Mayan Calendar: What is so special about the Mayan Calendar?

Medley of Information on the Mayan Calendar, A Series of Articles by Carl J Calleman

The person with no previous exposure to the Mayan Calendar will usually initially be surprised by the fact that some people today take such an interest in an ancient calendar. After all, human history has seen a high number of different calendars. Is not then the Mayan calendar just a very specialized subject of interest only to specialists or history buffs? “Why would the world today need another calendar than the Gregorian or Muslim that are currently in use, and why should this be the Mayan calendar?” some may ask.

Well, to begin with most people probably have a much too limited view of the importance of the Mayan civilization, and Native American traditions generally. In fact, at their height in the 5th to 9th centuries AD, the Mayan cities would be among the largest in the world and developed the most advanced mathematics and astronomy of their day. And so, even if the Native American civilizations hardly survived the later contact with the Europeans they were and are the carriers of a significant and irreplaceable part of the global human consciousness.

When we talk about the Mayan Calendar something profoundly different is also meant than just a system to mark off the passage of time. The Mayan Calendar is above all a prophetic calendar that may help us understand the past and foresee the future. It is a calendar of the Ages that describes how the progression of Heavens and Underworlds condition the human consciousness and thus the frames for our thoughts and actions within a given Age. The Mayan Calendar provides an exact schedule for the Cosmic Plan and the unfolding of all things that come into existence. There is now ample empirical evidence for this, something that shines new light on the age old questions of mankind. Things do exist for a reason. The reason is that they fit into the divine cosmic plan. For those that seriously engage in a study of the Mayan Calendar this soon becomes evident and the former materialist world view loses all relevance. The Mayan Calendar is a gateway to the worlds of consciousness which the majority of humanity has been blinded to through the use of false or delusory calendars.

Since everything that exists is an aspect of consciousness, and the Mayan Calendar describes the evolution of consciousness in all of its aspects, no stone is left unturned for the serious student of the Mayan Calendar. All of science is affected, all of religion is affected, all of life is affected. We are here for a reason. Time is no longer equated with money, but with spirit. Time is inspiration!

Mayan Calendar: Evolving Towards Enlightenment – I

Carl-Johan Calleman is an internationally recognized authority in the studies of the Mayan Calendar. He has appeared in Swedish, Finnish and Mexican television and American Web-TV. He has published two books about the Mayan Calendar and he was one of the main speakers at a Mexican conference in Yucatan 1998 about the Mayan Calendar.

In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012.

Human beings are Created Creators
As I mentioned before, the reason we live under the illusion that matter is the basic form of existence is that we cannot see our own consciousness – our consciousness is to us like what water is to the fish. Something similar is true also for the frequencies of the energy changes of divine creation and how these manifest in the cosmic cycles. Thus, we may be slaves under them because we are not aware of the roles they have in shaping our destinies. Since without interruption we have been listening to the frequencies of creation from the day we were born, they have become part of the reality that we take for granted. Since we have always been listening to this same cosmic symphony we may find it difficult to notice both its energies and its frequency shifts. But if we are aware of the tzolkin pattern we may learn to listen more closely for the high frequency energies and so be able to actually hear the cosmic symphony.

But why is it that we may eventually develop a resonance with the energies of the tzolkin? The reason is fundamentally that we ourselves have been created according to the same energy pattern and that so this has been laid down in our very bones. As I pointed out in Chapter 5 the human being itself is a reflection of the tzolkin and its vibrations. Very importantly we are in the womb for a period close to a tzolkin round. We can see the special relationship of the human being to the tzolkin in many different ways, and when the Maya named the twenty-day sequence of the glyphs a uinal – from uinic meaning human in the Mayan language – they seem to have expressed our vibrational relationship to the tzolkin. So tuning in to the energy cycles of the tzolkin by regularly following its days is a way of realizing our true nature as created co-creators in the divine process of creation. If the tzolkin is an overtone of the waves of cosmic creation we may vibrate in harmony with its energy pattern, since we ourselves have been created by the very same process of cosmic creation. No other being on this planet to the same extent reflects and expresses the frequencies of divine creation.

Since you yourself are created by the pattern of the tzolkin – the best conceivable template for creation designed by God – this also means that you are an aspect of God coming into existence. Since the purpose of creation seems to be to have human beings increasingly be in the image of God, through raising our frequency with every step of the cosmic pyramid, our real possibility seems to be that of consciously choosing to become part of this evolutionary process. And if every one of us represents the unfolding of a unique aspect of the divine plan there is further the possibility to live our own lives based on our unique guidance, resonance, intuition, creativity and choice, rather than on what is expected from us by society or by others. We have the choice to live a unique life based on the guidance we receive and the values we shape.

Divine Creation can only follow its own Pace
But in a certain sense we are really subordinated to the time schedule for evolution provided by the Mayan Calendar. Thus, this calendar does not only tell us that the Cosmos is going somewhere and that our frame of consciousness is being expanded. It also tells us that the cosmos has to go through a number of distinct stages and wave movements until the process is completed in the year 2011. Since there is nothing we as individuals can do in order to have the whole universe arrive at a paradisiacal state already tomorrow we are subordinated to the overall time schedule. And until the process is complete there will be ups and downs. Things need to be gradually prepared and made ready in accordance with the cosmic plan. There is no way any step in this can be jumped over, since the plan is perfect as it is and will not be altered. Yet, there will be challenges and dark times when we will need to keep the light present, and these may be the eras when we will need the calendar, and the understanding this brings, the most. Through the calendar we may learn to know where we are – like if we have a map of time to follow. But the large-scale plan has to work in a step-wise manner for the things to be prepared for what is coming, and so also our individual destinies have to be fulfilled step-by-step. The tzolkin may thus be a tool to help us align our own destinies with the large-scale processes of the cosmic plan, and adapt to the spiritual reality of this plan. Everything has its time, and we all have to pass through certain stages of evolution corresponding to the different time cycles.

The Universal and Individual Calendar Cycles interact so as to open Time Locks at the Right Moments. Because we can only evolve step-by-step there are also “time locks”. Time locks conceal aspects of our consciousness until a new cosmic pulse opens for them to be expressed and creates a new possible path in our life. If we did not have such time locks we would follow the divine impulses at too early a point and then only run into a thick wall. Thus, as much as we may learn from the Mayan calendar some parts of our destiny will remain hidden to us – locked up in a secret compartment of our being – until new time cycles trigger them to come into the open. In certain ways then we have to accept the existence of a pre-determined timing of the flow of cosmic energies, even if this sometimes may occur as a break on the flow of our own individual life or life in general. And if we must accept this, we may just as well get to know the flow of time and learn to go with it. The timing of the opening of such time locks is the results of the interactions between individual and cosmic cycles mentioned earlier.

The Future of Free Will
Seen in the context of the discussed flows of cosmic energies we may now need to reconsider the role of free will in our lives. Thus, even if we do have a certain space for exercising free will our environment is subject to the flow of energies of the cosmic plan. We have no say regarding the existence of the cosmic energies of time in the first place. Yet, the choices we make as to how to relate to these are not pre-determined, and the flow of time will continue to condition our thoughts and actions, even as those are the results of the free choices that we have made. Hence, we have at the same time both a destiny and a free will, and the two conditions one another and the future courses of our lives. In this light we are not complete victims of our destiny, but we are not all-powerful creators of them either. Our destinies are crafted in the interaction between the cosmic creation cycles and the individual cycles of personal evolution going back to birth.

Really what is emerging from the previous discussion of calendars is a choice and a possibility. The choice is whether to use the Mayan calendar in parallel with the Gregorian, a choice that amounts to recognizing the existence of a cosmic plan and a purpose of our lives as part of that plan. Alternatively, we may stick with the physical calendars and see the course of events more or less as a series of accidents that should be explained by or blamed on material factors. The choice of the Mayan calendar is not pre-determined. Yet, such a choice would in a sense be prompted by the flow of cosmic energies, since, as we are entering the Galactic Cycle, the frequency of creation is now increasing and this frequency increase in turn makes it more difficult to deny the existence of a cosmic plan. So even if you have a free choice this choice is conditioned by the cosmic plan – and the other way around.

The same may be true also on a larger global scale. Thus, how the Cosmic Plan manifests is also conditioned by the choices we, collectively speaking, make. Things are not pre-determined in detail, and it is not possible to say that things are exactly the way they are meant to be just because they have developed in phase with the energy waves of the Mayan calendar. What the cosmic plan does is that it inspires creativity with a certain rhythm that is consistent with a step-by-step widening of the human frame of consciousness. But the choices of the humans also determine the course of events and we may choose to express the creativity inspired in us in many different ways. Whether this world will end up in a paradise or in a catastrophe may thus not depend on the cosmic plan, but increasingly on ourselves and the choices we, little-by-little, make. European-Christian thought has always emphasized the free will of the individual, 1 (+ 12), while, the Westerners, the Maya, have emphasized the role of our inherent destinies and our participation in the cosmic web of creation (13). But maybe the truth is not either… or., but both… and…

So you may both want to get into the flow of universal creation and become the crafter of your own destiny. You may both want to become aware of where the cosmic flow of time is taking you as part of the human collective, and at the same time want to create the direction of your own life in the midst of this. It is a both… and… When it comes to the cosmic flow of time I feel that its most important aspect at the present moment is the tun-based evolution of the Galactic Creation Cycle, which very briefly is outlined in the next section. The tzolkin cycle, with its trecenas and uinals, is however a part of this ongoing creation cycle and so knowledge of the two cycles go together. In fact, the Galactic Creation Cycle is a reflection of the LIGHT pattern of the tzolkin.

Mayan Calendar: Evolving Towards Enlightenment – II

In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012.

The Emerging Galactic Underworld and the IT Civilization
This cycle (of thirteen tun) will begin in 1999 and may have to do with the emergence of some kind of self-generating global computer intelligence. In the same way as the written language was used only by a small part of the human population 13 x 202 tun ago, and is only today something that the whole world is in possession of, we may assume that the possibility that will emerge in 1999 will make a start that is relatively little noticed and then rapidly spread across the planet to prepare for the end of the cycle in 2011.

We have now recently entered the Galactic Creation Cycle (Fig 55) whose wave movement is more exactly and extensively discussed in The Mayan Calendar. In the First DAY of this cycle an awareness spread widely that humanity had entered a new civilization, a new economy, with a change whose scope could only be compared to that of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. The emergence of this new civilization was seen primarily as a result of the computerized IT revolution.

Such observations of a new civilization are very accurate, but what most people fail to realize is that the emergence of this was predictable from the Mayan calendar, and in fact had already been predicted. The Information Technology is as much a part of the cosmic plan as was once the invention of writing or the invention of the telegraph. The IT civilization has however been prepared for during the entire Fourth World of the Planetary Underworld that began in 1947, when also the first computers were invented.

Thus things do not appear out of nothing – they are prepared for by underlying Worlds. But in exactly the same way as the seeds of the industrial civilization were planted during the first katun, 1755-1775, of the Planetary Cycle, the first seeds of the new IT civilization came to be planted during the first tun of the Galactic Cycle (January 5, 1999 – December 30, 1999). The IT gurus are thus completely right in emphasizing how dramatic the changes taking place now are. The First Heaven in 1999 ruled by Xiuhtecutli, was only the very beginning and there is more to come. What seems absolutely clear is that this new frame of consciousness, and the technology associated with it, will develop according to the pulse wise pattern of Seven DAYS and six NIGHTS shown in Fig 55.
The Galactic Creation Cycle is the Apocalypse
What may be even less commonly realized is that the Galactic Cycle is identical with what in Christian terminology is called the Apocalypse, the Revelation taking place in the completing phase of Creation. That indeed the Galactic Cycle is the Apocalypse is clear, not only because of the relatively cryptic mention in the Book of Revelation of the tun (12:6 and 12:14), but above all through the many sequences of Seven that are described in said Book; Seven angels, Seven spirits, Seven trumpets etc. These are the sequences of Seven DAYS that are all at the same time, October 28, 2011, going towards their completion. The main message of the Book of Revelation is Seven, and the Apocalypse is what is happening now. Contrary to popular opinion, the Apocalypse is however not the end of the world, or at least it is not meant to be. The Book of Revelation ends with a world freed of pain and suffering that is the end of the world as we know it.

Judging from Revelation and also from the rapid energy changes of the Galactic creation cycle we have however little reason to expect that things will be quiet and balanced on the global or galactic levels. On the contrary, the rapid rate of change allows us to predict that there will be stormy waves on the sea of creation. The rate of change will be tremendously high and even increase further as we approach the Universal Cycle. The purpose of this book has been to offer you the aid of the tzolkin in navigating these waters, an aid in aligning your intuition with the cosmic plan and fulfilling your own particular purpose in this. I feel that as long as we do what we are meant to do, we will essentially be happy.
The Elevation of the Human Consciousness by the Galactic Creation Cycle generates potential Conflicts -The Case of the Middle East
What does it mean that we are now gaining a galactic consciousness? Partly, it means that our world is beginning to be expanded in a more real. In 1999, the first DAY of the Galactic Cycle the existence of extrasolar planets was for instance definitely proved and so our expanding consciousness is leading us to widen our horizons. This also means increasing our ability to see things from a higher perspective. “Does this higher perspective lead to peace?” we may then ask. In the long run yes, but in the short run it is undetermined. This is because the rapid changes in energies will also lead to turmoil as all change may potentially generate conflicts. It is easy to see how in the past energy changes have often propelled military campaigns (see Chapter 3). Even pulses of new LIGHT may thus generate conflicts and in fact both the Napoleonic Wars and World War I occurred in DAYS during the Planetary Cycle, DAY 2 and DAY 5, respectively. And so the changes propelled by DAYS 2 and 5, approximately the years 2001 and 2007 (see Fig 55), may potentially generate warfare also in the Galactic Cycle.

But will wars break out? At the time of writing, late in the year 2000 an extensive war in the Middle East appears as a real possibility for the year 2001, and of course the analogy with the Napoleonic Wars in the Second DAY of the Planetary Cycle would make such a development even more likely. And if we look upon it from the point of view of Mayan calendrics the Napoleonic Wars (DAY 2, 1794-1814) really meant a push to sweep away the old world of Royal dynasties that Europe had inherited from the lower National Underworld. They thus prepared the ground for a development towards republics and democracy that has become an expression typical of the consciousness of the Planetary Cycle and that we now take for granted. That Napoleon Bonaparte had personal ambitions and took the role of an emperor, an extreme expression of the old order, at the same time as he shook up the old world order only shows how individual choices come in and hybrid forms of existence often manifest as a new frame of consciousness begins to dominate over the previous. The objective function that the Napoleonic Wars had was however to shake-up and forever weaken the old order as DAY 2 of the Planetary Cycle began. Although the reaction of NIGHT 2 (1814-1834) reinstalled many of the dynasties that had ruled Europe previously their power was from this point and onwards step-by-step weakened by the increasing dominance of the new frame of consciousness.

