Spirituality | Hardcore Dynamic

I cannot really blog on these esoteric subjects and ignore 2012. For the uninitiated, 2012, or December 21, 2012 more specifically, has been a date with much weight attached to it in the occult and new age circles. To give a brief summary, the Mayan calendar, one of the most advanced calendars ever created (and more accurate than our modern Gregorian calendar) has an end date of December 21, 2012. Their ancient texts elaborate on this end date, albeit cryptically:

Tortuguero Monument 6, recording the 2012 Bak’tun ending:
Bolon Yookte [This creator God is referenced on the glyph]
“The Thirteenth ‘Bak’tun” will be finished
(on) Four Ajaw, the Third of Uniiw (K’ank’in).
? will occur.
(It will be) the descent(??) of the Nine Support? God(s) to the ?.”
- UT Mesoamerica Center Discussion Board (Google Groups)

Another text also elaborates on this point – however this prophecy and interpretation has been noted to be colored by the influence and interpretation of Spanish Christian Missionaries. The astute reader will notice the parallels between the Christian “second coming of Christ” and the Maya prophecy in the following text:

Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, XXII:
Katun 4 Ahau . . . . The katun is established at Chichen Itzá. The settlement of the Itzá shall take place [there]. The quetzal shall come, the green bird shall come. Ah Kantenal shall come. Blood-vomit shall come. Kukulcan shall come with them for the second time. [It is] the word of God.
- Michael Finley’s Maya Website

Bruce Fenton, a very knowledgable 2012 researcher and writer, pointed me towards these two Maya texts. He rightly points out that while there is nothing definitive here, there are some clues that can guide our speculation:

The only thing to bear in mind perhaps is that much was lost when the Spanish invaded, and that the Maya used prophecies from other eras over again by reinterpreting them whilst in trance. So we can posit they would have likely had more than this to tell us. What we can’t say is that anything like a 2012 Doomsday exists in the texts we have available today.

What the astute reader will notice about the end of the cycle writings is an emphasis in importance on returning Gods. Notably a creator God is included indicative of some rebirth before the new Long Count. The significance of the nine God’s should also be noted, as this is cross-cultural mythology. Pantheons of nine Gods are found in ancient Egypt and Norse scripts as well as elsewhere in history. They can often be seen as archetypal energies, which govern both our reality and our own inner nature.
– 2012 Rising (Bruce’s Website)

