Nov/Dec 2007

feature article

Apocalypse

Now- or Never?
Prophesies of 2012

By Wendy Underhill

Can you believe it? The end of the world is coming. Again. At least, that’s what Louisville contractor Reese Provosty believes; after 20 years of study, he even knows when the end is coming: 2012. The end of the world as we know it–-TEOWAWKI–-is presaged, he says, by today’s economic woes, wars and worries. Provosty, a father of three, likens the coming times to a birth: there is fear and pain, but “if you know it’s coming you can have faith that it will turn out okay.”

Provosty is a member of what is loosely known as the “2012 movement,” those who are paying attention to the Mayan calendar which ends, many say, on December 21, 2012, just five years from now. That date is when the Mayan “long count” calendar closes; what that will mean for Planet Earth is up for debate. The event could be a big fizzle, such as (thankfully) Y2K was. However you look at 2012–-as a curious artifact or serious world transformation–- it grips the imagination in part because it coincides with more than just the end of the Mayan calendar:

• It will be the first time in 26,000 years that a galactic alignment takes place–an astronomical phenomenon in which the solstice sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

• Depending on which astrologer you follow, we may finally move out of the Age of Pisces and into the Age of Aquarius.

• It’s also the year when Neptune moves into Pisces, where it will stay until 2025.

• It’s approximately when the “tipping point” on the environment is reached—the point when it will be too late to reverse a slide into partial or complete climate disaster.

• It’s even when the much-abused Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement that sets targets for greenhouse gas emissions from developed countries (other than the U.S. and Australia) expires.

Do all these data points add up to a major cataclysm? And, what is it that makes people repeatedly think that we’re going up in flames, down in a flood, or out in a trumpet-blaring glory? But, first things first: a short course on the Mayan calendar.

The Real Deal on the Mayan Calendar
The Mayan calendar is a miracle. Two millennia ago, Mayans in what is now southern Mexico were superb astronomers, able to predict heavenly events that weren’t again recognized until just a century ago. As part of their study, they developed a framework of interlocking calendars, that were used to direct every part of life, ceremonial and prosaic.

One calendar was based on a 360-day cycle called a “tun.” Twenty tuns makes a katun, and 20 katuns makes a baktun–-nearly 400 years. Take 13 of those, and that adds up to a “Great Cycle” of 1,872,000 days, or 5125 years–the long count calendar. It’s that Great Cycle that ends in 2012. Payson Sheets, professor at the University of Colorado and Colorado’s preeminent scholar regarding Mesoamerican archaeology, says that the end doesn’t mean much: “Just the fact that it is a change as big as 1999 to 2000. Period.”

What the Maya Say
Some 6 million Mayan descendants still live in Guatemala and southern Mexico. Their connection to the long count was fragmented several centuries ago, but the culture, languages, traditions and cyclical viewpoint continue. Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, the head of the National Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala, speaks around the world, bringing one voice from the Maya to the rest of the world. Somewhat like Sheets, he sees the significance of the calendar change as the end of one cycle and the beginning of another–-not the end of the world.

And yet, Don Alejandro sees a major shift coming, and believes that humanity can shape the nature of the new cycle. In a speech made on May 22, 2007, he said in part:

“We, the traditional Mayan elders...see a dark shadow approaching, a shadow that will cause a lot of harm. It is the great pollution. All this is due to man’s creation. We are digging our own graves...The Maya National Council of Elders of Guatemala asks all nations of the world, their governors and the governed ones, to put a stop to the contamination...We don’t want any more wars, no more death, no more nuclear testing, no more chemicals, because global warming is unbearable to Mother Earth. If we don’t change sooner or later she will strike back with millions of lives lost.” With little focus on 2012 and much focus on collective transformation, he asks all people to take action: to love one another and protect Mother Earth. More of Don Alejandro’s teachings will become available as soon as a documentary, “Shift of the Ages” by P-Qubd Productions is released (see a trailer at shiftingages.com).

