The Mayan Prophecies of 2012

Recently, quite a big deal has been made in the media about the Mayan Prophecies for 2012. Their have been many different interpretations offered on this subject, and given the press' inclination towards the dramatic most have been quite ominous. I have done a fair share of my own research on this subject, and I would like to summarize and share my findings with you in this post.

First lets talk a little bit about the Mayans, their outlook on time and calendar system. The most important thing to realize about the Mayan calendars is that they represent a concept of time that is radically different from our own. Time for them is cyclic, and it is this perception that provides the context for the prophetic tradition that was their way of life. Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein would agree with the Mayan’s conception of time. The theory of relativity requires us to abandon our long-held notion of time being a fixed, isolated dimension, and that it is inextricably related to space. Time recurs, turns and loops back on itself unendingly; therefore it can’t be measured definitively. This gives us the recurrence and return that is the basis for the Mayan prophecies.

The Mayans used many different calendars in their timekeeping. To understand what will be happening on December 21, 2012 picture an old fashioned car odometer, and pretend that each rotating number is a Mayan calendar. As the first digit which counts each tenth of a mile clicks from 9 back to 0 the second, mile digit, clicks to 1. When this one reaches 9 and then clicks back to zero the next one registers, and so forth. Now imagine that there were only six digits and the odometer read 999,999. The next click is going to cause the whole cycle to reset. This is what will happen to the Mayan calendars in 2012.

This event will mark the end of 5th and final Great Cycle in the Long Count Calendar. Each Great Cycle is a period of about 5,126 years. The current period started on August 13, 3114 BC and will end on December 21, 2012 AD. This cycle is said to time our collective unfolding as a species, as well as the cycles of culture. Being that it is the final Great Cycle the entire Long Count Calendar (the Grand Year) will reset. Many people have confused this with the end of Mayan time. A new beginning would be a more accurate description.

The Maya are a short, dark-skinned Amerindian people with straight black hair; a characteristic feature being the roundness of their heads. The Maya have a holistic view of the spirit, the soul, the gods, human beings and numbers. They hold a concept of an absolute god called, Hunab K’u, ‘Sole God’, the giver of movement and measure. They believed that everything that exists is bound by the same life force, or energy, thus a human being is an integral part of nature and is inextricably linked to nature’s creator. Within this ‘Sole God’ were other versions of gods. This seems contradictory, but the idea is that at the core we are all one energy. An example of the others are the Chacs, the rain gods. Them like the other gods are set in groups of four and related to each of the 4 cardinal points of the compass and one of four colors: white, yellow, red and black. Apart from the 4 points of the compass the Mayans envisioned a fifth direction, the centre. An omnipresent direction that was imagined as a huge tree, the ceiba tree, which is connected to different plains of existence.

They are noted for the incredible architecture they constructed (see my Tikal photos below) and the amazing advances their civilizations achieved in mathematics and astronomical studies. Shockingly, they did not know that the moon revolved around the world or that the world revolved around the sun, but were still able to calculate the average synodical revolution of Venus with an error amounting to only 1 day in 6,000 years. They made calculations such as this relying solely on observations of the naked eye and an in-depth understanding of advanced mathematics.

All the Mayan calendars are based in astrology. The great significance of the coming calendar change (other than it being the end of the Long Count Calendar) is that it coincides with "Galactic Synchronization". There is a conjunction of the planets that takes place every 26,000 years. This event will occur on the winter equinox, December 21, 2012. What will happen, vaguely, is the earth and the solar system will be exactly in line with the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way. For the Mayans this marks the end of our world age and the birth of a new one. This approximately 26,000 year cycle consists of 5 smaller cycles (5,126 years, the great cycle), the five suns; each sun being thought of as a world age or ‘creative cycle’. The cycle was calculated by observing precisely how long it would take for a constellation to reappear over the same observation point relative to earth. Modern Astronomy has confirmed this period as 25,800 years. Amazingly accurate given they only had the naked eye to work with. What will actually happen on this day is the suns path through the sky will line up exactly with the center of the milky way, the galactic centre.

As noted previously, the Mayan's relied heavily on prophecies in their culture. Much stake is being put in this these days, because the Mayans have been startlingly accurate in the past with their predictions. For example, the start of the year Katun 13 held a prophecy for the coming of foreigners and a new religion. This year coincided with 1519 Ad when Cortez and the Spaniards brought violence and Christianity to Meso-America. Many prophecies were put forth by the many different Mayan civilizations. Although the current Mayan Elders have publicly denounced the 2012 prophecies as a type of world-ending, doomsday prediction, that is what people still choose to focus on. In the rest of this post I will attempt to shed some light on what I feel, through my own personal research, is truly at the heart of the Mayan Prophecies of 2012.

