John Jenkins - The 2012 Story

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 equal, we all have dignity, we all deserve respect, we all deserve happiness; we all are useful and necessary to the growth of the country and to make a nation where we can live with respect among the different cultures.

The Prophecy says: “Those of the Center, with their mystical bird Quetzal, will unite the Eagle of the North with the Condor of the South; we will meet because we are one, like the fingers of the hand.” This prophecy means that the Indigenous People of the North and the Indigenous People of the South, through those of the Center, will come together to strengthen the recovery of the ancestral science; recovery of our identity, art, spirituality and Cosmo-vision on life and death that the different Cultures have….

According to the Maya Long Count Calendar, we are finalizing the 13 Baktun and 13 Ahau, thus approaching the YEAR ZERO. We are at the doorsteps of the ending of another period of the Sun, a period that lasts 5,200 years and ends with several hours of darkness. After this period of darkness there comes a new period of the Sun; it will be the 6 thone. In each period of the Sun there is an adjustment for the planet and it brings changes in the weather conditions and in social and political life as well.

The world is transformed and we enter a period of understanding and harmonious coexistence where there is social justice and equality for all. It is a new way of life. With a new social order there comes a time of freedom where we can move like the clouds, without limitations, without borders. We will travel like the birds, without the need for passports. We will travel like the rivers, all heading towards the same point… the same objective. The Mayan prophecies are announcing a time of change. The Pop Wuj, the book of the Counsel, tells us, “It is time for dawn; let the dawn come, for the task to be finished.” 21

Don Alejandro has emerged as a leading voice among the modern Maya, bridging political office and religious duties. As one can see, there are many ideas and some unfamiliar concepts presented in his narrative. In August of 2008 he was appointed Ambassador of the Native Peoples of Guatemala by President Cocom. In an irony that would have been impossible to conceive of in the 1980s, President Cocom himself had gone through the shrine initiations to become a day-keeper. It is not unheard of for “outsiders” to be initiated into the calendar tradition in this way. Barbara and Dennis Tedlock, for example, went through the process in the 1970s. And since there are five levels of day-keeper initiation, leading up to the highest “Mother-Father” position, the process continues and deepens over many years.

A curious prophecy of a Yucatec Maya man, recorded in 1930, seems to preserve a vague recollection of the timing of the end of the 13th Baktun:

I guess I’ll tell you the story of beautiful holy Lord for you to hear, because I have read the testament of beautiful holy Lord, where he says [that in] 2000 and a few more years it will end on earth. But if they have been very good Christians on earth, he will not end it….

He begins to diminish, beautiful holy Lord, His merciful grace [corn], the end of the road…. It is left, they are just looking one another in the face, no one is going to win the fight, hunger is going to win, truly.It ends, then, the fight like that. Hunger is going to finish it. Amidst that, whoever remembers there is a beautiful holy Lord, he makes a prayer in the cornfield, a harvest ceremony. Thus he makes it for beautiful holy Lord, He throws out blessings, beautiful holy Lord, there is corn in the fields. 22

José María Tol Chan, a Quiché day-keeper from Chichicastenango, spoke in 2006 with Dr. Sitler about how he saw 2012:

It is an event that has already begun, there are already signs. If humans don’t correct our course in the face of these events we will be off-balance in the moment the event appears, a very strong event in comparison with what we have experienced. Humans more than ever should pay close attention to all the events that disturb balance. They are teachings that we living beings should extract from the stages through which we pass. It’s not that we are arriving at a zero hour in 2012, it’s already beginning. That is, just as in a day we begin at dawn, and as we approach noon the sun beats down harder; just as in the afternoon the forces of the sun start to calm down until experiencing night. In the passing of a day we experience degrees and effects of heat and at the same time we experience the energies that influence our lives. This date is the same way and I dare say that 12 years previous to 2012 we have been experiencing different stages of a sacred effect that can turn harmful if we lose human wisdom and there will be 12 years after in which the effects also will arrive. 2012 is just the high point of the story. 23

Perhaps the best perspective is short and sweet:

As the elders said, everything is going to change. The world will be changed by that memorable date. Our children will have a different world view. The time will have passed and other beings will inhabit the universe. 24

In 2007, Jim Reed and I were leading a group of twenty-two adventurers to Maya sites in Honduras and Guatemala. When we arrived at the important site of Tak’alik A’baj, a ceremony was taking place in front of Stela 5, led by a spiritual guide from Momostenengo named Rigoberto Itzep Chanchabac. Afterward we sat and talked briefly before our groups went their separate ways. He exuded the kind of humble integrity and depth of understanding that I’d seen before among the Maya day-keepers. We were told that the Maya “day-keepers” had decided that they would prefer to be called “spiritual guides.” A year after this fortuitous meeting Don Rigoberto was present, along with dozens of other Maya spiritual guides and their families, at a well-attended conference in Antigua, Guatemala, called “La Profecía 2012 Maya: El Amanacer de una Nueva Epoca.” It was organized and sponsored by my friends at the Jades, S.A., Museum and artisan factory, in coordination with the grand opening of their Museum of Maya Cosmology. Admission was free, and no moneymaking concessions were allowed. It was truly an effort to bring together many different voices in a noncommercial environment of oneness. It can be a challenge for Maya traditionalists and outsiders to come together and discuss what is fundamentally a Maya concept and tradition, the 2012 calendar, which many people from different backgrounds are writing and talking about.