Galactic Butterfly -- Toltec
symbol said to represent
all of the consciousness that has ever existed in our galaxy
The world --the collective "we"-- is at a crossroads.
The time is NOW to dream large, to gain inspiration and motivation
wherever we find it and to act.
To "act" will be different for each of us, according
to our circumstances and experience of the world. Change is the
collective weight of our individual acts. Each of us can begin
where we are, however we are called. Every effort is precious.
Given the many long-standing Indigenous predictions of planetary
change and evolutionary shift culminating in 2012, and given the
rate of acceleration of climatic and other changes already underway,
it behooves us to consider the possibility of profound change
ahead. And to deeply search our lives. What is our highest intention?
What do we desire most essentially to create?
Abundance/prosperity is wholly intertwined with creating a larger
vision. Only when we are past survival mode can we look beyond
our individual lives.
The world WILL be transformed. It will not end. Forget doomsayers.
Predictions and myths only call to us to consider...
For example, like Jesus or Buddha, there was an original Quetzalcoatl.
Though their lives and accomlishments have been embroidered into
myth, their essential truths still hold.
The myth of Quetzalcoat --pivotal in the Spanish Conquest and
vital again today-- is emblematic of the larger repeating cycles
that call us to re-define our humanity. In Quetzalcoatl's time,
WHAT IF the needed critical mass had met his kingly impulse to
raise his people toward a higher expression of opening the heart
--a leap beyond the literal act of wrenching from victims their
still-beating hearts? What kind of world might we have inherited?
Certainly a world where no "collateral damage" is sacrificed
to gods of war and the economy.
Carlos Barrios was born into a Spanish family on El Altiplano,
the highlands of Guatemala. His home was in Huehuetenango, also
the dwelling place of the Maya Mam tribe. With other Maya and
other indigenous tradition keepers, the Mam carry part of the
old ways on Turtle Island (North America). They are keepers of
time, authorities on remarkable calendars that are ancient, elegant
and relevant.
Mr. Barrios is an historian, an anthropologist and investigator.
After studying with traditional elders for 25 years, since the
age of 19, he has also become a Mayan Ajq'ij, a ceremonial priest
and spiritual guide, Eagle Clan.
Years ago, along with his brother, Gerardo, Carlos initiated
an investigation into the different Mayan calendars. He studied
with many teachers. He says his brother Gerardo interviewed nearly
600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge.
"Anthropologists visit the temple sites," Mr. Barrios
says, "and read the stelas and inscriptions and make up stories
about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It's
just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the
name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December2012.
The Mayan elders are angry with this. THE WORLD WILL NOT END.....IT
WILL BE TRANSFORMED! The indigenous have the calendars, and know
how to accurately interpret them, not others."
The Calendars
Mayan comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles has proven itself
to be vast and sophisticated. The Maya understand 17 different
calendars, some of them charting time accurately over a span of
more than ten million years. The calendar that has steadily drawn
global attention since 1987 is called the Tzolk'in or Cholq'ij.
Devised ages ago and based on the cycle of the Pleiades, it is
still held as sacred. With the indigenous calendars, native people
have kept track of important turning points in history. For example,
the day keepers who study the calendars identified an important
day in the year One Reed, Ce Acatal, as it was called by the Mexicans.
That was the day when an important ancestor was prophesied to
return, "coming like a butterfly."
In the western calendar, the One Reed date correlates to Easter
Sunday, April 21, 1519 the day that Hernando Cortez and his fleet
of 11 Spanish galleons arrived from the East at what is today
called Vera Cruz, Mexico. When the Spanish ships came toward shore,
native people were waiting and watching to see how it would go.
The billowing sails of the ships did indeed remind the scouts
of butterflies skimming the ocean surface.
In this manner was a new era initiated, an era they had anticipated
through their calendars. The Maya termed the new era the Nine
Bolomtikus, or nine Hells of 52 years each. As the nine cycles
unfolded, land and freedom were taken from the native people.