In the Middle East today the situation is somewhat similar in that conflicts have erupted whose origin is very directly part of the old order created by the frame of consciousness generated early in the National Cycle. Clearly many of the attitudes upon which the politics and military conflicts in the area are based are completely outdated. Thus, as the second DAY of the Galactic Cycle, bringing a new higher frame of consciousness, sweeps the world it is very likely that things will happen in such areas where people are dominated by antiquated thinking. It is obvious that the old order of religious conflicts in the Middle East has no future as the new higher frame of consciousness becomes dominant, and so one way or another the conflicts there will have to be resolved. These are conclusions that we may draw from the Mayan calendar and the resolution may largely come in the second DAY of the cycle.

The question is only what this resolution will look like. And here obviously individual choices come in. An enlightened position in this case is that we are all children of the same God and aspects of the same creation process, and that all that differs between human beings is less important. In a sense this conflict is not even a conflict between people or between religions, but a conflict generated by different levels of consciousness that tend to foster different mentalities, which have to be harmoniously resolved. Also elsewhere in the world people will be affected by the new second pulse of Galactic consciousness that will serve a higher perspective, and generally, an evolution towards transcending conflicts inherited from the National Cycle will take place.

But many in the area have come to identify with and base their power on adherence to ancient religious principles and will not like to see that swept away by a new wind of higher consciousness. Thus even though the area will be strongly affected by the new pulse of higher galactic consciousness very likely the outcome will be some hybrid expression of the galactic consciousness. Regardless, step-by-step, conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, will be transcended as the higher level of consciousness become dominating, and from this there will be no turning back. But the critical point for whether this results in violent or non-violent expressions is to what extent people freely and consciously choose to adapt to the emerging frame of consciousness. God only provides us with the possibility of choosing peace. We have to do it ourselves.
Mayan Calendar: Evolving Towards Enlightenment – III

In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012.

The Mayan Calendar is the only Reliable Source of Information about the Changing Energies of the Future
In similar ways, there are tremendous amounts of information to be gained about the future from historical parallels. Look for instance at what NIGHT 5 (1932-1952), ruled by the Lord of Darkness, produced in the Planetary Cycle; the Great Depression, Hitlerism, Stalinism, World War II, Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs we have reasons to consider that NIGHT 5, essentially the year 2008, in the Galactic Cycle may turn out to be a very difficult time. But there is no reason to take only negative examples when it comes to peace and war. Although tense, the katun of Flowering (DAY 6, 1952-1972) of the Planetary Cycle, for instance, saw a protracted development of prosperity and the beginning (1992-1999) of its katun of Fruition (DAY 7) was by far the most peaceful in the history of mankind. Since we are now in the process of developing a higher frame of consciousness where the role of choice and free will become much more important, no such developments are however pre-determined. All we know is that in certain cycles the possibilities for certain types of events will be greater than in other.

Now, if the Mayan calendar cannot be used to predict the course of events exactly “What good is it then?”, somebody may ask. Well, again, expecting that it could be used to predict things exactly is tantamount to believing that human beings do not have a free will. What the Mayan calendar is useful for is understanding from historical analogies when certain possible courses of action will emerge and when they will not. The Middle East is just an example, also everything else that has been inherited from lower Underworlds and is not consistent with a harmonious unity will be brought to the surface in due time to be resolved in light of the consciousness of the new and higher Underworld. Rightly understood, the Mayan Calendar tells us, and this is very important knowledge, that eventually the highest level of consciousness, the Universal, will come to dominate and that so all conflicts inherited from lower Underworlds will pass away.
Human Consciousness is Expanding to Include the Galaxy
What we also know for certain is that our consciousness will continue to expand and that there will be no returning to a tribal or national life. In fact everything is happening on an increasingly larger scale. Globalization is only the beginning. As we arrive at the Fourth World in the Galactic Cycle (also called the Advent in Fig 55 more in line with Christian terminology) few things will be similar to what they are like today (Galactification will then begin to be a meaningful word). What we also know for certain is that the evolution of the new consciousness we brought about by a wave movement alternating between DAY (external change, creativity) and NIGHT (internal change, rest) although different part of the world will be affected differently because of their locations in relation to the World Tree. With every DAY, the new frame of consciousness will also be strengthened at the expense of the old, but until DAY 7 the results of these pulses will be hybrid expression of the two levels of consciousness. The NIGHTS in between serve essentially for integration of the previous pulse and preparation for the coming, and to disseminate the new phenomena also to areas located outside of the hot spots for change.

The current state of affairs in the Heavens also has repercussion for our lives as individuals. The frequent alternations between day and night in the current Underworld, with its concurrent shifts of Yin/Yang-dualities is behind the fact that few have yet truly attained a harmonious balance in their lives. If we think that we have found such a harmonious inner balance it may easily be swept away by the next Yin/Yang-polarity shift. The alternating Yin/Yang-polarity shifts also often affect our relationships with those around us. And for our inner harmony or relationships with others to be disturbed those that have once started to go with the flow of their spirit and come under the rule of the emerging Galactic Underworld may actually be at a greater risk, at least in its initial phase, than those that never sought to rise above the domination of the lower, denser Underworlds (This is obvious as they do not undergo change with the same frequency).
Creation is Accelerating
But things really could not be otherwise because the high frequency alterations of the Galactic Underworld leaves no stone unturned. What looked like a good idea through the vision generated by resonance with one Yin/Yang-polarity may loose its appeal as a new tun begins. And so long term planning becomes more difficult for everyone. It is not personal. The high frequency of change generated by the Galactic Underworld stirs things up. The only ones that could expect to have found a truly harmonious and stable balance would be those that have already attained a level of consciousness in resonance with the Universal Underworld. This would mean that they have transcended the influence of the shifting Yin/Yang-polarities that dominates everywhere else, and so those individuals probably are not many, although they may well exist.

The question then returns: Will we be able to surf on the waves of creation or will we be drowned by them? Well, what possibilities that manifest and which ones do not depends to a large extent on to what degree we, individually and collectively, have assimilated the Mayan calendar as a guide for our intuition and let it guide our paths of action. What is crucial for the way things go is really to what extent the human beings are prepared and have chosen a path towards Enlightenment. What is crucial is in other words to what extent people are aware of the fact that we are now in a process of climbing to higher levels of consciousness and are willing to prepare ourselves for this. Since we are no longer puppets of the divine process of creation we will not necessarily see wars in those years. But on the other hand not being a puppet also means that for peace to come forth we need freely to choose a path towards Enlightenment.
Enlightenment
In the Galactic Cycle the Yin/Yang duality will be reversed compared to what it was like in Fig 26 (see The Mayan Calendar). Thus we may expect that the Galactic Cycle in the Western Hemisphere will generate a fascination with the new technology and the new economy, while much of the focus in the East – Russia, India and China – will be directed towards spiritual enlightenment. The full effects of this are however not likely to be visible until about at the midpoint of the cycle, at the beginning of the Third of the Four Worlds. The timeless Cosmic consciousness generated by the Universal Cycle will bring many to seek to adapt their individual consciousness to this Underworld. In the Eastern traditions adapting our individual consciousness to such a universal frame of mind is referred to as attaining Enlightenment, a state of liberation from domination by lower aspects of self. At least one spiritual teacher in India, Khalki, in fact adheres to the idea that the Mayan calendar provides the time frame for the Enlightenment of humanity. Through such a view East and West meet in a common understanding of the nature and purpose of human life.

And of course, although it may be intellectually stimulating to study events on earth in the light of the Mayan calendar, its importance really lies in making us realize that the plan for the evolution of the universe is one for the transformation of the human beings into enlightened beings and that we are aspects of the divine coming into existence. With every step upward on the cosmic pyramid we are becoming truer images of God, which seems to be the purpose of this creation. Whether creation is about human beings becoming more God-like or God manifesting as human beings is really more of a semantic question.

An aspect of the Enlightened state is the experience of unity with All That Is, with all things living and that there is no separation. It is exactly in this direction creation will be going as we attain the universal frame of consciousness at the highest level of the cosmic pyramid, where none of the divine light is blocked by darkening filters. But Enlightenment does not happen in a vacuum. Since consciousness is linked to the ruling Underworld true Enlightenment may not yet have been attained on this planet. Every level of consciousness, corresponding to the Nine Underworlds, develops its own expressions of the human being, abilities belonging to each and every one of them, an intuition associated with each and every one of them and so also an Enlightened state as a possibility in each and every one of them. The state of Enlightenment possible at the Ninth and Cosmic level will be different since at this level everyone will share it and there will be no possible reversal. There will be no more reincarnation, no more lessons to learn and no desire to engage in the existence of lower levels of self.

As mentioned earlier, all the levels of consciousness corresponding to the Nine Underworlds are also expressed in distinct ways through our bodies and in our individual beings. The cells were created at the lowest Underworld, the mammalian brain at the next and so forth until more spiritual levels are created by higher Underworlds. There may also for instance be correspondences between the emergence of different chakras and the different Underworlds. As a human being enters a new Underworld she is transformed by this on all levels, aspects of existence that did not exist previously are introduced and so lower levels of our consciousness have to be transformed into a new whole for a harmonious functioning of the whole. The higher, more conscious, levels then transform the lower levels and, sometimes after a conscious choice, those are adapted to the new state of being.

So in the Eastern spiritual practices aimed at attaining an Enlightened state of being the transformation of lower levels of self are often emphasized. The process of attaining Enlightenment is often directed towards subordinating the lower material levels of self to the higher levels of consciousness and to bring to the individual a realization that she or he is fundamentally spirit, consciousness, a spirit that may be liberated from the serfdom of the material existence. Such lower levels of our selves then are all those aspects of our beings that have been created by more limited frames of consciousness than the Universal, and the process of attaining Enlightenment by an individual is really nothing but a reflection of the same process going on on a larger scale in the entire cosmos; As above, So below. But there is a certain dialectic necessary here. Enlightenment does not happen by itself, except for maybe temporary flashes of the state, and so human beings really have to make a conscious choice for the purpose of the universe to be manifested. The Universe can not be Enlightened without Enlightened human beings and the human beings can only be Enlightened as a result of a free choice. Some will begin on this path before the others, but since this can only be a matter of free choice the number of people that will follow remains to be seen.

To focus on possible catastrophes and earth changes or the sometimes threatening language of the Book of Revelation may serve little good. Yet, the idea that it may serve our survival to attain an Enlightened state seems only logical as a path to adapt through conscious work to the higher levels of consciousness. Of course, fear or self-interest may not be valid motives for taking a path towards the top of the Mountain of Enlightenment, but in the larger picture there is a logic to this that we should not ignore. The Heavens ruling in the cosmos must be reflected in the levels of consciousness of the human individuals.

The basic idea of attaining Enlightenment is to escape the domination of lower levels of consciousness and so to attain a state of oneness with All That Is, in fact a divine state. This also implies the oneness with each and every one of the manifestations of creation – the In Lak’ech philosophy. While there are spiritual practices that may lead to this, developed especially in India, and that I know little of, there are certain things that may be added to a broader understanding based on Mayan calendrics. In a path of elevating your consciousness to higher states it may for instance be a good idea always to keep an eye at what level of consciousness, in what Underworld, that different human habits of action and thought have originated.

Mayan Calendar: Evolving Towards Enlightenment – IV

In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012.

The Mayan Heavens and Underworlds shape – The Human Vision of the Divine
To take an example of this: The major religions of mankind were generated by the frame of consciousness and mentalities generated by the National Cycle, or the Sixth Underworld, and their patriarchal nature was a direct consequence of the field of consciousness that ruled this (see Fig 26a). It would then seem that a strict adherence to organized ritualized expressions of such religions also means being stuck in a lower Underworld, something which in fact will remain a block towards attaining the Enlightened state corresponding to the Ninth, or Universal, level of consciousness. This is not to imply that if you are a Catholic, Muslim, Jew or whatever else you cannot be Enlightened. It only means that if this religious affiliation keeps you stuck at a limiting Great Cycle level of consciousness where members of other religions are not also recognized as aspects of the divine in becoming, and children of the same God, then you are in fact not Enlightened.

Such arguments do not only apply to thoughts and actions linked to different religions, but for the attainment of an enlightened state it will serve us always to keep a keen eye in what Underworld our life habits originate and consider transforming everything that has an origin at lower, frames of consciousness of higher density. Transforming is however not eradicating. Higher levels of consciousness are built on the foundations of the lower levels of the cosmic pyramid and not by destroying them. Thus for instance the currently evolving Galactic frame of consciousness is not meant to sweep the notion of nationhood away just because this originates at a lower level. It only means that the meaning of national belonging will need to be transformed and relegated to a subordinated rule in pace with the emergence of the new and higher frame of consciousness. Incidentally, climbing the cosmic pyramid is not only about transcending the type of consciousness that has generated the many religious wars, that is to say the National produced by the Great Cycle. At the present time it is also about transcending many of the supposedly spiritual expressions that were generated by the Planetary Cycle. While maybe entertaining, much of the UFO’s, Babylonian astrology, esoteric history unrelated to the real world, channeled information, Lemurians, etc of the New Age movement, have been generated by the sensationalism of the Planetary level of consciousness, and is simply not true. It seems that in the Planetary Underworld spirituality had to be presented in a sensational way to have an appeal in the general materialism that then ruled and in order to distinguish itself from the historical religions. It almost seems as if with the glasses we were endowed with by the Planetary Underworld made us see ordinary reality as not spiritual and so all kinds of outrageous things were needed for people to “believe”.

With the glasses of the Galactic Underworld on the other hand we may now be beginning to see that all of reality is spiritual. Even those things, such as machines and technical inventions, that have seemed the most alien to a sacred apprehension of reality may in fact now be seen to have been created through the workings of a cosmic plan that has gradually allowed human beings to develop such means. What would happen if we would begin to look upon technology also as sacred, rather than as at the present time an enemy of the nature we regard as sacred? Maybe this would be necessary for the two to finally find a harmonious co-existence. There is a tendency among some to regard the human being, and all she has created, as “what went wrong in this creation”, but then, with such an attitude, how could we ever see ourselves as images of God in becoming, which is necessary for us to approach the enlightened state. Maybe in fact there is nothing wrong with the human being or what she has created. She is always in a way commensurate with the level of consciousness the cosmos has endowed her with.
Seeking the Truth and Practicing Kindness
Another step on the path towards Enlightenment is to transcend the fragmented state of the science originating from the Planetary Underworld, which, while factually generally correct, has failed to provide a worldview that is whole. This is mainly because of its refusal to recognize the existence of an invisible, Intelligent Power behind the manifest reality.

