Galactic Games 1: The Dreamspell Calendar

Erik: "(There is no evidence that the Mayans associated the end of the Long Count with any specific transformation or destruction of the world.)"

 I wonder if you have studied John Major Jenkins' Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods? Even some mainstream archaeologists agree that there is evidence that the Maya saw 2012 as the shift from the Fifth Sun to the Sixth Sun, which suggests tremendous transformation (the Popol Vuh tells us what happened, mythologically, during earlier transitions). I quote one of these archaeologists in my book. 

I suppose it depends on what you take as "evidence." Certainly the Maya did not leave an instruction manual about what was going to happen with particular dates and events - that would be kind of boring, no?

From a more meta-level perspective, it is clear that this is a very critical time for the human species and that we are in danger of reengineering the planet to the point where it will no longer sustain us. Erwin Laszlo's book The Chaos Point argues we now have five years to make a huge global transformation - and he didn't follow the Mayan Calendar to come up with this projection!

It does seem like quite an extraordinary conjunction that the Maya seemed fascinated with this time - of the galactic alignment described by Jenkins - in their far-future. I don't think we bother to think of particular alignments coming our way in 1,200 years or so?

Isn't it possible that the Classic Maya had a true knowledge system and science in the same way that the Tibetan Buddhists have given us spiritual technologies that increasingly seem to have empirical validity?

  Also I discuss in my book the Jungian concept of archetypes in the collective unconscious which seek to constellate over time, until eventually they do constellate in the physical human reality. Christ as messianic redeemer was perhaps one such archetype. It is possible that The Apocalypse is an archetype of the collective unconscious that has been trying to constellate for 2,000 years and is finally doing so. Edward Edinger thought this to be the case and analyzed the process in his amazing book on the archetype of Apocalypse. For me, it is somewhat evidently the case if you look at our current culture, from a Jungian perspective. 

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

Hi Erik,

Thanks for your response. It is interesting in your original post that you note that your “brain shuts down” when it comes to thinking about these areas of prophecy, or what you call “elaborate occult calculations.” I would recommend John Major Jenkins book, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 as a thorough effort to establish how the Mayan culture approached the question of this galactic alignment, and why it seems justifiable to associate it with a shift in World Ages. If you read the Popol Vuh, you find that during each shift in World Ages there are drastic and cataclysmic events leading to a complete transformation in the human species. Therefore, it seems quite possible, as a hypothesis, that this upcoming transition indicates a similar dramatic shift. I think that we can take this seriously, without descending into “prophetic mania” or becoming fanatics in any way. That is what I attempted to do in my last book. 

You note that you find it “kinda disrespectful to the Mayans to force them into our own  narrative.” I might argue instead that it would be “kinda disrespectful” not to make the effort to understand their knowledge system, which from the buildings and artifacts they left behind, appears to have been a highly developed one. Obviously, in order to understand the knowledge system of any other culture, we have to utilize our language and our consciousness, which does mean inserting then into our “narrative” to a certain degree. However, ultimately, we belong to the same human species, so eventually there might be some linking of narratives into a broader and more cohesive framework. Otherwise we would end up with the proposition that cross-cultural understanding is impossible.

One way we can approach an alien culture’s knowledge system is to enter their mindset, as best we can. If we look at Tibetan Buddhism from the perspective of Western rationalism, we would dismiss their perspective that “hidden teachings” can be discovered in lucid dream states, from ancient lamas of the past as well as divine beings such as dakinis and buddhas. However, we can’t know whether or not there is any validity to their claim unless we learn some of their techniques for establishing lucid consciousness in dream, and explore it for ourselves. How would we evaluate their claim that the Dalai Lama represents an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion? Do we want to dismiss it out of hand? Or is possible that the Tibetans have access to a knowledge system based on exploring realms of the psyche?  Could their “game” have equal (or perhaps greater) validity to the Western skeptical empirical “game”?

You write in your response, “parts of your post seem to imply that because I doubt the full prophetic power of the Mayan calendar, I also doubt that we are now dangling our tootsies over the precipice.” Actually, I do not think that my post implied – or was meant to imply – that at all. I was simply noting that the correlation between our deepening planetary crisis and the Mayan focus on this particular epoch is intriguing, and offers a type of inferential evidence.

If the Tibetans are able to extract hidden teachings from lucid dream states, it is possible that the Mesoamerican cultures were able to retrieve cosmological information from the exploration of psychedelic states of consciousness, which they then substantiated with intensive astronomical research. Rather than immediately believing in this or rejecting it, we can first entertain it as a hypothesis. It is then interesting that Terence McKenna accessed a similar archetypal complex when he employed similar tools. By doing this, he may have been one of the first brilliant Western minds to approach the knowledge system of the Mesoamericans from the inside, although he lacked the tools to make a fully coherent synthesis of knowledge systems (The Invisible Landscape and the “Time Wave” were his brave attempts). However, our knowledge has advanced since then, and we may be able to do a better job from this vantage point.