One major part of the prophecy calls for the emergence of contemporary Mayan masters and teachers. They will come from old and young alike, from all cultures, religions, sexes, races and classes. Their main concern will be to redress the problems caused by the failure of our society to meet its educational ideals and responsibilities, and to correct the extent to which the negative influences of a materialistic education, technology, and the overuse of the planet’s natural resources, have restricted our spiritual development. A return to the Mayan ceremonial sites that were mysteriously abandoned in the 9th century is also predicted here.

This is something that I see already coming into existence everywhere I look. Whether these contemporary masters identify themselves as Mayan or not, I see a concerted global focus on generating a renewed kinship with nature. With the rapid growth of industries such as ecotourism and green energy, new fields of science like biomimichry, and a general increase in environmental awareness and the importance of communing with nature, I would say that this prophecy is already playing itself out.

Another part of the prophecies calls for the return of a supreme being. The most prevalent being in Mayan culture was Quetzalcoatl, also known to the Maya as Kukulcan. He is the plumed or feathered serpent. This idea of him returning is reminiscent of the idea of a second coming of Jesus Christ. The Spanish missionaries used this similarity to their advantage when converting the culture to Christianity. Many take this return not as something literal though, but more as a resurgence of energy much like the kind used in Kundalini meditation. It is hoped that this energy should allow us to transcend an earthbound, materialistic view of life. We are to change how we value our world, and it seems to me a growing number of people are already gaining this awareness.

This transcendence into a more self-actualized existence is further expressed in the prophecies of Pocal Votan, an ancient Mayan King from 603-683 AD. He was known as the ‘Closer of the Cycle’ and thus holds special importance as we end the great cycle. His epigram was “All is number. God is number. God is in all.” A major theme of his prophecy was the calling for the awakening of the human spirit. With this awakening the current Elders see the human race finding the necessary capabilities to transcend the materialism that bogs us down. They also believe we need to start to see time as cyclic (as the Mayans do) rather than linear. Again, we are living out of tune with nature.

Some of the ominousness that come with these prophecies is related to those predictions based on the moon. The Mayan hold an obsessive mythological attachment to the Moon, they actually gave it it’s own calendar, the Tun-Uc. Much is read into the character of the moon from the Mayan viewpoint. The Quiche Maya believed the moon to be unpredictable, hard to understand, promiscuous and deceitful (on a funny/interesting side note, this character description of the moon caused her to be named either the wife or the mother of the Sun. I guess women haven’t changed much over the centuries.)

The Mayan also see the “Man on the Moon” as the “Rabbit on the Moon” which carries a link with drunkenness. This leads to further instability surrounding the moon, and the predictions speak of unpredictably violent disasters such as flooding. This is where many of the end of the world predictors find their fix, but in reality it is a small part of the overall prophecies.

The prophecies also relate to Venus. To the Mayan Venus is the ‘Dark Planet’. The transit of Venus across the sun is an event that usually occurs in pairs about 8 years apart. The last transit took place on June 8, 2004, and is scheduled to take place again on June 6, 2012. The Mayan accurately tracked this cycle. This is seen as a build up to galactic synchronization, and higher levels of energy on earth. Those of you who have seen the recent blockbuster 2012 will recognize these higher levels of energy.

On of the most integral parts of the prophecy calls for the unity of mankind. This says that the various races, religions, and classes that divide us, mask an essential unity, and that despite the conflicts, people will be drawn closer together; they must realize our inherent unity to overcome the problems facing our planet and civilization. A new enlightenment is called for as humanity is entering the most crucial phase of its existence, and the coming years will witness the unprecedented and undreamt-of changes in the course of its long evolution. This could not be more important in this day in age. Globalization is increasing by the second and we are an increasingly interdependent species, our world's greatest super power is fighting two separate wars, and people are blowing up themselves and others everyday in the name of God. I think we all know that the need for the fulfillment of this prophecy is paramount to our continued survival, we can only hope that the Mayan's were accurate in their prediction of it.