Truth is thus an important aspect of Enlightenment. Dissemination of the Mayan calendar facilitates the Enlightenment of the world since it in fact is a tool to prove the existence of God, a higher purpose of human life and the unity of all mankind. Truth is not based on feelings or fantasies, but one empirical fact. It is either universal or does not exist at all. The importance of the Mayan Calendar thus probably is not primarily in its individual use but in its potential for creating the intellectual understanding that all things are one, that we are all aspects of divine creation. And so Truth serves the Enlightenment of humanity.

So life seems to be about evolving as aspects of God in becoming, of attaining an Enlightened state in His/Her image. But it must then also be about working towards creating the conditions for this at our current stage of evolution and serving the harmonious evolution of humanity at large. To help humanity at large to attain a Universal frame of consciousness is why we, may have an individual path of action that we are committed to or have chosen. To indefinitely meditate on a mountaintop in the Himalayas, in contrast, would not seem to be to practice the In Lak’ech-philosophy since it is of no service to the rest of the world. (I can not tell, but maybe it is not enlightened either, since it seems more like a detachment than a unity with All That Is). Rightly understood I feel there is a certain dialectic to the process of attaining Enlightenment, where the evolution of the individual towards a higher state of awareness and a higher perspective on the human existence fosters a path of action in service, and vice versa. Rightly understood one serves the other.

Many people wonder what their purpose, in the sense of their path of action, is. And certainly there have been individuals in the history of mankind whose lives have revolved around accomplishing certain things, Buddha or Pasteur or any other who came here to do something, to accomplish a certain task of a lifetime. But at the present state of human evolution it is really questionable how many have these types of pre-determined paths of action. A fundamental reason is that we are entering a frame of consciousness where the role of free will is playing a greater role and so we may now be obliged to actually choose our paths of actions. We may then really have to craft our paths of action all by ourselves, and such a path of action in service of the Enlightenment of humanity may have little to do with what are considered as great deeds; curing diseases or the like. It may simply have to do with being kind. Being kind to another person is also taking a step on the Enlightened path and means practicing the In Lak’ech-philosophy. While this may not sound spectacular it is certainly something that takes a lot of spiritual discipline to practice on a consistent basis. Asking the question: “How would I like to be treated?” may be a simple question to ask. “What would God do if She/He were me?” is another.

But, as mentioned earlier, the Mayan calendar, and especially the tzolkin may be a useful temporal framework for pursuing projects and a path of action in the dialectic between free will and the cosmic plan of creation. If the attainment of an Enlightened state is the very purpose of human life it and the Mayan Calendar charts the path there then it would only seem natural that the paths that we develop in that directions are developed in phase with the Mayan calendar. This seems logical. But there is even more to the relevance of the tzolkin for an Enlightened path! As we have seen the evolutionary creation cycles are wave movements, where polarity alternates with unity in a process that is basic to all of creation and the cosmic processes leading to higher states of awareness. It then follows that the DAYS are favorable to a path of action and expressing creativity in the external world whereas the NIGHTS may be more favorable to contemplation and inner spiritual evolution. Our brains, in resonance with the cosmic creation cycles, will simply be functioning in different ways in different periods. As we approach the Universal Cycle the energy shifts described by the Mayan calendar will become increasingly more marked and an awareness of this wave movement will become increasingly more important. The Mayan Calendar charts the path for humanity, both individually and collectively, towards Enlightenment!

Everything that serves an experience of unity with All That Is, whether it is speaking the Truth, liberating yourself from lower levels of existence, committing to your purpose of life in a path of action or practicing kindness will serve the path towards Enlightenment. Global meditations may on a collective scale also serve the unity of mankind. And in this Mayan Calendrics points to a certain event heralding the return of a higher frame of consciousness.
Mayan Calendar: Evolving Towards Enlightenment – V

In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012.

The Return of Christ Consciousness, Quetzalcoatl and the Venus Passages
An important theme of the Book of Revelation is the return of Christ, but if Christ and Quetzalcoatl are the same when will “he” return and what will this return mean? From the perspective developed here it seems that we are talking first and foremost about the return of a certain consciousness, the consciousness that is developed by the Galactic Underworld, and more specifically about the LIGHT aspect of this consciousness. The energy of this LIGHT may be referred to either as Christ consciousness or Quetzalcoatl depending on the tradition we belong to. In this view the return of Christ is not a matter of a single individual coming down to us to put everything in order. Rather it is about a new level of consciousness incarnating, or being developed, in many of us who choose to fulfill our destinies as aspects of the divine. The return of Quetzalcoatl and of Christ consciousness is something that will take place in some of us who choose to have this consciousness reincarnate in ourselves (This does not mean that some of us are divine and others not, only that everyone will not necessarily take a path of seeking to realize his divine nature).

What then is the role of Venus in the return of Christ consciousness/Quetzalcoatl? Venus was the planet of greatest interest to the Maya. The Maya very closely studied its phases and knew that five synodical Venus cycles of 584 days equal eight years on earth (minus two days). In various ways they sought to understand how the movement of Venus was linked to the tzolkin, and in the Dresden Codex, the finest of the Mayan Codices, the Venus Tables play a prominent role. Much of the Mayan interest in Venus depended on the fact that its phases were seen as symbolic of the processes of death and rebirth, and so linked to Quetzalcoatl. Hence it was thought that in the eight days between the disappearance of Venus as the Evening star and its emergence as a Morning star when it conjuncts the sun, Quetzalcoatl would return to the Underworld.

But it is only at a certain kind of conjunction that Venus actually intersects the disc of the sun, although such an “eclipse” is hardly visible to the naked eye. Such an “eclipse” of the sun, lasting for about seven hours, is called a Venus passage, or Venus transit, and is an occasion where Venus may serve as the best of all possible Cosmic Mirrors. Such Venus passages occur pair wise separated by eight years and the most recent pairs of Venus passages appeared in the years 1761/1769 (Fig 57) and 1874/1882. As all of creation is now going towards its completion, a pair of Venus passages will appear on the days June 8, 2004 and June 6, 2012 (Greenwich Mean Time).

That Venus is the sister planet of Earth and a manifestation of Quetzalcoatl means that the Venus passage of June 8, 2004 is designed as a perfect Cosmic Mirror to prepare us for the spiritual reality that is in the process of manifesting, by joining in meditation on this day. The really important facet of this occasion is that it will be perfectly scheduled to celebrate the midpoint of the third NIGHT of the Galactic Cycle, a time when a new Cross, the World Tree, will again be present to our inner vision.
Integrating the World Tree
One possible technique of receiving one’s inner World Tree for guidance in the times to come is through a Gaia meditation. What this means is that you imagine your own head inside of, or actually becoming, the earth. In such a meditation you may imagine positioning your eyes at the Hawaiian Islands so that your left brain half corresponds to the Western Hemisphere and the right brain half to the Eastern. In this way you will be fully exposed to the global creation field organized by the New World Tree and remain in resonance with it.

This could also be taken one step further by visualizing your head surrounded by the galaxy with its midplane separating your two brain halves, meaning that the World Tree will be recreated on your forehead at the location of the third eye. At this occasion we may then in a meditative state of awareness focus intensely on the passage of Venus across the disc of the sun, while letting go of attempts to directly see the True Cross. If we identify strongly with planet earth and the galaxy and through meditation receive this new Heaven (while still focusing on the passage of our sister planet across the disc of the sun) we will receive the imprint of the Cross, whether we can see this directly or not.
The Mayan Calendar will replace Babylonian Astrology
The meditation at this Venus Passage is not about “astrology.” It is not about expecting that Venus will then cause something to happen on earth. Rather it is about the cosmos offering an opportunity, a unique mirror for us to use at a super synchronistic moment in time. The Venus passage is an opportunity that means nothing unless it is taken. Thus, at this particular half-tun shift, when the Cross will favorably begin to tip over the balance against the materialist consciousness of the Planetary Underworld, we will receive some extra, remarkably timed, help from the Cosmos to create resonance with the new Heaven.

The return of Quetzalcoatl thus also means a return of the Mayan calendar, the most exact and advanced expression of the cosmology of Native America. The conditions may thus now be at hand for a revival and a return of the ancient tradition of the Sacred Calendar, a tradition that is becoming increasingly important for humanity. And maybe so, a part will be recreated that can make the global culture whole. Certainly in this many people from across the world, regardless of race, gender, religion or nationality, will be participating by being incarnations of the LIGHT of Christ and Quetzalcoatl and expressing this Enlightenment through their actions. The Maya wisdom and the tzolkin will come to be embraced by people all over the world that desire the means to live in harmony with divine creation. The returning Cross, The World Tree, will not be linked to religious rigidity or set rules. Instead it is an opening to freedom of expression, of serving creation based on one’s own guidance and the recognition that all human beings carry pieces of the truth and that the truth cannot be monopolized by any one of us.
The Universal Creation Cycle
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it…
Revelation 20:11

The number Nine plays an important role in the spiritual lore of many traditions, and it seems that in both the Buddhist and the Nordic traditions the Ninth World is something special. Also there were Nine doors to the holiest part of the temple in Jerusalem and we have already seen the importance of this number to the Maya. So there are strong reasons to believe that the Ninth Underworld of the Cosmos, the Universal Cycle, is different from all the others. At the end – or rather at the top – of this Underworld there will be an Ascension to Heaven, or, really, the descent of Heaven to earth. Only as we draw to the close of the Universal Cycle, will we gain a true picture of Creation and thus from this maybe understand more of who God really is. We will definitely pass from a state of believing to one of knowing. Our current views will then likely be seen as fathoming in the dark.

As we are endowed not only with a Galactic, but also with a non-dualist Universal, frame of consciousness, these will make it possible for us to see the events of the past from a higher perspective than previously. Surely the perspective from the Universal Underworld will allow for true forgiveness, what the Book of Revelation refers to in its verse 21:4: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” From the perspective of the Universal Underworld the former things will have passed away. All the conflicts of humanity belonging to lower levels of consciousness will by 2011 have been resolved, because then there is no support in the Heavens for anything but the unity of all mankind, a unity with All That Is. The old order will no longer be real.
The End to Death
Both Mayan and Christian sources talk about an end to death at the end of time. Eastern traditions talk about the Enlightened state as deathless. What this means may be beyond our comprehension today, but the ancient traditions are all pointing in the same direction: a time-less Enlightened cosmic consciousness. We may rightly ask who needs a calendar in such a state and rightly so the Mayan Calendar then comes to an end. All of Creation will be completed with the Universal Cycle in the year 2011 when all Underworlds will have attained the tzolkin energy of 13 Ahau. Reaching this day-sign no filters will be blocking our vision of divine LIGHT or communication with the divine. No longer will the human being be puppets of the cycles of creation. We will then come to live in the New Jerusalem, the Tent of God, having reached Enlightenment after completing the 108 movements of Shiva and climbed the Nine Underworlds. The True Life will begin.

Mayan Calendar: Foreword to the book Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our Time – THE MAYAN CALENDAR

The Foreword to the book: Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our Time – THE MAYAN CALENDAR

Carl Johan Calleman has a Ph.D. in Physical Biology from the University of Stockholm (1984) and has served as a Senior Researcher of Environmental Health at the University of Washington in Seattle and as an expert on cancer for the World Health Organization. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on the Mayan calendar based on the books Maya-hypotesen (in Swedish, 1994), The Mayan Calendar (Garev, 2001) and Enlightenment (Bear and Co, 2004).

An Enigmatic Culture and Calendar
The Maya are mysterious. This is how this ancient culture has always been portrayed, and in the recent surge of interest a long row of documentaries has presented a picture of a people with practices and a view of the world that is very difficult for modern people to understand. One of the enigmas that have been highlighted is the advancement of their science and above all the calendar. The Maya have often been described as a people obsessed with time, and this obsession was encoded in their enigmatic calendar where the gods seem to be playing an often ominous role.

And yes, to a civilization such as our own which has institutionalised a sharp division line between religion and science – the priest has for instance no authority to speak in matters of science and the university scientist has no authority to speak in matters of religion – a unified world view such as that of the Mayan sages can only appear as mysterious. But maybe it is really we who live today in a civilization that has lost most of its contact with the living cosmos and divine reality that are the mysterious and enigmatic. And maybe it is for this reason that we can not avoid the Maya altogether. It is a people that tends to return – probably until we learn what there is to learn from them, and intuitively many people sense that the solutions to many of the riddles of the human existence will originate from the Maya. Hence we have in the past few decades seen a rise in interest in the Mayan calendar.

It seems that there is something in the very word “Maya” that tells us of its importance. Maya was the name of the mother of Buddha. It, Maia, was the name of the Roman goddess of spring from which the month of May has gained its name, and, with a small stretch, it was the name of the mother of Jesus, Maria. Almost as if the sound of the word Maya had some universal meaning implanted in the human consciousness so that different cultures have given it the meaning of “Mother of light”, “mother of spirit” or “mother of knowledge”. Maybe not the knowledge itself, but the origin, a deeper female origin, of knowledge. And so I understand the search for the Maya as a search for the origin of knowledge, and have come to understand this search for the origin as a means of retrieving a world view from which our lives may be understood as meaningful, a new world view which is unified and where no division line between science and spirituality exists.

Given that the ancient Maya lived in a universe of Holy Time it seems that the key to retrieving this world view lies in understanding, and in fact solving, the calendar in which their knowledge about holy time was encoded. What it means to solve the riddle of the Mayan calendar will however depend on the particular perspective you have. Obviously, to the ancient Maya there was nothing to solve. What it means to me is to translate the meaning of the Mayan calendar so that it can be understood by other traditions than its own. To make such a translation is to solve the Mayan calendar and this is the goal that I have set for my research

.
What prompted my interest in the Mayan Calendar
Given this background I am at one level surprised when I am asked the question what created my interest in the Mayan calendar. “How can you not be interested in the Mayan Calendar?” I think silently, and I have sometimes felt that the reason the person is asking is to somehow put a lid on the tremendous explanatory power of the Mayan calendar and the shake-up of anyone’s world view that this results in. My verbal response to the question has usually been to point out that the Mayan, and ancient Mexican, civilization generally was very advanced and significant in the history of our planet. While London was only a village, Tikal and Teotihuacan each had some 100,000 inhabitants or more, meaning that it displays a great arrogance on the part of today’s global culture to simply ignore the contributions these cultures may have made. There is really no reason for us who live today to find the only roots to our science in old Greece.

Yet, most people seem dissatisfied by such an impersonal answer. They sense that there is something more to it. And yes, I have to admit, not everyone of today’s scientists has been going to the jungles of Guatemala in their search for the truth, and especially not those from remote Sweden. I also have to admit that significant contributions to the study of the Mayan calendar have often come from very unlikely sources – oddballs – from a standard academic perspective. In the history of Mayanism there are many examples of this: Foerstemann, the librarian from Danzig who by his studies of the Dresden Codex provided the key insights to how the Mayan calendar was structured; Goodman, Mark Twain’s newspaper boss who discovered the correlation between the Long Count and the Gregorian calendar; Knorozov, the Leningrad ethnologist who cracked the Mayan script without ever having visited the Land of the Maya; Waters and Argueelles, historians with esoteric leanings, who have outlined ways of interpreting the Mayan calendar that go way outside of the predominating materialist world view. Even the late Linda Schele, Professor at the University of Texas, seems with her “redneck” background have viewed herself as an outsider in the world of academics.