Disease and disrespect dominated. What began with the arrival
of Cortez, lasted until August 16, 1987 - a date many people recall
as Harmonic Convergence. Millions of people took advantage of
that date to make ceremony in sacred sites, praying for a smooth
transition to a new era, the World of the Fifth Sun.
From that 1987 date until now, Mr. Barrios says, we have been
in a time when the right arm of the materialistic world is disappearing,
slowly but inexorably. We are at the cusp of the era when peace
begins, and people live in harmony with Mother Earth. We are no
longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the
World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time
of transition.
As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence
of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth
changes. All this, Mr. Barrios says, was foreseen via the simple,
mathematics of the Mayan calendars. "It will change,"
Mr. Barrios observes.
"Everything will change." He said Mayan Daykeepers
view the Dec. 21, 2012 date as a rebirth, the start of the World
of the Fifth Sun. It will be the start of a new era resulting
from, and signified by, the solar meridian crossing the galactic
equator, and the earth aligning itself with the center of the
galaxy.
At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000
years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky
Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered
to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life a tree
remembered in all the world's spiritual traditions. Some observers
say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open
a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the earth, cleansing
it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level
of vibration.
This process has already begun, Mr. Barrios suggested. "Change
is accelerating now, and it will continue to accelerate."
If the people of the earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape,
without having destroyed too much of the Earth, Mr. Barrios said,
we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must
transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way.
A Picture of the Road Ahead
From his understanding of the Mayan tradition and the calendars,
Mr. Barrios offered a picture of where we are at and what may
lie on the road ahead:
The date specified in the calendar: Winter Solstice in the year
2012 does not mark the end of the world. Many outside people writing
about the Mayan calendar sensationalize this date, but they do
not know. The ones who know are the indigenous elders who are
entrusted with keeping the tradition "Humanity will continue,"
he contends, "but in a different way. Material structures
will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more
human."
We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars
and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions,
are converging now. There is no time for games. The spiritual
ideal of this era is action. Many powerful souls have reincarnated
in this era, with a lot of power. This is true on both sides,
the light and the dark. High magic is at work on both sides.
Things will change, but it is up to the people how difficult
or easy it is for the changes to come about. The economy now is
a fiction. The first five-year stretch of transition from August
1987 to August 1992 was the beginning of the destruction of the
material world. We have progressed ten years deeper into the transition
phase by now, and many of the so-called sources of financial stability
are in fact hollow.
The banks are weak. This is a delicate moment for them. They
could crash globally if we don't pay attention. One critical period
is October and November 2002. If the banks crash in these months
then we will be forced to rely on the land and our skills. The
monetary systems will be in chaos, and we must then rely on our
direct relationship with the Earth for our food and shelter. The
North and South Poles are both breaking up. The level of the water
in the oceans is going to rise. But at the same time land in the
ocean, especially near Cuba, is also going to rise.
A Call for Fusion
As he met with audiences in Santa Fe, Mr. Barrios told a story
about the most recent Mayan New Year ceremonies in Guatemala.
He said that one respected Mayan elder, who lives all year in
a solitary mountain cave, journeyed to Chichicastenango to speak
with the people at the ceremony. The elder delivered a simple,
direct message. He called for human beings to come together in
support of life and light. Right now each person and group is
going his or her own way. The elder of the mountains said there
is hope if the people of the light can come together and unite
in some way. Reflecting on this, Mr. Barrios explained: "We
live in a world of polarity: day and night, man and woman, positive
and negative. Light and darkness need each other. They are a balance.
Just now the dark side is very strong, and very clear about what
they want. They have their vision and their priorities clearly
held, and also their hierarchy. They are working in many ways
so that we will be unable to connect with the spiral Fifth World
in 2012."
"On the light side everyone thinks they are the most important,
that their own understandings, or their group's understandings,
are the key. There's a diversity of cultures and opinions, so
there is competition, diffusion, and no single focus."
As Mr. Barrios sees it, the dark side works to block fusion through
denial and materialism. It also works to destroy those who are
working with the light to get the Earth to a higher level. They
like the energy of the old, declining Fourth World, the materialism.
They do not want it to change. They do not want fusion. They want
to stay at this level, and are afraid of the next level.