With this new enlightenment will come the development of a new cosmic consciousness. The prophecy recalls us to the eternal Mayan precept that EVERYTHING is energy, and our urgent need to be conscious of it as the driving principle of the universe, and to experience it in its innumerable manifestations. This to me seems incredibly insightful, seeing that the Maya had no knowledge of the power of the atom, and that the more we learn the more it seems that this concept is completely accurate and way before its time. The Maya do not regard this new higher level of consciousness as something metaphysical, but as a concrete aspect of everyday life. They had a simple theory of consciousness and how it can be advanced by accepting that the mental is a property of nature, a form of energy. Our brains are merely electrochemical tools (maybe merely is a bad word though), and we are capable of deeper forms of consciousness then our everyday ‘rational’ consciousness, and in these deeper forms lie incredible powers that we are aware exist, but have only been toying with and never seriously studied as we have the physical forces. We have all heard it said that we only use about 10% of our brain power. The idea of this new cosmic consciousness that we are to develop is that we will begin to use a great percentage of this astounding power we possess.

The Maya actually believe that we used to know how to use this power, but that we are currently suffering from a collective spiritual amnesia and that we will recover our cosmic wisdom that we once possessed but have since forgotten. This is again speaking to our relationship with nature and the universe. We must remember that man is not an island and he needs to live in harmony with these things and their energy to tap his full potential. This implies that man is sustained more by right thinking, by a certain kind of attitude and knowledge, than by the constructs of science and technology. The instinct and intuition that once informed our knowledge has been lost, or at least obscured through an over-abundance of technology…but we will recover it according to the Mayans.

We must transcend technology. Technology has undermined our spiritual authority and displaced our natural human faculties. What is definitely interesting about the Mayan people is that they seemed to possess some faculties we lack, or perhaps skills we have lost because we have invented a technology that displaces them. The best examples of this is their mathematical ability without the aid of even an abacus, their knowledge of astronomy with only the use of the naked eye, and their ability to deal with huge numbers and vast cycles of time – things we now need computers to handle. We have given our minds over to the technology it has invented. We have tools and computer programs that handle many of the tasks we previously had to handle with our own faculties, thus it stands to reason that certain abilities are not being fostered and developed. The idea is that technology is developing so fast it has passed from useful to destructive…too much of a good thing? Many predict though that this recovery will take a catastrophic even that will knock out all this technology and revert us to the stone ages.

I think the core of this prophecy of enlightenment and a new cosmic consciousness is one of evolution and genetics. This prophecy is based in part on the Sage King, Pocal Votan (mentioned above), and concerns evolutionary changes in human biology that will further develop the mind, the will, and heightened sensitivities, as well as psychic and telepathic powers. A human being is not just a collection of chemicals, but a ‘complex electrodynamic being’; as such we are affected by electrodynamic fields both artificial and natural. Research shows that there is a strong correlation between human behavioral disturbance and geomagnetic field turbulence. Again we must stress the extraordinary potential human beings possess but have hardly begun to study, much less understand. One eerie theory is our potential for telepathy and non-local communication through electromagnetic fields. Apparently we will start to realize these potentials in the coming age. This 26,000 year cycle, and call for a drastic evolutionary event, coincides with our evolution from Neanderthals to Homo sapiens at the end of the last cycle.

With this in mind, another part of the prophecy calls for changes to the Earth’s magnetic field. Interesting. They call for unprecedented and violent sunspot activity that will cause a radical change in the Earth’s magnetic field, perhaps amounting to a reversal of the poles. Sunspots, or solar flares, are intensifications of the suns light resulting from some source of extra energy. These can even displace the earth’s rotation, resulting in natural disasters. Such changes in the suns magnetic energy (which has been known to reverse the poles in earth’s history) is thought to have set up a sequence of solar activity that started it the year 2000 and is due to climax in 2012. These energy fluctuations were apparently charted by the Maya over there 5,126 year long count calendar (please don't ask me how), and has been confirmed by NASA. In fact the sunspot cycle is supposed to rise to a new maximum with increased activity of 30 – 50 percent greater than previous storms, and should also reverse its own magnetic poles in 2012. It has actually been suggested that one of these solar storms led to the mysterious demise of the Maya in the 9th century (which they also predicted).

With all of this said, and all of the other crazy theories flying around the internet on this subject, we must remember that these are just formulated predictions based on what is often very cryptic evidence. What I took from all of this research was that it is becoming more and more evident that humans, as a race, are living in discordance with nature and with each other, and that we eventually need to find a way to correct this. We can only hope that 2012 marks a significant step in the right direction in this process.