What Others Say
A number of students of eschatology–- the study of end times--have made it their life’s work to look at Mayan prophecies, how they connect to other prophecies from other cultures, and even use them as a basis for further prophecies:

• Jose Argüelles, who has called himself the “closer of the cycle,” has created his own calendar to replace the Gregorian one in every day use;

• The late ethnobotanist/philosopher/psilocybin-experimenter Paonia-native Terence McKenna, created “Timewave: Zero Point,” a theory which identifies December 22, 2012 as the date the earth will be transformed;

• Chet Snow organizes events around a 2012 theme, as well as tours devoted to crop circles and sacred sites;

• Daniel Pinchbeck wrote the book, 2012:The Return of Quetzlcoatl, an account of everything from crop circles to alien abductions; and

• Carl Johan Calleman, who claims the key date is October 28, 2011, and anticipates a “cascade of peace” at that point that will come through meditation.

Colorado’s 2012 expert John Major Jenkins strives to keep a level head in the face of cascades of personal interpretation of Mayan tradition. (Is it a coincidence that “shaman” and “showman” sound so similar?) Jenkins has edited and contributed to a new anthology, The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies, and Possibilities (Sounds True, 2007). His goal in collecting
these writings was to shortcut the mounting babble associated with 2012 by offering a well-vetted menu of contributions from major 2012 players.

Jenkins says, “my particular approach is to reconstruct or revive the original teachings that revolve around this date” and “to give voice to the original paradigm or philosophy that the Mayan had for 2012.” To do so, he’s focused on astronomy, which empirically indicates the rare galactic alignment for 2012, and a careful reading of the Mayan “doctrine of world ages” which comes from Mayan creation mythology recorded in the 1550s. Together, they indicate not just a great aptitude for astronomy and storytelling. As Jenkins shows in his new audio program (“Unlocking the Secrets of 2012,” 2007, Sounds True), these Mayan traditions offer general spiritual teachings for this time–a time for transformation to a very different, and hopeful, future. (By the way, Jenkins hopes that in 2013 he’s on a nice, long vacation.)

While comprehending all that is offered on the topic is virtually impossible, the bottom line for 2012 luminaries is that a shift—violent or peaceful; easy, or painful–is on its way. Take a look at the documentary, “2012: The Odyssey” (2006, Sacred Mysteries), for another synopsis of 2012 thinking. In it, producer Sharron Rose visits many experts on various aspects of 2012 evidence and belief.

Astrology
It’s not just 2012ers who foresee change in our near future. According to evolutionary astrologist Maurice Fernandez from Boulder, “Ultimately, the passage of Neptune in Pisces (beginning in 2012) is expected to create some kind of purging and bring people back to basics. This doesn’t mean going back to the stone-age, but more to primal intentions and something more authentic and natural.” And, he adds, clean water and oil--both natural resources--will be endangered, but such problems will be corrected by new, more careful attitudes, and alternative resources and methodologies.

Who else anticipates great change? Hopi prophecy indicates the start of World War III will come soon. And, of course Christian beliefs have long prophesied an end-of-time cataclysm, with the demise of everyone except true believers in Jesus Christ. See raptureready.com for details.

Or, go to the source, the New Testament: “But the day of the Lord will come; it will come, unexpected as a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a great rushing sound, the elements will disintegrate in flames, and the earth with all that is in it will be laid bare.” (2 Peter 3:10) This revelation continues: “Look eagerly for the coming of the Day of God and work to hasten it on; that day will set the heavens ablaze until they fall apart, and will melt the elements in flames. But we have His promise, and look forward to new heavens and a new earth, the home of justice.” (2 Peter 3:12-13)

Christians aren’t alone; Muslims are waiting for the return of Imam Mahdi, who will return just before the Day of Judgment and help to usher in a world of justice and peace. The details of this prophecy are disputed among Muslim sects, but the idea of a return and a monumental change (if not an end) in the world as we know it is very much alive.
More eclectic spiritual practitioners also see a change coming–and at least some see it as a strictly joyous event. Boulder’s Kris Duffy, who presents “I Am Source” workshops, a program that she received by channeling, says that we are already in a time shift into a golden age, as prophesied by many ancient traditions. And, it’s all going to be good. How does she know? She’s conducted many “future life progressions,” and “without exception everyone gets to see this new paradigm
unfolding, this golden age. It probably seems a bit trite but they can see and feel that it is a world in which humanity is living in a state of harmony and cooperation.”

