2012: A Time Odyssey

Jose Arguelles calls it "the climax of matter," Jean Houston refers to it as "jump time," and Ray Kurzweil names it "the approaching singularity." Each person who studies this phenomenon calls it by a different name, or uses different terms to describe it, but they are all speaking of the same idea—that human experience is reaching some kind of ultimate point.

Significantly, many prophecies from ancient traditions around the world have also pointed to this time period as a time of great upheaval and change, perhaps the most important in human history. The Mayans of Mexico marked this time with their famous calendar; the alchemists of Europe built the Cross of Hendaye to describe it; the Quero Indians of Peru call it the PachaKuti; and the ancient Egyptians referred to it as the Zep Tepi or The First Time. In the Indo-Tibetan tradition it is equated with the final throes of the Kali Yuga, the Age of Iron. Each of these traditions tells us that a great transformative moment is at hand, a moment in which we have the opportunity to release old patterns and re-link ourselves with the essential rhythms and harmonies of the universe.

In all of these prophecies this shift is not just limited to historical tangibles— globalization, the internet, global warming and the destruction of the environment—but is deeply embedded in almost all of the great spiritual traditions of humanity. According to these traditions this approaching singularity will be the most profound event in history; everything that we know, everything that we are, is about to undergo a radical change.

It might be said that right now there is a great slumber across the land, Alberto Villoldo refers to it as a cultural trance, Jose Arguelles, a dreamspell, Riane Eisler calls it "the dominator trance" or the last gasp of the patriarchy. It is as if a “glamour” has been cast over our collective eyes, a veil of delusion. Lost in the media haze of spin, bogus reporting, and talking points, which reduce deep issues that affect our future to mere sound bites, it has become more and more difficult to discern the false from the true. The prevailing forces of the modern world have brought us to a state where we are out of balance, out of tune. The question is how did this come about?

Jose Arguelles speaks eloquently of this misalignment resulting from the shift from the Lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The previous calendar, based on Lunar cycles— as opposed to our current calendar which is based on solar cycles—was attuned to a different vibration, one of harmony with the rhythms and cycles of nature. The transition from Lunar time to Solar time was also a transition from cyclic time to linear time. As the Lunar time period waned, our right-brain feminine-based qualities of creativity, art and beauty were repressed and the left-brain tendencies of order, efficiency and logic became the dominant force. With industrialization, the solar-based calendars took a firm grip on us and we became bound by time, locked into mechanical rhythms, habitual patterns of thought and motion. We have become a society of slaves to the clock and to the machines that appeared to offer us freedom, but at what cost? Today we are isolated from nature and each other, a society of consumers. In our greed, we have not only gobbled up the resources of the past, but we are devouring the future as well.

Think about it. The twentieth century with all of its invention, wars, and change was brought to us by the power of one single substance—oil. Over the course of the last one hundred years, during this Age of Oil, we have used up millions of years of compacted light created by the bones and residue of the plants and animals that once occupied this planet. On a metaphysical level that means our very environment is suffused with the ka or psychic residue of these living beings from the past. Is the Age of Oil an outer manifestation of the karmic traces, seeds of destruction left from the inhabitants of a former age? It certainly appears so.

Now that the Age of Oil is coming to an end we will all face enormous difficulties, but instead of planning for these eventualities, our corporations, leaders and politicians are ignoring their responsibilities and are using up the world at an even faster rate than before.

The world, our environment and our future appear to have become a gigantic closeout sale—where everything must go.

Just take a look around. It seems that everything is up for grabs. Anything can happen. The real question that lies before us is this: will the human race survive this process? Will we continue to fall for the seduction of materialism, war and domination or open our eyes and live consciously? Will we finally achieve our potential and manifest our destiny or will we wither away like the dinosaurs? Faced with these essential questions, what can we do?

I believe that the answer is to free our minds; wake up from the trance. And how can we do this? By shifting our focus inward, realigning ourselves with the highest spiritual values. If we look inward, truly align with spirit, perceive and strip away the conditioned actions and karmic traces that have led to the fear-based nightmare of the current “manufactured reality” the veil that obscures our true vision will dissolve.

It is time to become the heroes and heroines of our dreams, to move beyond fear and transmute its fundamental energy into right action. With every thought we are effecting the shape of the future, with every action we are creating angels or demons.

It is said that as we move to the end point of the cycle, whether it be the end of the world or the end of a life, time speeds up until there is no time, only the moment. In this extraordinary moment of reintegration, the psychic knots that bind us unwind, and the karmic veils are lifted. In that moment we can see with true clarity the pure essence of our being; we come face to face with our eternal nature. Time dissolves into space and all things appear in the perfect simultaneity of the state of pure immediate present. This is the moment of true awakening; it is the still point between the thoughts, the pause between the in breath and the out breath.

It is time to dream a new dream for humanity, move beyond the confines of linear time. What is going on right now on planet earth is that a new level of consciousness is emerging. The Quero of Peru say that that there has been a tear in the fabric of time itself, a window into the future through which a new species will emerge. The Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual group from North India, tell us that we have already moved from the darkness of the Iron Age to a new age of consciousness called the Diamond Age. With this shift of consciousness, we are all becoming painfully aware of how much work there is left to do.

The great spiritual teachers tell us that the chaos of the modern age is merely part of the natural order, that out of this chaos, a new age of harmony and grace will emerge. Many of us are moving beyond this phase in the cycle, realigning ourselves with spirit and feeling the great call to the light. We are planting the seeds for the world to come.

If we are willing to break free of the cultural trance, let go of the materialist, ego-based mindset and live a more simple and harmonious life in balance with the Earth we will probably survive. If we don't begin to change now we may not make it.

I once heard Terence McKenna say, "We must act as if the apocalypse has already occurred." At the time I didn't understand what he meant, but I think I do now. What Terence was saying is that we must begin to live in the future—right now. We must act as if the corporate, materialist-based culture has already withered away and we are living in a future of our own creation.

There is no more hopeful situation imaginable.

Image courtesy of Rich Renomeron under Creative Commons license.