Now enjoy some pictures from my trip to Tikal!!!

Guatemala Vida Mia

I think the word "whirlwind" would be the best way to describe this last month and a half. The time has been exhausting but rewarding. I will try and sum up the highlights for you, but for the most part I am going to let those which are said to be worth 1,000 words do most of the talking.

First off, I want to tell you all that this universe we live in is a strange and wonderful place; it works in some mysterious ways. This story, I believe, illustrates this wonder any mystery quite well.

First a bit of background information. Without getting in to too much detail regarding the complicated history of this story, we'll just say that I went to school with this guy (we will call him Mr. Z), we were good friends, we had a falling out, and up until I got to Guatemala we hadn't talked for many years. Mr. Z and I had exchanged emails shortly after I arrived here, it was more or less decided that life was too short for grudges, and we found ourselves on amicable terms. There was no further contact up until about a two months ago.

Another important piece of relevant background information regards one of my training activities about 8 months ago. We went up to the community of Granados to lend a hand in the first day of construction of a new school. This was not just any school however, this school was to be made almost entirely of recycled plastic bottles filled with inorganic garbage. I think I have already described this project in previous posts, but for those who are unfamiliar: the basic idea is to tackle 3 major necessities with one project. 1 - Trash management. A huge problem down here, as there is no system in most small towns for disposing of garbage. 2 - Infrastructure. School buildings are expensive and most are overcrowded and deteriorating. 3 - Environmental education. The idea of recycling can be a very foreign one, and it is important to educate the youth so that they can carry these concepts into the future. With this in mind the essence of a "bottle school" is to educate the students about recycling. From there you have them collect thousands of plastic bottles and inorganic trash; by picking up the streets of the community and convincing the rest of the town to help them recycle. You then stuff the bottles with trash and use them to build the walls of your school. They are then covered with cement and you are left with a school building that looks like any other, but is in fact the very special result of a lot of education and hard work... not to mention much cheaper.

So, the point is that I helped put the first bottles in place eight months ago. Two months ago I ran into the volunteer that had been living in Granados at the time and who'd started the project. "How did your bottle school turn out?" I asked her. She told me how the mayor had cut funding on the project and it had been sitting stagnant for many months. Hopes of ever finishing it were low. "Gee, how sad after all that work" I thought, "I wish there was something I could do to help."

Enter Mr. Z. The very next night I receive a phone call from this old acquaintance, unaware that he even had my number. "I am working with a non-profit organization" he tells me, "and what we want to do is help remodel a school in Guatemala. We have funds to give and labor, but we can not get a hold of the school we'd previously identified. Could you help us get a hold of them? Or do you have any other ideas???" I told him I'd see what I could do, and sat there for the rest of the night reflecting on whether this was real or not.

The next day, after talking to the girl who started the project, I wrote Mr. Z an email explaining the situation. It was one of those rare situations that can only be called a win-win-win. His organization would win, because what they really wanted was a good story with good video footage so they could raise awareness for their cause; the community would win, because without a new source of funding the project would sit stagnant indefinitely; and above all, the kids would win!

The rest, as the say, is history. With all the magic of an eclipse, the earth, moon and sun aligned, and within six weeks the crew from "Hug It Forward" was here. Twelve days later we were attending the inauguration of the new school building. Anyone who has attempted a construction project in a 3rd world community will tell you what a feat that is.

This story, for me, has confirmed a lesson I have spent my whole life learning. Life is too short to hold grudges, in fact it is too short to waste more than five deep breaths on anything negative. There is far too much beauty, kindness and love all around us to preoccupy ourselves with the ugly, cruel and hateful. So, let your mind be free and open, focus on the positive and look for the good in people, and put yourself out there so that you are in a position to seize these opportunities when they come flying by. The wonders of this universe will do the rest. Cheers my friends, life is good.

The rest of this "whirlwind" I have been caught up in for the past couple of months will be described in the following photos.

This photo was taken during the inauguration ceremony of the school. This Tiny Dancer honored us with a solo dance, with a little audience involvement (see video below).

This is also from the inauguration. The school children performed a complicated dance in traditional Guatemalan garments. The smoke you see flying through the air is a result of the roman candles attached to the staffs they danced with. This would NEVER be permitted in the States.

These are typical Guatemalan kites, made out of tissue paper. I flew one on All Saints Day. More to come on this.

I spent a few days with my old host family. We celebrated Doña Brenda's 40th birthday in a big way!