I do not think that exploring this area is “like wanting scientific/rational authority while rejecting that authority at the same time.” I have suggested in my work that the new form of consciousness we may be approaching is not based on a rejection of Western science in favor of the psychic, shamanic, and intuitive but on the careful integration of empirical and rational science with mystical traditions and the depth exploration of the psyche. It is not a question of “overturning the logical mind,” but recognizing, through logic, the limitations of the “logical mind,” so that we can put the “logical mind” in its proper context.

At the end of your response, you write, “I don't understand what is gained by arguing and believing that the wizards of a rather bloody jungle culture foretold our moment of rising c02 levels and suicide bombers and Burning Man. It seems to me that *we* constellate our archetype of apocalypse--and that the whole memetic industry of 2012 speculation is too often a symptom of that process, rather than a clarification of it.”

I think you might want to interrogate your own rush to reactive rhetoric here, and elsewhere. It seems to me there is a lot to be gained by seeking to comprehend this puzzle, but certainly little to be gained by rejecting the attempt in the way you seek to do here. It is not a question of “believing,” or even of “arguing.” It is a question of seeking a deeper understanding. Our culture is extremely bloody, and has decimated entire cities through atomic bombs. That does not mean we should reject everything that our culture has produced, does it?

This may be a moment “of rising c02 levels and suicide bombers and Burning Man,” but other processes are taking place as well. Among those processes, in my judgment, is a second stage of the shamanic initiation for the modern mind that began in the 1960s. Another part of our moment is the global availability of mystical and esoteric wisdom traditions. This moment also seems to involve increasing accelerations of destructive processes on an ecological level, technological innovations, and also an integration of science with mystical wisdom traditions, such as the recent studies of the brain wave patterns of meditating Tibetan monks by brain scientists. Based on my subjective experience substantiated with anecdotal surveys, this moment also seems marked by an increase in psychic phenomena, ranging from synchronicities to telepathic foretellings to implausible physical manifestations. It seems that the “reality of the psyche” that Jung talked about is becoming more available to more of us, and this is both frightening and spectacular – but if it is indeed happening, we need to be able to face it honestly and discuss it coherently, without resorting to easy dismissals.

I am not sure that “*we* constellate our archetype of apocalypse.” From a nondual perspective, it is happening both within and outside of us - for instance, on the cosmological level as the “galactic alignment” that fascinated the Mayans. From a Jungian perspective, we have two choices when archetypal processes are constellating in the collective: We can be their unconscious victims, or we can consciously work with the archetypes and seek to embody their positive and transformative aspects. We can choose to be creative participants in the process or to reject and ignore it entirely, but this decision may have real consequences for us, as individuals and as a society.

As for your closing comment, “the whole memetic industry of 2012 speculation is too often a symptom of that process, rather than a clarification of it.” I would suggest that my work and Jenkins’ work and even parts of Arguelles’ work offer important clarifications, while of course they are also “symptoms” (what work is not a symptom of its time and context). As for there being a “whole memetic industry” around 2012, this is a rhetorical flourish that also needs to be unpacked. A handful of books and a few games created by individuals who spent many years working on the subject for little recompense do not suggest much of an “industry,” compared to most industries. There are so many ways that language can be used as an instrument for negative criticism and rhetorical dismissal and deconstruction, and sadly these efforts can stave off deeper interrogation into subjects that may have significance for our future.
 

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

i have a friend on the festival circuit who has been preaching the jose arguelles / valum votan gospel pretty heavily for a few years. he works with the foundation for the law of time and circulates a lot of their material and is always eager to furnish me with their latest missive. as a result, i came home from bonnaroo with a copy of arguelles/votan's cosmic history chronicles and a stack of the dreamspell calendars that i can / will let people pick up at festivals alongside flyers for future events.

arguelles' writings have always been very difficult for me to make sense of. i attempted to read the mayan factor and got lost quickly. time and the technosphere made a bit more sense but seemed retroactively self-serving. it's easy to point backwards at 9/11 and say "see... the technocracy is collapsing because it is out of whack with the rhythms of the biosphere."

this cosmic history chronicles is somewhat coherent, but also very steeped in a very "busy-minded" left-brain detail oriented esoteric system that is not easily grasped... a kabbalah for those who want to put a bit of meso-american flair on their esotericism? of arguelles' books, i am by far most enamoured with the beautiful book on mandalas he produced with his first wife... so much so that when i gave away my copy to a good friend, i had to go out and re-order it, and do an extensive used book search to get an original copy (with the color plates) because the reprinted version lacked them.

i was eighteen when the harmonic convergence took place. i'd gotten crystals and taken my first acid trips and seen my first grateful dead shows only shortly before that. so it was somewhat fitting that on the evening before the harmonic convergence i was in telluride, colorado, with a tent in the mountains, being dosed in a bar called the "fly me to the moon saloon" by a couple of older pranksters on what they claimed (most likely accurately) was genuine article owsley acid. (and, yes, that really was the name of the bar!) it was by far the most powerful and pure acid i'd done in my life at that point and i had my own kind of harmonic convergence, which, perhaps absurdly, concluded with me finally coming down and sleeping through the baba olatunji / mickey hart / thousand drumming deadhead sunrise greeting of the dawn on that auspicious day.

