2012 - Science Or Superstition?/JMJ
John Major Jenkins
JMJ: The December 21st, 2012 date is gaining ground in the popular media, and there is a lot of apocalyptic hype around it. But it's sort of an indication that one is not looking deep enough into the phenomenon. [Talk]
JMJ: When my book came out in 1998 - Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, it begged the question of whether or not these profound insights of the Maya were known to other world traditions. And so I took the whole galactic alignment thesis on a world tour and looked at other traditions. Basically, it does seem that the astronomical cycles and the galactic alignment information is deeply encoded in western traditions. [Talk]
JMJ: So you can look at Mithraism, you can look at Egypt, you can look at Islamic astrology, with the doctrine of the lunar nodes. It almost seems like this Galactic alignment information is a very ancient idea. [Talk]
JMJ: Ancient astrology - in the western world - recognises that there is this 'great cycle' caused by the wobble of the Earth on its axis, and one complete wobble is 26,000 years. In the Greco-Hellenistic period there were astrological ideas about how the Sun shifts through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. So you can divide the 26,000 year period into twelve periods, or ages, or chapters. And this is a fairly profound idea; it's referred to as the world age doctrine. We can notice that in the Old Testament period there was an obsession with the Age of Aries and symbolism around the lamb. And at the dawn of the Christian period there became an obsession with the fish symbolism that would indicate our shift into the Age of Pisces. Now, in the western astrological tradition we are about to move out of the sign of Pisces, so there's great talk about the shifting of the Age. Right now we're basically at the cusp of the Age of Aquarius. So this astrological doctrine has to do with our changing angular orientation to the larger cosmos. [Talk]
JMJ: The modern astronomical understanding of precession is pretty straighforward. It's kind of a mechanical understanding of how it works and how it effects the position of the Sun on the equinox or the solstice, it shifts through the Zodiac signs, and so on. I think that there is a literal way to interpret what precession is. But there's also a metaphorical or symbolic understanding that gets more into how human beings are affected, perhaps how the planet is affected by the precessional changes. We might envision that over this great 26,000 year period there are "seasons" - the same way that the year cycle has seasons. So there's "summer-fall-winter-spring" and think there's an insight into this larger cycle and how it actually affect earth phenomenon, including life on Earth. [Talk]
JMJ: In addition to the simple knowledge of precession among the ancients, there seems to be a very, very, deep insight into how precession is related to changes on this planet that goes beyond what modern science is willing to acknowledge. [Talk]
JMJ: I tend towards the metaphorical interpretation here. I think that if we're due for any kind of pole shift, it should be a pole shift in our collective consciousness. We have to steer clear of that 'pole' that wants us to live in a world of dualism, you know, to be fixated to that mode of culture that seeks to dominate other cultures around the world, and instead, shift our minds to emphasise a partnership society. [Talk]
JMJ: The Mayan calendars speak for insight into a time that is somewhat counterintuitive to western, linear time. For the Maya, it's cyclic. But it's not only an insight into the cyclic nature of time, but it's a vision of time and cycles as a breathing out and a breathing in - moving out of connection to our true selves and moving back into relationship with our true selves [Talk]
JMJ: The Mayan calendars also encode an insight into the inter-woven nature of reality - what we might call a fractal model, or a quantum model of reality. We see this most clearly in the 260-day calendar, the Tzolkin. This is the core building block of all the Mayan calendar systems. It consists of thirteen numbers combined with twenty day signs, so 13 x 20 = 260. 260 is a key number for the Maya because it corresponds to the human gestation period. So there's this nine-month process of human unfolding that we all share. This is the philosophy behind the Mayan calendar: time unfolds like a flower. And it's unfolding the inner essence of consciousness out of the Earth matrix, you might say.
Another use for the 260 day calendar is that it corresponds to the interval between planting and harvesting of corn in the highlands. So that's an agricultural metaphor.