****The dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed
or overpowered. It's too strong and clear for that, and that is
the wrong strategy. The dark can only be transformed when confronted
with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to fusion,
a key concept for the World of the Fifth Sun.****
Mr. Barrios said the emerging era of the Fifth Sun will call
attention to a much-overlooked element. Whereas the four traditional
elements of earth, air, fire and water have dominated various
epochs in the past, there will be a fifth element to reckon with
in the time of the Fifth Sun: ether. The dictionary defines ether
as the rarefied element of the Heavens. Ether is a medium. It
permeates all space and transmits waves of energy in a wide range
of frequencies, from cell phones to human auras. What is "ethereal"
is related to the regions beyond earth: the heavens.
Ether the element of the Fifth Sun is celestial and lacking in
material substance, but is no less real than wood, stone or flesh.
"Within the context of ether there can be a fusion of the
polarities," Mr. Barrios said. "No more darkness or
light in the people, but an uplifted fusion. But right now the
realm of darkness is not interested in this. They are organized
to block it. They seek to unbalance the Earth and its environment
so we will be unready for the alignment in 2012. We need to work
together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to
take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to
put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and fusion now,
to confront the other side and preserve life."
To be Ready for this Moment in History
Mr. Barrios told his audiences in Santa Fe that we are at a critical
moment of world history. "We are disturbed," he said.
"We can't play anymore. Our planet can be renewed or ravaged.
Now is the time to awaken and take action." "Everyone
is needed. You are not here for no reason. Everyone who is here
now has an important purpose. This is a hard, but a special time.
We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this
moment in history."
Mr. Barrios offered a number of suggestions to help people walk
in balance through the years ahead. "The prophesied changes
are going to happen," he said "but our attitude and
actions determine how harsh or mild they are."
We need to act, to make changes, and to elect people to represent
us who understand and who will take political action to respect
the earth. Meditation and spiritual practice are good, but also
action. It's very important to be clear about who you are, and
also about your relation to the Earth.
Develop yourself according to your own tradition and the call
of your heart. But remember to respect differences, and strive
for unity. Eat wisely. A lot of food is corrupt in either subtle
or gross ways. Pay attention to what you are taking into your
body. Learn to preserve food, and to conserve energy. Learn some
good breathing techniques, so you have mastery of your breath.
Be clear. Follow a tradition with great roots. It is not important
what tradition, your heart will tell you, but it must have great
roots. We live in a world of energy. An important task at this
time is to learn to sense or see the energy of everyone and everything:
people, plants, animals. This becomes increasingly important as
we draw close to the World of the Fifth Sun, for it is associated
with the element ether -- the realm where energy lives and weaves.
Go to the sacred places of the earth to pray for peace and respect
for the Earth which gives us our food, clothing, and shelter.
We need to reactivate the energy of these sacred places. That
is our work.
****According to Mr. Barrios' reading of the Mayan calendar,
if war happens in November 2002 or after, then it's bad, but not
catastrophic. But if it happens between April and November 2003,
it
will be catastrophic. Really bad. It could eventually result in
the death of two-thirds of humanity. "So stay active,"
he said. "If we are active, we can transform the planet.
The elders watch to see what happens."****
Many Mayan elders and knowledge keepers may be eliminated in
the next few years. For the first half of the current Katun (20-year
period) the dark side has a lot of power. But that will pass 3
to 4 years from now. The tide can turn. Amazing things are going
to happen.
****One simple but effective prayer technique is to light a white
or baby-blue colored candle. Think a moment in peace. Speak your
intention to the flame and send the light of it on to the leaders
who have the power to make war or peace.****
We Have Work to Do
According to Mr. Barrios this is a crucially important moment
for humanity, and for earth. Each person is important. If you
have incarnated into this era, you have spiritual work to do balancing
the planet. He said the elders have opened the doors so that other
races can come to the Mayan world to receive the tradition. The
Maya have long appreciated and respected that there are other
colors, other races, and other spiritual systems. "They know,"
he said, "that the destiny of the Mayan world is related
to the destiny of the whole world."
