1. Why is everyone talking about the year 2012?
2. Is 2012 going to be the "End of The World?"
3. What is the "2012" disaster movie based in?
4. What is supposed to happen in 2012?
5. Is 2012 associated with any rare astronomical events or alignments?
6. Is 2012 just the next Y2K?
7. Where does December, 21 2012 date originally come from?
8. What are the living Maya saying about 2012?
9. Is there evidence of the 2012 date on ancient Mayan monuments?
10. How did the modern world first find out about the 2012 prophecy?
11. It is possible the Ancient Maya forsaw this time of Biospheric Crisis?
12. It is possible the Ancient Maya's prophecy highlights our modern crisis in consciousness and the process of our collective awakening?
13. What is the connection between calendars and consciousness?
14. How does the Ancient Mayan Calendar Cycle reflect the larger picture of this planetary transformation process we are in right now?
15. How can we return to living in natural time?
16. Does 2012 mark a new era of telepathic unification for humanity?
17. What are some universal themes of this Living Prophecy?
18. How can we contemplate 2012 as a collective dreaming process?
19. How can we prepare for 2012?
20. 2012 - What's the bottom line?

Why is everyone talking about the year 2012?

The Solstice on December 21, 2012 ~ precisely at 11:11 AM Universal Time ~ marks the completion of the 5,125 year Great Cycle of the Ancient Maya Long Count Calendar.

Rather than being a linear end-point, this cycle that is closing is naturally followed by the start of a new cycle. What this new cycle has in store for humanity is a mystery that has yet to unfold...

2012 is also considered the completion of the 26,000 year Precession of the Equinoxes cycle, and some say it also signifies the end of a 104,000 year cycle.

The recent "2012" movie serves to alert a targeted 140 million people, in case they too haven't already heard the news. Unfortunately, however, the movie does a dis-service because it distorts the message of this ancient prophecy by associating it with fear and destruction, as depicted by the movie's global disaster scenario, rather than the themes of transformation and renewal the prophecy is actually based in.

The 2012 date indeed marks the completion of this World Age Cycle. Rather than something to fear, we can understand the 2012 prophecy as signalling us that we need to awaken and realize that these times on Earth are auspicious; we are living in land-mark times in the history of our planet. We are collectively in a cross-roads moment that is calling out to us to participate in our fullest capacity. We are each being summoned to bring our inspiration and empowerment to the fore, as we must all take our places in transforming our human culture to be one of Harmony - with ourselves, with each other and with all of Nature.

Together we are in a great initiation process, living in times of unprecedented challenge, transformation and opportunity. This planetary moment has never existed before as it does right now. Our human population is climbing off the charts, accelerating by the day, as is our environmental crises and the vast whole-system struggles of peoples worldwide, both physically and spiritually. The old world mentality, founded in separation, greed, ignorance, and unconscious consumer materialism, has reached dangerous peaks. Simultaneously, there has never been so much possibility at our fingertips as there is right now. A new paradigm is trying to emerge in our world, through our hearts and minds, like a flower trying to grow through the cracks in the cement sidewalk. New comprehensions and new solutions are emerging in our collective journey - from new sciences, to new economic models, new healing modalities, new energy technologies, new educational models, new forms of conflict resolution, etc. These times of crisis are unifying us and catalyzing us to awaken to our personal and collective responsibilities in this one planetary equation.

As we perceive the 2012 completion date as a reminder to us from the Ancients that right here and now we are living in precious times, we can realize how critical it is that we align together in respect for life, becoming more and more conscious of how our intentions and actions affect the Whole. This is an important theme of this prophecy: Becoming Conscious of All that has been Unconscious. It is time to see and know and become aware of how we can participate directly in this great transformation process, inside of ourselves and in our shared world, from the energies we transmit through our feelings and intentions, to the details of our lifestyle choices.

The New Cycle that is to emerge is founded on us awakening to the beauty and responsibility of our interconnectedness. Every one of us has a piece in this cosmic puzzle, and we must help each other find our heart's guidance in these mysterious times. As we recognize we are in a Global Healing Crisis, we can shake off the wounded victim mentality, and arise as Medicine Warriors, here to do the necessary work to help lay the ground for a New Era to root, conscious of our obligations to future generations.

Carlos Barrios, who was trained as an Ajq'ij in the Maya tradition, has this to share in regards to 2012:

"Our planet can be renewed or ravaged. Now is the time to awaken and take action...The prophesized changes are going to happen, but our attitude and actions determine how harsh or mild they are.

"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...The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. 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 you heart, and you will find your way."

No, not in terms of the complete destruction of the Earth and some kind of annihilation scenario. 2012 is not bringing the end of the planet.

When we contemplate the expression "end of the world" let us realize the term "world" can refer to a cycle; a period of time; a world age era. Therefore 2012 is signalling the completion of one World Age Cycle, transitting into an emerging New World Age to come.

It is said that the world we are ending is the one that is dominated by materialism and ego consciousness, therefore it may be that the world to follow will be founded on different values that honor the spirit of the interdependence of all of life.

There are ideas in the collective mind that assert that 2012 is bringing the "end of the world as we know it," which may be linked with its other association of heralding "the end of linear time," and no one can say how valid these claims may be. However, based on the complex situation we are in as a planet, no one can predict the longevity of our modern world with all of its technological dependencies and unsustainable customs. Likewise, the more conscious we become of the non-linear, synchronistic nature of existence, the more rapidly we may indeed evolve beyond the linear time paradigm.

In regards to the ever-increasing attention on the December 21, 2012 date, the living Maya of Guatemala urgently want it to be known that their ancient prophecies have been distorted and misportrayed as doomsday predictions. They do not advocate all the fear and hysteria that is being generated by the sensationalized 2012 rumors, and they want people to be aware that most of the 2012 (mis)information being put out is not sourced from the Maya or their calendars whatsoever, even though it may appear to be associated with them.

In regards to the popular fascination with the possible "end of the world" cataclysm scenario in 2012, it is important to understand that these modern fantasies projected from our collective psyche are reflecting our internal process of fearing how out of harmony with nature we are collectively living. There is a sense of an impending retaliation from nature that will come, as a great punishment upon our misguided human world.

While it is clear we are living in times of great uncertainty and great imbalance, we need to realize that terrorizing ourselves by energizing fear-based rumors does not assist us in rising to the great challenges we face. Fear is a primal universal human reality, based on understanding how vulnerable we actually are, yet we need to understand that if we believe in all the fear thoughts, we can easily become shut down, delusional or reactionary in ways that feed the fear and lead us further into darkness.

In this time of prophecy, we need to move from motivating ourselves not from fear, but from awareness. To navigate these critical times on earth, in addition to our discernment and our intuition, we must find our hearts and follow their inspiration, for they are our purest guides and can help us tune into our unique path of service.

When we contemplate what the world might be like beyond 2012, let us be clear that no one can predict the specifics of how things may appear as we enter this new cycle, or whether the transformations still to come may emerge gradually or swiftly. Everything depends on how conscious we can become as a species, and how we all contribute to this process of awakening our human potential. The details of how this new era may actually manifest is up to the merits of our collective creativity and the possible breakthroughs which can unfold through our resourcefulness and ingenuity.

Carlos Barrios, from the Eagle Clan of the Mam Maya of Guatemala shares in regards to 2012:

"The world will not end. It will be transformed... Everything will change...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, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way...Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human..."

What is the "2012" disaster movie based in?

The director of the "2012" Sony Picture, Roland Emmerich, admitted that he has a "love affair" with telling end of the world stories, as evident in his previous movies, "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow."

As Emmerich shares about the plot of the 2012 movie, "...we came up with this idea that maybe a global flood would be a great movie because we could do a re-telling of Noah’s Ark, in a modern way...during the course of coming up with the story, we found this phenomenon about 2012, and we incorporated it into our movie..."

In other words, THE GLOBAL DISASTER SCENARIO OF THE 2012 MOVIE IS NOT BASED IN ANY FACTS. As Emmerich clarifies, "We only used the fact that the Mayan calendar ends. That gave us the year." Emmerich said after checking out the range of 2012 books on Amazon, he realized, "...there are so many (theories) that, in a way, you can just create your own." He shares that "2012" was tacked on as a title to his disaster movie because it is something "people believe" and it made the movie seem more "real."

Interestingly, Emmerich's underlying motivation for the movie seems to be genuine concern about the course we are all on as modern society. As he states, "I hope we are not ruining our planet. I really believe that, if we keep going and doing what we are doing, we will not be leaving the planet how it should be, for our kids. That has been going on for generations. And then, we still have these wars going on, and all this energy could go into the environment or other peaceful activities. It’s just very sad to see and read the news, every day, and see what these people are fighting over. It’s like they don’t understand that the clock is ticking."

While Emmerich may be wanting to get our attention to stimulate a change of ways, let us not overlook the bottomline that Fear Sells. There is big money to be made in hyping the closing of the World Age Cycle and exploiting our human vulnerabilities and fear of the unknown. The manifestation of this movie perfectly exemplifies the sickness of greed that has dominated this dying world age.

While it is auspicious that hundreds of millions of people are being notified by this movie that we are closing a vast cycle in 2012, it is critical that we help people look beyond the hollywood-ized disaster versions of this time of prophecy, and seek out authentic sources of meaning. One should be aware of the 2012 websites made just to promote the 2012 film and its fear-based drama, such as the fictional Institute for Human Continuity and its Survival Lottery.

Personally and collectively, we have to be aware that the concepts that we hold about what 2012 might bring do play a part in our shared creative, manifestation process. Simply put, energizing global cataclysm scenarios is ultimately not in service, as it may conjure much more fear and panic in the collective. Rather than being fascinated with the negative fantasies and worst case scenarios that can happen in the years to come, what if instead we contemplate and direct our attention towards the most positive transformations that could occur, and have already begun, inside of us and in our shared world. What is the highest Vision we can hold for our unfolding human awakening process on this Earth? Let us keep our eye and ears, minds and hearts open during these times, finding a center between the old ways which are dying and the new ways which are emerging.

"What you put your attention on grows stronger in your life."
- His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

What is supposed to happen in 2012?

One can find countless theories about what's supposed to happen in 2012 - ranging from all out doom and gloom, to total enlightenment and ascension, to absolutely nothing. It is important to look beyond the hype, as many of the 2012 predictions now in circulation have no roots in the actual prophecies of the Maya, and are simply projections from the human psyche of our basic hopes and fears.

The 2012 Galactic Alignment theory of John Major Jenkins has become quite popular, and should be mentioned as Jenkins has invested decades of research and decoding into the ancient Maya and their time science. From his studies of the mythology and astronomy of Izapa, the ancient Maya birthplace of the Long Count Calendar, he asserts that the end of their 13 Baktun Cycle in 2012 is highlighting the rare 26,000 year alignment between the December solstice sun with the Galactic equator. He affirms this is a process that is already underway, not something happening all on one day, and that it also reflects the spiritual teachings of the ancient Maya prophecies regarding the shifting of World Age cycles. Their Creation Myths depict the change in eras, as the power plays of the ego and false, corrupt rulership are defeated, giving way for a new era that is ruled and guided by higher wisdom, based in unity-consciousness.

However, as far as the actual day of 12-21-2012 goes - ultimately, with all the variables, and all the unknowns and unknowables, no one can say with any certainty what will, or will not, happen precisely on Solstice 2012, nor how gradually or rapidly all the changes yet to come will unfold. We are already living through a time of unspeakable intensity, on the edge of extinction and breakthrough.