Most incredibly, the 260-day calendar is used as a key in the Maya almanacs. The Mayan almanacs are that calendars that schedule the appearance of Venus, Mercury, and Mars. So there's this very, very important astronomical reference in the 260-day Tzolk'in calendar as well. What we see in all this is the use of 260 as a key to different dimensions in human experience. It's basically uniting the cycles in the heavens and the cycles here on Earth, including cycles that human beings experience. So it's an insight into that paradigm of as above, so below - the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. [Talk]
JMJ: There are still daykeepers that are following in an unbroken way, the ancient Tzolk'in calendar. However, there is another calendar, the Long Count, that basically fell into disuse over eight centuries ago. This is the calendar that gives us the 2012 end date. In the Long Count calendar there are cycles, and the longest cycle is a period of 13 Baktuns, which is a period of 5,125 years. This 13-Baktun cycle was conceived of by the Maya as one world age. So it's a key to the Mayan doctrine of world ages that we find in the creation mythology. And scholars now know how to correlate the Maya calendar with our own calendar. We know that the 13-Baktun cycle end date falls precisely on December 21st of 2012. [Talk]
JMJ: Why did the Maya pick 2012 to end this vast cycle of 13 Bakuns? For the Maya, the important thing always happens at the end of the cycle. So at the end of the cycle you have this galactic alignment. Now, my approach to the galactic alignment has been to look into the Maya traditions, and try to understand how the Maya encoded this galactic alignment into their core traditions, such as the Maya creation mythology, the ballgame symbolism, other Maya traditions, such as the king-making ceremonies, and what I found is that the December solstice Sun and the Milky Way, and these different astronomical features that are involved in the galactic alignment. For example, there's a feature called the dark rift, the great cleft in the Milky Way. This is precisely where the December solstice Sun is going to be converging with the Milky Way - at the dark rift. These astronomical features are front and center in the Maya creation mythology. [Talk]
JMJ: One of the ways that the ancient Maya encoded their understanding of cosmology including precession and including the galactic alignment was through mystery play. For example, the mystery play of the Maya creation myth. It has to do with the ballgame and how the hero twins must kick the ball into the goal ring. Well, the Maya populace could come to see the mystery play and they would observe that and could understand it in the literal way of the play unfolding before you, but to those who were sensitive to the deeper esoteric or symbolic meaning of the mystery they would know that the game ball is a symbol for the December solstice Sun, and when the hero twins are trying to kick the game ball into the goal ring - the goal ring being the dark rift in the Milky Way - the whole mystery play and the ball game is a story that encodes the galactic alignment process. [Talk]
JMJ: The Maya have a concept of a sacred tree, or a crossroads. It's basically the cross formed by the Milky Way where it crosses over the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path followed by the Sun, Moon, and planets. So in the sky you have this cross, also referred to as the sacred tree and it manifests in Mayan symbolism and iconography. For example, at the classic period site of Palenque the great ruler Pacal was buried and his sarcophagus lid has a very famous carving on it, depicting him falling into the underworld at death. He's basically entering the dark rift. So the dark rift is at the centre of the sacred tree formed by the Milky Way and the ecliptic. And it's right there on his sarcophagus lid. The Maya kings were shamanistic. Pacal is seen to be a visionary shaman figure. And the shaman had to journey into the cosmic centre. That's where he was able to retrieve the sacred power of rulership. So that image of Pacal on his sarcophagus lid is not simply an after-death image, it's an image of the shaman journeying into the cosmic center - into the dark rift - to retrieve the sacred, other-worldly powers of rulership. [Talk]
JMJ: Going hand-in-hand with visionary shamanism, which was a journeying into the outer cosmos in a spiritual sense, was an interest in the actual astronomical sky. At Palenque, near the famous square palace building, in that complex of buildings there are several very interesting areas that are like courtyards. They are rectangular areas surrounded by walls about three feet high. It's now believed that these were once filled with water, and Mayan astronomers and visionary calendar priests would sit around this, and at night the sky would be reflected in the still water of these rectangular pools. This is how the Maya did their stargazing. It's very interesting because instead of looking up at the sky they were looking down at the sky reflected in the water. Very interesting, because for the Maya, the sky at night was envisioned as the underworld flipped upside-down. So all the stars and planets that are moving around and doing alignments in the sky were actually the activities of the underworld deities. This is a really interesting idea because is shows how apparent opposites, like sky and underworld are integrated in the Mayan concept. [Talk]
JMJ: The early Maya site called Izapa - the site that invented this long count calendar that gives us the 2012 end date is really a key to understanding how the early Maya thought of 2012 and the Galactic alignment. The monuments of Izapa were found in the 1950's and 60's as they were left some 1800 years ago. So they're in situ. They're still oriented to certain horizons in certain ways. One of the key horizon alignments at Izapa is the December solstice sunrise. So we start to see how Izapa is a site that helps us understand the galactic alignment in 2012.