"The greatest wisdom is in simplicity," Mr. Barrios
advised before leaving Santa Fe. "Love, respect, tolerance,
sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate.
The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you
need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning.
Find your heart, and you will find your way."
Author of the international bestseller Conversations with
God, Neale Donald Walsch reflects upon Gods role in our
lives and what we can do to make a better world.
One dark night back in 1992, Neale Donald Walsch sat down and
wrote a letter full of self-pity to God. He never expected to
get an answer. But he did get thembooks full. His Conversations
with God series has since been translated into 34 languages and
has given millions around the world a fresh perspective on spirituality
and religion. Walschs God is not an inaccessible, distant,
wrathful being who looks down at us from heaven, but an intelligent,
involved and humourous observer of life on Earth. Moreover, God
has a plan to deliver humanity from its self-imposed suffering.
And you can be a part of it.
Walsch clearly remembers that dark night when his conversations
with God began. He was 49, burned out, unemployed. His wife had
just left him. Things couldnt get worse. Walsch couldnt
sleep and he thought: What kind of God would tolerate so
much suffering? Whats the point of all this? And why isnt
my life working? He decided to write an angry letter to
God. Walsch says, To my surprise, when I had written the
last of my bitter, unanswered questions and was just about to
put my pen down, my hand continued to hang above the paper. Suddenly
the pen started writing as if it were self-propelled. What appeared
on the paper was: Do you really want an answer to all these
questions or are you just pouring out your heart? Before
I knew it, I had started a dialogue.
Four years later, the result of his nightly communications appeared
in book form: Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue. The
book was a bestseller in no time, thanks not only to Gods
original answers but the way the conversation between God and
Walsch unfolded. In an informal way, Walsch asked precisely those
questions many people have been wanting answers to for ages. Moreover,
his light, humourous writing style makes this heavy material palatable.
Walschs message is familiar to many because he speaks from
experience and uses numerous events from his own life to make
his point. For example, he says, I was raised as a strict
Catholic and one of the rules I learned was that I couldnt
eat meat on Fridays. Otherwise, the priest said, you would be
sent to limbo in hell. Although no one new exactly what that was,
it sounded serious. But one Good Friday I accidentally ate some
meat. When I found out, I panicked. I ran home, but even my sweet,
understanding mother couldnt console me.
Many years later a papal decree declared that eating meat on
Fridays was no longer a sin. Walsch wonders, What should
God tell all those poor people who ate meat and are now in hells
limbo? He imitates God, looking down with a slightly embarrassed
look and says with a heavy voice: Sorry, it seemed like
a good idea at the time.
Its really quite something to claim that God is giving
you direct answers to your questions. Walsch is thoroughly aware
of that. In the introduction to his first book he writes, My
life would probably be much easier if I had kept all this quiet.
But whatever inconveniences the book may cause me, such as being
called a blasphemer, a fraud or hypocrite, orperhaps worsea
holy man, it is not possible for me to stop the process now.
Ten years after his first book was published, Walsch is taking
stock. He has, indeed, been denounced and accused of sacrilege.
But an overwhelming majority of the readers express deep gratitude.
Walsch says, Millions of people have read these books, and
the reaction that I have received from them has been overwhelmingly
positive. Of course, I am not naive enough to assume that there
is no disagreement with what has been written here. Some people
who have read the books disagree completely, and some disagree
without even having read the material, based on what they have
heard from others. But this is as it should be.
With his beard, shoulder-length hair, refined features and the
fatherly glint in his eye, Walsch looks a little like the God
that Renaissance painters like Leonardo da Vinci tried to emulate.
In any case, he in no way resembles the stressed-out man he was
in 1992. His eyes no longer burn with anger. At most, theres
a hint of holy firea passion to convey Gods message
to humanity and to give shape to a new spirituality on Earth.
But how can Walsch be so sure hes actually talking to God?
Walsch replies, How can anyone be sure of anything? It is
my felt experience. The information I have received includes statements,
concepts and ideas that I have never heard anywhere else, never
read anywhere else, never encountered in my lifeand that
ran against my own belief system at the time. So I am at least
clear on one thing: This is not something that I made up.