There is nothing to wait for, we are right in the thick of it! Our shared journey is all connected to this moment and manifests according to how we navigate from this here and now.

An important point made by Mayan Ajq'ij Carlos Barrios, is that in regards to the warnings from the ancients of possible catastrophies yet to come, it is critical we realize that it is within our power to change the outcome. He says it is within our power to prevent the worst case self-destruction scenarios from happening, and instead rise to a new level of evolution.

As Mr. Barrios shares: "This is the time people need to know what is the purpose of their own lives. This is a dangerous time because we can go to the next step, to the transition, to the fusion of the polarities, or it is a time when we can be destroyed. This materialistic way of life, all this business about economic and social position in the world, it needs to change and the people need to go inside themselves in order to know what they are and to find harmony with the mother earth, with human beings, with their brothers, with the animals, with the plants. It's an important time because we are in the moment of the prophesies and humanity can be destroyed or we can be saved, all together."

In this process of taking our power, it is important that we take our attention off of the 2012 date as being some linear point in the future that some event is going to happen that determines our fate. The reality is we are on a journey, right now, through the shifting of world age cycles. We have to understand this is a PROCESS we are now in, not a product that will necessarily arrive on a particular day and time. As is obvious, focusing on future projections is a distraction to this moment and its opportunities. While maintaining awareness of the larger context of this time of prophecy, we know that this here and now is where our life is playing out; rather than projecting imaginations into the future, this is the moment of empowerment.

Also, in a broader sense, if we contemplate the theme of Apocalypse that is being associated with the 2012 prophecy, we can learn a lot by looking into the original meaning of the word Apocalypse: Revealing of that which has been hidden; lifting of the veil; uncovering. We can see this phenomena in our world as the covers are being lifted, the veils are thinning, and we are being shown many dimensions that have previously been hidden. The corruption and insanity within ourselves and those in positions of power in the world is being rapidly exposed, as is the profound and untapped depths of beauty and wisdom living within our own hearts now revealing itself!

Is 2012 associated with any rare astronomical events or alignments?

Back to John Major Jenkins' Galactic Alignment theory of the rare 26,000 year alignment between the December solstice sun with the Galactic equator (shown above). This alignment occurs as a result of the precession of the equinoxes. Precession is caused by the earth wobbling very slowly on its axis and shifts the position of the equinoxes and solstices one degree every 71.5 years. Jenkins states that because the sun is one-half of a degree wide, it will take the December solstice sun 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator. The precise alignment of the solstice point (the precise center-point of the body of the sun as viewed from earth) with the Galactic equator was calculated to occur in 1998. Thus, the Galactic Alignment "zone" is 1998 +/- 18 years = 1980 - 2016. This is "era-2012."

As Jenkins notes: "In terms of Mayan astronomy and mythology, the Dark Rift feature (which the Maya called the Black Road or Xibalba Be) lies along the galactic equator (the Milky Way) in the place where the December solstice sun will be in 2012. (More precisely, the December solstice sun will reach the southern terminus of the Dark Rift, where it touches the ecliptic in Sagittarius.) Thus, in terms of Mayan mythology, we can also describe the Galactic Alignment of era-2012 as the alignment of the December solstice sun and the Dark Rift. This entire region is targeted by the cross formed by the Milky Way and the ecliptic between Sagittarius and Scorpio.

To the Maya, The Milky Way was seen as the Tree of Life where all life came from,
depicted here as their symbol of "The World Tree"

"This Cross was also recognized by the Maya, and was called the Crossroads or Sacred Tree. This entire region is embraced by what astronomers call the 'nuclear bulge' of the Galactic Center—the center of our Milky Way galaxy. As any amateur astronomer or naked-eye star gazer knows, this nuclear bulge is recognizable without the aid of radio telescopes. It is wider and brighter than other parts of the Milky Way. So, in a general sense we can also say that the alignment in 2012 is an alignment between the December solstice sun and the Galactic Center. However, since the nuclear bulge is quite large, this definition is not as precise as saying "the alignment of the December solstice sun with the galactic equator," which occurs in the range 1980 - 2016. This is the alignment zone I refer to with the term "era-2012."

John Major Jenkins makes a fascinating link between the ancient monuments of Izapa and this World Age Renewal process we are currently amidst. As he describes one of the throne monuments of Izapa: "The birth canal between the legs of the throne figure is analogous to the dark-rift in the Milky Way. This “black cleft” feature is called by the modern Quiché Maya the Xibalba Be ...Generally, as an underworld portal, it is related to the complex of motifs assigned to the jaguar’s mouth, serpent mouths, caves, cenotes, a woman’s birth canal, temple doorways, and so on. A significant equation in this mythic complex is the “dark-rift as birth canal,” for it is through the birth canal of the Milky Way that the solstice sun will be reborn in the years around 2012." What might this imply about our World Age Rebirth process?

Jenkins offers a fascinating look into Izapa Cosmology. sharing that in the stelae you can see the Creation Myth of the Ancient Maya "Popol Vuh" playing out. As he describes one of stones: "Although eroded, it is clear that it shows a victorious ballplayer, probably one of the hero twins, standing over a demised Seven Macaw bird deity. This indicates to the viewer two things: the former god, now defeated, and the new god, newly “victorious” or newly “born.” This scene relates to the Creation myth wherein the hero twins must defeat the vain, false ruler of the previous world age, Seven Macaw, before their father, One Hunahpu, can be reborn. A lengthy examination of early Measoamerican calendrics is omitted here, which demonstrate that One Hunahpu was probably associated with the December solstice sun at Izapa... the solar god’s rebirth is inextricably involved in it’s future alignment with the Milky Way..."

Jenkins shares further: On the north side of the ballcourt, at position C, we find a solar lord sitting in the middle of a canoe with his arms outstretched. The canoe probably represents both the ballcourt and the Milky Way, toward which the ballcourt is oriented. The outstretched arms indicate a period-ending “measuring of time” event. Since the contextual orientation of the ballcourt is to the December solstice, which itself is a period ending, we might presume that the solar lord is the December solstice lord...This stela thus seems to portray the December solstice sun sitting in the middle of the Milky Way “canoe.” It is extremely interesting that the part of the Milky Way that rises over the solstice horizon to the southeast is the nuclear bulge of the Milky Way—the part of the Milky Way that contains the Galactic Center."

As Jenkins clarifies an important point: "Human beings living today have a special destiny, as Divine Plan works through the cycles of nature. But the renewal of humanity is not determined by the stars, for free will is an essential component of the spiritual evolution of consciousness. Our willing participation in these great energy shifts is required. To open up to the galactic energy of change is difficult and will transform us. But we have an opportunity to move into closer relationship with the source and center of life. The astronomical alignment does not "cause" us to grow; rather, it corresponds to a process of awakening happening in the depths of our inner being. It is the outer symbol of an essentially spiritual revolution. Nevertheless, the galactic alignment of era-2012 is an open door, inviting us to grow spiritually. To do so we must sacrifice the illusions that keep us bound to dark and limited realms of existence. Let us open to the light within and stretch our souls to the stars!"

THE VENUS TRANSIT OF 2012:

On June 6th, 2012 we will experience a rare Venus Transit where Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun.

The rare alignments of Venus moving across the disk of the Sun are clustered in pairs, and separated by about 120 years. (Four conjunctions within 234 years).

The Venus transit to come in 2012 is the 2nd half of the pair that was initiated by the Venus Transit that occurred on June 8th, 2004, which Dr. Jose Arguelles proclaimed was "the sign of the full opening of the Road to 2012."

Venus was highly revered by the Ancient Maya, and some say it was one of the most important focal points of their calendars. According to one of the only surviving Mayan books, the Dresden Codex, the beginning of the Great Cycle on August 11, 3114 BC is referred to as the "Birth of Venus," so it is no suprise that the end of the cycle would be marked by a Venus transit!

Venus is associated with the Goddess, Love, Beauty, Art, and the Heart. Therefore, these 2004/2012 transits of Venus as thought to herald the Return of the Divine Feminine. Since the previous transit in 2004, we are now in this time which can be called the "Cauldron of the Venus Returns," or "The Doorway of Venus,” and there is much possibility to open greater gateways to our heart and receive to the Venus energy which can assist us in bringing new opportunities, new paradigms, and birthing new archetypes.

As astrologer Richard Giles shares: "The eight years that pass between each occultation are fecund processing moments for new ideas and world change. Previous cycles show that global communications and a shift in consciousness regarding the scope and nature of the world are all part of these transits. The other focus is Venus's role as female entity and ruler of the feminine, the creative and as an artistic channel for new breakthroughs... Venus is the female love principal in astrology. It's the primordial Yin energy of our system. It's harmony, beauty, sociability, co-operation, women and the goddess energy. So when Venus aligns with the Sun (from our Earth's perspective), the principle life force is united with love, female energy, harmony and the goddess principle.

SOLAR FLARES:

The consensus seems to be that it is important we consider solar flares as potentially very important components in this 2012 prophecy. As 2012 messenger, Dr. Jose Arguelles shared in recent interviews, he feels there is definitely a possibility that solar flares could take out satellites and wipe out the electric power grid - greatly affecting our modern civilization which is totally reliant upon these technologies.

In terms of timing, it is interesting to note that the U.S. government's Space Environmental Center has determined that the peak of the next solar (sunspot) cycle is likely to be in 2011/2012. According to CNN, during these peaks in the cycle, solar flares and vast explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, shoot highly charged matter toward earth, potentially affecting airline flights, communications satellites, and electric transmissions. Currents induced in electrical transmission lines can cause blackouts.

While no one can say with any certainty if this type of occurrence will come to pass, this is definitely a hot topic among scientists who are forecasting that we are nearing the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. This is significant because we are in a whole new technological era than we were fifty years ago. According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research: "The next sunspot cycle will be 30-50% stronger than the last one...

Is 2012 just the next Y2K?

As we realize in only a matter of a few years we will be on the other side of this infamous date, we can see that if we set up December 21, 2012 with a bunch of expectations, it's quite possible we are generating another Y2K scenario in which we may find ourselves disillusioned.

Instead of relating to 12-21-2012 as a prediction of specific events, putting all our eggs in the basket of projecting onto the outcome of this one particular day, it is a wiser approach to instead perceive the Solstice 2012 as a synchronization point; a marker in time signalling both the close of a huge era of human history and the dawning of a World Age Renewal, opening for new possibilities to emerge...

As we can honor that on this day, the Ancient 5,125 year Long Count Odometer of the Maya resets itself at 13.0.0.0.0, coming back to its sacred Zero point, we can see Solstice 2012 as a gateway that marks entrance into a new world age cycle - one that shall indeed unfold over generations and generations to come.

As we align our intentions and hearts on this day, let us realize that rather than instant-enlightenment, serving as instruments of a New World Era is a lifetime position that will keep flowering through our dedication, sincerity and discipline to live in harmony with our greatest potential. The events of our shared planetary journey will keep revealing themselves, there are so many variables no one can predict our course, it's all up to how conscious we can become as a species...

As Carlos Barrios said: "The change won't happen exactly on this day because it's not changed like a flash of light...[Dec 21, 2012] is just the beginning...It will take years..."

