The Mayan Calendar Turneth Over

 Representation of differing forces or elements within man or woman

(Ade McO'Campbell, October 2009)

Though ‘calendars’ are by nature precise – like clocks – I’m not so sure the Mayan sub-cycles are meant to work that way. Or to reference things happening in our world which respond to a particular ‘date’ like we do to the blare of our alarm clock when it rousts us from sleep way to early in the morning.

The parallel I’d use as an astrologer is to the astrological ages. Yes, we can treat the whole of our daily and yearly life with clock-and-calendar precision because we’re working with fairly small chunks of finite time. But an astrological age? Probably not. The astrological ages are ‘clocked’ by a peculiar mechanism known as ‘precession’ which says that as the Earth rotates (and moves) forward through space, there is a slight ‘counter-spin of its axis, much like that we see with a gyroscope or a top.

But I defy anyone to go…wherever….and find a big line in the Earth (or the sky, for that matter) which says “start here.” So when we’re talking about these big shifts, we probably shouldn’t be thinking in terms of a ‘flick of a light switch,’ as it were.

We just don’t have much written by the Maya to go on with regards to this calendar cycle. But one thing we do know – that which ends this December is not “THE” Maya calendar. THE Maya calendar – the Long Count – doesn’t end until the year 4,772 (CE).

(Mark your date book – we’ll have lunch.)

The Maya envisioned the whole of the world as being cycles of ‘worlds,’ which is why people tend to think of this calendar turnover as ‘the end of the world.’ Yet there isn’t anything to really support that, and when I read of the fire and ‘quaking’ which allegedly is supposed to occur at the end of this ‘creation cycle’ (aka “world”) I tend to think more in terms of what those words or ideas would have meant back then – specifically by who would have been writing them.

This gets to be a whole touchy subject as people don’t seem to want to be bothered with facts when it comes to beliefs....or, for that matter, dramas they either like stirring up or like being stirred up by.

But it’s pretty much true that back in a time of no television, no radio, virtually no education and no books, there were only a few folks around (relatively speaking) and since nobody knew very much (certainly not about science or foreign cultures), those who were trying to teach anything to others had a limited “vocabulary” to work with.

So while the term “fire” may be literal, it also may be figurative – which is how we take it in metaphysics. If you’re an Aries or Leo or Sagittarius, you were born with the Sun in a fire sign. Does that mean your brain is literally on fire all the time? Of course not! It means your life is fired with ideas. That ideas ‘fire you up’ and maybe even that you need to get fired up to get anything done.

(It would be interesting to see a study on “degrees” of Type A personality people to see if they have more fire sign planets or emphasis in their natal charts.)

So when it comes to this end of the Mayan ‘world’ (which may better be phrased as ‘phase of growth on the part of mankind’) could it be that were will be getting all ‘fired up’ and ‘shaken’ by new ideas? Or by old ways of living or thinking falling away like so many brick buildings after a terrible earthquake?

I tend to think yes. I also suspect this is a long-term process which began some time ago. Prod me a bit and I’ll come out with “I think this Mayan creation cycle is an echo of the passing of an astrological age and we are currently in the throes of moving from the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius.’

The Age of Pisces would have been hugely emotional and very stratified. It has been an age of spiritual gurus and all the pluses and minuses of spirituality. Anything and everything which could test us on an emotional level – money, drugs, sex, power, education, disease, prisons, charity, care giving/health care, fossil fuels, art/artistry – however they have manifested and whether you were in the thick of it or gazing through a window at some situation, it would have all been part of a process all about whether we care only about ourselves or others. And when we didn’t care about others, it was because we couldn’t face ourselves – first and last at some very deep, very personal emotional level.

The Age of Aquarius is not emotional in the same way as the Age of Pisces was. Compassion, empathy, guilt, shame, love, idealism, sensuality, loss…those are Pisces words. Contrary to what people think, Aquarius does have an emotional component (let’s face it, where there are people, there are feelings!) but they’re less personal. The fervency with which you could get fired up about something? The idea is the fire sign part, but the excitement you feel when you realize that you know how to do something or ‘make it work?’ That’s Aquarian.