He raises an eyebrow: What is the process of creation anyway?
Where does anyone receive inspiration for anything? Who inspired
Mozart? Michelangelo? Thomas Jefferson? I believe if these people
could speak today, they would say that they were inspired by God.
So then we get down to simple semantics. Inspired
by God or conversing with Godwhat is the difference?
It is this type of clear statement that has inspired millions
of Walschs readers to rethink their relationships with God
and creation. Walschs impact is so big because he makes
skilful use of modern communication tools. The former radio reporter
and amateur actor knows that it is not only the content of a message
that is important, but the presentation.
Walsch doesnt make any effort to convince people hes
right. In fact, he doesnt consider it terribly relevant
whether God is or is not speaking to him directly: The only
real issue with regard to this material is not Where did
it come from? but Does it have any value? Thats
the issue. Thats the question. Read the messages and see
if they have any value to you.
And Walsch doesnt claim God only speaks through him. On
the contrary, he continually emphasizes that God speaks to everyone
all the time. The question is not To whom does God
speak? The question is Who listens?
Walsch admits that learning to listen was none too easy, particularly
in the early days when God first revealed himself to Walsch. Sometimes
months went by before there were two paragraphs on paper. I only
understood later that it wasnt because of God, but me.
Like many of his readers, Walsch has greatly changed as a result
of delving into probing lessons, such as There are two basic
emotions that rule the universefear and loveand every
person can always choose. Or that God doesnt
judge you; at most you do it yourself. Or Life is
not a school of learning; its a creative process.
Of course these insights are not all new. Past messengers presented
similar words of wisdom in the name of God. Which is precisely
the message from Walschs God. In Conversations, God says:
I have given you so many signs, but you dont listen.
This book is one more sign.
Could this really be the same God who once revealed himself to
Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and others? Yes, he
responds. I believe that God tells the same thing to each
and every messengerwhich is why so many of the major underpinnings
of human theology are identical from religion to religion. I believe
that the difference in opinion that we see from messenger to messenger
with regard to God can be attributed to the fact that each messenger
brings the wisdom of God through the filter of the culture, traditions,
background and understandings of their time.
Does this mean we can add Neale Donald Walsch to the select group
of prophets who have brought a direct message to humanity from
God? Walsch believes that the idea that there are only a handful
of exclusive messengers is outdated: There are no exclusive
messengers. All the doctrines of all the religions which
claim that their messenger is the exclusive messenger
of God are in error. They are mistaken. You are a messenger of
God. Every one of you. Your life, lived, is your message. If you
dont like the message you are sending, then send another
one. Change your mind about yourself, change your mind about life,
change your mind about God, and you will change your world.
The whole point of the Conversations with God books is
that all of us are having a conversation with God all of the time;
we just dont know it. We have been culturalized away from
acknowledging God as the source of our inspirations. So we call
them serendipity, or womens intuition,
or a stroke of genius, or coincidence
or whatever else we can get away with in a society which increasingly
removes itself from any mention of a direct connection with God.
Walsch explains that weve forgotten how to listen to God:
The major religions say something like this: God spoke a
couple of thousand years ago to his Son, the Prophet, Krishna.
Since then He has been silent.
The irony of all this is that it is often religions themselves
which tell us that we do not and cannot have a direct connection
with God. They must tell us this, or they cannot in any way attract
or command our allegiance. We must believe that these religions
are our doorway to God. Otherwise we would abandon them. Given
the way many of them are acting, we are ready to abandon them
anyway.
Walsch believes that most of our problems are in fact due to
religious ideas: Our religious systems have led to death
and violence, social injustice and widespread poverty as well
as an increasing gap between rich and poor. They have created
ruthless competition, caused children to die of starvation, women
to be mistreated and raped and have oppressed societies. Religion
has brought us more grief than happiness, more war than peace
and more hate than love for our fellow man than wed like
to admit.
