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The Mayan Calendar, Jose Arguelles, 2012, and the End of Time
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The Mayan Calendar: Saving the World, in Time
(*Originally published in the Momentum Magazine, February, 2001. Also available: my CBC documentary, The New Time) I spent the second weekend of February 2001 at a Mayan calendar
seminar in Vancouver, British Columbia. It felt more like a sustainability
conference than anything else. I learned about community initiatives.
I discussed environmental, social, and culture issues. I networked
with dozens of people who are actively trying to make the world
a better place. This is because the Mayan calendar is part of
a youth fueled social movement that is trying to save the world…
in time. Ultimately, the validity of this approach lies in trying it. I've decided to follow the Mayan calendar for a year. Send me an email if you want to know the results.
During the Spring of 2001 I produced a radio documentary and magazine article about the Mayan Calendar. I concluded both by saying I would try to follow the Mayan Calendar for one year. Below is my follow-up report. I decided to follow the version of the Mayan Calendar popularized by Dr. Jose Arguelles, an art historian and mystic who has played an important role in bringing Mayan lore into new age culture. This was a difficult decision, as his version of the calendar is not in synch with the calendars followed by living Mayan shamans. However, it the version followed by the individuals who piqued my curiosity of the Maya in the first place, so it seemed like a good place to start. Following the calendar diligently proved difficult. Looking back, I should have expected this; I have a hard enough time with the Gregorian calendar. I mean, what's today? Tuesday? The which? Who cares? My only saving grace was a computer program that displays the Mayan calendar date each time I turn on my computer. The result: I glanced at the Mayan calendar date almost every day for 16 months. I didn't always pay that much attention. The 13-day cycle proved easiest to follow, and it did seem to occasionally coincide with the natural cycles of my life. Sometimes I found myself coming out of tangible periods of creativity, depression, or transformation, only to notice that I was also just finishing the 13-day cycle. Other times I would be feeling like I was setting out on a whole new adventure, fresh and zesty and curious as to what would come next, and lo, I would discover I was on day one or two of a new cycle. This certainly isn't proof, but it is possibly circumstantial evidence that the 13-day cycle occurs naturally in my life. It could also be an example of the mind's ability to notice patterns whenever they reinforce preconceived notions. The 20 glyphs proved more difficult to follow, as they don't mean very much to me yet. I made some attempts to learn more about the meanings of the glyphs, but everybody seemed to think I should develop my own intuition about them. This struck me as admirable advice, but it was difficult to put into practice without a large degree of commitment. Ultimately, I just wasn't able to devote myself to the calendar enough to yield any solid conclusions. Following the calendar is a type of spiritual practice. Like many such practices, it can be easy to take up (in a moment of inspiration), but hard to maintain. Over the course of the year, some of my other practices simply took priority. I hope nobody's too disappointed. Meanwhile, the Mayan calendar continues to be part of my social environment, as many of my dance party friends are rigorous Mayan calendar adherents. I continue to notice that Synchronicity seems to occur rather frequently when I am with this community. I do not know the extent to which calendric experimentation is playing any kind of causal role in this. Any increased Synchronicity could simply be the result of a high degree of open-mindedness and faith within the community. Another spin on all this is my questioning of factual information coming from Jose Arguelles, who publishes the majority of sources of calendric information that my friends are using. While writing my initial article I attempted to research and verify some of the facts that Jose mentioned over the course of his seminar (most of the facts pertaining to natural occurrences of the 13/20 frequency). Most of the facts were very difficult to verify, as they are quite obscure. I was forced to publish the article before finishing my research. Some of the facts eventually proved false, which has left me somewhat skeptical of Dr. Arguelles' work. I don't think he is intentionally misleading people, but I'm not convinced that his methodology is very rigorous. Ultimately I will have to research his work further in order to form an educated opinion of his credibility. I may do just that. I continue to believe that the usefulness of the Mayan calendar, and new calendrics in general, does not depend solely on whether or not they are based on natural phenomenon. (For instance: whether or not the 13/20 frequency occurs naturally in the order of things.) It does seem plausible that the way we relate to time, as individuals and as society, has an effect on our individual and collective psyches, and that changing and experimenting with our relationship to time time could benefit our society. I've simply realized that I'm not the one who's going to blaze that particular trail, as it's not where my passions lie.
(I have come into contact with a woman who is involved with group of Maya Elders. They have been researching traditional use of the calendar. I have been kindly provided me with the information below. For more information, contact Brenda Wood.) Throughout the times of the Spanish Conquest of the Mayalands,
Maya knowledge keepers maintained careful, thorough historical
records of events as well as of the Spanish priest and military
leaders they encountered. At the beginning of the Conquest, various
high-ranking priest were assigned to different regions of Central
America and Mexico to oversee the King's strategic operations.
The priest assigned to the Yucatan was a Franciscan named Diego
de Landa, second highest of the Inquisitors. He had asked to be
sent to America and, once there, took it upon himself to burn
approximately 10,000 Maya codices and other writings. After de
Landa accomplished his mission, he traveled to Spain to ask King
Charles for his reward. The King was not pleased, however, and
10 years later (in 1573) sent de Landa back to the Yucatan to
restore the knowledge he had destroyed. At that time, however,
the Maya recordkeepers would not release this knowledge to those
who were not Maya. Therefore, de Landa drew his own conclusions
and published several works about the Maya records and culture.
Much of this work has been circulating ever since, including his
version of the Cholqij. The Maya Cholqij Calendar for 2003 includes an introduction to
the "glyphs," an explanation of the ancient prophecies
of the Maya, and an extensive description of each of the 20 Ajau
and of the 13 forces of the Cholqij calendar. It can be ordered
by sending a check or money order for $25 (includes S/H) to: |
