the throwing and counting of seeds, crystals, and beans, and in the past also – apart from the count – gazing in a magical mirror (scrying), and reading the signs given by birds (auguries); in the Late-Classic period, pictures of such birds were used as logograms for the larger time periods. The mantic calendar has proven to be particularly resistant to the onslaughts of time. Nowadays, a daykeeper, or divinatory priest, may stand in front of a fire, and pray in Maya to entities such as the 260 days; the cardinal directions; the ancestors of those present; important Mayan towns and archaeological sites; lakes, caves, or volcanoes; and deities taken from published editions of the Popol Vuh. People also come to these daykeepers to know about baby names, wedding dates and other special occasions. In the pre-Hispanic past, important divinatory dates relating to the prospects of the entire kingdom were sometimes given a mythological pedigree. At Palenque, for example, the auspicious day 9 Ik', chosen for the enthronement of one of its kings, is also stated to have witnessed, in a distant, mythical past, the enthronement of some of the patron deities of the kingdom. Astrology What is often called Maya 'astronomy' is really astrology: that is, a priestly science resting on the assumption of an influence exerted on earthly events by the movements of heavenly bodies and constellations. The observation of sky and horizon by present-day Mayas relates chiefly to celestial signs of seasonal change relevant to agriculture; stars connected to the hunt and specific hunting animals; and stars sending certain illnesses. With but few exceptions, the names of stars and constellations are all that have been preserved, and the influence of star lore on social and professional activities beyond agriculture and on individual destiny can no longer be traced. In this respect, other Mesoamerican groups (such as Totonacs and Oaxacan Chontals) have fared better. The far more sophisticated pre-Hispanic Mayan astrology is mainly found in the Early Post-Classic Dresden Codex, and concerns lunar and solar eclipses and the varying aspects of Venus in the course of its cycles; animals and deities symbolize the social groups negatively affected by Venus during its heliacal rising as the Morning Star. The Paris Codex contains what some consider to be a zodiac. In the Classic period, references to specific stars are not rare; in dynastic texts, a star glyph with rain symbols