The 2012 Story

ending. This is pretty interesting, but as for the literal meaning of the story, we should always take this kind of information with a grain of salt, not placing undue emphasis on it as a literal, inviolable prophetic utterance. Information like this gets filtered through a dozen storytellers over many centuries, and each adds and subtracts his own energy and thoughts. The idea of the final line, that “we will finish off the enemy,” takes on political urgency or threat to enemies of the Maya. Its metaphorical meaning seems to derive, however, from the scenario in The Popol Vuh when the Hero Twins defeat “their enemies,” the Dark Lords of Xibalba, at the end of the story, thus ushering in the new cycle and the rebirth of their father.

Historically, the Maya have often reasserted their self-determination at cycle endings in the calendar. The Caste War in the Yucatan, for example, was driven by a prophetic voice coming from the “Talking Cross” at Chan Santa Cruz toward the culmination of a Calendar Round. Today, as the end of the 13-Baktun cycle approaches, Montejo suggests that the Maya renaissance is a part of a millenarian phenomenon he calls the “b’aktunian movement.”¹⁴ This movement, which grows with the emergence of Pan-Mayanism, will inform and define the true Maya identity. I see this as a true identity as opposed to new, because the process seems to be more about a revival, an awakening, than the creation of something new. New elements, however, will unavoidably come into play as the Maya integrate themselves, as they always have, with new environmental and political realities, so a bit of both perspectives must be acknowledged. The true identity can be understood as existing at the essential core, while changing patterns of outer identities morph along the surface.

Change at the husk (the surface) and the seed (or core) is the essence of a beautiful paradigm of time that the Tzutujil Maya call jaloj kexoj. Spirit (k’ex, essence) and matter (jal, form) unfold in tandem. The priority of the seed-identity is necessary in the same way that spirit has priority in informing the ever-changing patterns of material forms. The Tzutujil Maya doctrine of jaloj kexoj goes hand in hand with another conception called “Flowering Mountain Earth”¹⁵ in which reality grows, like a flowering mountain, outward from the spiritual essence as it becomes all the many things of manifest existence. Mayanism is concerned with the collectively shared seed- identity, and the Baktunian Movement is concerned with reestablishing and maintaining correct orientation between ego and Self, between matter and spirit, between indigenous and colonial mind-sets, to empower Maya leaders. This formula is similar to the mandate obeyed by ancient Maya kings—establishing within themselves an integrated shamanic conduit between sky and earth, between this world and the other world, and through that role they were empowered as political chiefs.

Montejo writes that “Prophetic expressions of the indigenous peoples insist on the protagonist role that new generations must play at the close of this Oxlanh B’aktun (thirteen B’aktun) and the beginning of the new Maya millennium. The ancestors have always said that ‘one day our children will speak to the world.’”¹⁶ And, again, the role of 2012 in Montejo’s conception is clear:

This millennial or b’aktunian movement responds to the close of a great prophetic cycle… the great prophetic cycle of 400 years in the Maya calendar. For the Maya, this is not the close of the second millennium or 2000 years after Christ, but rather the close of the fifth millennium according to the ancient Maya calendar initiated in the mythical year that corresponds to 3114 B.C. [correction of typo in original]…. The b’aktun includes the global concept of time and the regeneration of life with new ideas and actions. In other words, the theoretical b’aktunian approach leads us to understand the effect of human ideas and actions on all that exists on the earth and their effects on the environment and cosmos.¹⁷

Montejo’s observation not only helps us understand the concept of Mayanism (in which the spiritual values taught in The Popol Vuh are realized) but also helps us understand the indigenous attitude toward nature, one that is sustainable and diametrically opposed to the dominator style of colonial Western civilization. The Maya Renaissance can and should have a wider sphere of impact, one that speaks to the global crisis created by unsustainable, nature-destroying practices that need to be transformed at their roots in the collective consciousness.