More Doom
One doesn’t have to look at spiritual teachings to live with a belief that the end could be near.

Those of us who are over 40 remember the Cold War’s threat of nuclear annihilation; the threat is still with us. The doomsday clock, created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, is currently set at 11:55 p.m.--five minutes from catastrophic nuclear war.

More recently, with the preponderance of science pointing toward world population reaching 9 billion by 2042 and global climate change accelerating, it’s hard not to see radical changes coming in just the next few years. One can guess whether “change” means annihilation, a reversion to a local, rural way of life, or a vision of new technology saving the day.

Dr. James Hansen, an eminent American climate scientist who became famous for refusing to be silenced by the Bush administration, speaks of this science-based doom: “We must close the gap...and move our energy systems in a fundamentally different direction within about a decade, or we will have pushed the planet past a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to avoid far-ranging undesirable consequences.”

Psychology
Between spirituality and science, “The End of the World” has become a cultural paradigm: just ask any teenager
to describe the clip on You Tube called “End of Ze World. ” Or listen again to the 1987 song by R.E.M., “It’s The End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine).” It doesn’t seem to matter if you’re religious, environmentally conscious, or a student of Mayan or other indigenous prophecies; the end is very much with us.

Is there a psychological explanation for the widespread assumption of a coming end? Yes: fear. Given mutating viruses, nuclear proliferation, collapsing honeybee colonies, melting ice caps, asteroids colliding with earth, international “peacekeeping” failures, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and the desertification of lands on virtually every continent, to call the future “fearful” is an understatement.

And what fear is worse than death? The idea of all humanity ending takes the personal fear of death and turns it into something collective; it puts us all in the same boat, which can actually create a sense of unity, oneness, and not feeling alone in our vulnerability. In the desire to focus on an end point, people may be expressing a “yearning for a fresh start, a desire to be free from all that we experience as difficult here and imagine a new beginning for future beings.” If nothing else, being a believer gives people a way to belong to a group, either loosely knit like the “2012 movement” or tightly controlled, like the Heaven’s Gate sect that committed suicide in 1997 so that they could be taken onto a spaceship that coincided with the Hale-Bopp comet. When isolation and alienation are rampant, any chance to be part of a group is a powerful motivator.

What to do?
Some people don’t bother worrying about the end; perhaps they follow the great 20th century philosopher, Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.”

But for those who do see the end coming, what should they do in the meantime? Live a life of hedonism, or spend all their money making poor children happy with lollipops? A “can’t take it with you” attitude might be understandable, but it is absolutely the opposite of that taken by 2012ers.

Provosty, the father of three, says “I used to look forward to 2012, but as it gets closer, it’s very scary.” He adds that “we must prepare.” And for his children, that means “raising them to be compassionate human beings.”

Preparation for many means using these years to perform ceremonies and connect to earth, thus shaping the new age to come. That is the approach taken by shaman and teacher Oscar Miro-Quesada, whose background is from shamanic traditions from the Andes and coastal Peru. He states, however, that his teachings are a synthesis of all he’s learned and experienced, so any comments are “from the mouth of Oscar, not any one tradition or tribe.”

He says that “when it comes to the year 2012, it is not so much that the earth is going to end or life is going to end. It’s that we have this extraordinary building up of planetary consciousness being expressed by human thought anticipating this (2012) moment. All we have to do is focus that power behind the event and harness it as a united people” and “anchor that power into our relationship with the earth, her cycles, her rhythms, and start to become more natural to our approaches to living.”

Still others see the next few years as a last chance to live more lightly on the earth. Take Amory Lovins, Colorado’s best known environmental optimist (and also physicist and chairman of Snowmass-based Rocky Mountain Institute). He preaches that resource usage is the downfall of the current culture, and yet we have existing technologies that can create energy independence. Now is the time to put them to use, with an implication of “before it’s too late.” His message, like that of Miro-Quesada, is one of community- wide action to create our own future.

It seems, then, that environmentalists and spiritually-grounded people may not agree on why we’re at this delicate point in the history of Earth, but can find common ground on the fact that we are at such a point, and possibly even on what to do about it: take care of the earth underneath and the people around us.