Religions, he continues, have taught us that
there is an absolute system of separation and superiority whereby
God is the highest authority and the lowest echelons are populated
by those who dont want to accept God as God wishes. Moreover,
religions have convinced us that there is a whole system of revenge
that makes quick work of those who refuse to accept Gods
will when it comes to these issues. Nearly all institutionalized
religions based on exclusion speak repeatedly of an angry, jealous
and harsh God who uses violence and death, and who forgives the
use of violence and death as a means of solving religious conflicts.
If you think this is tough language, simply consult the Torah,
the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon or the texts of other major
religions. According to the Bible alone, over a million people
were destroyed by the hand of God or on His authority.
Walsch sees his sharp criticism of religions as an attempt to
help find real solutions to the planets problems: As
long as we disagree about the reasons behind human dysfunction,
all our efforts to put an end to it will lead to nothing. This
is also the reason why we continue to try and solve our problems
along political, economic or even military lines. But this is
not a solution because the problems facing our world are of a
spiritual nature. They have to do with what we believe.
The image humans have of God is particularly ripe for an overhaul.
The image that has been formed and developed throughout
the ages by many religious institutions has affected us deeply.
What if this image is wrong? What if it is a faulty version of
a faulty vision? What I want to ask the institutionalized religions
is whether they would be willing to thoroughly examine their doctrines
to see if a few of them might not be urging us towards war, not
peace.
That question is not as radical as it seems. It goes without
saying that in every other area of society, people test and substantiate
their assertionsespecially when they label these assertions
reality, Walsch points out, Imagine that scientists
thought along the same lines as religious leaders and one day
they declared, OK people, we have all the information. The
final words have been spoken. Starting now we wont think
for ourselves anymore, we wont ask any complicated questions
and well rely on just one source. We would consider
that absurd! Its high time we reassessed our primary assumptions
about ourselves, God and life.
Of all the concepts about God, Walsch believes one in particular
is the most damaging: One of the most serious misconceptions
is the idea that God is inaccessible, that God is separated from
us. This divisive way of thinking has alienated us from ourselves
and from creation. It has also led to a divisive economy and divisive
politics, a divisive sociology and divisive religion. But we are
all One, there is no separation between us and God, between us
and life or between us and each other. This is a freeing, rather
than a constricting, theology, freeing humanity from the oppression
of its beliefs in a righteous, jealous, angry, demanding, exclusive,
vindictive, vengeful and violent God, and offering people the
freedom to follow their natural impulse to seek and experience
the Divine.
According to Walsch, the transition to this inclusive way of
thinking will be the most difficult humanity has faced. Weve
become accustomed to allowing God to do our dirty work and doing
the most horrible things in His name: God wants me to drop
bombs on Baghdad, God wants me to bring down the Twin Towers.
But imagine, for a moment, that God doesnt want anything
at all from us?
He lets the question hang in the air for a moment, then adds:
My message is the message of a God who wants and requires
nothing from the human race, but whose purpose is simply and gloriously
to empower humanity to recreate itself anew in each moment in
the next grandest version of the greatest vision we ever held
about who we are.
If God wants nothing from us, then the responsibility for happiness
and sadness, poverty and wealth, pollution or sustainabilityin
short: heaven and hellrests firmly where it belongs: with
us. If God wants nothing from us, then it really is up to us to
take on those responsibilities. How? It is high time we
reinvented ourselves, Walsch counsels, to no longer
see God as a separate entity but as an all-embracing reality.
Neale Donald Walsch is optimistic that this can take place: Shift
happens.
Neale Donald Walsch has written the following books, among
others: Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue (Penguin
Group, 1996), Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book
2 (Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 1997) and Conversations with
God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 3 (Hampton Roads Publishing Company,
1998).
Mayan Worldview of the Universe Portends that
a New Era Begins in the Year 2012
By Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
December 31, 1999
Last year, U.S. News & World Report published a cover story
titled, "Is Ours the Only Universe?" Its contents were
mind-boggling, to say the least. Among many things, some scientists
posited the existence of multiple universes. These speculations
remind us that not every culture views the nature of life in the
same manner. Which leads us to the millennium.