Rather than looking to decipher what physical events may or may not occur with this cycle shifting, we can also relate to 2012 as a code that is signalling us to look within ourselves and awaken to the higher and deeper dimensions of our being. For we are the vessels through which a new human culture is emerging, and the transformation of the world's soul is crying out to all human hearts! It is our work to keep shining the light of awareness, helping each other become more conscious of how we are navigating as a planetary family, and supporting each other to keep growing into our potential. As we walk this prophetic path together, may we continue our journey of finding right relationship with each other, our Earth and our Cosmos.

Where does the December 21, 2012 date originally come from?


The Ancient Classic Maya Temples of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico

As a catalyst in our collective mind, the 2012 code now reflects the convergence of universal wisdom from many cultural and religious prophecies of peoples from around the planet. However, the specific timing originates as a gift from the ancient Maya, the world's supreme timekeepers.

At their peak, roughly 1500 years ago, the Ancient Maya utilized 20 calendars simultaneously - weaving a holistic system that tracked small cycles and vast cycles. From sunspots, to eras of consciousness, Venus patterns to eclipses, agriculture to prophecy, their calendars unite biological, physical cycles with invisible cycles, earth cycles with galactic cycles - using the mathematics of Nature which shows us the microscosm mirrors the macrocosm.

The December 21, 2012 date is specifically referring to the completion of the Ancient Maya's Long Count Calendar, known as the 13 Baktun Cycle, or Great Cycle. The research of John Major Jenkins reveals the Maya birthplace of this calendar system as Izapa, which is located near the Guatemala border in the Mexican State of Chiapas.

According to this calendar, Earth entered a new "creation cycle" on August 11, 3114 BC which is written in long count notation as 13.0.0.0.0. This cycle is 1,872,000 days long, and every day from that beginning point was measured in terms of Mayan cycles called kin, uinal, tun, katuns and baktuns. Many ancient Mayan monuments are carved with long count dates as this is the way they tracked huge cycles of time and kept chronological records of important historical events.

On the Long Count Calendar, December 20, 2012 would be written as 12.19.19.17.19. At the completion of the cycle, December 21, 2012 the cosmic odometer resets and we return to 13.0.0.0.0, coming back to a sacred Zero point, re-birthing into a New Cycle.

Some MesoAmerican systems say at that point of the New Cycle, we will be starting the 5th World cycle, whereas others say we will be beginning the 6th Sun.

According to 13th Generation Maya Priest, Grandfather Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, the calendars were originally given to the Maya peoples by the 4 Original Prophets from the Stars. They are very confident of the celestial origins of their sacred time science.

As evidence of the cosmic intelligence of the Ancient Maya, Maya Elder Hunbatz Men presents the chart shown below. He shares:

"This is a picture of the Yucatan, Peninsula in Mexico. You can see how many Maya Ceremonial Centers are perfectly and geometrically aligned and the distances between one another were mathematically calculated so that they were the same. Thus, when we performed a ritual in any of the Mayan temples, it would resonate mathematically in all the other temples."

What are the living Maya saying about 2012?

Tz'utujil Maya Women from Guatemala

2012 is the completion of the ancient Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar Cycle - but the Maya of today no longer track the Long Count Cycle. Conservative estimates say its been at least 500 years since they have, since at least the time of the Spanish Invasion. The last Long Count Calendar inscription recorded in stone is from 909 AD, more than a thousand years ago.

Currently, there are at least 7 million Maya living today. The largest populations of contemporary Maya inhabit the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas, and in the Central American countries of Belize, Guatemala, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.

Depending on who you talk to, one can find evidence that some living Maya endorse the 2012 date as being of critical importance, while some may not be aware of it, or do not necessarily agree with its projected significance. Some think it is a matter for the shamans and priests, and do not relate to the westernized apocalyptic themes we've married the 2012 date to.

To share one example, take Gerardo Barrios who began a quest over 20 years ago of travelling to different villages in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras, eventually interviewing nearly 600 Maya Timekeepers.

Sharing his reflections, Gerardo Barrios states:

"We are now in a transition period called the 'Cycle of the merge of the dark and the light.'...The cycle of the light will come in full force on 12/21/2012...Mother Earth as a living entity will transcend to another level or frequency of consciousness and a new and special era will begin...This era will be very positive. 'Let all beings rise. Let not one or two stay behind.'...The times are here for total brotherhood...The spirit beings, different philosophies, different races must begin to weave together all knowledge to create the tapestry of harmony and balance..."

Sacred Mayan Fire Ceremony

From a different perspective, author Kenneth Johnson writes "...most contemporary Maya continue to view these cycles of World Emergence purely in terms of 'cycles within cycles...' Many are aware that the 2012 end date was supposed to signify such a transition, but they are not altogether convinced that this date is as meaningful as we Westerners think it is."

Along these lines, Grandfather Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, 13th Generation Quiche Maya Priest and Head of The National Mayan Council of Indigenous Elders in Guatemala representing 440 Maya tribes, is hesitant to pinpoint 2012 as the certain date of destiny. He is weary of putting false claims on the exact timing of a process he knows is in motion. However, according to Drunvalo Melchizadek whom he authorized to speak to the world on his behalf, he has recently declared that we are now in the Window of the End of Time, meaning the closing of the Great cycle is upon us. He has said that due to the fulfillment of the Hopi Blue Star prophecy on October 24, 2007, brought by Comet Holmes, it is likely that the transformation to a New Cycle of the Sun will occur sometime between now and 2016.

When we visited Guatemala last winter, we had the honor of participating in sacred fire ceremony with Grandfather Don Alejandro (who is shown in the photo on the right). After the ceremony, he shared with a small circle of us in regards to 2012. He stated that amongst the Maya of today, they can't collectively say for sure when the cycle is ending because almost all of their calendars and books (and countless sacred artifacts) were brutally destroyed in 1562 by the Roman Catholic Bishop De Landa. (Only 3 Maya codices remain intact.)

According to him, the changes that are coming are already happening now and could culminate very soon, or perhaps over the next several generations. He doesn't want the people of the world to have expectations that lead them to say that nothing ended up happening in 2012 and discounting the wisdom of the Maya ancestors.

Specific dates aside, Don Alejandro shares the possibility that our shift into the new cycle of the Sun will be marked by a time of 30-70 hours of prolonged darkness. If this occurs, he stresses the importance of us not fearing this darkness, remaining calm and knowing it will pass. According to Drunvalo Melchizadek, he also mentions the possibility of a physical pole shift of the Earth's axis.

Don Alejandro's message always points out the supreme necessity of us changing our modern ways and taking responsibility for the "great contamination" that man has perpetuated, so that we can find our way of living in harmony with Earth. "We don’t want any more wars, no more death, no more nuclear testing, no more chemicals, because the warming up of the planet is unbearable to Mother Earth. If we don’t change, sooner or later, she will strike back with millions of lives lost."

All of this said, he also shares that this shifting ages is a positive thing that we should be very happy about: "So for us the time that is coming to us, is a time of change. And for us the Mayas, it is joy and happiness. They are saying in 2012 that this will end. So for us, the Mayans, if it were to happen in 2012, oh, how happy it would be. And our Creator, he will leave seeds from different regions for the future. So you, when that time comes, you will be prepared."

From his heart, Don Alejandro implores us to not be afraid in the face of these Unknowns. As he said to us directly, "Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. The Children of the Sun will survive." He was adament that the Maya prophecies are not saying the destruction of the planet is coming, and the elders are not pleased with the spreading of rumors of misleading information that is creating more fear in the people. As he said, "...it is only a change of a cycle of the Sun. It is not the first time this is going to happen nor will it be the last."

As Grandfather Don Alejandro shares, the essence of the Maya Prophecy says: “Arise, all arise, not one nor two groups be left behind, together we will see once again the place from where we have come from.”

As Yucatec Maya Elder Hunbatz Men comments: "According to the prophecies, in the year 2013 the first stage of higher understanding will begin. If we are willing to work with our subconscious, we will then be able to reclaim the information that has been impregnated in the deepest parts of our being. In this way, the ancient knowledge will rise again." Likewise, Don Alejandro shared that the wisdom of the Ancestors has never left, and that the Return of their Knowledge into our lives is imminent.

In regards to 2012, a man named Carlos Barrios who was born in Guatemala and trained as a Mayan Ajq'ij has a lot to share. Here is an excerpt from "The Book of Destiny" by Carlos Barrios:

"For the Maya, the famous date of December 21, 2012 marks the beginning of the fifth cycle of 5,200 years called Job Ajaw, or The Fifth Sun. This potentially apocalyptic date is the beginning of a change in consciousness, a time when a new socioeconomic order will arise in harmony with Mother Earth.

"Just as the world did not end in the year 2000, at the start of the millenium, it won't end with the advent of Job Ajaw in 2012. An unfounded fear was created before the new millenium by religious leaders who based their theories on misguided interpretations of ancient religious texts and predictions made by famous prophets. The same fear is rising again. The true guardians of this tradition have never been consulted about this date, but we are here to say: December 21, 2012 will not be the end of the world or the end of humanity. In fact, it will be the start of a period in which harmony, understanding, peace, and wisdom can reign. The prophecy says that during Job Ajaw we will move to a harmonious Natural Order so that both the Earth and humanity can attain the next stage of evolution.

"We are reaching a transcendent period as predicted by many of the world's great traditions and visionaries. Now we have the opportunity to ascend spiritually together with Mother Earth. The Maya speak of such prophetic times when either this transcendence will be possible or we will self-destruct.

"Mayan prophecies of events during this period have been astonishingly exact. The prophecies regarding the war in Iraq, the destruction of the Twin Towers, conflicts such as those between India and Pakistan and between Israel and Palestine, the tsunamis, earthquakes and floods are just a few examples. The predictions that have not yet come to pass are even more catastrophic - but there is time to change the outcome! Our Grandfathers warn of calamities and the possible destruction of a large part of humankind so that we can change such events. The Mayan Elders want to caution us that we must live in harmony, become aware, stop polluting, and safeguard our natural resources. The damage we have already done to Mother Earth is more than obvious.

"Very little attention has been paid to the importance of earlier cycles, particularly the end of this one, Kajib Ajaw, or the Fourth Sun. It is during this period - right now - that we run the greatest risk of large scale conflicts and natural disasters. The catastrophic side of the prophecy has unfortunately been misinterpreted as an inexorable, apocalyptic event. It is within our power, however, to prevent this from happening. We may be facing the self-destruction of much of humanity, but an ever-increasing number of us are also becoming aware of the damage we have caused to the environment and what we must do to change this...

"The imminent arrival of the new prophetic cycle Job Ajaw, a period of 5,200 years beginning on December 21, 2012, will bring future generations their rightful legacy: a return to a state of awareness."

In Steep Uphill Climb to 2012, Carlos Barrios' message shares that "...the dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed or overpowered... 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 (shown on the left) 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. 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.

As Mr. Barrios shared: 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."

In ancient cosmology, ether is understood as the fifth element that filled all space beyond the sphere of the moon, constituting the substance of the stars and planets!

Maya Elder Hunbatz Men shares: "...as humanity awakes to the spirit in all matter, I have absolute hope that we will begin to live and work in a sacred way again. We did not come this far through the burden of time and space to end it in this way. We are here to be victorious. We are here to witness and participate in the great celebration.