And maybe this is the way it has to be. If the understanding of the Mayan calendar is something that implies not just a scientific breakthrough, not just another “paradigm shift”, but a complete revision of our understanding of the world and what it means to be a human being, then we can not expect those embarking on its study to walk the beaten path, and I suppose this has not been true for myself either. Events of a mystical nature has to guide everyone going into the study of the Maya.

The most extraordinary example in the history of Mayanism of such a mystical event is probably that guiding Knorozov to the translation of the Mayan glyphs and it is worth recounting: During World War II Yuri Knorozov was a young student in Leningrad until he was drafted to the Red Army, where he was part of the units that seized Berlin and set an end to Hitler’s rule in Germany. In the final assault on Berlin he saw the National Library in flames and so rushed in and at random grabbed a book to save it. The book turned out to be a facsimile of the only three surviving Mayan Codices that were known at the time, a book that was hardly available in any book store in Stalin’s Russia. Back in Russia he was encouraged to take on breaking the Maya code, the Mayan script, and seven years later he published the solution in a Russian journal of linguistics. That it took some thirty additional years for this solution to be accepted in the West is a different matter. I can only imagine that he must have himself have decided that grabbing this very book was a mystical event that was pointing out his mission in life.

So there seems to be an invisible universe providing guidance for the course of events although most scientists will not readily talk about such matters. Nothing of such an extraordinary character has guided my own search for the Mystery of the Maya, but then again there may not have been any need for it to get me going. I have been naturally attracted and free to travel. My first contact with Mexico was in 1971 as I crossed the border from California into the Sonoran desert. I felt the urge to go further South to see the pyramids. The quality of our car in those freewheeling days however hardly encouraged such a trip and so we turned back to the US. But the attraction to Mexico stayed with me. Being raised in an intellectual European environment and quite familiar with its own history the very fact that those pyramids existed in the New World posed an enigma to me.

And it is truly an enigma although most people do not stop to think about it: If both continents have been inhabited by human beings for some 30,000 years or so, how come they independently started to develop civilizations only in the most recent 5000 years and seem to have done so in parallel. At this first crossing of the border into Mexico I only went deep enough to ponder the enigma, and as I went back to Sweden and took up training as a graduate student in Toxicology other things came to the forefront of my mind.

But something urged me to go back and so I decided to learn some Spanish and stay in a Mexican family in November of 1979, following which a third class train took me down to Merida, the Yucatan and Guatemala. And something happened to me there. I fell in love with the Mayan people, who with small little signs seemed to tell me that I was somehow special there. They seemed to have seen something in me I did not see myself. So I went back to Sweden with a happy inner knowledge that I had a purpose in life, although I yet did not know what it was and so I clad my room in beautiful Mayan textiles to keep this sense of purpose alive.

But also this second, much more extensive, contact with Mexico posed an enigma. As a biologist and medical scientist I was trained to think that life was an accident, but how come then I got this sense that life had a purpose given to me by something greater than myself? This seemed like a contradiction that demanded a resolution. Especially as I moved to take up work in Seattle in the beginning of 1986 experiences of remarkable synchronicities became the rule rather than the exception in this heyday of the American New Age movement. And the very fact that the relatively widespread celebration of the Harmonic Convergence had been based on Mayan calendrics – the days 1 Imix and 2 Ik in the Classical tzolkin count – made me realize that I was not the only one being inspired by the Maya.
An empirical approach to solving the Mayan Calendar
Several spiritual pilgrimages to the land of the Maya then entrenched me deeper in their way of thinking. But it was only as I moved back to Sweden in 1994 that I started to work with their calendar full time and set as my goal to solve it, to somehow translate its meaning to modern people. And there was a reason that I went back to do this work. The geo-spiritual placement of Sweden was very favorable for it. And maybe, there has also in this sense been a reason for me to receive a thorough scientific training. This has given me a truly deep appreciation for the scientific method and its insistence on accurate facts and logic. I am not implying that my interpretations can not be questioned, only that throughout, this book is based on facts and datings accepted by today’s science. Thus, civilizations and worlds for whose existence there is no proof are, in contrast to in most current esoteric attempts of unifying science and spirituality, not part of the picture presented here.

Yet, despite this empirical approach this book is not meant primarily for scientists and so I have avoided making large number of references or presenting long complicated arguments to back up my reasonings. Ultimately the reader will thus have to base her judgement as to whether there is any truth to my ideas on a more or less intuitive reading. Most facts can however easily be verified in a recent standard encyclopedia. A more thorough presentation, with references and detailed reasonings and descriptions of all the various creation cycles involved has instead been given in an as yet unpublished manuscript of mine, The Theory of Everything – the Evolution of Consciousness and the Existence of God proved by the time science of the Maya, that I hope one day will reach the public.

Since unfortunately Mayan calendrics are only rarely taught in modern school I have to assume that the overwhelming majority of readers are as yet unfamiliar with it. For this reason, and not to unnecessarily burden the presentation with too much detail, I have placed the discussion of the tzolkin and some articles regarding hotly debated areas in the Appendices. It is my hope that eventually most people will enter the reach treasure of Mayan calendrics, apply it to their own lives and use the Mayan calendar at least as a complement to our present. Yet, the bulk of the book is intended to present an overall perspective on its meaning, rather than calendrical detail.

Finally I would like to say that I have never seen it as my mission to speak the Mayan view of things or to bring the Mayan Message to Humanity. I feel the Maya are best equipped to do this themselves. For my own part I have in this book sought to extract what is universal in the Mayan calendar. So this is not a book by the Maya or a book claiming to see things the Maya see them. I am alone responsible for these thoughts.

Nor is this a book about the Maya. I am not an anthropologist studying the Maya or their calendar from some purported outside position. It is a book partly inspired by the Maya, but also many other sources as well. I have seen it more as my task to convey to modern people what the Mayan calendar means to us and our own present civilization, because what we need to realize today, above all, is that the Mayan calendar is a universal calendar of potential value for all of humanity regardless of religion, race, gender or political ideas. The Calendar may have been invented by the Maya, but the phenomena that it describes occur today mainly in other parts of the world – only most people do not know it. Hence comes its potential for unifying, not only the religious traditions of the world, but the various fragmented disciplines of modern science as well and in the process unifying all of science with religion. Correctly understood the Mayan Calendar is thus a tool for unifying humanity and its various traditions of thought and making it realize that there is a purpose to our life on this earth as part of a larger plan. Above all, it is a tool for transcending borders and promoting a higher common perspective among all human beings. I hope you will agree and so want to participate in the dissemination of such a perspective in whatever way you chose.

Carl Johan Calleman,
Sundborn, Sweden, on the burner day 4 Ahau,
1.3.0 of the Galactic Underworld
Mayan Calendar: About Materialist and Spiritual Calendars

Carl-Johan Calleman is an internationally recognized authority in the studies of the Mayan Calendar. He has appeared in Swedish, Finnish and Mexican television and American Web-TV. He has published two books about the Mayan Calendar and he was one of the main speakers at a Mexican conference in Yucatan 1998 about the Mayan Calendar.

Not many people today believe that the calendar or the chronology they are using shape the way they look at the world. While we for instance may take it for granted that a belief in God leads to a different world view than a lack of belief in God not many would think that their calendars condition and shape their views of the world. But maybe our calendars shape our view of the world all the more so just because of the very fact we do not think that they matter. Since we are blind to their importance they may insidiously indoctrinate us to look at the world in a special way that we have no choice about if we are ignorant about the alternatives.

Today the Gregorian calendar clearly dominates the world, and then, above all, the world of business since all economic agreements are timed according to this calendar. That a calendar with such a function is linked to the astronomical, i.e. physical and material, year is hardly an accident since a materialist philosophy and attitude towards life have generated both the economic transactions and the astronomical calendar.

The Gregorian calendar is based on a fairly exact estimate, 365.2425 days, of the duration of the solar year. Thus it conditions human beings as exactly as possibly to follow the physical cycles and indoctrinates us to believe that the material reality is the primary.

The Classical Mayan people on the other hand celebrated their birthdays every 360 days, or their tzolkin days every 260 days, and their chronology, the Long Count, was not based on the physical solar year, but on spiritual cycles with an entirely different meaning.

And even if the tzolkin count that was used in ancient Mesoamerica was unique in the world we do know that all of the ancient high cultures of the world used a Holy 360-day “year” in parallel with the astronomic 365-day calendar that they used for agricultural purposes. To follow a 365-day calendar was obviously necessary for providing their means of living – but not for the prophecies! Thus, in Sumeria a time period called a schar which lasted for 3600 days, i.e. 10 “years” of 360 days each was also used. The Egyptians followed a 360-day year to which was added 5 days “when the gods were born,” something which clearly demonstrates that these peoples were aware of the religious character of the 360-day year in contrast to the astronomical year.

It is believed that prior to the introduction of the Julian calendar around 40 BC ancient Rome would use a 360-day calendar and the same is true for the Nordic countries judging from ceremonial centres. From the Book of Revelation (12:6 and 12:14) we may from some detective work gather that the Jews at the time said book was written considered 360 days as a “time.” Also in ancient China a religious 360-day year was followed that was divided into six periods of sixty days each, and in the ancient Hindu culture 360 days was considered as a “night of Brahman” again linking this time period to a divine process of Creation. Among the Maya such a period of 360 days was called a tun, and it was at the beginning of each new tun or katun (20 tuns) that the priests would gather to make prophecies forthe coming “age.” Hence the Mayan concept of “ages” was based on the tun.

All of these ancient cultures,originating in such different parts of, were in possession of sufficiently advanced astronomical knowledge to have estimated the solar year to about 365 1/4 days. Yet, they choose to use a 360-day year in parallel with the astronomical year. Why? The fact that the Maya priests would gather every 360 days to make their prophecies hints at the answer. The evolution of the human consciousness and the divine plan for the evolution of this plan and galaxy is based on the tun.

If we think about it, it is not very surprising that the evolution of human consciousness does not follow the 365-day year: If matter – but not consciousness – is an illusion, why then would the evolution of consciousness depend on the movements of matter – such as for instance the revolution of the earth around the sun in 365 days. Since today people in general have ceased to follow the 360-day year and have accepted the dominance of the Gregorian calendar we have also become blind to the fact that there exists a divine plan and that this divine plan proceeds independently of anything physical or material. When we start to follow a calendar based on the Holy 360-day year we will once again open our eyes to the spiritual and divine reality. Conversely, the spiritual seekers are already beginning to realize the value of following a tun-based calendar as a guide to the divine pulses of light.

Mayan Calendar: The Classical Mayan Tzolkin Count and the Dreamspell

During the past decade interest in the Calendars of the Maya has dramatically increased world-wide. Ultimately, this increasing interest is derived from the fact that a new consciousness of time is now emerging. A New Age gives rise to a new consciousness of time which in turn requires a new calendar for this to be expressed. This new consciousness of time is today commonly experienced either as if time is accelerating, or that it simply disappears. Maybe, in fact, the idea that time is a quantity is on its way out. “Why is this?” we may ask. Is it merely an illusion of ours that time is running faster or has our highly developed technological society developed so effective means of telecommunications that everything is speeding up to a point where things almost become unbearable?

Another possibility is that the speed-up of time is real and caused by factors entirely outside of human control. Factors which in accordance with the divine plan proceed from a galactic level of creation and actually cause the emergence of a new age – a new age of time. There have been rumours that the year 1999 will mean a “time shift” and Edgar Cayce had predicted a “pole shift” “in the winter of 1998.” Maybe then a polarity shift between Yin and Yang on a galactic scale will lead to the final breakthrough to a new consciousness of time.
Is Time an illusion?
As many spiritually evolved people have realized time is ultimately an illusion, but since it happens to be the very illusion that maintains our lives, it may be worth the effort to probe deeper into its mystery. As a tool to do so the calendar of the Maya has again come into use. Western astrology, which in principle is based on the study of endless repetitions of the cyclical movements of the celestial bodies with fixed periods of revolutions (fixed frequencies), could never logically explain the increased frequency of time. To understand the frequency increase we need to accept a concept of time which is independent of the movement of material bodies. We need to accept the concept of time of the Maya.

Anyone who takes an interest in the ancient culture of the Maya will soon realize that this people had an understanding of time which was vastly different from our own, and many have come to use it for their own spiritual evolution. But what then is the Mayan calendar?

It turns out this is not as unambiguous as one might think. The so called day keepers in Guatemala and Mexico use some twenty different calendars in parallel and over the ages these have undergone significant change. For instance, no inscriptions of the chronology of the ancient Maya, the so called Long Count starting on August 11, 3114 BC and ending on December 21, 2012, have been found that were made after the tenth century AD. Thus, we have reasons to suspect that also the consciousness of time of the Maya has undergone some significant change since the Classical culture reigned between AD 200 – 800. What this all means is that there hardly exists such a thing as a Mayan calendar cut in stone for us simply to assimilate without deeper thoughts or insights about the nature of the divine plan.
Dreamspell is a “New Age – invented” system
Regarding calendars used on a daily basis it was calendar – inspired by the Maya – launched by Jose Argueelles in 1990 that went by the name of Dreamspell that first came to be used in the modern world. Jose and his wife Lloydine asserted that the planet was threatened by an environmental catastrophe because of our use of the Gregorian calendar and as an alternative they suggested a calendar based on 13 Moons each of 28 days plus an extra day, July 25th, outside of time (13 x 28 + 1 = 365).

In their system the leap day every fourth solar year was simply ignored, apparently to keep the ideal of 13 x 28 intact. These Thirteen Moons were then linked to a special tzolkin count (260 different combinations of thirteen numbers and twenty different glyphs) in which each individual could find out what was his or her “Galactic Signature.” The idea underlying the Dreamspell seems to have been that if human beings lived in phase with the natural cycles, in this case probably primarily the female cycle of about 28 days, we would treat the earth better and thus avoid an impending catastrophe. This idea may have attracted some, but certainly many more were attracted by the idea that the particular day they were born had an inherent energy described by their Galactic Signature, that is, tzolkin day. This latter idea certainly had support from the notions of the Maya, in principle.