i've always been a bit of a heretic, so sleeping through church 'cos i was up the previous night on acid seemed to fit my life's path... i definitely managed to crawl out of my sleeping bag long before jerry took the stage and got religion in my own beautiful way.

that self-indulgent anecdote aside, i *do* feel like there is significance to the 2012 meme... at the very least i'd say it seems to have intuitive validity. i'm plenty wary of my psyche's willingness to condition itself to accept "truths" that validate previously held beliefs... so in that respect, i *do* question the extent to which i'm clinging to the winter solstice 2012 meme as some validation that my life in these times has some sense of grand cosmic importance. but "big weird shit" is definitely in the mix. and perhaps as erik indicates, the point is that it's always in the mix and that we need not wait for the opportunity for transformation to be around the bend and need to seize the reins and claim this as *our* moment for transformation, rather than hold out waiting for december 21, 2012 as some moment of new age rapture.

last night i saw the google video "zeitgeist" and was more impressed than i expected to be at its ability to bring together a vast amount of data in a somewhat scattered but still intelligible presentation. in spite of having read a great deal on the subjects, i found much in part 1 on the procession of the equinoxes and part 3 on the detailed accounting of the rise of The Fed to be insightful and not particularly shrill / reactive.

one more thing i'd like to add to the discussion... john perkins, author of confessions of an economic hit man, spoke at a recent omega institute conference on the archetypes of the eagle and the condor. he said the condor represents the indigenous cultural mind-set and the eagle the monolithic industrial-militarist mind-set. he said that mythically speaking, this time of transformation seems to be about the eagle learning to fly with the condor and that this transition period is really crucial because many of the eagles are also slowly starting to realize that their subsistence strategy and relationship with the biosphere cannot sustain. he says from his history as a self-proclaimed "economic hit man" he's been approached by many individuals who are considered captains of industry who are saying, essentially, what can we do right now to try to create a better world for the future?

i've read "techngnosis" and "breaking open the head" and most of daniel's "2012" book (borrowed copy that i had to return)... but based on his post and the endorsements of the rest of you, i'm eager to check out John Major Jenkins' book on the subject. i'm curious to know (if you're still reading this thread)... was there any "significance" to the dates of the harmonic convergence in the long count calendar as you understand it, mr jenkins?

shady backflash -- http://people.tribe.net/shadygrove

A very interesting thread, to which I can add a few comments. Jenkins writes that the origin of the Mayan Long Count remains a focus of research, so I would like to propose a suggestion - the symbolic links between Mayan and Egyptian civilisations (take for example the artistic and archaeological links between the two, and the presence of cocaine in Egyptian mummification, suggesting trade links between the two) would link the mathematics back to Egypt, which could therefore be seen to have mathematical origins in the Indian culture, wherein you also find World Ages, and complex astronomical data.

I recently put together a paper on the Vedas, from which the following excerpt is taken: Analysis of Vedic mathematics, undertaken by Seidenberg in The Origin of Mathematics, hypothesises that the Sulbasutras are the source of not only the Vedic geometry and arithmetic necessary for construction of the Harappan cities, but that the formulae expressed therein is a necessary precedent to not only Greek, but both Babylonian and Egyptian arithmetic. In the Sulbas, mathematics is preserved as part of religious ritual, as they are “concerned primarily with the mathematics involved in the design of sacrificial altars.” What is most interesting about his analysis is that logically, the geometric algebra that is contained in the Sulbas, such as the circling of the square, is necessary for the exclusively arithmetic methods that arise in Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics, which appear without the geometrical precedent. Likewise, the presence of the geometrical precedent preserved in Greek mathematics cannot have been derived from the Babylonian; “for the Indians and Greeks, geometry was primary; for the Egyptians and Babylonians, it was already secondary.”

This suggests that the line of influence into Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and later, Greek mathematics, were separately derived from the Indian. If we are to look for origins for Mayan thinking, it is therefore to India we should turn our attention. Archaeological data on Central Americaseems to be exceptionally flawed, especially in the dating, see Hancock (whom Daniel mentioned) for more on the presumed antiquity of Mayan sites, so its possible theres an entire prehistory we know little about. Incidentally, there is a strong linguistic argument for Sanskrit evolving into local language also, and links with certain North American Indian tribes that presume Indian origins.  Not to mention the links between Judaism and India, there is a guy who writes on this India/Biblical link - Gene Matlock? No idea how good his material is but I found it worth a look, you can get in from here:

http://www.viewzone.com/VIEW.ZONE.html

this is mostly a conspiracy site, but I never regretted reading Graham Hancock against "better advice" and Matlocks material is interesting.  Enjoy:-)