The natural 13-moon calendar: when time followed cycles… and not the clock

Human beings have always sought to understand time. To measure it. To organize it. To give it meaning.

But what is often forgotten is that our current calendar — the Gregorian calendar — is far from being the only way to live a year.

Before irregular months, dates that change every year and the stress of deadlines… There was another way to count time.

A simpler way. More regular. And above all, deeply connected to nature.

The 13-moon calendar : a year in harmony with the Earth

Its principle is surprisingly simple:

> 13 months × 28 days = 364 days

In addition to this, there was a day outside of time, a special day, celebrated as a sacred passage between two cycles.

Each month had exactly 4 perfect 7-day weeks.

No shorter months. No longer months. No complicated calculations.

Time became regular, fluid, predictable… like the rhythm of the seasons.

👉 Lunar calendars have been followed for most of human history, from prehistory to antiquity… and still are today in some cultures.

---

A mathematical… and natural structure

The number 13 was not seen as strange or negative. On the contrary.

It corresponds to:

- approximately 13 lunar cycles in a solar year

- 13 average menstrual cycles in the female body

- 13 full moons

The 28-day month, on the other hand, corresponded to:

- a complete lunar cycle

- a human biological cycle

- 4 perfect weeks

This calendar placed the body, the Earth, and the sky… on the same clock.

---

Time lived, not just measured.

In these ancient cultures, time was not a resource to be optimized.

It was a cycle to go through.

Humanity learned to count time by looking at the moon…

long before learning to measure it with numbers.

We lived according to:

- the seasons

- rest periods

- the periods of creation

- the harvests

- the lunar phases

Winter was a time of slowing down. Spring, of rebirth. Summer, of expansion. Autumn, of harvest and preparation for withdrawal.

The "new year" did not arrive in the heart of the cold... but after the symbolic death of winter.

When life begins to move again beneath the earth.

---

The arrival of the Gregorian calendar: when time becomes a tool.

The calendar we use today was officially adopted in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Its main objective:

- correcting astronomical errors

- to standardize religious dates

- to facilitate administration

But this calendar also brought:

- unequal months (28 to 31 days)

- a loss of connection with lunar cycles

- a linear view of time

The Gregorian calendar was born to serve heaven…

But above all, he ended up organizing the men.

Whereas the old calendars primarily served the Earth, the moon… and living things.

Gradually, time became something to manage, to fill, to make profitable...

And no longer something to feel.

---

The number 13: from a sacred symbol to a cursed number

Over time and with certain religious influences, 13 has become a symbol of instability, an unlucky number associated with chaos. 😅

Whereas it once represented femininity, fertility, cyclicity and natural wisdom

The 13-moon calendar has quietly disappeared from official use… but not from collective memory.

---

Why do so many people feel "out of sync" in January?

This feeling of fatigue. Of heaviness. Of lack of momentum.

That's normal.

Biologically and energetically, January is a month of deep winter.

The body wants to sleep, slow down, integrate, and repair itself.

Not starting from scratch. Not performing. Not reinventing oneself.

Logically, the real renewal usually takes place between March and April.

When the light returns. When the sap rises. When life begins to grow again.

---

Returning to a cyclical view of time

This is not about rejecting the modern calendar.

But perhaps we should remember that:

Our body never signed that contract.

He still follows the light, the seasons, and the hormones... Real fatigue

Adopting a cyclical view of time means allowing ourselves to slow down in winter, to create in spring, to radiate in summer, and to sort and harvest in autumn.

Without guilt. Without artificial pressure.

---

In conclusion

The Gregorian calendar organizes our appointments.

But the natural calendar... organizes our lives.

Maybe you're not lazy. Maybe you're not late.

Perhaps you're simply still in winter.

And your soul, for its part, knows exactly when a new year begins.

—

🌿 Annie