There was however a problem with the Dreamspell, namely that the Maya had never used the particular tzolkin count that it was linked to. Many of the followers of Dreamspell, mostly for lack of knowledge, simply presented Dreamspell as The Mayan Calendar. In practice the result of this was that many individuals have been deluded into thinking that the Galactic Signature they had been assigned also was the one that the Maya would have used. As this was discovered something called The True Count Debate raged on the Internet in 1995 where especially John Major Jenkins energetically asserted that Argueelles count was false, and that it had never been used by the Mayan people themselves. In addition, there still existed a tzolkin count, the Classical, which was used over the entire Mesoamerican region in Classical times and had survived until today in the Highlands of Guatemala and elsewhere among the Mayan day keepers.

Jenkins stated, and I think rightly so, that Argueelles’ followers had no right to present the Dreamspell count as the Calendar of the Maya and that it was a kind of Cultural imperialism to ignore the “surviving” Sacred Calendar that was still in use among the Maya.

Argueelles response to this criticism seems to have passed through two different phases. His initial response was to say that he had received his calendar by divine revelation. Since he saw himself as an incarnation of Pacal Votan, a Mayan king who ruled in Palenque in the seventh century AD, everything he did was in accordance with the divine plan. To my knowledge he never responded in a direct way to the issues raised. It seems however that the attitude of the Argueelles’ changed in 1998 and Jose became more open to the criticism. Following a meeting with Quiche elder Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj at Spring Equinox 1998 he declared that the Dreamspell and the Classical Maya tzolkin counts were equally valid and that no conflict existed between the two. Later, he claimed in an interview that Dreamspell was really not a Mayan calendar, although he still asserted its value.

And this later position is obviously perfectly legitimate. As long as it is not claimed that the Dreamspell count has been used by the Maya anyone is in his right to assert its possible value, if any. As we discuss a new calendar for the future, for the new age, I believe however that what is most important is to specify what is the purpose of this calendar and chronology. Unless we do so we may either run into the kind of pie throwing that was typical of the True Count Debate, or resign to a attitude that has become common today, to claim that “anything goes,” that there really is no such thing as a True Count and that all there is are our individual truths (But then, if there is no True Count, what value would any particular tzolkin count really have?).

In contrast to these resigned thoughts I feel that when it comes to developing a Mayan calendar useful to chart our future it is important to realize the predominant role of the tzolkin in such a project. It also seems that without exception Mayan day keepers maintain that the tzolkin count is the hub around which all other calendrical cycles turn, and it is for this reason that, although it has sometimes been lost, the tzolkin count is not known ever to have been intentionally reformed.
Tzolkin – The Master Calendar and center wheel
The tzolkin has been regarded as the master calendar around which all the others revolve. If it is true that the tzolkin count plays such a crucial role, then the consequence would be that if we desert it our calendrical system may end up anywhere. Unless we respect the Sacred Calendar – and its divine origin – there will be no hub keeping the various other calendars linked. To make a clear example of this: Many people have become fascinated by the fact that the Mayan Long Count ends in the year 2012, sensing that this may be a time of fundamental importance to humanity. And, in fact, the Mayan Long Count is a fairly exact calibration of a certain process of evolution of the human consciousness. This calendar is however linked to a certain tzolkin count, the Classical, meaning that it is only those that respect this hub of the calendars that will be in phase with the particular evolution of consciousness that the Long Count describes. If we instead chose to use another tzolkin count than the Classical, such as the Dreamspell, we will not be able to logically integrate the divine creation cycles in our thinking and we will thus miss the whole point with the spiritual calendars of the Maya – the possibility of being in phase with the ascension of humanity.

What then is the purpose of calendars? During the last 5000 years they have had an important purpose in aiding people to keep track of the agricultural year. For this purpose a calendar based on astronomical observations, and the exact estimation of the duration of the solar year, 365.242 years, seems natural. It has thus for agricultural reasons been necessary to arrive at a very exact estimate of the astronomical year and to keep each day of the year frozen with regard to the place the earth then occupies in its orbit around the sun. Such a calendar is useful for telling us when to sow and harvest, etc, and the Gregorian calendar for one fulfils this purpose very well. The same may be said also about a frozen haab, which is a Mayan calendar that is made up of eighteen uinals of twenty days plus the five extra days, the vayeb, when the gods rested (18 x 20 + 5 = 365). The Thirteen Moons of Dreamspell (13 x 28 + 1) fulfils the purpose of a calendar for the seasonal changes equally well. But it is certainly questionable if either the haab or the Thirteen Moons has anything to offer that goes beyond the Gregorian calendar when it comes to following the seasons or in aiding agriculture. I would say they do not.
A 360 day calendar that existed worldwide in ancient times is now returning – Time is accelerating
In addition to calendars for the agricultural year, and a number of astronomical calendars describing the movements of the various planets, the ancient peoples of this planet however also had a divine calendar which was founded on the 360 day year. Among the Maya this period of time was called a tun, which was also the foundation of their Long Count. But the same period of time exists under different names in all of the major ancient cultures on earth; it is found among the Chinese, in India, among the Sumerians and Egyptians and the Jews. It also existed in the ancient cultures of Europe, e.g. in Scandinavia and Italy. In the Book of Revelation, the most important prophetic scripture of the Christian religion, we may with some detective work find out that as this was written 360 days was considered as a “time”.

Maybe then the ancient peoples of this planet were able to see something that for the most part we ourselves have become blind to, since they rather generally seem to have been using a holy calendar based on the 360 days in parallel with the agricultural calendar of 365 days. There is not space here to provide the evidence that the time period of 360 days is a key unit for the evolution of consciousness, but briefly it can be said that increasingly higher levels of human consciousness evolve according to rhythms given by different multiples of the tun . Thus, the frequency of creation step by step increases with each new level of consciousness in a pyramidal structure. Only calendars that are constructed in accordance with such a hierarchical structure of time cycles can create an understanding of the evolution of consciousness, while calendars that are based on an endless repetition of for instance the 28 day period or the 365 day period will always ultimately lead to a linear concept of time. Regardless of their duration an endless repetition of cycles will always result in a linear concept of time.

To return to the issue of the Dreamspell calendar it is a highly telling detail that this simply omits the leap day every fourth year. What this would mean is that in Argueelles view this particular day would lack a special tzolkin energy of its own and thus not be a part of the divine plan, since ultimately the tzolkin is a microcosm of this plan. While this may seem like a small detail, it highlights that in the Dreamspell concept of time matter is considered as primary to consciousness rather than the other way around. Or in other words, when the movements of matter does not quite fit Argueelles 13 x 28 + 1 scheme, it is the evolution of consciousness, the divine plan as expressed through the tzolkin count that is sacrificed, rather than the scheme. In reality, of course, the leap day is also part of the divine plan and of the energy sequence of the true tzolkin (although this is not expressed by the Dreamspell count to begin with). In my own opinion the divine plan is much more important for our spiritual evolution than the movements of matter, in this particular case the astronomical year.

The new phase in the evolution of consciousness that will start with the inception of the Galactic Creation Cycles on January 5, 1999 will not only carry a new consciousness of time, but also the return of Christ consciousness and the ascension of humanity to a higher consciousness. Since this process is not based on anything physical (In the new world view matter will be considered as secondary to consciousness and everything material that exists in the universe will be recognized as a manifestation of consciousness) it is not possible to use astronomical (365 days) or biological (28 days) cycles to describe its evolution. Following calendars based on the material reality, such as the Gregorian, the haab or the Thirteen Moons, can only result in people getting stuck in materialist concepts of time and remaining blind to the divine plan.

Those that look for a calendar that describes the evolution of consciousness should rather seek to follow a calendar based on the Classical 260 day tzolkin and the 360 day tun, cycles that have a purely spiritual origin. The tzolkin and the divine creation cycles based on the 360 day-”year” (which includes a range of time cycles, hablatuns, alautuns, kinchiltuns, kalabtuns, pictuns, baktuns and katuns each corresponding to the development of a specific frame of consciousness) describe the galactic vibrations that emanate from the invisible branches of the World Tree (the Milky Way). What is central in the divine process of creation is that its evolution proceeds as a result of Seven pulses of light interspersed by six periods of darkness, something which has been described by Sumerians, Babylonians, Jews, Christians and Muslims, but also hinted at by the Maya and Aztecs.

On the 5th of January 1999 such a process of creation consisting of thirteen tun will begin which will endow the human beings with a galactic frame of consciousness. The increasingly more rapid, and higher, vibrations that emanate from the World Tree will lead not only to an altered consciousness of time, but also to a new experience on our own part of colors, sounds and the existence of higher spiritual dimensions. The level of consciousness that this divine creation cycle gives rise to is the consciousness of the new age, the galactic consciousness, a frame of life we are just in the beginning of grasping. It is a calendar which describes the emergence of this new consciousness that we need in the new age of time – as the frequency increase gives time a new age.

Mayan Calendar: The Classical Mayan Tzolkin Count and the Dreamspell

During the past decade interest in the Calendars of the Maya has dramatically increased world-wide. Ultimately, this increasing interest is derived from the fact that a new consciousness of time is now emerging. A New Age gives rise to a new consciousness of time which in turn requires a new calendar for this to be expressed. This new consciousness of time is today commonly experienced either as if time is accelerating, or that it simply disappears. Maybe, in fact, the idea that time is a quantity is on its way out. “Why is this?” we may ask. Is it merely an illusion of ours that time is running faster or has our highly developed technological society developed so effective means of tele communications that everything is speeding up to a point where things almost become unbearable?

Another possibility is that the speed-up of time is real and caused by factors entirely outside of human control. Factors which in accordance with the divine plan proceed from a galactic level of creation and actually cause the emergence of a new age – a new age of time. There have been rumours that the year 1999 will mean a “time shift” and Edgar Cayce had predicted a “pole shift” “in the winter of 1998.” Maybe then a polarity shift between Yin and Yang on a galactic scale will lead to the final breakthrough to a new consciousness of time.
Is Time an illusion?
As many spiritually evolved people have realized time is ultimately an illusion, but since it happens to be the very illusion that maintains our lives, it may be worth the effort to probe deeper into its mystery. As a tool to do so the calendar of the Maya has again come into use. Western astrology, which in principle is based on the study of endless repetitions of the cyclical movements of the celestial bodies with fixed periods of revolutions (fixed frequencies), could never logically explain the increased frequency of time. To understand the frequency increase we need to accept a concept of time which is independent of the movement of material bodies. We need to accept the concept of time of the Maya.

Anyone who takes an interest in the ancient culture of the Maya will soon realize that this people had an understanding of time which was vastly different from our own, and many have come to use it for their own spiritual evolution. But what then is the Mayan calendar?

It turns out this is not as unambiguous as one might think. The so called day keepers in Guatemala and Mexico use some twenty different calendars in parallel and over the ages these have undergone significant change. For instance, no inscriptions of the chronology of the ancient Maya, the so called Long Count starting on August 11, 3114 BC and ending on December 21, 2012, have been found that were made after the tenth century AD. Thus, we have reasons to suspect that also the consciousness of time of the Maya has undergone some significant change since the Classical culture reigned between AD 200 – 800. What this all means is that there hardly exists such a thing as a Mayan calendar cut in stone for us simply to assimilate without deeper thoughts or insights about the nature of the divine plan.
Dreamspell is a “New Age – invented” system
Regarding calendars used on a daily basis it was calendar – inspired by the Maya – launched by Jose Argueelles in 1990 that went by the name of Dreamspell that first came to be used in the modern world. Jose and his wife Lloydine asserted that the planet was threatened by an environmental catastrophe because of our use of the Gregorian calendar and as an alternative they suggested a calendar based on 13 Moons each of 28 days plus an extra day, July 25th, outside of time (13 x 28 + 1 = 365).

In their system the leap day every fourth solar year was simply ignored, apparently to keep the ideal of 13 x 28 intact. These Thirteen Moons were then linked to a special tzolkin count (260 different combinations of thirteen numbers and twenty different glyphs) in which each individual could find out what was his or her “Galactic Signature.” The idea underlying the Dreamspell seems to have been that if human beings lived in phase with the natural cycles, in this case probably primarily the female cycle of about 28 days, we would treat the earth better and thus avoid an impending catastrophe. This idea may have attracted some, but certainly many more were attracted by the idea that the particular day they were born had an inherent energy described by their Galactic Signature, that is, tzolkin day. This latter idea certainly had support from the notions of the Maya, in principle.

There was however a problem with the Dreamspell, namely that the Maya had never used the particular tzolkin count that it was linked to. Many of the followers of Dreamspell, mostly for lack of knowledge, simply presented Dreamspell as The Mayan Calendar. In practice the result of this was that many individuals have been deluded into thinking that the Galactic Signature they had been assigned also was the one that the Maya would have used. As this was discovered something called The True Count Debate raged on the Internet in 1995 where especially John Major Jenkins energetically asserted that Argueelles count was false, and that it had never been used by the Mayan people themselves. In addition, there still existed a tzolkin count, the Classical, which was used over the entire Mesoamerican region in Classical times and had survived until today in the Highlands of Guatemala and elsewhere among the Mayan day keepers.

Jenkins stated, and I think rightly so, that Argueelles’ followers had no right to present the Dreamspell count as the Calendar of the Maya and that it was a kind of Cultural imperialism to ignore the “surviving” Sacred Calendar that was still in use among the Maya.

Argueelles response to this criticism seems to have passed through two different phases. His initial response was to say that he had received his calendar by divine revelation. Since he saw himself as an incarnation of Pacal Votan, a Mayan king who ruled in Palenque in the seventh century AD, everything he did was in accordance with the divine plan. To my knowledge he never responded in a direct way to the issues raised. It seems however that the attitude of the Argueelles’ changed in 1998 and Jose became more open to the criticism. Following a meeting with Quiche elder Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj at Spring Equinox 1998 he declared that the Dreamspell and the Classical Maya tzolkin counts were equally valid and that no conflict existed between the two. Later, he claimed in an interview that Dreamspell was really not a Mayan calendar, although he still asserted its value.

And this later position is obviously perfectly legitimate. As long as it is not claimed that the Dreamspell count has been used by the Maya anyone is in his right to assert its possible value, if any. As we discuss a new calendar for the future, for the new age, I believe however that what is most important is to specify what is the purpose of this calendar and chronology. Unless we do so we may either run into the kind of pie throwing that was typical of the True Count Debate, or resign to a attitude that has become common today, to claim that “anything goes,” that there really is no such thing as a True Count and that all there is are our individual truths (But then, if there is no True Count, what value would any particular tzolkin count really have?).

