2012: A Time Odyssey
Jose Arguelles calls it "the climax of matter," Jean Houston
refers to it as "jump time," and Ray Kurzweil names it "the
approaching singularity." Each person who studies this phenomenon
calls it by a different name, or uses different terms to describe
it, but they are all speaking of the same idea—that human
experience is reaching some kind of ultimate point.
Significantly, many prophecies from ancient traditions around
the world have also pointed to this time period as a time of great
upheaval and change, perhaps the most important in human history.
The Mayans of Mexico marked this time with their famous calendar;
the alchemists of Europe built the Cross of Hendaye to describe it;
the Quero Indians of Peru call it the PachaKuti; and the
ancient Egyptians referred to it as the Zep Tepi or The
First Time. In the Indo-Tibetan tradition it is equated with the
final throes of the Kali Yuga, the Age of Iron. Each of
these traditions tells us that a great transformative moment is at
hand, a moment in which we have the opportunity to release old
patterns and re-link ourselves with the essential rhythms and
harmonies of the universe.
In all of these prophecies this shift is not just limited to
historical tangibles— globalization, the internet, global warming
and the destruction of the environment—but is deeply embedded in
almost all of the great spiritual traditions of humanity. According
to these traditions this approaching singularity will be the most
profound event in history; everything that we know, everything that
we are, is about to undergo a radical change.
It might be said that right now there is a great slumber across
the land, Alberto Villoldo refers to it as a cultural trance, Jose
Arguelles, a dreamspell, Riane Eisler calls it "the dominator
trance" or the last gasp of the patriarchy. It is as if a “glamour”
has been cast over our collective eyes, a veil of delusion. Lost in
the media haze of spin, bogus reporting, and talking points, which
reduce deep issues that affect our future to mere sound bites, it
has become more and more difficult to discern the false from the
true. The prevailing forces of the modern world have brought us to
a state where we are out of balance, out of tune. The question is
how did this come about?
Jose Arguelles speaks eloquently of this misalignment resulting
from the shift from the Lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
The previous calendar, based on Lunar cycles— as opposed to our
current calendar which is based on solar cycles—was attuned to a
different vibration, one of harmony with the rhythms and cycles of
nature. The transition from Lunar time to Solar time was also a
transition from cyclic time to linear time. As the Lunar time
period waned, our right-brain feminine-based qualities of
creativity, art and beauty were repressed and the left-brain
tendencies of order, efficiency and logic became the dominant
force. With industrialization, the solar-based calendars took a
firm grip on us and we became bound by time, locked into mechanical
rhythms, habitual patterns of thought and motion. We have become a
society of slaves to the clock and to the machines that appeared to
offer us freedom, but at what cost? Today we are isolated from
nature and each other, a society of consumers. In our greed, we
have not only gobbled up the resources of the past, but we are
devouring the future as well.
Think about it. The twentieth century with all of its invention,
wars, and change was brought to us by the power of one single
substance—oil. Over the course of the last one hundred years,
during this Age of Oil, we have used up millions of years of
compacted light created by the bones and residue of the plants and
animals that once occupied this planet. On a metaphysical level
that means our very environment is suffused with the ka or
psychic residue of these living beings from the past. Is the Age of
Oil an outer manifestation of the karmic traces, seeds of
destruction left from the inhabitants of a former age? It certainly
appears so.
Now that the Age of Oil is coming to an end we will all face
enormous difficulties, but instead of planning for these
eventualities, our corporations, leaders and politicians are
ignoring their responsibilities and are using up the world at an
even faster rate than before.
The world, our environment and our future appear to have become
a gigantic closeout sale—where everything must go.
Just take a look around. It seems that everything is up for
grabs. Anything can happen. The real question that lies before us
is this: will the human race survive this process? Will we continue
to fall for the seduction of materialism, war and domination or
open our eyes and live consciously? Will we finally achieve our
potential and manifest our destiny or will we wither away like the
dinosaurs? Faced with these essential questions, what can we
do?
I believe that the answer is to free our minds; wake up from the
trance. And how can we do this? By shifting our focus inward,
realigning ourselves with the highest spiritual values. If we look
inward, truly align with spirit, perceive and strip away the
conditioned actions and karmic traces that have led to the
fear-based nightmare of the current “manufactured reality” the veil
that obscures our true vision will dissolve.
It is time to become the heroes and heroines of our dreams, to
move beyond fear and transmute its fundamental energy into right
action. With every thought we are effecting the shape of the
future, with every action we are creating angels or demons.
It is said that as we move to the end point of the cycle,
whether it be the end of the world or the end of a life, time
speeds up until there is no time, only the moment. In this
extraordinary moment of reintegration, the psychic knots that bind
us unwind, and the karmic veils are lifted. In that moment we can
see with true clarity the pure essence of our being; we come face
to face with our eternal nature. Time dissolves into space and all
things appear in the perfect simultaneity of the state of pure
immediate present. This is the moment of true awakening; it is the
still point between the thoughts, the pause between the in breath
and the out breath.
It is time to dream a new dream for humanity, move beyond the
confines of linear time. What is going on right now on planet earth
is that a new level of consciousness is emerging. The Quero of Peru
say that that there has been a tear in the fabric of time itself, a
window into the future through which a new species will emerge. The
Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual group from North India, tell us that we
have already moved from the darkness of the Iron Age to a new age
of consciousness called the Diamond Age. With this shift of
consciousness, we are all becoming painfully aware of how much work
there is left to do.
The great spiritual teachers tell us that the chaos of the
modern age is merely part of the natural order, that out of this
chaos, a new age of harmony and grace will emerge. Many of us are
moving beyond this phase in the cycle, realigning ourselves with
spirit and feeling the great call to the light. We are planting the
seeds for the world to come.
If we are willing to break free of the cultural trance, let go
of the materialist, ego-based mindset and live a more simple and
harmonious life in balance with the Earth we will probably survive.
If we don't begin to change now we may not make it.
I once heard Terence McKenna say, "We must act as if the
apocalypse has already occurred." At the time I didn't understand
what he meant, but I think I do now. What Terence was saying is
that we must begin to live in the future—right now. We must act as
if the corporate, materialist-based culture has already withered
away and we are living in a future of our own creation.
There is no more hopeful situation imaginable.
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