"It is funny humanity as a whole feels that we have no impact on this reality. How can we believe so little of ourselves that we feel we are just blowing in the wind, as if by accident, just witnessing or being a victim of this reality. The big issues we face today on Mother Earth are directly related to our lack of self-esteem. Isn't it funny that clearing up old self-esteem issues could save the Planet! Think about it! We need to realize, honor and respect our creative force and realize we are creators. We hold this reality together. We are the keepers of the Earth. When we truly honor ourselves and our awesome creative power we will again live in a sacred way where we honor all life. When we honor all life the essence/spirit of all living things will manifest.

"Humanity is waking up, and in this important year we are riding the crest of a very big wave. We are living on the edge. We are living between worlds. How we live, the choices we make, the sensitivities we develop, and our love and honor for all life will see us through."

Hunbatz Men, (shown above) along with the Grand Maya Itza Council, has declared their response to the upcoming 2012 synchronization is to activate 52 sacred sites around the planet. As they said: "Every Full Moon we are going to make a spiritual journey to every one of the sacred sites on the list, starting our first ceremony on November 13, 2008, and continuing that way until carrying out the last ceremony on December 28, 2012..."

Is there evidence of the 2012 date on ancient Mayan monuments?

With all the talk about 2012, there is only one ancient stone monument with Mayan inscriptions that depicts the end of the current 13-baktun era in 2012: Tortuguero Monument #6, erected around 670 AD in Tabasco, Mexico. By decoding this inscription, archeologists where able to determine the end of the 13 Baktun Cycle Long Count Calendar Cycle is December 21, 2012; 4 Ahau. This ancient monument links our modern world to a larger, mythic story of unfolding.

The Tortuguero monument is reported as originally being a T-shaped monument covered with inscriptions. Shown here is the right-hand "wing." Sadly, the left "wing" of the monument is missing, the central section is partly effaced, and the part where the prophecy is recorded has a big crack through it, making full translation virtually impossible!

How did the modern world first find out about the
2012 prophecy?

Dr. Jose Arguelles is the man who is responsible for "turning the eyes of the world to the Maya." Bringing news of December 21, 2012 as being a sort of cosmic alarm clock that we can already hear ringing in our collective psyche, his best-selling book, Mayan Factor (1987) was the first of its kind to detail the cosmology of the ancient Maya and their spectacular fractal mathematics, while also broadcasting the fact of their vast Long Count Calendar Cycle ending in our lifetimes.

As a key point, Mayan Factor was published with the specific intention of alerting everyone to a very important event in 1987 which he referred to as "The Harmonic Convergence." According to Dr. Arguelles, on Aug 16-17 1987, we completed Quetzalcoatl's Prophecy of the 13 Heavens and the 9 Hells. Each of the cycles was 52 years long. The 13 Heavens began in 843 AD (right at the close of the Classic Maya era) and the 9 Hells began in 1519, which exactly coincided with when Cortez landed in Mexico and began conquering the indigenous people.

The actual event of the Harmonic Convergence was the world's first globally synchronized prayer and meditation for peace event (orchestrated pre-internet!), with people around the world gathering at sacred sites to anchor intentions and stabilize a field of human coherency so as to support our conscious opening to the next stage of our evolutionary unfolding.

Dr. Arguelles, as well as several indigenous elders, point to the Harmonic Convergence of 1987 as being a critical point within the larger Mayan Prophecy, as it triggered the final chapter of the Great Cycle - the period of 1987-2012.

Dr. Arguelles points out this important moment of fulfilling Quetzalcoatl's Prophecy was reflected by the appearance of SuperNova 1987A, the first to have occurred in over 400 years. Shown on the left, he calls it the Quetzalcoatl SuperNova.

Arguelles clarifies that the term "Harmonic Convergence" should be thought of as referring to this entire 25-year process. This last segment is seem as a phase in which we are truly "in-between" worlds. In other words, the old paradigm world founded on ignorance, fear and separation is in process of dying and fighting for its life, and the new paradigm world founded on wisdom and conscious interconnection is descending into our inner worlds bringing great inspiration, but it does not really have any concrete footing in our outer world yet. In these times there is ever-growing awareness and innovative solutions emerging, but the tension of the opposites is great as the forces of the old paradigm are still trying to obscure the light and suppress the new cultural models and sustainable lifestyle systems that are seeking to take root.

In this in-between phase that we are in right now, we feel and see the manifestation of great extremes. It is said by many that the acceleration process we are currently in will continue exponentiating its intensity, and that the great challenges and immense obstacles may continue to surmount as we deepen in this internal and external process of shifting World Ages.

Rather than making specific claims about what life might be like on the other side of a certain date, it is about having a larger context for these times we are in, a comprehension of this era of great cosmic testing. Knowing that we are enduring the closing of a huge cycle can give us great compassion and courage to perservere.

Rather than putting all our attention on the old civilizational constructs that are dying and gasping for breath, let us direct our attention to that which is seeking to be born through us, calling to us from the inside out. Let us not be surprised or intimidated by the darkness of these times, rather let us look to the light that is dawning within our hearts, knowing that the flowering of our human consciousness is guiding us to incarnate a new era of harmony upon our Earth.

It is possible that the Ancient Maya forsaw this time of Biospheric Crisis?

Indeed! It's as though the calendar cycles of the Ancient Maya recorded their ancient premonition of the trials to come in our modern times...

It is possible the ancient Maya's prophecy highlights our modern crisis in consciousness and the process of our collective awakening?

Absolutely!

The ending of this huge calendar cycle is asking us to confront the reality that our human-planetary equation has become out of balance. At this point in the cycle, humanity's collective conscience is calling to us all. We can no longer overlook the many design flaws inherent in our modern lifestyles that dangerously neglect to account for our interdependence with Nature in all its forms. We are being inspired to transform our self-centered materialism into a respect for life, moving from ignorance to awareness.

As we become increasingly aware of how we are each personally impacting our global culture, we realize our responsibility to awaken so that we can participate lucidly in this process. This awakening process we are in is a whole-systems one. To survive and thrive in the face of all the shifts that are upon us, our only real option is for us to personally and collectively change, shift, grow, evolve, mutate into a more aware species that is increasingly dedicated and courageously becoming conscious of how to operate on earth in greater harmony with the One Sphere of Life. We need each other in this process, our work together is to refine our choices and attitudes, knowing we affect each other intimately, and all our Relations.

As we ponder what the Mayan codes in stone may signify in our lives - exploring the meaning of 2012 and seeing what it's trying to point us to - let us keep in mind that the calendars of the Ancient Maya are understood to be communicating not just physical cycles, but mental and spiritual cycles of unfolding as well. Let us hold the possibility that the completion of this vast cycle of time is signalling an emerging human willingness to align with participating in a world of health and harmony for all.

It is clear that we are being called to re-define our human culture, so that we understand our roles as stewards of our Earth and creative emenations of an evolutionary spiral of consciousness that is unfolding in natural time. As we are receptively learning how to cooperate once again with the Laws of Nature, remembering our interdependance, we are opening to our deepest potential as a species, stepping into our power as creative artists here to beautify our shared Life!

What is the connection between calendars and consciousness?

A calendar is a lens through which we perceive our world. As the ancient Buddhist teaching states: "As Viewed, So Appears." This mirrors the findings of Quantum Physics which tell us that the observer affects the observed, there is no separation. It is wise to understand that the calendars that guide a society are a lens which create a framework of human perception, and therefore human culture. When we look through the lens of the ancient Long Count Calendar of the Maya, we see that we are nearing the transition from one world epoch to the next. From this vantage, all the signs of this process can be found as clearly evident to us. Without question, we are living in unprecedented times. In this modern moment, things have never been so accelerated as they are now, changed as fast as they are now, and there has never been so much at stake in how we collectively navigate the opportunities of this now.

Conversely, when we look through the lens of our modern 12-month calendar - what do we see? This commonly accepted framework of time generally has us referencing all the days of our lives in terms of the nearest commerical holidays on the rise, and whether or not it's a workday or a weekend. What is the date? Oh, it's Saturday, October 24, 2009. This lens highlights that it's supposedly been 2009 years since the birth of Jesus and that (in the United States at least) we are nearing Halloween, which of course means Thanksgiving and Christmas are soon to follow. It's Saturday, so there is a collective license to party and unwind before heading back to the grind on Monday.

The ever-inspiring grid of 12-month Gregorian time

As a society in great need of self-reflection and transformation, it is important that we ask - does this calendar lens offer us any real inspiration or cosmic direction? Does it remind us of our truest nature or move us to contemplate the meaning and purpose of our lives? Does it guide us to synchronize in harmony with the cycles of the Earth, Moon, Sun and Stars? Does it orient us towards sensing and respecting the sacred nature of all existence? Does it guide us to connect to our deepest potential?

One might think it is impossible for a calendar to serve in these ways - but think again, because as a global society, we have simply been conditioned by the unquestioned use of the irregular, 12-month calendar lens to accept its limitations and linear script of reality as the only language and reference point for relating to time and navigating its cycles. However, we are outgrowing its outdated program. As an evolving humanity, we need to transcend these calendrical confines and look at our time on this Earth through a new lens which serves us better at this crucial moment we find ourselves in!

With that in mind, let us highlight the work of Dr. Jose Arguelles who is one of the main people responsible for alerting humanity to the treasures and wisdom of the ancient Mayan time science. Dr. Arguelles has dedicated his life to helping people understand the central role that calendars play in affecting our consciousness, instilling societal programs, steering our culture, and upholding paradigms. Having invested decades of study into the ancient Maya and their calendars,mathematics, prophecies and cosmology, he declares that the essential message of the 2012 prophecy is the need for humanity to move into a new paradigm by Returning To Living In Natural Time.

Dr. Jose Arguelles, PhD

Dr. Arguelles has illuminated the world regarding the history and affect that the 12-Month calendar has had on narrowing and stunting our perceptions, and his vast body of work is founded on what he calls "The Discovery of the Law of Time." In essence, what he is trying to point out to all of us is that humanity is currently operating on an "artificial timing frequency" that is held in place by the 12-month calendar and its counterpart the 60-minute mechanical clock, called the "12:60 timing frequency."

Arguelles reminds us that we are the only species that is living and operating by a man-made sense of time that has actually placed us apart from and out of phase the rest of the Biosphere. Dr. Arguelles' findings demonstrate that the mentality engendered by artificial time is summarized by the motto "Time is Money," keeping us locked into a destructive, materialistic paradigm, to the detriment of the rest of the natural world.

Dr. Arguelles' prescription for returning to harmony and laying the foundation for a new cultural program and paradigm is to align ourselves with the "natural timing frequency," called the "13:20 timing frequency" that places us back in phase with the cycles of the Earth and Cosmos and synchronizes us with our own deepest selves.

In this light, he and his former partner Lloydine Arguelles have inspired a global movement that is now being activated by people in over 90 countries who are choosing to grow beyond the status quo 12-month business calendar and instead utilize the 13-Month/28-day Natural Time Calendar as the template that frames and informs our perception of time and its sacred unfolding.

The 13-Moon Year is understood as a Spiral in which each month is 28-days long

As a truly life-changing tool, this new time lens is a solar-lunar-galactic calendar that is based on a universal application of the mathematics of the Ancient Mayan Calendar system. Rather than being a traditional Mayan Calendar that connects one specifically to the culture of the Maya people and their lands, history and religion, the 13-Month Calendar is specifically designed as a map to guide modern humanity to live in harmony with the natural time frequency, and thus awaken out of our destructive modern paradigm of materialsm and disconnection from nature.