In contrast to these resigned thoughts I feel that when it comes to developing a Mayan calendar useful to chart our future it is important to realize the predominant role of the tzolkin in such a project. It also seems that without exception Mayan day keepers maintain that the tzolkin count is the hub around which all other calendrical cycles turn, and it is for this reason that, although it has sometimes been lost, the tzolkin count is not known ever to have been intentionally reformed.
Tzolkin – The Master Calendar and center wheel
The tzolkin has been regarded as the master calendar around which all the others revolve. If it is true that the tzolkin count plays such a crucial role, then the consequence would be that if we desert it our calendrical system may end up anywhere. Unless we respect the Sacred Calendar – and its divine origin – there will be no hub keeping the various other calendars linked. To make a clear example of this: Many people have become fascinated by the fact that the Mayan Long Count ends in the year 2012, sensing that this may be a time of fundamental importance to humanity. And, in fact, the Mayan Long Count is a fairly exact calibration of a certain process of evolution of the human consciousness. This calendar is however linked to a certain tzolkin count, the Classical, meaning that it is only those that respect this hub of the calendars that will be in phase with the particular evolution of consciousness that the Long Count describes. If we instead chose to use another tzolkin count than the Classical, such as the Dreamspell, we will not be able to logically integrate the divine creation cycles in our thinking and we will thus miss the whole point with the spiritual calendars of the Maya – the possibility of being in phase with the ascension of humanity.

What then is the purpose of calendars? During the last 5000 years they have had an important purpose in aiding people to keep track of the agricultural year. For this purpose a calendar based on astronomical observations, and the exact estimation of the duration of the solar year, 365.242 years, seems natural. It has thus for agricultural reasons been necessary to arrive at a very exact estimate of the astronomical year and to keep each day of the year frozen with regard to the place the earth then occupies in its orbit around the sun. Such a calendar is useful for telling us when to sow and harvest, etc, and the Gregorian calendar for one fulfils this purpose very well. The same may be said also about a frozen haab, which is a Mayan calendar that is made up of eighteen uinals of twenty days plus the five extra days, the vayeb, when the gods rested (18 x 20 + 5 = 365). The Thirteen Moons of Dreamspell (13 x 28 + 1) fulfils the purpose of a calendar for the seasonal changes equally well. But it is certainly questionable if either the haab or the Thirteen Moons has anything to offer that goes beyond the Gregorian calendar when it comes to following the seasons or in aiding agriculture. I would say they do not.
A 360 day calendar that existed worldwide in ancient times is now returning – Time is accelerating
In addition to calendars for the agricultural year, and a number of astronomical calendars describing the movements of the various planets, the ancient peoples of this planet however also had a divine calendar which was founded on the 360 day year. Among the Maya this period of time was called a tun, which was also the foundation of their Long Count. But the same period of time exists under different names in all of the major ancient cultures on earth; it is found among the Chinese, in India, among the Sumerians and Egyptians and the Jews. It also existed in the ancient cultures of Europe, e.g. in Scandinavia and Italy. In the Book of Revelation, the most important prophetic scripture of the Christian religion, we may with some detective work find out that as this was written 360 days was considered as a “time”.

Maybe then the ancient peoples of this planet were able to see something that for the most part we ourselves have become blind to, since they rather generally seem to have been using a holy calendar based on the 360 days in parallel with the agricultural calendar of 365 days. There is not space here to provide the evidence that the time period of 360 days is a key unit for the evolution of consciousness, but briefly it can be said that increasingly higher levels of human consciousness evolve according to rhythms given by different multiples of the tun . Thus, the frequency of creation step by step increases with each new level of consciousness in a pyramidal structure. Only calendars that are constructed in accordance with such a hierarchical structure of time cycles can create an understanding of the evolution of consciousness, while calendars that are based on an endless repetition of for instance the 28 day period or the 365 day period will always ultimately lead to a linear concept of time. Regardless of their duration an endless repetition of cycles will always result in a linear concept of time.

To return to the issue of the Dreamspell calendar it is a highly telling detail that this simply omits the leap day every fourth year. What this would mean is that in Argueelles view this particular day would lack a special tzolkin energy of its own and thus not be a part of the divine plan, since ultimately the tzolkin is a microcosm of this plan. While this may seem like a small detail, it highlights that in the Dreamspell concept of time matter is considered as primary to consciousness rather than the other way around. Or in other words, when the movements of matter does not quite fit Argueelles 13 x 28 + 1 scheme, it is the evolution of consciousness, the divine plan as expressed through the tzolkin count that is sacrificed, rather than the scheme. In reality, of course, the leap day is also part of the divine plan and of the energy sequence of the true tzolkin (although this is not expressed by the Dreamspell count to begin with). In my own opinion the divine plan is much more important for our spiritual evolution than the movements of matter, in this particular case the astronomical year.

The new phase in the evolution of consciousness that will start with the inception of the Galactic Creation Cycles on January 5, 1999 will not only carry a new consciousness of time, but also the return of Christ consciousness and the ascension of humanity to a higher consciousness. Since this process is not based on anything physical (In the new world view matter will be considered as secondary to consciousness and everything material that exists in the universe will be recognized as a manifestation of consciousness) it is not possible to use astronomical (365 days) or biological (28 days) cycles to describe its evolution. Following calendars based on the material reality, such as the Gregorian, the haab or the Thirteen Moons, can only result in people getting stuck in materialist concepts of time and remaining blind to the divine plan.

Those that look for a calendar that describes the evolution of consciousness should rather seek to follow a calendar based on the Classical 260 day tzolkin and the 360 day tun, cycles that have a purely spiritual origin. The tzolkin and the divine creation cycles based on the 360 day-”year” (which includes a range of time cycles, hablatuns, alautuns, kinchiltuns, kalabtuns, pictuns, baktuns and katuns each corresponding to the development of a specific frame of consciousness) describe the galactic vibrations that emanate from the invisible branches of the World Tree (the Milky Way). What is central in the divine process of creation is that its evolution proceeds as a result of Seven pulses of light interspersed by six periods of darkness, something which has been described by Sumerians, Babylonians, Jews, Christians and Muslims, but also hinted at by the Maya and Aztecs.

On the 5th of January 1999 such a process of creation consisting of thirteen tun will begin which will endow the human beings with a galactic frame of consciousness. The increasingly more rapid, and higher, vibrations that emanate from the World Tree will lead not only to an altered consciousness of time, but also to a new experience on our own part of colors, sounds and the existence of higher spiritual dimensions. The level of consciousness that this divine creation cycle gives rise to is the consciousness of the new age, the galactic consciousness, a frame of life we are just in the beginning of grasping. It is a calendar which describes the emergence of this new consciousness that we need in the new age of time – as the frequency increase gives time a new age.

Mayan Calendar: The Pyramid of Consciousness

According to ancient Mayan beliefs the Cosmos was made up by Nine Underworlds. This fundamental idea was expressed very powerfully through their most important pyramids, the Pyramid of the Plumed Serpent in Chichen-Itza, the Pyramid of the Jaguar in Tikal and the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque, which were all built with Nine different stories.

The Nine Underworlds of the Cosmos and their corresponding levels of Consciousness
Now where are these Nine Underworlds? the modern person may ask. Being currently unable to observe this aspect of reality people have in recent centuries for the most part tended to dismiss such ancient myths of different worlds as mere myths or fantasies. If we seek to dismiss the idea of the Nine Underworlds as a mere myth it however becomes difficult to dismiss such ancient myths of different worlds as mere myths or fantasies. If we seek to dismiss the idea of the Nine Underworlds as a mere myth it however becomes difficult to explain that the number Nine seems to have been regarded as a Holy number of fundamental importance in so many different cultures, cultures that certainly did not enjoy extensive contacts. Thus, in the Far East Nine-storied pagodas are commonly occurring, among the Jews there were Nine doors to the holiest part of the Temple and there are Nine arms of the Hanukkah candelabra. Among the Muslims the Holy month of Ramadan is the Ninth month of the year and in Viking mythology the Cosmos was described as being composed by Nine worlds. Thus people in different parts of the world all symbolically expressed the holiness of the number Nine. Maybe then there is some kind of universal truth underlying this number, some profound reason that it has independently in different cultures come to be considered as holy.

When the Christian missionaries heard about the Nine Underworlds of the Maya they interpreted these as Hells, but this seems to be way off the mark. If these were Hells, or some locations below the surface of the earth as some have inferred, why then would the Mayan kings have climbed to the top of these supposed Hells to perform sacred rituals on the pyramids. Rather than a hierarchical structure of Hells the Mayan pyramids were viewed as World Mountains – symbols of the Cosmos. And since we ourselves are living in the Cosmos it thus seems more reasonable that the Underworlds are located right here in the physical world “Below” – where we ourselves are living our lives.

Why then Nine Underworlds? Why not just one Underworld? To answer this we need to look at the longer cycles of time described by the Maya and see how these conform to the facts and datings for key steps in Cosmic evolution provided by modern science. We should then first note that similarly to the pyramids raised by the Maya their calendrical system is also hierarchical in nature, and in the Table above there are Nine different time cycles linked to the 360-day year, the tun.

A sequence of Thirteen such time periods would then make up a creation cycle of Thirteen Heavens with the specified durations. Thus, each of the Nine Underworlds was created through a sequence of Thirteen Heavens. To exemplify, the longest of the tun-based time cycles was the hablatun of 460 800 000 000 days = 1.26 billion years. Thirteen such hablatuns makes up a creation cycle of a total duration of 13 x 1.26 = 16.4 billion years that created the lowest, the first Underworld. This is a curious finding since this time period, 16.4 billion years, is very close to the age of the universe, 15 billion years, the time when matter first emerged from light (Big Bang).

The beginning of the creation of the First Underworld thus coincides well with the current best estimate of the beginning of Creation. This is a fact with very far-reaching consequences, since it means that all we today know to exist – all that has come into existence in the universe since the Big Bang – is included in the time span of the most basic of the creation cycles, the cycle of thirteen hablatuns, which creates the first of the Nine Underworlds. Mayan calendrics and the Mayan cosmology of Nine Underworlds and Thirteen Heavens is thus a tool for exploring all of creation!

Upon this the most basic of the Nine Underworlds, are then built eight other Underworlds each carrying and developing a special frame of consciousness for the life that it creates. In this way a hierarchical nine-leveled structure is created where lower levels of consciousness provide the foundation for new and higher levels. Each of these nine creation cycles thus gives rise to a specific Underworld and each of these Underworlds is characterised by a certain frame, or dimension, of consciousness. This frame of consciousness is then created in a series of thirteen steps, through the sequential influence of Thirteen Heavens. The beginnings of these sequences of Thirteen Heavens are marked by crucial events in cosmic evolution such as we know them from the datings of modern science, and such initiatory events are listed in the Table above

At the present time we are beginning to enter the eighth level of consciousness of the cosmic pyramid, based on the foundation provided by the seven lower levels. This eighth level may be referred to as the galactic frame of consciousness as it will step by step lead humanity to identify primarily with the galaxy. The highest level of consciousness, the Universal, will be attained through the workings of the Ninth Underworld in the year 2011 and will result in a timeless cosmic consciousness, and a citizenship in the universe, on the part of humanity.

Mayan Calendar: What is driving the evolution of consciousness described by the Mayan Calendar? – I

How is the Mayan Long Count to be explained? Why did this ancient people, that were the most mathematically advanced of their day, choose to use a chronology that consisted of thirteen different periods of 144,000 days each, starting on August 11, 3114, BC and ending on December 21, AD 2012? On a more fundamental level three different types of answers have been given to this question, a materialist, a spiritual and what might be called a pseudo-spiritual, answers that are linked to different world views. In the materialist world view the astronomical, physical cycles are seen as primary to the spiritual whereas in the spiritual world view they are seen as secondary.

A physical or spiritual basis of the Mayan Calendar?
The first is the standard anthropological explanation that says that the beginning date for the Long Count was chosen because of some myth that lacked a real meaning. The choice of baktuns, katuns and tuns, etc. for following time is then simply explained by the Mayan way of counting, which used twenty as a base. According to this line of reasoning they choose the number twenty as the basis for counting because it corresponds to the sum of fingers and toes on a human being. And in this view the celebration of katun shifts etc. is in principle no different from our own celebrations of centuries and millenniums. The tzolkin, intimately linked to, and synchronized with, the Long Count is seen as a reflection of the human gestation period rather than the other way around. This may be described as the standard academic view. It is also a materialist view, where the Long Count is seen merely as way of keeping track of physical time and where the counting system is seen as based on material factors such as the number of toes, fingers etc.

The first suggestions in modern times that the Mayan calendar was really a reflection of changing ages were probably those forwarded by Frank Waters in his Mexico Mystique of 1975 and by Peter Balin in his Flight of the Feathered Serpent in the same year. Balin saw the Venus passages at the end of the Cycle, while Waters1 sought explanations to the beginning and end-dates of the Long Count in their horoscopes. Nonetheless, Waters made the crucial observation that the beginning date of the Long Count was not all that different from the beginning of the Jewish calendar. He also pointed out that this was the time when the first higher civilizations emerged on this planet. These were very important steps towards finding the reality basis of the Mayan calendar.

Jose’ Argueelles took the next major step in The Mayan Factor where he outlined several crucial ideas for the future understanding of the Mayan calendar. There he emphasized the Mayan cycles of 260 and 360 days, and the fact that these lacked physical correspondents. He also suggested that human history was the result of a galactic beam of thirteen baktuns that created the seasons of human history, and made an initial description of how this manifested. In this, Argueelles took major steps away from the astrological perspective towards a spiritual explanation where the archetypal influences of the tzolkin symbols were seen as playing a primary role. His explanation to why the Great Cycle had started at the point that it did was however vague and implied the existence of some kind of active seeding by a galactic federation, rather than an evolving divine plan. Argueelles was the first in modern time to systematically work on the deeper meaning of the Mayan calendar and presented an alternative interpretation to that of the academic by suggesting that the Great Cycle caused the spiritual evolution of humanity. This line of thinking may be called the spiritual interpretation of the Mayan calendar.

The present work essentially belongs to the same paradigm, but introduces three key facets that are crucial for our understanding of the Mayan calendar. First, it shows that the Great Cycle is just one of nine different major creation cycles, where the first goes all the way back to the Big Bang. Second, it identifies the holographic projections of the World Tree on the galactic, planetary and human levels. Third, it unifies the Mayan calendar with the Old World creation story and so identifies the thirteen Heavens of the Maya with the Seven DAYS and Six NIGHTS of God’s creation.
A Pseudo-Spiritual Basis of the Mayan Calendar
Then there is an explanation to the Mayan calendar that may be called the pseudo-spiritual. This recognizes the existence of different qualities and energies linked to the various time cycles of the Maya, but seeks to base these upon the physical reality. This is fairly common today where we are all still affected by the materialist planetary frame of consciousness and a more spiritual, galactic consciousness is only beginning to emerge. An example of such a pseudo-spiritual interpretation is Argueelles1 later work with the Dreamspell, where he departs from the Mayan tzolkin count and places more emphasis on the astronomical year than on the spiritual qualities of the days.