For example, stela 11 from Izapa portrays Hun Hunahpu, the father of the hero twins. He represents the December solstice Sun. And he's emerging from the upturned mouth of a frog - that's the rebirth place. The mouth of the frog or the mouth of the snake represents the dark rift. His arms are outstretched - basically a period-measuring gesture. He's basically measuring a cycle of time. So what this is saying is that at the end of the cycle the December solstice Sun is lined up with the dark rift, and this carving, stela 11, points right to the rising December solstice Sun. That's just one example of how Izapa encodes information about 2012. You might refer to that as the astronomical reference at the site. But there's also a prophecy and a spiritual teaching that's encoded on the monuments that has to do with the Mayan belief about what is going to happen, you might say. [Talk]
JMJ: The Maya have a concept of a sacred tree, or a crossroads. It's basically the cross formed by the Milky Way where it crosses over the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path followed by the Sun, Moon, and planets. So in the sky you have this cross, also referred to as the sacred tree and it manifests in Mayan symbolism and iconography. For example, at the classic period site of Palenque the great ruler Pacal was buried and his sarcophagus lid has a very famous carving on it, depicting him falling into the underworld at death. He's basically entering the dark rift. So the dark rift is at the centre of the sacred tree formed by the Milky Way and the ecliptic. And it's right there on his sarcophagus lid. The Maya kings were shamanistic. Pacal is seen to be a visionary shaman figure. And the shaman had to journey into the cosmic centre. That's where he was able to retrieve the sacred power of rulership. So that image of Pacal on his sarcophagus lid is not simply an after-death image, it's an image of the shaman journeying into the cosmic center - into the dark rift - to retrieve the sacred, other-worldly powers of rulership. [Talk]
JMJ: Going hand-in-hand with visionary shamanism, which was a journeying into the outer cosmos in a spiritual sense, was an interest in the actual astronomical sky. At Palenque, near the famous square palace building, in that complex of buildings there are several very interesting areas that are like courtyards. They are rectangular areas surrounded by walls about three feet high. It's now believed that these were once filled with water, and Mayan astronomers and visionary calendar priests would sit around this, and at night the sky would be reflected in the still water of these rectangular pools. This is how the Maya did their stargazing. It's very interesting because instead of looking up at the sky they were looking down at the sky reflected in the water. Very interesting, because for the Maya, the sky at night was envisioned as the underworld flipped upside-down. So all the stars and planets that are moving around and doing alignments in the sky were actually the activities of the underworld deities. This is a really interesting idea because is shows how apparent opposites, like sky and underworld are integrated in the Mayan concept. [Talk]
JMJ: The early Maya site called Izapa - the site that invented this long count calendar that gives us the 2012 end date is really a key to understanding how the early Maya thought of 2012 and the Galactic alignment. The monuments of Izapa were found in the 1950's and 60's as they were left some 1800 years ago. So they're in situ. They're still oriented to certain horizons in certain ways. One of the key horizon alignments at Izapa is the December solstice sunrise. So we start to see how Izapa is a site that helps us understand the galactic alignment in 2012.
For example, stela 11 from Izapa portrays Hun Hunahpu, the father of the hero twins. He represents the December solstice Sun. And he's emerging from the upturned mouth of a frog - that's the rebirth place. The mouth of the frog or the mouth of the snake represents the dark rift. His arms are outstretched - basically a period-measuring gesture. He's basically measuring a cycle of time. So what this is saying is that at the end of the cycle the December solstice Sun is lined up with the dark rift, and this carving, stela 11, points right to the rising December solstice Sun. That's just one example of how Izapa encodes information about 2012. You might refer to that as the astronomical reference at the site. But there's also a prophecy and a spiritual teaching that's encoded on the monuments that has to do with the Mayan belief about what is going to happen, you might say. [Talk]
JMJ: Izapa really was a kind of New World Eleusis. In the Old World, Eleusis was a place where seekers were initiated into the sacred mysteries. And at Izapa initiates, those seeking knowledge were brought through a process of understanding this new galactic cosmology and clearly, sacred plants was part of this. We know that ritual mushroom stones were found in the region around Izapa, so we know that there was a kind of mushroom cult going on there. And we also that dimethyltriptamine is a powerful hallucinogenic that can be harvested from the glands of the bufo toad. And stela 6 at Izapa, for example, depicts the bufo toad and it actually shows the toad's glands with vision scrolls coming out of the glands. This actually indicates a very clear proof that they were aware of the vision-producing effects of the gland secretions. So it's very clear that Izapa was an initiatory centre that utilised hallucinogenic plants and substances in order to facilitate expansion of consciousness so that larger perspectives could be embraced. [Talk]
JMJ: I think that the core teachings are there, and present, in the Maya creation myth, and it does relate to the galactic alignment, it relates to this opportunity that we have to reconnect with our true selves, with the unity consciousness through which we can solve the intractable dilemmas of the world. We have to get back to that unity consciousness and awareness of how we, as individuals, fit into the whole. This is not a call to annihilate the ego or to annihilate our sense of individuality. It's really a call to be aware of our individuality at the same time that we are aware of the larger picture. But it does require that we choose to be actively engaged in the process. It's not something that's going to happen automatically - that's the interpretation of a cop-out or something... We really have to understand that we do have a choice, but we can choose to close down in fear and succumb to the forces of limitation that seek to keep us limited... stuck to our egos. Or we can open up in trust and respect for what is possible. [Talk]