As Dr. Jose Arguelles writes in "Time and The Technosphere: "The ancient Maya prophesied their own destruction. Therefore, within the prophecies of the Chilam Balam they laid the seeds of their own reconstruction - but not simply as Maya. The reconstruction had to be planetary, for their destruction in the sixteenth century was also an act of planetary consequence - the plunging of the entire world into the prison of artificial, mechanized time. The fulfillment of the prophecies along with the new dispensation of time (The 13-Moon Calendar) had to occur before the end of the cycle, 2012."

Part of the power of this new calendar is that it unites the secular and the sacred. The 13-Month calendar offers us a practical way to replace the 12-month model by giving us a new way to relate to our year cycle, and the passing of months and weeks - entirely transforming our perception!

Additionally, it offers another layer of inspiration in which every day imparts one of 260 unique "galactic signatures" which describe a mental/spiritual focus that is concentrated on by people in 90 countries as a catalyst for self-reflection and attunement to the synchronistic nature of life. For as we live in natural time, the natural order of life reveals its patterns and synchroncities become more conscious!

As a synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern revelation, this new calendar is offering us a new lens, a new context, a new paradigm model to support the unfolding of a new culture that is in phase with the intelligence of nature.

Truly, it is easier than it may sound to learn the basics of this new time system. As we learn this new language of harmony, we realize that not only are the codes of natural time alive - speaking and revealing themselves through the calendar - but they themselves are reflections of nature's codes that live with our own bodies and minds!

The 20 glyphs and 13 Tones of Creation, which are the foundation of the ancient Maya time science,
are correlated to our 20 fingers and toes and 13 main joints in our bodies!

As Rita Pitka Blumenstein, one of The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers said: "If we understand the 13, the world will become balanced."

How does the Ancient Mayan Calendar Cycle reflect the larger picture of this planetary transformation process we are in right now?

This image shows Dr. Arguelles' revelation of the 13 Baktun Cycle of the Ancient Maya
as a fractal time map depicting the progressive unfolding of all of recorded History.
Click here to view this image large

As the Ancient Mayan Time Map reveals, the start of the Great 5,125 year Cycle in 3114 BC coincides with the beginning of recorded History. Since then, as a human community, we have been in an ongoing acceleration process known as Civilization.

As Dr. Jose Arguelles writes in Time and The Technosphere: "August 13, 3114 BC is as precise and accurate as one can get for a beginning of history: the first Egyptian dynasty is dated to ca 3100 BC; the first 'city,' Uruk, in Mesopotamia, also ca 3100 BC; the Hindu Kali Yuga, 3102 BC; and most interestingly, the division of time into 24 hours of 60 minutes each and each minute into 60 seconds [and the division of the circle into 360 degrees], also around 3100 BC, in Sumeria. If the beginning of history was so accurately placed, then must not the end of history, December 21, 2012 also be as accurate?"

The Ancient Maya were extremely precise in their time measurements, and their calendars reflect the fractal intelligence of Nature. The 5,125 year cycle is made up of 13 smaller cycles, known as the "13 Baktun Count." Each baktun cycle is 394 years long, or 144,000 days.

Each baktun is understood as its own historical epoch or Age within the Great Creation Cycle, carrying a specific destiny for the evolution of those who incarnated in each baktun. For example, almost all of the Mayan inscriptions were seeded precisely during Baktun 9 (435-830 AD). This era is known as the time of the Classic Maya. After this point, around 830 A.D., the great Mayan centers were abandoned and their thriving culture mysteriously disappeared. To this day, no one can verify or prove why they left or where they went.

Pacal Votan (603 - 683 AD) ruled the Kingdom of Nah Chan Palenque

The Classic Maya of Baktun 9 were of a specific destiny, distinct from Maya of other times. As Dr. Jose Arguelles writes, "In 830 A.D. the engineering team departed back to space, back to the other dimensions from which the Maya keep their watch on things. Slowly the terrestrial Maya melted back into the jungles. The time of darkness was setting in. Sure enough the conquerors came. By 830 A.D. Warrior tribes who took the ancient name of Toltec, which means Master Builder, entered the Yucatan. War and human sacrifice were introduced."

Earth and her inhabitants are currently travelling through the 13th baktun cycle - the final period of 1618-2012 AD. This cycle is known both as "the triumph of materialism" and "the transformation of matter." It seems the ancients accurately predicted that this final baktun would be a time of great forgetting in which we would drift very far from our sense of oneness with nature and experience a kind of collective amnesia. Like a memory virus in which we begin to believe the limited reality of appearances and grow dense to the spiritual essence which animates this world, so humanity's egoic domination has grown during this cycle.

Dr. Jose Arguelles makes the point that this 13th Baktun has essentially been "captured by mechanical time." For example, it is extremely relevant that we entered this 13th baktun right after establishing the world wide coordination of Pope Gregory XIII's 12-month calendar system (1582) as well as the perfection of 12-hour 60-minute mechanical clock (1600), which had been evolving for centuries. These are no small matters - in fact the planet and the human mind have never been the same since their introduction into our culture. According to Dr. Arguelles, these 2 instruments are what manifested humanity's "error in time" which is the following of artificial instruments of time that served to separate humankind apart from the rest of nature, operating by our own false timing frequency, to the detriment of the natural world.

THE 12-MONTH CALENDAR:

The 12-month Gregorian calendar is not based on logic, science, or nature. It denies and covers up the true annual human biological cycle conserved in the body of woman.

As Broughton Richmond wrote in Time Measurement and Calendar Construction: "If the Julian/Gregorian calendar was to be offered as a new device for measuring time, we, with our present knowledge and state of living, would reject is as something utterly impractical, lacking in harmony and order, unbalanced and irregular, too clumsy a calendar to make calculations by..." It is time to ask: Why do we use an instrument of imperfect measure to coordinate the affairs of the world?

The Gregorian calendar is the current world standard because of the forceful issuance of this system upon conquered (indigenous) peoples who lost their land as well as their religious freedoms to the Roman Vatican's Catholic Church. As Dr. Arguelles shares: "Between the Doctrine of Discovery and the Gregorian Calendar Reform, under the aegis of the Church, the Europeans conquered and colonized virtually the entire New World - North and South America...The historical context in which this calendar became the fixed standard is of the greatest significance."

The Gregorian calendar is a product of its predecessors - Julius Caesar's calendar and the earlier Roman Empire calendar, being practically identical to them, with the exception of its name and leap-day rule.

Essentially we have been using this flawed and limited 12-month model of time for over 2000 years, not questioning its impact on our minds and our global society.

Meanwhile, we need to realize that a calendar is the central organizing instrument of our global society. The way we frame and relate to time impacts our minds, every day.

THE MECHANICAL CLOCK:

The clock was the first automatic machine -
going on to become the heart of all machine technology to come.

As George Woodcock wrote in 1944: "The clock, as Lewis Mumford has pointed out, represents the key machine of the machine age, both for its influence on technology and its influence on the habits of men. Technically, the clock was the first really automatic machine that attained any importance in the life of men. Previous to its invention, the common machines were of such a nature that their operation depended on some external and unreliable force, such as human or animal muscles, water or wind.

"It is true that the Greeks had invented a number of primitive automatic machines, but these where used, like Hero's steam engine, for obtaining 'supernatural' effects in the temples or for amusing the tyrants of Levantine cities. But the clock was the first automatic machine that attained a public importance and a social function. Clock-making became the industry from which men learnt the elements of machine making and gained the technical skill that was to produce the complicated machinery of the industrial revolution."

The presence of the clock gave birth to the notion that time lies outside our bodies - that it can be tracked by a machine, and that we can sit and watch it "fly" by tick-tock as though it is something linear, containable, and separate from the organic, flowing process of life. The adherence to the clock for our sense of time and timing is noted as the greatest obstacle to allowing the full telepathic abilities of the human to flower.

"The clock turns time from a process of nature into a commodity that can be measured and bought and sold like soap or sultanas. And because, without some means of exact time keeping, industrial capitalism could never have developed and could not continue to exploit the workers, the clock represents an element of mechanical tyranny in the lives of modern men more potent than any individual exploiter or any other machine... Now the movement of the clock sets the tempo men's lives - they become the servant of the concept of time which they themselves have made, and are held in fear, like Frankenstein by his own monster." -George Woodcock

As a 6-year old girl once said: "The clock wants to turn everybody into a machine."

THE CARTESTIAN GRID:

Next came the Cartesian Coordinate Rectilinear Grid System (1637) which went on to establish the foundational platform of all modern math and science. Thanks to Rene Descartes (the man infamous for his quote "I think therefore I am,") the ceiling of perception validated only the reality of the 3 dimensions of physical space. The coordinates of X,Y, and Z rendered the fourth dimension obsolete from our worldview. Beyond the 3 dimensions of what we can physically sense, the fourth dimension is the invisible dimension of mind and spirit in which all is unified. When we are disconnected from the fourth dimension, because we perceive that everything is separate from everything else, our values and focus as a society become heavily materialistic.

Another very important event that occurred at that moment of adopting the Cartesian model of reality, was that time became symbolized by the little letter t, meaning it was reduced from its qualitative essence to that of a quantity. The mind who adopted the lens of the linear grid also adopted the limited perception of time as a 3rd dimensional linear progression of pure duration.

Our societal paradigms have continued to operate with these limitations in place. Thus if something can not be seen, touched, or proven with measurements, it does not, in effect, exist.

Through the Cartesian lens, Nature itself has become reduced to pure quantifiable resources - no longer a living qualitative aspect of ourselves, but now something outside of ourselves which we observe, analyze and ultimately come to exploit, manipulate, dominate, toxify, and even destroy or extinguish. As Rene Descartes stated plainly,"I perceived it to be possible to arrive at knowledge highly useful in life...and thus render ourselves the lords and possessors of nature."

The Cartesian model that has been passed down for centuries is like a mental spell that has kept us collectively trapped in the 3rd-dimension. We can see its prevalence even in the ways our modern cities are laid out in grids, reflecting and re-inforcing linearization as normal. As the psyche of modern humanity has erroneously perceived the Universe as a giant, soul-less, linear machine, we have lost touch with the simple yet vast omnipresent magical intelligence and benevolence of Nature.

We must humble ourselves and recognize the Cartesian scientific model is not only outdated, but it is the foundation of our collective mental illness that has motivated our ongoing self-destructive actions. We must admit that as a species, we are now obsessed with the physical dimension to the point of dangerous materialsm and epidemic depression resulting from being disconnected from the spiritual, invisible dimensions of Life.

This Living Prophecy is inviting us to awaken from our cosmic amnesia and embrace the unifying Essence that underlies and animates all of Life in the Cosmos. Let us stop separating Spirit and Matter, and let us instead learn how to unify the physical with the invisible domains of the mind, heart and spirit. In this way, we can create technologies and social and scientific models that are in harmony with Nature, while also honoring and nurturing the inner, deepest nature of our own humanity.

In alignment with the Spirit of the Maya, this Prophecy is asking us to Return to Living in Harmony with Natural Time; to Return to being synchronized with the universal flow. We are being called to evolve beyond our man-made artificial versions of time - the mechanical clock and 12-month irregular calendar that numb us to the sacred intelligence of time and its cycles. We are being invited to utilize a calendar that will assist us in having a new mindset as we close this cycle of History and prepare for the possibilities of Post-History. The 13-Moon/28-day calendar is now in use in over 90 countries around the world by people who are choosing to break the spell of artificial time and participate in the fulfillment of prophecy!