Another example is provided by John Major Jenkins book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, where the author seeks to ground the Mayan Great Cycle, and its changing energies, in the 26,000-year astronomical cycle that the earth undergoes because of precession. Both writers thus seek to adapt the spiritual cycles to the astronomical rather than the other way around, something that I believe can only lead to a dead end. The Dreamspell calendar was discussed in the previous Appendix IV and the present Appendix will be devoted to Jenkins1 theories and the astrological Doctrine of the World Ages generally. The three types of explanations, the materialist, the spiritual and the pseudo-spiritual have widely different consequences and for this reason this is not a question of merely an academic interest.

Before discussing precession I would however like to give some words of praise for some of Jenkins work. First of all, Jenkins has made a significant contribution in clarifying the nature of the true tzolkin count, and he should to a large extent be credited with having exposed the nature of the Dreamspell as an invented count. His defence of the true 584,283-tzolkin count also against academic aberrations is impressive. Also, although he has developed his thinking outside of the beaten academic path, Jenkins knows the Maya and their myths and is very well versed in the literature about them.

Jenkins idea in Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 is essentially that the Maya had targeted the end date of their Long Count, December 21, 2012, because a specific alignment between the midwinter solstice sun and the galactic center supposedly would occur then. Thus, they would have devised the Long Count calendar to describe the last in a series of five Great Cycles (together they have a duration of 25,626 years) that would reflect the precessional cycle of the earth currently estimated at some 25,920 years. In his work, Jenkins then in practice disregards the 5,125-year long Long Count actually used by the Maya and shifts the attention to the sum of five such cycles amounting to a period of 25,625 years. The idea has caught on and many now seem to think that the Maya some 2,500 years ago had exactly determined the duration of the precessional cycle so that the Long Count end-date hit right at its end in the year 2012. To the many who believe in the astrological Doctrine of the World Ages this has had a strong appeal.
Precession and The Astrological Doctrine of The Ages
A discussion of precession and the astrological Doctrine of the World Ages is hence in its place. The phenomenon of the precession of the earth, resulting in the wobbling movement of its axis, was to my knowledge first described by the Babylonian Kidinnu in 315 BC and the Greek astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea in 130 BC. It seems however likely that a drift in the position of stars had been noted even earlier and very likely as human beings gained a long term consciousness of the passage of time around the beginning of baktun 6 (see Chapter 9) speculations about a possible link between the moving positions of the stars and the coming and going of ages began. There is no reason to believe that the Maya, who commonly aligned their buildings with the heliacal rising of stars, would be an exception to this awareness of the precession of the earth.

From the limited perspective of an inhabitant of this planet the precessional movement becomes apparent through the slow change in the points on the horizon where stars rise. This is generated by the slow wobbling movement of the earth1s axis, which is similar to the circular movement of the axis of a spinning gyroscope (or bicycle wheel) that a force has been applied to. Our own situation on earth may then be likened to that of a flea living on a spinning gyroscope whose axis wobbles. Because of this wobbling movement the outlook of the flea on the external world will gradually undergo change. Thus, the flea would experience a change in perspective when looking out, “changing ages,” as the axis of the gyroscope would be pointing in different directions. This is a parallel to what the ancients did from their earth-centred perspective. The point to realize however is that these changing views of the ancients – or of the flea – do not bring about a change in consciousness. Precession only changes the external appearance of the sky.

There is thus nothing mystical about this movement which is explained by Newton1s Law of Gravitation. According to Newtonian mechanics the equation determining the precessional cycle of the earth is:

d(prec)sun/dt + d(prec)moon/dt = KPS cos (eps)

Where eps is the particular inclination of the earth1s axis (23*) and KPS is an expression of the degree of bulging of the earth. What this equation means is that the duration of the precessional cycle is directly dependent on the masses and distances of the sun, moon, and planets, the inclination of the earth1s axis and its degree of bulging. (Mars, which is smaller than the earth and at a longer distance from the sun, has a precessional cycle of some 170,000 years). The duration of the precessional cycle is thus entirely based on physical factors, which may be calculated and explained by exactly the same equations that are used to place space sonds on Mars, build skyscrapers, etc, and whose validity there is thus little reason to question. What this means is that if precession were behind the coming and going of ages, then inhabitants of a planet whose axis had another declination than our own would develop at a different rate than ourselves. On a planet with no inclination of the axis (and hence no precession) no evolution could take place. On a planet made from a non-bulging material (and hence no precession) no evolution could take place. A planet with no moon would have a considerably slower precessional movement and hence a much slower rate of the evolution of the consciousness of its inhabitants. From a creationist perspective it seems extremely unlikely that the evolution of consciousness should directly and proportionately depend on such physical factors. Yet, the astrological Doctrine of the World Ages has been based on this astronomical movement. This doctrine states that as the polar axis shifts direction as a result of the precessional movement the vernal point will point towards the different twelve signs in the Zodiac during eras each of 2160 years. Each of these eras is then called an age which shares certain qualities.

Three things stand out about this Doctrine:

A/ It is arbitrary. Thus, the vernal point at Spring Equinox determines the sign supposedly characterizing an age. But why Spring equinox? If the autumn equinox were chosen another sign would rule the ages. Jenkins has chosen the midwinter solstice, which seemed to fit the Mayan end date, but this is arbitrary too. Why not let the summer solstice determine the age? Similarly, the division of the zodiac into twelve signs is arbitrary in this context. The Maya divided the Zodiac into thirteen different constellations, and the same is true for some recent astrologers that have introduced a thirteenth sign, Ophiucus. Thirteen signs would create different definitions of the ages.

B) The fact that ancient peoples may have speculated about a link between the earth1s precession and the passing of ages does not prove that such a link exists. More likely, because the precessional cycle was the only physical evidence the ancients had of a time period of longer duration, because they noticed that times change, at least from baktun 6 and onwards, and had a belief system according to which the changing positions of stars and planets in the sky influenced civilizational development, it seemed logical to them that the precessional movement causes the changing times. But this does not prove that this is the case. It only explains why some ancient peoples might have thought so. And, really, no one has proved that precession has an effect on human consciousness. To provide such proof would mean to clearly show how the coming and going of ages is directly linked to the precessional cycle with an exactness on par with what has been shown regarding the influence of the divine process of creation on the different baktuns of the Great Cycle. Despite the lack of such evidence the Doctrine of the World Ages has however had a long history, and like a medieval papal doctrine the idea continues to live on. Since the early seventies the notion of an approaching Age of Aquarius has been the very foundation of the New Age movement.

C) The astrological Doctrine of the World Ages is earth-centred rather than galactic. Thus, the coming and going of ages is believed to be determined by our local solar system, since this is what determines the duration of the precessional cycle. In a galactic view, on the other hand, the earth is but a holographic resonance projection of the entire galaxy, meaning that the spiritual cycles on earth have the same duration as the spiritual cycles in the galaxy and the universe at large. The spiritual cycles of the galaxy and the change in consciousness that they cause on earth is thus not dependent on the exact physical position of the earth in relation to the solar system or any other physical factors.

In Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 Jenkins partly distances himself from the standard Old World Doctrine of the World Ages. Noting that the Maya divided the Zodiac into thirteen rather than twelve constellations and that many astrological authorities place the advent of the Ages of Aquarius several centuries into the future Jenkins rejects this as the basis of the Mayan chronology. Following the lead of Terence McKenna, who has written a foreword to his book, he instead comes to build almost his entire argument for the precessional theory on what he claims is a rare alignment of the midwinter solstice sun with the centre of our galaxy at the very end date of the Long Count.

Mayan Calendar: What is driving the evolution of consciousness described by the Mayan Calendar? – II

How is the Mayan Long Count to be explained? Why did this ancient people, that were the most mathematically advanced of their day, choose to use a chronology that consisted of thirteen different periods of 144,000 days each, starting on August 11, 3114, BC and ending on December 21, AD 2012? On a more fundamental level three different types of answers have been given to this question, a materialist, a spiritual and what might be called a pseudo-spiritual, answers that are linked to different world views. In the materialist world view the astronomical, physical cycles are seen as primary to the spiritual whereas in the spiritual world view they are seen as secondary.

The Neglect of the Original Mayan Accounts of Creation
There are several serious problems with this interpretation. Firstly, Jenkins argues that the Great Cycle was based on an event targeted at its end-date, rather than by its beginning-date. The fact is however that the explanations we have from the ancient Maya, from the seventh century AD in the capital of Palenque, clearly do not describe events at the end of the Long Count, but explicitly around its beginning in 3114 BC. And if we listen to what the Maya had to say about this creation date it makes sense from what we know then actually happened in Sumeria and Egypt.

Already this highlights the strangest and most inexplicable omission in Jenkins work – the total neglect of the creation stories actually presented by the ancient Maya in Quirigua and Palenque. These describe creation at the beginning of the Long Count, in 3114 BC, as it was viewed by the ancient Maya. Thus, if we want to understand the meaning of the Long Count I feel that one of the first places to go is to the accounts of the Mayans themselves and that have been described in some detail by Schele and co-workers. But in Jenkins1 hypothesis the beginning of the Long Count lacks meaning – it is nothing but the last fifth of a precessional cycle – and therefore he places the attention elsewhere. Nonetheless, I do not feel that the description of creation in Palenque is something that serious research about the meaning of the Long Count can allow itself to overlook.

This omission is all the more serious as the evidence he presents to support his theses is mostly mythological, and myths are very shaky ground to build theories upon. In my own book I have presented very different interpretations of some of the myths that Jenkins use. We can however never be certain as to the meaning the ancients placed on myths, and I do not claim that my interpretations of Mayan myths are exclusively correct. Ancient myths often have several layers of meaning, and it may even be that the meaning of these has changed as the consciousness of human beings has evolved. A myth that meant a certain thing to the Maya of baktun 7 might have meant something entirely different to the Maya of baktun 10, not to mention the Europeans of baktun 12. Also, deep esoteric spiritual truths might have been popularized in materialist terms for broader layers of society to assimilate it (Something that, incidentally, also happens today as some seek astronomical explanations to spiritual cycles).

The ancients are not here to ask so it would seem that we will never know what their symbols and myths meant exactly. What is unique about the ancient Maya is however that they have helped us understand their myths through the extensive use of dates. While an ancient myth may be ambiguous by itself a date is not, and a date means the same to us as it did to them. I would like to exemplify this with a myth discussed by Jenkins, the Shooting of Seven-Macaw by the Hero twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. While I interpret this as the Seventh DAY of the Cultural Cycle being brought to an end by the new Yin/Yang polarity initiating the beginning of the dualist Great Cycle, Jenkins interprets Seven-Macaw as the Big Dipper which begins to fall from its north pole location in the sky some time around 1000 BC. Since anthropologists agree that the Maya identified Seven-Macaw with the Big Dipper it would at first seem that Jenkins has a strong case. But what if the fall of the Big Dipper from its polar position was just a way for popularizing the end of the Seventh DAY of the Cultural Cycle (I have already suggested that during NIGHTS the ancient Egyptians would be led into identifying the Seven LIGHTS of a creation cycle with seven stars, and there is no reason why the ancient Maya would not have succumbed to the same type of illusion regarding Seven-Macaw in the NIGHT of baktun 7). Thus, if Jenkins interpretation were correct we would expect that they would have dated the fall of Seven-Macaw to baktun 5, which is when the Big Dipper began to fall from its polar position. But in fact they do not. They date the fall of Seven-Macaw to May 28, 3149 BC, even before the present creation began with the First Father raising the World Tree. The neglect of the actual Mayan dates presented in the creation stories, in favor of his own interpretation of their myths tainted by the astrological Doctrine of the World Ages, is in my opinion a great shortcoming of Jenkins1 work, which has very serious consequences. To take another example of this, Jenkins interprets the rebirth of the First Father as a symbol of the midwinter sun being in the location of the galactic centre at the end of the precessional cycle. In Palenque, it is however described that this rebirth took place on June 16, 3122 BC, which is before the beginning of the Long Count, and not at its end (nor does it fall on a midwinter solstice).

Instead of basing himself on the actual datings and descriptions presented by the Maya regarding the beginning of the Long Count Jenkins devotes much space to argue that the Maya knew about precession, and there is, at least in my own view, really no reason to doubt that they did. In the Mayan cities pyramids and other buildings were often aligned with the rising of certain stars and as time went by they probably noted a precessional shift. But so what? Nowhere in the Mayan accounts from ancient times is a cycle of 26,000 years described. Nowhere! Is it then defendable to simply ignore their own accounts of creation at the beginning of the Long Count? Moreover, if no one has ever demonstrated that precession has an influence on human consciousness, is it then really meaningful to base a theory upon it?
What and where is The World Tree?
Another Mayan mythological concept that is important to discuss is the World Tree. Jenkins suggests that this is formed by the cross of the ecliptic (local planetary component) and the equator of the Milky Way (galactic). But this interpretation is impossible. The ecliptic and the galactic midplane are at an angle of about 60* in relation to each other, and in all representations from the Maya the World Tree is formed by the perpendicular arms of a cross, which give rise to the four geographical directions on earth. I have seen no exception to representing the World Tree as a perpendicular cross, and if the World Tree were formed by the sixty-degree angle of the ecliptic and the galactic midplane it could not be the source of the four perpendicular directions. Since our resonance with the World Tree is the very basis for our orientation in the world, a sixty-degree World Tree would leave us very disoriented. The four perpendicular directions are part of a worldview common to all Native American peoples (see Brotherston), and Medicine Wheel ceremonies are for instance always based on the four perpendicular directions.

