ℹ️About

Concept and Inspiration

Sinking with the Earthen cycles around us deepens our immersion in the systems of which we are an inextricable part.

Humans have long made sense of time using the natural cycles around us. For many of our ancestors, the perception of time was deeply connected to ecological and celestial phenomena. From a solar day to a solar year, from a lunar month to the return of a specific bird or the departure of a certain animal, the human experience of time has been anchored to Earth's cycles. Indeed, as our ancestors could anticipate and prepare for these cyclical patterns, societies gained resilience, ecological integration, and prosperity.

Alas, our modern calendar has grown more and more separate from the cycles around us.

Unfortunately, our modern calendar has become increasingly disconnected from the natural cycles around us. Our current calendars are largely based on the Gregorian system, which was instituted in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII when the Church believed that the Sun (and the rest of the universe) orbited the Earth. Consequently, this system relies primarily on a few basic celestial cycles: the solar day and the solar year, with some consideration given to the moon.

This representation and experience of time is very different from that of other civilizations, particularly those that incorporated a wider variety of cycles into their daily, political, and spiritual lives. For example, the Greeks the Mayans used the cycles of Venus as well as those of the moon and sun in their calendars. Meanwhile, other cultures incorporated the comings and goings of birds and animals into their cultural rhythms. For these cultures, the cyclical migrations of birds, animals, whales, and fish were often more significant than even the solar year.

Forest and terraces in the land of the Igorots: planting begins with the arrival of the Kilin bird. Angway and Maier observe that a culture's ability to contribute to ecological flourishing (such as the Igorots) can be correlated to its sync with ecological and celestial cycles. Photo Gladys Maximo.

The EarthCycles project draws particular inspiration from the Igorot culture of Northern Luzon in the West Philippines Sea. The Igorots centered their society around ecological cycles and an ecological ethos that values cyclical integration. Their worldview inspires the theory of Earthen ethics and the concepts of cosmological character and cyclocentric society developed by Angway and Maier upon which the Earthcycles calendar is based.

The format of both the print and online EarthCycles calendars follows the long tradition of countless cultures to represent time in a circular format: from the dap'ay of the Igorots to the Aztec stone calendar, to Stonehenge.

The Earthcycles print calendar was developed in 2019. In 2023 the online EarthCal app was launched.

With a circular format, it is possible to represent cycles far more effectively than with a series of squares. Consequently, the EarthCycles calendar can illustrate various calendar traditions, the spin of the planets, and the cycles of various magnificent creatures.

By using this calendar, we can better understand our own planet and its solar neighborhood, aligning our moments with the great cycles that surround us.

And that's the vision of the EarthCycles calendar-- to make our spin around the sun that much more connected, immersed and meaningful.

EarthCal | The Earthen Cycles Calendar