How can we Return to Living in Natural Time?  

"For cultures around the world, time is measured not by the ticking seconds of a clock or watch, but by seasons, rhythms and subtle shifts in nature that influence and enhance social interaction...The compartmentalized, western division of infinity into infinitesimal decimal, digital units is at odds with thousands of different ideologies that consider time a sensual perception rather than a notation.Yet watch, clock and calendar are the global norm..." -Cynthia Logan

While the modern world measures time with machines and grids, boxing and dissecting our time into little, repeating blank, bland squares that we call days, and mechanized moments we separate into hours and minutes and seconds, our timeless souls long to liberate into the organic expanse of nature's pulse. This pulse lives within us, our heartbeat naturally in synch with the rhythms of creation.

As we re-awaken to the magic of Nature's timing, let us learn how to be in the clock world, but not of it! While the clock may fill a current need as a societal tool, let us be wise in how we let it dominate or dictate our rhythms. Let us be willing to slowly but surely take our power back from it and ween ourselves off of our reliance upon it, making space in our minds for our natural telepathic timing sensibilities to flower. Let us be aware of how we speak of time - are we spending it? Killing it? Losing it? Running out of it? Never having enough time? These consensus reality expressions reveal how conditioned we are to conceive of time as a linear commodity.

This Prophecy of the Ancient Maya is calling us to realize that We are Time. We are the Living Prophecy. The Maya were the most advanced time-wizards ever to grace the Earth. Their vast calendar cycles invite us to remember that The Synchronic Order of Natural Time governs the unfolding of our lives. Time's cycles are found within our bodies and within Nature's daily rhythms and cyclic seasons. We have forgotten this, thinking that time is money or that time is the clock, or the relentless progression of work weeks and weekends.

Time is the ever-changing, unfolding Now as it synchronistically coordinates the Whole living Universe.

The more we surrender into the natural flow of life's timing, the more directly we are informed by time as the universal frequency of synchronization.

From his studies into ancient Mayan Time-Science, Dr. Jose Arguelles decoded the mathematical nature of the Synchronic Order, what he calls "The Law of Time:"

There is only one timing frequency which unifies the whole galactic order from its largest constituent to its smallest. This timing frequency is the 13:20 ratio, found within the harmonic structure of the 13 moon calendar as well as our human bodies - our 13 main joints and 20 fingers and toes.

Dr. Arguelles continues to advocate that one of the most important steps we can take in this planetary moment is to re-harmonize our minds with nature by following a harmonic 13-Month/28-day calendar. By using this ancient and intelligent standard of measure, we make a whole-systems transition into conscious resonance with our living universe.

In these intense times of uncertainty, we need all the navigational assistance available to evolve our everyday consciousness. This new paradigm tool of time invites us to interact with the patterns of color, number and symbol that express the underlying order of this shared living dream.

PLEASE NOTE:
To start using a 13-Month calendar, you can acquire a free pocket calendar from Jose Arguelles' organization: LawofTime.org, and/or you can purchase a full-color artistic wall calendar that has tons of information in it from us, SkyTime, here at 13moon.com. (It has been our honor to have been making these calendars for the past 15 years!)

Cover of the 13-Moon Calendar produced by SkyTime, 2007

Learning a new calendar may seem hard or even intimidating, but this is the time to try something new. What we're being asked to do is let go of what has been common for so long - the irregularity of the 12-month calendar - and embrace the harmony of the 13-moon calendar. There's actually children all over the world who are also learning these natural time codes, proving how easy and fun it can be!

Young girl exploring the Natural Time codes! (Photo copyright Dave Olson)

The beauty of this new calendar system is that not only does it give us a nature-based alternative to the illogical, 12-month calendar of the Roman Vatican, it also integrates the intelligence of the mathematics of the Ancient Maya.

Because of Dr. Arguelles' life-long study of the Mayan Calendars, he was able to offer a universal version of their Tzolkin calendar (known as The Dreamspell) for us to integrate into our modern lives. Called the Galactic Overlay (shown left), this radial matrix guides us to explore the 260 distinct creational energies which compose our inner and outer world.

This 260-day cycle offers us 260 unique lenses of self-reflection and inspiration, transforming our sense of Time into a realm of enchantment and adventure.

By traveling in time with this cycle, we infuse each day with a specific intention, opening our consciousness to an entire world of magical possibilities and synchronicities.

In fact, the motto of those of us around the globe who live by this New time calendar is TIME IS ART! Our mission is realize ourselves as Time Artists and to beautify Earth as a living work of Art!

Working with these sacred cycles and patterns not only reformulates our minds to be in sync with the rhythms of nature, it also helps us increasingly see into ourselves and come to know the distinct purpose that every moment holds. The tool of the 13-Moon Calendar helps us ripen our abilities to hear our inner guidance, our intuition, while also quickening our telepathic attunement to all the people around the globe who too are following this daily time map.

By speaking a language of light, this template unites us in a harmony which transcends our language barriers. By following the 13-Moon Natural Time Calendar, every day we meet eachother in the consciousness of the energy and sacred symbol of the day.

Glyphs from the 13-Moon Calendar, each depicting a distinct energy and meaning

Rather than just labeling today as "Tuesday", we focus on today as "Yellow Cosmic Seed." Which means the following day will be "Red Magnetic Serpent," and then "White Lunar Worldbridger," "Blue Electric Hand," "Yellow Self-Existing Seed," "Red Overtone Moon," etc. This assures each day is its own adventure!

The more you interact with this new calendar system, and follow your joy in learning its patterns, the more you will naturally learn about its meaning and significance in your lives. As more and more people are discovering the transformative power of this tool, it's always beneficial to come together with others who also track these cycles and dicuss what it means to live in natural time. There is also an on-line forum for people to connect at tortuga.com.

A great place to start is to decode your birthdate and find out which of the 260 different energies you personally embody. This is the best point of entry to start relating to the 20 glyphs and the 13 Tones, and it's also a great way to discover connections between your friends and family.

When a Police Officer approached them for hitch-hiking,
they offered to decode his Galactic Signature for him!

Does 2012 mark a new era of telepathic unification for humanity?

As we endure the closing of this historical cycle, we can admit that we have definitely reached a moment that is new territory for all of us - a moment of Collective Unknown. The instabilities we are now experiencing reflect the processes that are culminating as paradigms are rapidly shifting and new values continue taking root. What changes or possibilities might emerge as a product of completing this specific five thousand year cycle of History? What new attitudes might set the tone for a new Post-Historical cycle?

With all that we have manifested physically over this vast span of time, it is essential that we understand we are also now surfing a psychic wave of human self-reflective thought and awareness that has been building for more than five thousand years.

Dr. Jose Arguelles shares his vision of 2012 as a trigger point of the "Biosphere-Noosphere Transition," which is essentially a dawning of universal telepathy, becoming conscious of the one mental sphere that unites us.

As P. R. Masani writes in “The Ecology of the Noosphere”:
“...it is unscientific to accept the concept of a biosphere and to reject the concept of a noosphere. The noosphere is as much a part of earth as any other sphere, such as the hydrosphere. Indeed, by virtue of its being the cause of most ecological woes and the seat of all ecological action, the noosphere should, from the ecologist’s standpoint, be the most crucial layer. Its health and its protection from man’s own perversity should be one of his concerns. For obviously noosphericpollution is the source of all pollution.”

As Dr. Arguelles responds: "When it is said that 'noospheric pollution is the source of all pollution,' we are speaking of the role of the human thinking layer in the whole system scheme of the planetary design. This design constitutes an evolving dynamic. By bringing the noosphere into a discussion of the biospheric crisis, we are recognizing that unless we bring our minds to bear on the meaning and nature of the noosphere that we will not solve the biospheric crisis. First of all, this means recognizing the impact of the human thinking layer on all of the evolutionary and dynamic biogeochemical cycles of Earth’s system.

According to the research of Russian scientist, V.I. Vernadsky, the Biosphere-Noosphere Transition represents that moment in the evolution of self-reflective thought when a level of "planetary consciousness" is finally attained transforming the biosphere into the noosphere (mind sphere). This moment can only be attained consciously and self-reflectively.

As Vernadsky wrote: "[The Biosphere-Noosphere Transition] is the result of a climax of human self-reflective thought and industry upon the environment, resulting in an exponential change in consciousness in which all becomes revealed and known."

As Dr. Jose Arguelles shares: "Both Vladimir Vernadsky, a geochemist, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), a paleontologist, foresaw the Biosphere-Noosphere Transition, though neither envisioned the stage intermediate between the two - the Technosphere.

Because it is purely a function of the artificial timing frequency, the Technosphere - planetary sphere of technology and its field of thought - is defined by the Law of Time as the catalytic agent bringing on the Biosphere-Noosphere Transition. The final phase of the technosphere is the Cybersphere - the virtual reality of the internet and related digital computer technologies."

It seems that 2012 itself is ushering in the Noosphere by the way it is serving as a focus point for so many millions of people, more and more people around the planet joining in pondering the 2012 mystery every day. Regardless of whether we agree on the meaning of 2012 and what it is ultimately signifying, it is uniting our minds in contemplation; it is stimulating a deep process of inquiry in our collective consciousness. Like a mirror, the 2012 code wants us to see the reflection of our interconnectedness so that we can sensitize to this reality and restructure our lives to accomodate this understanding.

Although the actual physical events of the day December 21, 2012 may fall short of people's fantasmical projections, the fact is that this date has gotten the world's attention, and surely it will bring the focus and participation of the greatest number of people together in all of history. What else has ever gotten this much attention by people of all walks of life, from countless, diverse traditions? We may just find its whole purpose was to unify our minds in awareness of each other and our collective yearning to live aligned with our true nature, awakening beyond our materialistic slumber, taking our place in service to the Whole of Life.

Therefore, the 2012 synchronization of our attention may indeed catalyze the dawning of a New Era of telepathic unification, one that may deepen over the generations to come as we continue our dedicated work of fulfilling our human potential.

What are some universal themes of this Living Prophecy?

We are in a Time of Trial, a sacred testing, a Great Crossing. We must find the ways to live in harmony and peacefully coexist within our Biosphere; our survival depends upon our awakening to the Interdependence of Life. By the day, it is becoming more and more evident that business as usual is the blind path and that we must learn to navigate with greater light.

Emergence by Hopi Artist Michael Kabotie

Regardless of any specific date, as the Indigenous Elders confirm, the signs of the times are manifesting everywhere - both inside of us and in our shared world. We all feel the intensity in our lives as we progress through these changing times. Whether we look to the global economic crisis, the environmental biospheric crisis, the countless social and human crises with overpopulation, poverty, homelessness, disease, starvation, wars, all of the earth changes that are underway, etc, it is clear we are living in extremely significant times. This moment in our evolution as a species has never existed before in the way it is manifesting right now.

This living prophecy is not about one day a light all of the sudden being turned on, rather this is about the process we are in NOW, that will keep steadily unfolding. The essence of this time of prophecy is that we are living in a time of crossroads; a time of shifting world age cycles where the old world and its separation-based mentality is in the process of dying and transforming into a new world that lives and creates through our hearts.

We are in a great inbetween time right now, experiencing a tension of the opposites playing out between contracted forces of fear that seek to have false power by manipulating life with a mind founded in duality, and the expansive forces of possibility that seek to be empowered by living in harmony with life, surrending our hearts to the Mystery school of life that unites us.