As Schele and co-workers point out the ecliptic is, in the crosses of Palenque, instead symbolized by a snake twinned around the perpendicular arms of the cross. The same symbolism is incidentally present also in ancient Nordic mythology where Midgardsormen (the middle area serpent) is symbolic of the ecliptic outside of the World Tree. It is not part of the World Tree. In reality, the true galactic cross is invisible (it has no material manifestations) and is formed by the galactic midplane and a line perpendicular to it. To realize this distinction between the double-headed serpent and the horizontal arm of the cross is crucial as it shifts the perspective away from our local planetary environment, of which the ecliptic forms part, to the true invisible cross, which is a galactic phenomenon. Here Jenkins neglect of the Mayan creation story surfaces again. This describes that the First Father raised the World Tree in 3114 BC, and I have shown empirical evidence from human history that its holographic projection on earth (which has 90* angles) becomes evident in the even-numbered baktuns of the Great Cycle, one of which began in 3115 BC. But with Jenkins1 interpretation of the World Tree as the 60* angle between the ecliptic and the galactic midplane the creation story in Palenque completely lacks meaning, and, as far as we know, nothing happened with the 60* cross between the ecliptic and the galactic midplane in the year 3114 BC.
The Geographical Bias of Izapa
But if the Long Count is not based on its end-date, but on its beginning-date, what is this latter date based upon? Well, the beginning date of the Long Count is the day the sun stands in zenith in Izapa, the location where the Long Count was most probably invented. It is well known that the day of solar zenith played an important role among the ancient Maya judging from the many shafts serving to determine solar zenith dates that have been discovered. In a tropical region it is very understandable that this would be a candidate for a day “when time began”. It is thus simply an accident that the end date of the Long Count falls on a midwinter solstice, since this is where the end-date must fall if its beginning is set at the solar zenith in Izapa. Strangely, Jenkins is aware that the beginning date of the Long Count is the solar zenith in Izapa, but does not point out what a remarkable accident this would be if the Long Count was meant for targeting the end-date. After all, to compute the day of solar zenith some three thousand years into the past is feasible. We may understand how it could have been done given the level of exactness the Mayans had attained in estimating the duration of the physical year. To project the galactic location of the midwinter solstice two thousand years into the future, on the other hand, simply would not have been feasible. It is one thing to be aware of the effects of precession and an entirely different thing to compute its cycle or to make projections about its course a few thousands years into the future, and Jenkins provides no explanation as to how it could have been made. Even if such a computation may seem easy for people with astronomical software in their home computers, the fact is that even today1s scientists, using laser technology and satellite-based measurements of the earth1s movement, are uncertain as to the duration of the precessional cycle by a few hundred years (notably because the earth1s axis does not really describe a cycle and hence does not return to the same point) and would shun a task of pinpointing a precessional position a few thousand years into the future.
The Midwinter Solstice Sun does not Eclipse the Galactic Center in the Year 2012
A key question is however if the midwinter solstice sun actually eclipses the galactic centre in the year 2012. The fact of the matter is that the midwinter solstice sun will be closest to the galactic centre in the year 2219, far from the end date of the Long Count, and this both McKenna and Jenkins acknowledge. But the fact is that also the crossing by the midwinter solstice sun of the galactic equator, which Jenkins considers a more appropriate marker for the changing of the ages, occurred already in 1998. The logical conclusion from this would then be that we would already have passed into the new age, and, since the Mayan calendar was inaccurate there would be no reason to use it. Jenkins recognizes in a passage and in the footnotes of his book that the alignment occurs in 1999, and has confirmed this in contacts with astronomers with astrologers, who have noted this alignment. Yet, throughout his book he keeps referring to “the end-date alignment” as if this was a reality, when in fact, the midwinter solstice sun does not align with the galactic equator in the year 2012. It is not easy to understand how this is to be interpreted. Are we to believe in something we now know to be wrong because Jenkins thinks the Maya believed in this. He refutes those with exaggerated demands for accuracy in this matter. Well, I do not think we can be accurate enough. The thing is that the Long Count is coordinated with the tzolkin count, and if Jenkins precession hypothesis were true then this would mean not only that the Maya had made an error in calibrating the precessional cycle, but also by consequence that the tzolkin count used in Classical time would be wrong. Personally, I do not believe it is.

The theory presented in this book has however already disproved the precessional theory, in that it has shown that one of the major Mayan creation cycles, that of Thirteen hablatuns, goes back all the way to the Big Bang, to a time when no planets and stars or even galaxies existed. Hence, the tun-based Mayan creation cycles, of which the Great Cycle is one, describe a creation that is primary to all physical phenomena, and this includes the sun, the moon and the earth whose mechanistic relationship determines the precessional cycle. Thus the precession of the earth is not the basis for the tun-based calendrical system. If anything the tun-based system may explain the precessional cycle of the earth and it partly does, but this would be outside the scope of this article. Thus, divine creation is primary to matter.

Moreover, the theory presented here has demonstrated, to the extent that it is possible today, that biological evolution on earth is just an aspect of the evolution of consciousness in the entire galaxy. But if the evolution of the planet results from a holographic resonance projection of our galaxy, it can not depend on factors such as the masses of the earth, moon and sun, or the declination of the earth1s axis, which are particular to our own planet. Emphasis on precession thus limits us to a local planetary perspective and stands in direct contrast to a holographic, galactic model where the periodicity of the evolution of consciousness on our own particular planet is determined by energy changes taking place on a galactic level.
What about the Tzolkin if the Long Count is based on Precession?
There is a final point to discuss: As Jenkins himself points out the tzolkin is older than the Long Count by some 500 years. The Long Count, which was devised later, has then been developed so as to be in synchrony with the tzolkin, meaning that for instance katun endings always take place on Ahau days, creation days. Jenkins presumably shares the view of most everyone engaged in the Mayan calendar that the tzolkin is a sequence of energies reflected in its various combinations of numbers and glyphs (He has in fact written extensive and interesting material on the subject). But if the Long Count has been developed on top of, and after, the tzolkin in such a way as to be synchronized with it then the Great Cycle, too, must reflect a sequence of energies. And, of course, the progression through thirteen cycles, such as thirteen days or thirteen baktuns, reflects a growth cycle from seed to fruit. But if the days of the Long Count are locked in their positions by the tzolkin, which itself reflects creation energies that are real, how can the Long Count at the same time reflect precession, which is a mechanical movement? The answer, as I have argued, is that the Long Count does not reflect the precessional cycle of the earth, which according to the definition used by Jenkins would have ended on December 21, 1998. Not surprisingly, this date falls on 12 Cimi and is not an Ahau day in the tzolkin count.

Why then, we may ask, does the idea that the earth passes through an evolutionary 26,000-year cycle have such an appeal? Probably because there actually is some truth to it. The last 65 tzolkin units of the Cultural Cycle began 26,000 tun ago. An important change in human consciousness was indeed the result of the beginning of these 65 last units of the 260-baktun Cultural Cycle. In a sense this was the time when the earth became whole and as a resonance projection of this the human being became whole and attained a self-reflexive consciousness. We see this manifested in parallel ways at different hierarchical levels of the universe. On the level of the earth, we may note that the oldest undisputed date for inhabitants in the Americas (on the Los Angeles river) is dated to 23-24,000 BC, meaning in practice that we have reasons to believe that from this time and onwards the whole earth was inhabited by carriers of a human consciousness. On the level of the human being, the oldest human statuette discovered (in Bohemia) is dated to the same time, reflecting the emergence of a self-reflective human consciousness. These are holographic resonance phenomena so that at the same time as the whole earth would have been seen from the outside as covered by human beings, a statuette of a human being, thus also visible from all directions, was for the first time created by a human being. The beginning point of the 65 last baktuns of the Cultural Cycle thus brought self-reflective consciousness, and this was a very important step. Similarly, the beginning points of the last 65 katuns of the Great Cycle in AD 730 and the last 65 tun of the Planetary Cycle in AD 1947, brought changes in consciousness in line with the energy pattern of the tzolkin. It is only that this energy pattern and these points in time have nothing to do with precession.

The reader may wonder what is the purpose of such a lengthy critique of Jenkins’ work and the precessional theory. Does it really matter what we believe is the underlying mechanism of the Mayan Long Count? I think it does. I feel it is important, and maybe crucial to the future of humanity, because the precession and divine creation theories have very different consequences. Thus, in the precession view, the end of the Great Cycle represents nothing but the beginning of a new 26,000-year cycle of the earth’s movement and the changing consciousness of mankind is then supposedly shaped by an endless line of such repeating cycles. In the precession view there is not necessarily a divine plan behind the evolution of human consciousness, since this seems explicable by the movements of matter. Thus, the precessional theory leads to a concept of time, which is both linear and materialist.

In the creation view, on the other hand, the energy changes are not explained by any material changes, but directly through divine LIGHT thus providing proof of the existence of God and the need for human beings to live up to such an origin. Because there is then a temporal hierarchy of creation cycles, the current acceleration of time becomes understandable. In the creation view the end of the Great Cycle means the completion of divine creation, and the liberation from energy changes of a divine origin shaping our path. Mankind will come off age to shape its own path at the end of time as we know it. But to arrive at this we may value a correctly calibrated calendar to help us surf on the waves of creation.
Mayan Calendar: Why the Creation Cycles do not end December 21, 2012, but October 28, 2011

Over the decades much discussion has focussed on finding the exact correlation between the Mayan Long Count and the Gregorian calendar. Most researchers in the field have now come to agree that the so-called GMT correlation, placing the beginning of the Long Count 4 Ahau 8 Cumku on the Julian day 584 283, August 11, 3114 BC, is correct. This means by consequence that it will end on December 21, 2012 and most, such as Jose Arguelles, John Jenkins and Terence McKenna, who have taken an interest in the calendar of the Maya, have endorsed this date as the end of the current cycle.

I do not dispute that the GMT correlation for the Long Count with the Gregorian calendar is the correct one. And clearly, the Long Count is an approximately (within a year or so) correct reflection of the divine process of creation. There are however strong reasons to believe that the Mayan Long Count itself does not reflect the shifting energies of the divine creation cycles that we today are interested in exactly. What in this regard is most compelling is that the exact Long Count beginning date ultimately is calibrated based on the date of solar zenith in Izapa, which occurs on August 12. (Izapa is the ancient Mayan site in southern Mexico where the Long Count was first devised.)

This solar zenith day was since long, long before the Long Count was implemented, considered as the day of the year when “time began” and considered as a holy date in the location of Izapa. There is thus every reason to believe that the solar zenith was the reason the initial day in the Long Count, 4 Ahau 8 Cumku, was set on this day, although obviously the date of solar zenith in Izapa has nothing to do with the real beginning of the corresponding divine creation cycle. (But to change this date would have been considered as heresy. We may make the comparison with the date of Christmas, which was taken from old solstice celebrations, and has not been changed, despite the fact that few, if any, believes that Jesus was born then).

The end date of the Long Count falls on December 21, 2012 is thus just a necessary logical consequence of the beginning date chosen by the Izapans and not something that the Maya had intentionally targeted. The creation cycles described by the Maya, including the tzolkin, are fundamentally of a spiritual, non-astronomical, nature. Thus, any theory that implies that the Mayan Long Count would have been designed to reflect astronomical phenomena, be it the precession of the earth or a solar zenith, is a warning signal that its originator is off the mark. It should be obvious that if the Mayan calendar is a prophetic calendar describing cosmic energy cycles of a universal nature then the particular date at which the sun was in zenith in the particular location of Izapa is totally irrelevant for us who live today and must be considered as nothing but a result of a tradition too strong to be changed.

Another equally compelling reason why December 21, 2012 cannot be the true date of completion of creation is that this day is 4 Ahau in the tzolkin count. Since the Long Count consists of exactly 7200 tzolkin rounds then the true end of creation must fall on a day that is 13 Ahau in the tzolkin count so that the tzolkin rounds even out. If we want to find out what is the real date of ending of the creation cycles we must therefore look for a day around the year 2012, which is 13 Ahau in the tzolkin count. The inscriptions in Palenque, written about a thousand years later than the Long Count was devised in Izapa, seem to indicate that the date of relevance is October 28, 2011, which in fact is 13 Ahau in the tzolkin count.

The issue of the exact correlation between the creation cycles and physical time may not have been as critical in the age of the Maya as it is to us, since creation is currently operating at a 400 times higher frequency. A discrepancy of a year or so may have meant less earlier than it does to us who live today. If we make a mistake of 420 days in calibrating the end date of the creation cycles we will be totally out of phase with the rapidly evolving Galactic Creation Cycle where the Yin/Yang dualities in the cosmos are switched off and on every 360 days. These energy changes are what a spiritual calendar should reflect if it is to serve humanity in its current phase of evolution.

It should be said also that those who propose December 21, 2012 as an end date, such as Terence McKenna and John Jenkins, are basing their entire interpretations of the Mayan calendar on this particular date of ending, as if this was what the entire calendar was about. I feel however that what is most important for us to know today is the processes leading up to the completion of creation and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness. This process is driven forward by the roller-coaster-like Galactic Creation Cycle, and for those seeking to understand this process and its many manifestations an exact calibration of this cycle is imperative. This is now available in calendar form.
Corrected durations of the Thirteen Heavens baktuns of the Long Count

Baktun no…………(Corrected) Duration
1………………………….3115-2721 BC
2………………………….2721-2326
3………………………….2326-1932
4………………………….1932-1538
5………………………….1538-1144
6………………………….1144-749
7………………………….749-355
8………………………….355-AD 40
9………………………….AD 40-434
10………………………..434-829
11………………………..829-1223
12………………………..1223-1617
13………………………..1617-2011

Did the Harmonic Concordance mean the end of the Mayan calendar?

This is a question that is really tantamount to asking: “Is the world now Enlightened?” Of course for those that feel that everyone, or at least a considerable minority of humanity has attained the Enlightened state it would be logical to conclude that the Mayan Calendar has now come to an end and that there was something wrong with whatever they had heard about it previously. In my own view, however, the majority of people in today’s world are not Enlightened. Conflicts in many parts of the world are just waiting to happen because of the dualities that still dominate consciousness. Especially the conflict between East and West, as it is now playing out in the Middle East, is still waiting to erupt in a new forms. Regardless, only a small minority of about a thousand or so, mostly in India, have attained an Enlightened state.

From the perspective of the common European-Babylonian astrology the Harmonic Concordance meant an inspiring configuration in the sky that led large numbers of people to gather and experience themselves as spiritual beings, which by itself had great value. By itself, this configuration was however completely unrelated to the Mayan calendar. This is based not on astronomical cycles, but on the inherent energies of time. To say this does not in any sense lessen the value of the spiritual experience for those that actively took part or were affected by it. It only means that since the configuration was unrelated to the Mayan calendar and that for this reason all speculations that the Mayan calendar has now come to an end are completely lack foundation.

From the perspective of the Cosmic Plan, as this may be described by the Mayan calendar, we are now approaching the end of the fifth Heaven of the Galactic Underworld. This fifth Heaven, began December 15, 2002 and was predicted in my book The Mayan Calendar to entail intense conflicts between East and West, which given what we know about the Iraqi war was also the case. Now this Heaven, a tun of 360 days is however approaching its end on December 9, 2003. This coming shift is what the modern Maya are referring to and starting December 10, is a new Heaven. This Heaven, this tun of 360 days, will be more focused on global unity. And so its midpoint June 6-8, 2004, the Oneness Celebration, focusing at the global meditation at the Venus Transit, is ideal energy-wise for a collective experience that we are all one. This event will truly be based on the Mayan Calendar occurring on the days 4 Ahau, 5 Imix with the Venus Transit at 6 Ik.

What this means is that the wave movement of the Mayan calendar, where periods of creativity and conflict will alternate with periods of rest and unity will continue for some time. Not until October 28, 2011, will an energy stabilize that will favor an Enlightened mind. This does not means that the physical world will come to an end. What it means is that our experience of linear time that has dominated humanity for the past 5000 years, since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count, will come to an end and the Enlightened will experience reality fully moment by moment. Until then, it is wise to be prepared for the wave movement of the Seven Days and six Nights of the Galactic Underworld and the changing energies that this generates. From time to time, at astrological configurations will turn that will lead someone to say that the Mayan calendar has come to an end. Those that go with the flow will not be blocked by such ideas.