULY 2005 It has been seen that the numbers in the table represent key ratios and relationships between the Sun, Earth, Moon and Venus with astonishing accuracy. The evidence is solid, even incontro- vertible in support of the base-13 theory. Summary of Evidence and Additional proofs The base-13 Series has some interesting and unique properties. 1) The rows alternate between odd and even numbers starting with 13 and ending with 104 on the first row. 2) Horizontally across the rows each column increases by 13. Vertically, from top to bottom each row increases by 104, i-e., 13 down the first row to 117, 104 down one to 208. So there is an incremental progression of 13 horizontally and 104 vertically. 3) The first four numbers in the series define the number of weeks in a season, a half-year, three-quarters of a year and a full year respectively. Based upon a seven-day week and 52-week year, 4x 13 = 52—that is four seasons of 13 weeks each. 4) In terms of the Mayan calendar (Tzolkin), there are 13 num- bered days in the sacred 260-day calendar. (The Maya did have a 7-day x 4 = 28 day lunar cycle as well) 5) The solar and sacred calendars aligned in 52 years (Calendar Round), 73 Tzolkin years (18,920 days), the lowest number divis- ible by 260 and 365. The numbers 52 and 260 are the 4th and 10th numbers in the series. 6) Ninety-one is the 7th number in the series and the approxi- mate number of days in each season. 7) Like 52, the number 104 was pivotal in the Mayan calendar (Venus Round) as it was the number of years it took for the sacred, solar and Venus synodic calendar to align. One hundred and four years is 37,960 days—the lowest number divisible by 260, 365 and 584, the number of days in a synodic period of Venus. 8) The 1,460th number is 18,980 and 37,960 is the 2,920th number in the base-13 series. 9) While 104 years elapse between Venus Rounds, that is equivalent to 65 synodic cycles and 65 is the Sth number in the series. NEXUS +55 www.nexusmagazine.com