An important theme is the reminder that "it is always darkest before the dawn." In other words, it is said that if we can navigate through these times of immense challenge and crisis, the eventual renewal of the world cycles will bring a gradual return of wisdom and balance.

Channeler of Light by Patricia M. Bowers

This is the theme of Return that appears in many different prophecies. Return to Balance; consciously unifying matter and spirit; The Return of the Divine Feminine. Return of the Christ Consciousness. Return of the Feathered Serpent, the snake and the bird unifying the lower, primal and higher, celestial nature within us. The Return of the Wisdom of the Ancestors and Star Beings; The Return to Living In Harmony with Nature; The Sacred Hoop of All Nations can be Whole again; the New Jerusalem emerging, the Rainbow Warriors arising; Returning to the Consciousness of the Garden; Returning to Awareness of our True Nature. Can it be? It seems there is no other quest but to awaken to our human potential. The focus of Return brings an energy of Rebirth into a new sense of wholeness.

Essentially, the idea is that we have been in a long era dominated by the linear, rational mind - split off from the body and the heart, entranced by linear time, reductionist scientific paradigms, blind materialsm, egoic competition, the dualistic mentality of right and wrong, and a fear-based sense of separation and greed resulting from a deep, societally entrenched disconnection from the sacred oneness of life.

As we gradually shift gears out of the old paradigm described above, we can eventually move into an era that will be increasingly guided by the heart and intuition integrated with the mind and body, attuned to the eternal dimension of being, supportive of new quantum sciences, living in harmony with nature and in touch with the spiritual, invisible dimensions, dedicated to authentic cooperation, tolerant of diversity and holding space for multiple viewpoints, guided by conscious awareness of our precious interdependence, desiring to serve the whole.

How can we contemplate 2012 as a collective dreaming process?

Artwork by Martín Prechtel of FloweringMountain.com

"The universe exists in the form of an ever-transforming living symbol of itself, which is to say that it is a continually unfolding, primordial revelation. Just like a dream, the universe is an instantaneous feedback loop, a living work of art, an inspired oracle that is speaking symbolically." - Paul Levy, Awakeninthedream.com

For the sake of exploration, let us for a moment step into the point of view that “Life is but a dream.” Imagine the dream-field that we are all sharing in right now, as here we are rapidly nearing the December 21, 2012 synchronization point; the end of the 13-Baktun Long Count Calendar Cycle of the Ancient Maya. At the time of this message we are about 3 years from the completion of this 5,125 year cycle which began in 3114 BC, poised to re-set at Zero Point and start a World Age Renewal.

From the perspective that life is a dream, we can realize that each of us sees and interprets things based on what we project on to the inkblot. As a meme infused into the collective consciousness, “2012” has magnetized and conjured the full spectrum of the human psyche and its fears, hopes and expectations. How do all of our projections combine together to influence our shared reality? While some are focusing on dreaming up 2012 as a start of a new positive era, others are dreaming up 2012 as a potentially cataclysmic time bringing mass destruction.

It is true we are already living in times of immense challenge and crisis, with earth changes and natural disasters right and left. However, beyond these physical factors, from a dreaming perspective, it seems important that we acknowledge the universal, instinctual fear of apocalypse and annihilation that dwells in our psyche, as it is showing us an internal fear of the end of the world. It seems likely this is reflecting our unresolved fears of our own death, and the end of our own egoic personas. This seems especially true for those of us living in westernized cultures which are completely disassociated from, and living in denial of, the actuality of our mortality - therefore robbing ourselves of the opportunties to learn from our greatest teacher. Meeting the natural reality of our human impermanence is a huge key in our spiritual deepening as a species.

This moment in our shared dream is totally charged. Together, we are on quite a ride through this chapter in modern history, living and dreaming on the edge, teetering somewhere between the extremes of extinction and illumination. We're swimming in a sea of total intensity as the biosphere becomes increasingly unstable and the human psyche becomes more and more self-reflective. What is really going on here? How do we comprehend this vast situation we are in? What is our role in these times? How are we to respond? Where are we to put our focus? How can we help positively influence our collective dreaming process?

As we take into account the Quantum nature of reality, we remember that the way we observe our current planetary dream has a "creative potency" on how our shared situation manifests.

"I am a new day rising" By Mara Berendt Friedman

All of the moments of our life are asking us - how lucid can we be? How much can we avoid self-fulfilling prophecies of doom and step into our creative power of awakening and dreaming consciously? Knowing the power our minds have in conjuring physical manifestations, are we going to invest our imagination into nightmarish, destructive scenarios or are we going to focus our inner resources on our possibilities for wholeness and integration? Like a dream, what we put our attention on grows stronger in our life...

As Paul Levy writes: "The act of imagining influences the material world, while at the same time, is reciprocally influenced by the material world in the process. We dream up the world while concurrently, in a circular, nonlinear and acausal process that exists outside of time, we are dreamed up by the world..."

In this modern moment it feels as if we've dreamed up a scene on Earth in which the acceleration of all of history is compounding within our lives, and our hearts are holding untapped depth. Each of us can help stabilize the chaos in this dream of shifting world age cycles by continuing to shine the light of awareness into our own inner darknesses, bringing healing and illumination to our wounds and insecurities.

As Robert Sky shares: "To fuse the polarities of light and dark is to accept life's opposing forces as balancing aspects of the whole. Rather than pushing away or avoiding what we fear or judge within ourselves, we can hold these unresolved aspects of our psyche in the embrace of compassion. All of us have wounds and traumas that we bear. And it is these pains, along with our greatest joys and aspirations, that form the threads of our subconscious. All that we've endured - the light and the dark, the smooth and the gritty, the shimmering and the stained - together form the fabric of our soul's journey. They are the patterns of energy necessary to complete the glorious tapestry of our human experience. It is in the composition of these contrasting elements that our life gains richness and beauty. In the loom of our heart, every feeling finds its place within our wholeness and in the wholeness of life itself. Thus it is our job to let our hearts be big enough to contain all that we are. For it is through the heart that all things return to Source."

Let us allow the 2012 synchronization to inspire us, knowing that global paradigm change occurs from our personal inner transformations - stabilizing within us and rippling out into the greater field, self-generating ever-vaster ripples.

Beyond solely looking to the 2012 date for literal meaning, we can see it as a symbol that is here to serve in our collective awakening. As a self-reflective check-point, it's getting our attention, inviting us to take stock of how sustainably we are living and what direction we going as a global civilization. How willing are we to step out of the old and into the new? What are willing to give up? What are we willing to open to? As an alignment point in our collective consciousness - it's like an appointment we set with ourselves to check in with the fulfillment of our lives and inquire into our real motivations, our conscience. Have we confronted our existence? Have we examined our own minds? Have we embraced the reality of death as the counterpart of our birth? Have we met our hearts? What are we aligned with? How are we serving? How are we working to live in Harmony? How do we respect all our Relations? What are we energizing in our lives? What are we contributing to the collective dream?

Let's drop our expectations, our hype, our stories, our minds – and feel; breathe; sense the depths of cosmic essence that dwells within us. Let us feel that dreaming force of consciousness within us. For That which is living our lives right now is that spiraling force that orders World Ages and catalyzes our inner and outer transitions. For we are the living intersection between that which has passed and that which has not yet emerged; We are the dream of our ancestors, and the future memory of generations to come.

Keyhole To the Universe by Patricia M. Bowers

In this shared dream, let us drop our Y2K-esque fantasies and open to the Quantum possibilities. Let us open to our human ingenuity and our love for life to help us resolve our vast challenges. Let us surrender to the ever-ripening potential to shine as an integral flower of creation.

As the Harmonic Convergence of 1987 brought the completion of Quetzalcoatl’s Prophecy of the 13 Heavens and the 9 Hells, so December 21, 2012 brings the completion of the 13 Baktun Long Count Calendar Cycle of the Ancient Maya. In our collective dream-field, we can view this 2012 synchronization point as a gateway into a path of a new world era that will unfold over generations and generations... Our task is to midwife this new world to come!

Ultimately, it is not about a date, it is about what lives inside of us. Life can only deepen. The Mystery can only deepen. The reunion with our True Nature can only beckon us more urgently.

This process is about real-i-zing who we are and how we can exist in harmonious collaboration and support of the one whole of Life. In this dreaming process, we each have to find our own paths, to listen to our own intuitive knowing, for it is not about following outside authorities, it is about each of us manifesting our sacred roles within this time of evolving and transforming global culture. In this dream, we influence each other intimately. We are each other’s greatest challenges, greatest blessings and greatest teachers. The more authentically we follow our inner callings, the more we support one another in finding our paths. As the saying goes, “We are each other’s angels, we show each other signs.” As we realize our oneness, we uplift our shared dream.

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We may not think we know the words
to the universe's mysterious 2012 dream-song,
but what if it’s already singing us?

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How can we prepare for 2012?

"When man liberates his inner potential
he becomes powerful and everything is possible."
- Bolivian Shaman Chamalu

First thing first - rather than preparing for some future moment down the road, let's notice how we are participating in life this moment. Rather than focusing on an imaginary destination, we need to realize we are already in the midst of this planetary transformation process.

The 2012 synchronization is a call to purpose. What is our life's mission? We each have a unique role in these times. We need to follow our inspiration! As we find our passion, we feel alive, we feel directed. That is why following fear thoughts does not serve us, because the voices of self-doubt and anxiety don't inspire us to be part of the solution, rather they clog us and often lead us to shutdown from our positive creativity. What we need is to feel engaged in life, knowing we are part of this collective mandala of being.

The wisdom that the 2012 code can inspire in us is to look directly at our lives, right here and now: Where is our focus? What are our guiding principles? What are our motivations? How can we live in greater harmony with all our Relations? How can we feel truly alive? How can we embody genuine compassion? How can we face our edges and grow? How we can become increasingly aware and self-reflective? How can we deepen our humility? How can we share our talents and gifts as a way to influence our culture and help manifest the new paradigm? How can we be of service to life and positively contribute to the Whole? How can we work on behalf of future generations that they might inherit the best planetary situation we can give to them? How can we cultivate a balance of being and doing, receptivity and action?

On this diverse planet, we all have different strengths, different abilities, different callings. Rather than looking to the world to show us our path, we need to look deep within and listen to our inner sense of how to navigate these times of great unknown.

It is essential we learn to hear the voice of our inner wisdom. No one can give us wisdom, it must dawn and dwell inside of us, born of our own direct experience. We each have our own direct connection to our Spirit and we must keep learning how to hear our divine, intuitive directives, whispering within. This ability to hear the voice of our inner guidance is the most practical skill we can cultivate in these times. It is what will inform us to how to synchronize in the right place at the right time.

This process of synchronization with our own intuition, and with the universe at large, is greatly amplified by learning how to live in harmony with natural time cycles. This awakens our conscious awareness of synchronicities as the natural order of life. This can practically be done by choosing to follow the 13-Moon Calendar that is based in the harmonic mathematics of the Ancient Maya, purposely designed as a solar-lunar-galactic calendar for the modern world to reconnect with the sacred essence of time. In light of the 2012 prophecy, people in 90 countries around the world are choosing to synchronize every day with this life-changing tool. As we follow the natural rhythms and cycles of this new paradigm calendar, we are guided to infuse every day with a unique spiritual focus. Together we are forming a web of telepathic unification, becoming conscious vessels of nature's harmonies.