Other scholars doing parallel work in elaborating the values of the “pan-Maya movement” include Garrett Cook and Robert Sitler. In his book Renewing the Maya World, Cook explored Maya rituals of renewal, identifying modern traditions as survivals of ancient rites. This means that, as I explained elsewhere in the book, the modern Maya do indeed retain ceremonial period-ending practices intended to facilitate transformation and rebirth. What Cook calls the modern “millenarian myth” of the modern Maya is simply another way of talking about the end of a great cycle, much like the role of the World Age in the ancient Popol Vuh. As such, Cook writes that “the millenarian myth depicts world transformation as a sunrise.”¹⁸ Importantly, the modern performances and ceremonies that are designed to depict and facilitate this “world renewal” are traceable back to the archetypal structure of The Popol Vuh. In his own comparative methodology, Cook outlines a five-step functional process in this Creation Myth, which is essentially identical to Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey: engagement or contest; imprisonment; emergence or rebirth; reengagement; and defeat (of enemies).

I’m sure that my previous identification of Maya teachings as being part of a perennial wisdom tradition, or universal mythic pattern (Chapter 8), struck some readers as highly dubious. But here we can see a Maya scholar outlining the same position. This is a problem I’ve encountered frequently in academic work—the facts are presented but the obvious remains unstated. Cook writes: “The Twins’ Xibalba episode, read as a script for a performance, is the prototype for a major Quichean rite of renewal.”¹⁹ (By Quichean Cook means the modern Quiche Maya who preserve the perennial essence of the ancient Popol Vuh teaching.) At the end of the rite the Hero Twins sacrifice themselves, as Quetzalcoatl did, by throwing themselves into the fire. This self-sacrifice, as we will explore more deeply in the next chapter, is the key to successful transformation and renewal. Are these not central ideas within the Perennial Philosophy? These ceremonial rites are intended to be observed at cycle endings, and the primary metaphor is the sun, which moves through many cycles of birth and death on different temporal levels, from the day cycle to the year cycle to, by analogy, the larger World Age cycle. Clearly, these contemporary “millenarian” ideas could be mapped onto the 2012 cycle ending, and Victor Montejo has himself adopted this rather obvious approach.

Among Maya day-keepers, spiritual guides, and political leaders, this is a time of great debate and intellectual tumult. How do they think about 2012? Is it consistent with these rites of renewal, or do some speak of doom? Robert Sitler, professor of modern language and literatures and director of the Latin American Studies program at Stetson University, has had a passionate interest in the Maya since early adulthood. He has described a spiritual experience he had at Palenque with his future wife, June, in the 1970s, as the launching point for his career. It is rare for an academic scholar to have integrated his spiritual inspirations with his professional vocation. Robert was the first scholar to publish a detailed treatment of the 2012 phenomenon (in 2006), and he has continued to record and document contemporary Maya attitudes about 2012.²⁰

Sitler’s work with the contemporary highland Maya reveals, not surprisingly, an entire spectrum of thoughts and ideas. My hope is that the voices which express ideas congruent with the ancient message of sacrifice, transformation, and renewal be elevated above all others because they retain a continuity with the ancient perspective. Anyone spewing unalloyed doomsday should be suspected of engaging in a cheap and easy knockoff of the ancient wisdom, in the same way that newspaper horoscopes don’t accurately reflect the profound nondual astrological principle of “as above, so below.” This is not to exclude statements that are tempered with warnings and observations about the crisis facing the world. That is inevitably part of the package, but notice that many of the following statements address both the dire situation at hand as well as possibilities for healthy change. Free- will choice is an implicit undercurrent. As Maya leader Don Alejandro points out, 2012 was prophesied as a time of change and a new dawn, but the “task to be finished” involves human engagement and choice:

We have several prophecies concerning the time we are living in, and it is in fulfillment of the Prophecies that we are here today. I will mention some of them:

“At the time of the 13 Baktun and 13 Ahau is the time of the return of our Ancestors and the return of the men of wisdom.” That time is now.

Another one says: “Arise, everyone, stand up! Not one, nor two groups be left behind the rest.” This prophecy is in reference to all: rich or poor, black or white, men or women, indigenous or non indigenous, we all are