The millennium is a Christian marker. For the Chinese, the year
2000 is actually 4697. For Jewish people, it's 5760, and for Muslims
it's the year 1378. It also marks 5014 years from the start of
the Mayan calendar. And for sticklers, it's actually one year
shy of the third millennium.
In the Americas, using pre-Columbian calendars, the year 2000
is virtually meaningless. However, the year 2012 in the Mayan
calendar marks the end of a 5,200-year "sun," or era,
and also the end of five suns, which make up a 26,000-year astronomical
cycle.
Most indigenous peoples in pre-Columbian America used variants
of the same astronomical calendars, and many held similar beliefs
regarding the end of each sun, that each ended in cataclysms like
earthquakes, fires, volcanoes and floods.
Many still use these calendars. What ancient Mayan scientists
did was not so much prophesize as predict. Not surprisingly, the
year 2012 figures prominently. Based on thousands of years of
astronomical observation, a cataclysm is indeed predicted by indigenous
elders, as opposed to "prophesized." No one is predicting
that at the strike of midnight, December 20, 2012, the world will
end. Instead, Mayan elders predict that the cataclysm can occur
within a year or 100 years -- and the cause would be something
astronomical as opposed to metaphysical.
Mayan scholar Hunbatz Men, in "Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion"
(Bear and Co., Santa Fe N.M.), says that the Western world is
not familiar with the Mayan view of the universe primarily because
Europeans did everything to destroy all indigenous knowledge.
Subsequently, Europeans set out to rewrite indigenous history
through their own eyes. As a result, he says, to understand the
Mayan worldview and vision of the cosmos -- which is quite complex
-- we are "compelled to discard 99 percent of the material
produced and used by official researchers, and resort to sources
closer to our indigenous American culture." Those sources,
he says, are indigenous elders and the thousands of ceremonial
centers throughout the Americas that survive to this day.
Hunbatz Men believes that the Mayans are the original teachers
of the world and that their ancestors traveled throughout the
world to disseminate their knowledge. For instance, he says that
the 300 B.C. Hindu writer Valmiki credits the Naga-Maya with bringing
Hindus their culture in the year 2700 B.C. The Tibetans and Greeks
have similar stories about being visited by the Cara-Maya in ancient
times. Similarly, the Egyptian priest-historian Manetho also says
the Mayax also visited Africa. He adds that people from all over
the world visited the Americas in ancient times.
Don Alejandro Cirilo Pérez Oxlaj, a Mayan elder who spoke
at a recent medicine conference, amazed the audience by not only
confirming Hunbatz Men's ideas, but also by adding that the Mayans
had received their original teachings from beings from the Pleiades
star system, who visited them in ancient times in Yucatán,
México.
Believing that the Mayans received their original instructions
from beings from the Pleiades cannot be any less valid than believing,
as Christians and Jews do, that Jehovah spoke to Moses on a mountain
and gave him the Ten Commandments, or that Jesus and Mohammed
ascended into heaven. It's certainly as valid as scientists speculating
that there may be multiple universes, existing in different dimensions.
Cultural bias and military might are responsible for many of our
societal beliefs. That, of course, does not make them right. We
don't know what will happen in the next few days or in the next
12 years. What we do know is that it wouldn't hurt to listen to
the words of Don Alejandro who said that on Dec. 20, 2012, Mother
Earth will pass inside the center of a magnetic axis and that
it may be darkened with a great cloud for 60 to 70 hours and that
because of environmental degradation, she may not be strong enough
to survive the effects. "It will enter another age, but when
it does, there will be great and serious events. Earthquakes,
maremotos (tsunamis), floods, volcanic eruptions and great illness
on the planet Earth. Few survivors will be left."
Don Alejandro has been sent as a messenger from a council of elders
to warn the world that we must change the way we live and take
care of Earth. We hope his message resonates with people of all
faiths and beliefs.
COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE The writers can be
reached at PO BOX 7905, Albuquerque, NM 87194-7905, 505-242-7282
or XColumn@aol.com.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted
material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the
copyright owner. Lysistrata Project posts this material without profit
for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair
use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C §
107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes
of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.