Aquarius is a sign of social systems and universality. It’s realm encompasses things economic and economies, it’s about power systems (and power grids) and specifically about electricity.

A prime signal that we’re moving from the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius would be found exactly here: though we are currently living in a world which is powered by fossil fuels (oil, coal, etc.) the emphasis is becoming the power grid itself. And more and more of our world is moving towards things which run on electricity.

Aquarius is also the sign of information and computers. And wasn’t it back in the late 70’s or early 80’s that we started hearing the phrase ‘the information age’? That – to me, as a metaphysician – is a great ‘date marker’ for the shifting out of the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age.

I’m betting the Maya would have agreed.

Does this mean that we shouldn’t hold any celebrations to mark this once-in-five-thousand-one-hundred-twenty-five-years-(plus) event? Heavens no! Celebrate! Dance! Have a party!

Okay...so maybe you won't be having this big a party. But it does look like a fun time was had by all!

Eiffel Tower with fireworks by Slumbering (2008)

As a matter of fact, the fine folks at NASA were so sure that the end of this Mayan cycle wouldn't be the end of the world that they issued a circular on December 14th linking to a post dated December 22nd the "day after," as it were.

Link to "NASA: WHY THE WORLD

DIDN'T END YESTERDAY"

(I thought that was so funny I just couldn't resist sharing!)

Chuckles aside...the Age of Aquarius – the incoming age – is all about universality and groups. So celebrating with others is a natural. The letting down of our barriers, the eliminating of the old Piscean ‘us/them’ walls – that’s what the Age of Aquarius is all about. Sure, we’re different. And absolutely, we like different things. But that doesn’t mean that one person is ‘good’ and the other person is ‘bad.’ We cheapen ourselves, we limit our lives when we cling to just what we know or ‘our kind of folks.’ Is it easier? Maybe. But life is all about what you put into it.

Did I mention that Aquarius is the sign of the rewards we get for the effort we put in? Often simply known as ‘income,’ at other levels this same idea manifests as friendship and loyalty. Aquarius says we have to work for what we get out of life and that includes our friendships. That which comes cheaply is probably just that – cheap. And it isn’t about them…it’s about our choosing not to work at/with/towards a higher caliber of discernment.

It’s easy to blame ‘them.’ It’s easy to say ‘us good, them bad’ and Aquarius often manifests as just that sort of ‘splitting’ and factionalizing – the sort of thing which ends up in anarchy, rebellion, elitism, marginalization, fanaticism and all that which detracts from life by over-defining it, by trying to create the ‘theoretical’ barrier now that the Piscean emotional barriers are breaking down.

It didn’t work then, it won’t work now. And that things are changing may well be the ‘fires’ which are burning away the walls which separate us in part from one another, but at a more important level from the recognition of the human being we can be.

The Maya weren’t saints. Far from it! As the Maya culture arose, its leaders fell into the same sort of bickering city-state wars which have felled every society since mankind first figured out how to organize way back when.

What we’re realizing now is how futile it is to follow that path. The quakes and fires going forward are more likely to be the realization of the damage we’re doing to ourselves, our families, our world, our planet…than anything else.

Fortunately for us, there is a solution. The less we clutch, the more we’ll have. Humans are far better off when they accept others and work with them, caring about how everybody does than when we segregate ourselves by social strata, nationality, education, gender, religion – or anything else you care to name.

Sure, this is just one person’s opinion. (Mine.) But there is a level at which we all know that it isn’t okay to write anyone else off. Not for any reason, not at any level.

So let’s not write others off – let’s celebrate being here and being alive. Let’s join with each other and share what we know and learn from what we share.

Let’s be the Maya the Maya talked about being in what of their spiritual writings we have and not a person or a people which undermines our reality for the sake of some idea.

And now…let’s get started again. As of the end of this week we’re “officially” starting on another 5,125 years of human development.

I wish us all our best!
.
.
.