Ultimately, this time of world ages transitioning is calling each of us to grow beyond fear of the unknown into courage, compassion, and creative empowerment - all of which emerge from connecting to our Hearts. When we look at the state of the world affairs from our rational, linear minds it is a terrifying scenario that seems inherently doomed with endless cause for alarm and panic. But where will those energies of fear and panic get us? They lead to stress, sickness, overwhelm, negativity, depression and escapism. The old paradigm model uses fear to motivate us, whereas the new paradigm is based in allowing our love for life to inspire us.

Out of Hands by Paul Heussenstamm

As we shift out of living from the box of our heads, and open to the expanse of our hearts, we can unify our minds with our sacred vulnerability. If we can perceive this time of prophecy through our hearts, we can attune to the possibilities of this emerging new world consciousness. How does it want to speak and move through us - touching our relations and rippling out into the world? The connection to our heart's sincerity is our only authentic guide in this Mystery. The new world age can and will only be born through and as our Hearts. There is no other medium for the transmutation process other than our own core being.

As the intensity of our journey continues, it is essential we learn how to work with the presence of fears and practice ways to transmute them so they are not debilitating. As the Shambhala Warrior teachings of Buddhism advise: Fearlessness is not about a reduction in fears, it is about feeling the fears but not letting them stop us. That is the opportunity of these times - to acknowledge the fears but not let them run us, instead let their presence guide us to come back to our tender heart centers. If we can find courage in our hearts to rise to the great challenges we are in, we can bring beauty and breathe life into possibility.

As things continue accelerating, there is an increasing need to stabilize the agitation and panic vibrations in the collective. Stress is becoming increasingly tangible, and we each need to find how to generate vibrations of coherence, especially as we understand that our energies radiate out and affect our whole environment. The more we can practice centering, the better. Meditation and prayer is essential to align our intentions with our clearest self. It is becoming inescapably important to learn how to process our negative emotions, facing them rather than projecting them out, so as to avoid adding to the planetary tension equation.

On this note, it is said the Ancient Hawaiians had a prophecy that there would come a time on the planet where there would be so much chaos it would require many to emerge as Agents of Calm. It feels these times have arrived. It is essential that we focus on cultivating our internal harmony so that we can contribute to generating harmony in the world.

It is essential that we deepen our connection with our breath, as it is the most direct way to ground and re-center in the present moment. Conscious breathing helps us let go of stress, calm and clear our minds, and re-open to our heart's expanse.

We must support ourselves holistically in this transformation process we are in. We need to consider our health and well-being on all levels. To balance out the artificial energies of these modern times, it is wise to immerse one's self in nature as much as possible. Being in natural environments re-charges us with elemental magic and a sense of wholeness that helps to counter-balance all the technospheric vibrations and over-stimulation of the age of information overload.

Our bodies are the temples of our spirits; they are the instruments through which we play our life's song. We need to take care of our bodies during these times. We are already living in a compromised situation based on the pollution of the air, water, earth and the increasing electro-magnetic pollution that innundates us from all directions. We must cover all the basics: Keeping our bodies vital with movement, rest, water, and organic foods. As Mayan Ajq'ij Carlos Barrios says, "Eat wisely. A lot of food is corrupt in either subtle or gross ways. Pay attention to what you are taking into your body."

Our mind and emotions are unified with our bodies. Part of our health is to honor the intensity of the emotions that are arising in these times and find tools that help us process and release old patterns, so we can be available to be present. This is really the time to do the work to heal old wounds. We need to truly learn the powers of forgiveness of self and others, and true compassion towards our human sufferings; learning to be tender towards ourselves and our relationships.

We must be alert to all the anxiety and turbulence in the collective mind-field in these times. To evolve, it is essential we engage in some form of mind-training. As Alex Polari said: "Every thought it is an entity." We need to be aware of what thoughts we are entertaining, believing in, identifying with, energizing and incarnating into life. (Some helpful teachings in this regard include the work of Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie.)

This is a critical moment to be self-reflective. We must examine everything we can notice about ourselves and our tendencies, our habitual patterns, our attitudes and what we believe that we believe. WE MUST QUESTION OUR THOUGHTS. We must notice the pathways that energy manifests through us. We are beginning to deeply understand how our perceptions and beliefs mold our experiences of reality. As we contemplate all the creative power that exists within our collective consciousness, we are beginning to imagine just how vast and expansive our possibilities may actually be.

This prophecy is about us looking at ourselves and understanding how we are contributing to the planetary equation; recognizing how our beliefs, our intentions, our words and deeds feed directly to the one pool of being we are all swimming in. We have the power to uplift our shared life. Every moment invites us back to this power within us, our creative power inherent in being alive.

Our opportunity in these times is to awaken from a mentality of perceiving everything as separate and to awaken the interconnectedness of all beings and all moments. Our deepest most fragile tender heart is our celestial core, it is the seat of Oneness that dwells within us. It is our awakened heart that recognizes "the other" as our own self, and feels our unity with all that lives.

A Tz'utujil Maya Medicine-Woman from Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala recently spoke about the importance of relating to Mother Earth and Father Sun and Grandmother Moon as living beings that we need to respect and be in intimate relationship with. She said we need to do ceremonies and make a lot of prayers, and give back by making beautiful offerings to Mother Earth like flowers, incense, different colored candles, etc. She said during these times, it is important to not be afraid, to be strong, to have faith, to pay attention to our dreams, and to learn how to grow our food gardens.

Many people are aware of the need for us to determine how to live in physically sustainable ways on this planet, but often the issue of spiritual preparation is overlooked. We need both. We definitely need to question the models and values that modern society presents as normal and increasingly find ways to live that lessen our environmental footprints, especially focusing on developing our local communities. And we also need to purify and align our internal relationship to all of life.

Obviously as a modern society we are in a whole-systems challenge to re-orient our lifestyles to live in harmony with nature. But it is only an illuminated understanding of our unity that can truly motivate and guide us to manifest real solutions. While the task at hand may seem insurmountable, let us remain open to possibilities of miraculous break-throughs emerging, brought about by awakenings in our human consciousness. For truly, there is no need to impose a limit on what might be possible for us as an evolving species, as we move from ignorance to wisdom, greed to compassion, competition to cooperation, we can discover the untold magic of synergy!

We must not be discouraged by the intensity of these times, for they are accelerated on purpose. As we understand we are in a process of an old world paradigm dying and coming apart at the seams, we can have patience and courage, knowing we are here to help anchor the new! As we hold the highest vision for the transformation of our world, rooting to our clearest intentions, let us release expectations on how things are supposed to appear, surrendering to the larger unfolding.

This moment in the collective dream is steeped in mystery. This mystery has a heartbeat that lives within us. Let it be known that we are here to manifest the new culture that is based on conscious, harmonious interdependence. This is the fulfillment this prophecy is inviting of us!

May we all find our way. May we bring light into the dark, and go to where the Heart is. For it is in giving, sharing, helping and supporting that this life becomes beautified. We need each other to grieve with, to pray with, to praise with. We need each other to uplift each other, over and over, back into connection with our true nature. The light that shines through my eyes is the same light I see in yours.


As the Maya say, "In Lak'ech" - I am Another Yourself.

Art by Tytoalba

Everyone has a key
buried within
with which to unlock
one's innermost potential
This is the mysterious
quest of Life
Search by receiving

2012 - What's the bottom line?

On a collective scale, we are experiencing a time period in which all that has been unconscious is becoming conscious. All that has been hidden is being revealed. Whether we look to our own lives, or to the state of global affairs, the locks are being thrown off of secrets, the wounds, vulnerabilities, shadows and incongruencies are being exposed. Simultaneously, the truth and depths of our authentic beingness is also being revealed. As the Hopi say, we are living in the Time of Great Purification. Simple words, vast meaning.

We are living in precious and precarious times; exciting, fragile and mysterious. Our human population of 7 billion people is unprecedented. According to Wikipedia, by the year 2000, there were 10 times as many people on Earth as there were 300 years ago. According to 2009 data from the CIA's factbook, the world's human population now increases by 220,980 people every day. We are each drops in this sea of humanity, part of the physical and psychic collective. We are remembering our unity by facing our shared challenges. The crises we now face are bringing us together to inspire our constructive creativity. There is no way out of this prophecy, only a way through.

This is now the time to embrace all that has been dishonored or denied, for it is emerging to be purified and sanctified. All that is manifesting on the inner and outer planes reflects the sacred intensity of these prophetic times. The polarities and imbalances within us and around us are becoming clearer. Love, beauty, co-creation, and compassion permeate this world. Multi-faceted victories of art, community support, healing and evolution shine all around us, illumating the spirited grace of our true nature. Meanwhile, this world is steeped in fear, brutality, pain, and disease. Endless anguish of anxiety, separation, disconnection, confusion, isolation - alongside the toxic realities of egoic, callous greed and corruption, materialism, addiction, and dangerous ignorance. Accountability is required on all levels of our existence. In this process of becoming transparent, we are invited to shed egoic programs of fear and limitation, letting go of and transducing old stories about ourselves and our identities.

The 2012 synchronization is reminding us we are on a journey together; the twists and turns of our lives contribute to the collective manifestation taking place. We need to honor the importance of the closing of this cycle without hyping it up with fear and expectations. We need to let go of focusing on dates in the future and embrace the possibilities that live within us, right now, that are here to guide us into the new pages that we can write with our collective consciousness.

Let's drop the script that 2012 is bringing the end of the world and understand that it is bringing the end of a great cycle. Rather than passive victims, we are here to be conscious participants of this world age transition process. Let us perceive 2012 as a code signalling us that these planetary moments are summoning us to align with our deepest potential and access the deepest dimensions of who we truly are, knowing that as a whole we are enduring a great initiation process to learn how to live in harmony with each other and with Nature.

It seems the fundamental question this prophecy is pointing us to is: How can we live and operate in conscious awareness of our Oneness, our Interdependence? We are being asked to deeply understand that our lives are intimately woven together with All of Life. We must embody this comprehension and let it guide our human efforts.

The bottom line is that this world is ours to shepard. This moment lives within us. We are all instruments of culture. We need to focus our attention on our powers of creativity as human players in this planetary equation. Our mental, spiritual, emotional and physical energies are the vivid colors splashing on the canvas of Life. What is the quality of our collective art? How can we refine our contribution?

This is no time to try to figure things out with the mind, but rather to learn to listen from the heart. The more conscious we become of our potential to be conscious, the more our potential finds us; our self-reflective awareness deepens and flowers.

We need to support ourselves in processing the trauma of these times. Rather than furthering the trauma by numbing out and being indifferent, it is important we face the pain and tragedy of our world that is crying out. The medicine this can offer comes when we let it break our hearts into even deeper compassion, opening the channels for more holistic responses.

Ultimately, we can only find a harmonious way through this passage by finding our hearts. That is the message. Why? Because our heart is naturally tuned to the unity of all of life, and therefore lives in respect of it. By finding genuine compassion, we access genuine wisdom. As Jose Arguelles says: "We are the Peacemakers we've been waiting for!"

The moments unfold,
bringing tests and opportunties.
The mystery blooms in our heart,
with petals of innocence and stalks of wisdom.
We shine as fellow rays of light
in an emerging garden of loving awareness.
Basking in each others' abundant colors,
we are One under the Sun.

© Copyright 2009 By Eden Sky of 13moon.com
skytime@13moon.com

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