Here is everyone after the big birthday dinner. I brought my friends Oliver and Rebecca along to meet this incredibly loving family.

Florecita decided that I would look really good with hair ties in my hair. As you can see she was right.

Flying kites in the cemetery in Santiago on All Saints Day.

Dave and I flying our own kite. It ended up getting tangled up with someone else's and falling out of the sky. Where we then watched a little kid cut the rope and run away with it. We were stuck on top of a 10 ft tall mausoleum so all we could do was laugh.

All Saints Day, November 1st, is an important holiday here. It is a time to honor your past friends and family. In Santiago they do this by holding an amazing kite festival. The main attraction are these large kites you see above. They are made with a bamboo frame and an absurd amount of tissue paper. Each one takes about 3 months to complete. They are about, at my best guestimation, 45 ft in diameter. Supposedly on really windy days in the past they have actually been able to fly them. I am skeptical, but they are nevertheless an amazing site to see.

Here is a close up view of one of the kites. You can see the intricate detail well. Each one has a theme and a special message. This one is about how the kids are our future.

Here is a view of the whole cemetery.

This kite is about 12 ft in diameter. Pretty impressive to see it flown. It takes many tries though, and they often crash into crowd. This adds a little bit of danger and excitement to the day, because you never know when a giant kite might land on your head.

Here is a shot of the front of the bottle school. We left a window open so you can see how it was actually constructed.

Every day after work on the school I played futbol (soccer) with the kids. I dominated, but that isn't the point. The point is how inspiring it was to see these kids showing up every day and volunteering their time (their school year is over). They were helping sift sand, mix cement, clean, paint, you name it.

Group shot after the inauguration ceremony. Look how beautiful the school turned out. Made out of trash... who knew?

At the inauguration we were presented with honorary diplomas. This is my buddy Carlos reading mine.

More shots of the wild dances.

Ditto.

Another traditional dance. They looked like Disney Princesses.

Bacilio's family mentioned to me that they had never eaten pancakes before. This was unacceptable to me, so we had a huge breakfast for dinner party the next night. These are my three little helpers and our big stack of hotcakes.

My buddy Johnny working out in my homemade gym while I flip pancakes.

Vilda stirring the batter.

Peace Corps Halloween party. Wonder Woman, Batman, Catwoman and Robin. The "jizz" sign is being held by a guy dressed in all black who followed Batman and Robin around all night holding up various action signs as they pretended to hit people. (this is hilariously creative if you've seen the old television show)

Halloween party group shot.

I was a "new-age" Guatemalan Narco-trafficker. The theme was super heroes and villains... my friend Rebecca chose my costume. The Guatemalan drug trafficker is the ultimate villain in country today. I am being forced into marriage by the point of my own plastic gun in this photo.

Rebecca and I in costume. She is more or less a prop of my costume. My "mujer". The black eye was not my fault.... she was asking for it.

Ditto. If you could zoom in on the belt buckle you would notice that it has a spur on it that spins like the rims of any good rappers SUV.

Getting the last of the bottles in place.

The cement is applied in 3 laters. Here you see examples of both the first and second layer.

Collecting the last bit of trash to fill the last 10o bottles. We had to travel outside of town to find it, because Granados was SO CLEAN!

The famous Siggy digging in the trash can of a local gas station as she pitched in to help build the school.

I organized a training day for the woman of Chilasco. The third part of the day was a cooking class. They were taught some delicious new broccoli recipes. This is the kitchen we used.

Panchita giving her cooking class. She's a natural, reminds me of Emeril.

Group shot before we ate the new recipes.

The first part of the training day was given by Siggy. She taught product elaboration for artisans and helped to explain how the marketplace works on a national and international level. Sherry then gave a presentation on Appreciative Inquiry that uplifted and inspired us all.

Sometimes the power goes out, but we don't let this stop us. We hold our weekly ADESOCHI meetings by candlelight.

Making Celso laugh.

I have another article coming out in a Guatemalan magazine soon about how women in rural areas make the difference, and it features my artisans. This is a picture for the article.

Me with one of my artisan families.

This is what the typical house looks like in my community.

This is what the streets of Chilasco look like.

I have joined the local soccer league. That is a whole other story. I did score a goal in my first game! which cause a big sensation in town. Notice though how the field drops off down a cliff behind the goal. What do you think happens to the ball every time they miss the net??

Video clip of the traditional dance.

Tiny Dancer getting one of the guys from "Hug it Forward" involved in the action.