2012 - Science Or Superstition?/Segment/3
The Prophecies of 2012
09:27
Narr: The Prophecies of the Maya are shared by other ancient American cultures, including the Hopi and the Inca. Psycologist and author Alberto Villoldo, has spent many years with the Peruvian elders of the Andes and has been able to bring back their warning of a catastrophic time for humanity - but also the possibility of a new golden age.
AV: Humans have become a parasite on this planet. I mean, we are committing matricide - we're killing our Mother, who supports us. The Earth is designed to support a population of under a billion people riding bicycles to work, not seven billion driving SUV's. So the prophecies speak about this time of a culling of humanity, of a harvesting of souls and of a decimation of large parts of the human race, and the beginning of a millenium of gold - of tremendous opportunity. They're very optimistic, they're very hopeful for the planet. They're not that optimistic for humanity at large. [Talk]
AV: I had a shaman tell me one time, "Alberto, we're going to miss our white brother. So they speak about a correction and a bringing back of balance to the Earth. The way that this was announced was with the wrath of our father, the Sun. They speak about the drying of the high mountain lagoons, the melting of the glaciers. This was to be the beginning of an apocalyptic era. The prophecy spoke that the planet would be set right again with a new planetary alignment that would take place. [Talk]
LEJ: The 12-21-12 prediction of the Mayan calendar is predicated on the assumption that the solar system travels around the galaxy in a predictable path and that on that particular date we will eclipse the center of the galaxy. There will be the Earth - here's the Sun - here's the center of the Milky Way. We will be cut off from a direct connection to the center of the Milky Way galaxy and we will therefore be deprived of a certain "energetic sustenance" that we require for continuing to live as we have. What could that mean?
The best description that was given to me - and I did go down to Guatemala and spend some time with Mayan shamans and they related to, when you lose power in your house, for some appliances and some functions, there's no problem - when the power comes back on, the lights go back on. But there are certain things - the VCR clock and the microwave that are thrown out of kilter, even for being cut off from that sustenance for just a second. And that is their physical explanation for the danger of this eclipse. [Talk]
AV: The timing of it means that all of the heavens will be aligned behind us to enable us to bring forth a new time into the planet - a time of possibility, of opportunity, of healing.
I attended the most recent reading of the prophecy of 1998, where they were taking the "pulse of the planet" to see where we were within the vision that had been received by the ancient ones. And in that reading of the prophecy they said that the upheaval and the turmoil was to be far greater than had been anticipated, that the possibility of cascading crises- not a single crisis, but two or three that would cascade off of each other, bringing about dramatic corrections in the Earth's climate, making parts of the planet inhospitable and uninhabitable. [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]
JAW: 2012 - Science Or Superstition?/JAW/2 [Talk]
DP: For me, part of the essential shift in consciousness that we may be undergoing is this integration of empirical, rational, scientific thought, and intuitive, shamanic, and mystical knowledge systems. And for me, it's really as those two aspects come together, this next level of human consciousness is beginning to be formed and then to recognise itself. That's what I see as the archetype of Quetzalcoatl also indicating or representing as an archetype is the meaning of bird and snake - the feathered serpent, the meaning of Heaven/Earth, Spirit/matter, or it could be seen as the meaning of materialist-empirical thrust of western culture with the esoteric-mystical framework of indigenous cultures and eastern cultures. So for me, one thing that's really important that's been happening lately - in the last 50 years - is the integration of Eastern metaphysical thought into the Western psyche. You know, everywhere you go, in every airplane, people are reading [?], the Dalai Lami, Eckhart Tolle - the Power of Now, you know, that's philosophy re-expressed for the for the European/Western mindset. So people still tend to think of spirituality as a trend, in a way - I don't like the word 'spirituality' very much but I think it's much closer to being a profound, transformative shift in our psyche. So now, I think there's a second stage in the initiatory process that's going on for the Western psyche, but it's happening on a much more foundational level, because so many more people have made those kinds of connections and have had those kind of experiences and have integrated to a much deeper level. [Talk]
GH: The precession of the equinoxes is the astronomical process that underlies the Mayan calendar - and all ancient systems of cyclical time.
Perhaps I should just say a word about what the precession of the equinoxes is. Precession fundamentally is an observation of the heavens and an observation that at certain seasons of the year - particular markers, the equinoxes and the solstices - that if you look at the background of stars behind the Sun, you'll find that that background is very slowly changing, and it's changing at the rate of one degree every 72 years.
The view of mainstream astronomers as to why this is happening is - they hypothesise, they have not proved - that there is a cyclical wobble on the axis of the Earth, rather like the wobble of a top that has been spinning fast but it's spin has begun to decay, and the poles of the top begin to make a great circle. And this is what they believe is happening with the earth.
Now because the Earth is the viewing platform from which we observe the stars, changes in orientation of that viewing platform will cause changes in the observed appearance of positions of the stars in the sky at particular times of the year. And because it's a circular wobble, the whole thing is a cycle that in fact unfolds over a vast span of time - 25,920 years - takes you back from the starting position of the "clock" back fully around the clock to the same position again, so that the constellation that is rising behind the Sun today in our time and for a period of 2,160 years - which we're just entering into the Age of Aquarius, when the constellation of Aquarius has the Sun, it will be 25,920 years before that constellation again rises behind the Sun [on the vernal equinox]. [Talk]
AM: The Long count cycle, which we understand as one of the grand cycles of the Maya. It was conceived as a creation moment and a completion of a cycle. These eras, as we might call them, lasted a grand number of 5,125 years. This great tally of years comes to its completion in December of 2012. Curiously enough, it also coincides with the winter solstice. This we thought was quite interesting and profound, and probably not accidental in any way for the ancient Maya, being that these two solar stations bracketed the creation to the completion. [Talk]
AFA: 2012 - Science Or Superstition?/AFA/2 [Talk]
JM: I think that there is a very real possibility that around 2012 we will see a shifting of the paradigm and more people will be becoming aware of who we are, where we came from, and our place in the universe. And that would pretty much coincide with the Mayan prediction that we will be into a new age. [Talk]