Despite the lack of definitive prophecy, many been quick to develop their own. It must be said that what the end date really meant to the Maya is still unknown, and therefore all prophecies are purely speculation. Many believe this to be the day of apocalypse, when climate changes will hit earth and we are killed and/or born again. Some on the other hand posit that this day will usher in a new level of consciousness – a mass Kundalini awakening of sorts. John Major Jenkins elaborates on 2012 in his two works, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and its follow up, Galactic Alignment. In Galactic Alignment, Jenkins builds on his work in Maya Cosmogenesis and finds the end date of 2012 is encoded not only in Mayan astronomy and astrology, but also in the works and monuments of the ancient Vedic, Egyptian, and Persian civilizations, among many others.
This analysis is strong and does seem to carry some research backed authority. However, Jenkins offers more than simply facts to his readers as he takes his research further and speculates as to the meaning of the date. His interpretation has to do with a galactic alignment that occurs every 26,000 years – what he describes as a metaphorical alignment of chakras on a galactic scale with tangible impacts for humanity.
One can either immediately buy into this belief or immediately dismiss it as a purely millenarian fantasy – either route would be foolhardy. Jenkins work, extremely well researched and thorough as it is, will only convince those who have already been convinced.
The 2012 enigma gets even more interesting than simply speculation on ancient astrology and monuments. Terrence McKenna also independently posited a December 2012 end date at a point in time when he had no knowledge of the ancient prophecies – and nor did most of the existing counterculture. While under the influence of hallucinogenic compounds, the spirit of the mushroom told McKenna to research a Chinese oracle called The I-Ching, or the book of changes. The I ching is an ancient Chinese divination tool that has a long history and was believed by Carl Jung to work through synchronicity. After doing some complex mathematical transforms to convert the I ching into a graph, McKenna matched the valleys and peaks to major known events in time to create what he called a graph of novelty. Basically, he mapped the I-ching against what we know of universal and human history to create a measure of novelty over time. The graph had an endpoint – The zero point, or point of infinite novelty. According to McKenna’s mapping, falls in December 2012.
What can we make of all this? Did the ancients know something we have since forgotten? Was Mckenna given a clue to our future by communication with the collective unconscious? Or is 2012 simply a crackpot millenarian fantasy born of new age occult revivalism and active imaginations? We can be certain about some things: McKenna’s idea of infinite novelty does match up with what we know the future holds for us, technological Singularity. Now, what Singularity means for human civilization is another question entirely – it is entirely plausible that time (as we know it) will end. It is also possible, though very unlikely, that technology gone wild usher in an apocalypse. But then there still remains the question of a consciousness raising event from the stars?
I can have only one conclusion – ultimately, December 21st, 2012 does not matter. I certainly hope singularity will happen soon and 2012 is quite close. In that case, visions of apocalypse may simply be a noospheric or subconscious metaphor for a time of chaos as humanity adjusts to singularity.
The question of consciousness still stays with me though. Daniel Pinchbeck, who has tried to be the modern day McKenna, has promoted his own theory – one in which 2012 signals a grand awakening of consciousness and Pinchbeck is the channel for the ancient mayan god Quetzlcoatl. Its a hard pill to swallow – at least a lot harder than the ones that Pinchbeck did to get those visions. However, I will not write off Pinchbeck either. I think he has the message right in some sense, because I pray, for the sake of the masses of humanity, that the stars will hold the solution to a problem that has plagued humanity since the first man asked “Why?”. 2012, real or not, is still a metaphor for a time we hope to reach, when our wrongs will be washed away, our consciousness will be raised to the necessary level to handle singular novelty, and our every fantasy of the future will come to fruition.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein

“But in the end, science does not provide the answers most of us require. Its story of our origins and of our end is, to say the least, unsatisfactory. To the question, “How did it all begin?”, science answers, “Probably by an accident.” To the question, “How will it all end?”, science answers, “Probably by an accident.” And to many people, the accidental life is not worth living. Moreover, the science-god has no answer to the question, “Why are we here?” and, to the question, “What moral instructions do you give us?”, the science-god maintains silence.” – Neil Postman

Recently I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine. He is a devout atheist, to the point of sometimes being militant. This is in contrast with my own beliefs: I consider myself spiritual without wishing at the moment to identify with an organized affiliation.

The subject of our discussion was purpose; specifically whether or not humanity as a whole, or individual people, had a purpose to their lives. His argument rejected any higher purpose other than survival and pleasure. I took the stance that people are able to perceive higher orders of thinking and those abstractions are a form of spirituality, even if not traditionally identified as such. Our purposes on earth – to seek out what we think is good and correct what we think is bad – is a form of spirituality that is crafted from our experiences and put into practice in our actions. Faith in that spirituality can be considered to be the belief that your knowledge of “what is good” is correct, despite a lack of concrete proof of the correctness of your perspective. Indeed, how can we have concrete proof? We are bound by our perceptions and can never know the absolutes. We can only act as best we can and do what we feel is right.

Some believe that purpose may be defined by individual perspective – we define our own purpose and act on that purpose, or fail to act and suffer regret. Others believe that our purpose comes from a higher power. While I do not practice an “official” religion, I nonetheless have a great deal of respect for people that have a faith and are aware of what that means: because their religion represents principles they value and I recognize their religion as a means for them to maintain those principles on a personal level. To use the stereotypical example: not all Christians are God fearing lambs, and not all atheists are rational and intelligent people that have outgrown “superstitions.” Clearly there are stereotypes being made here, and much misunderstanding about what spirituality and religion are and do. Spirituality is something that is intensely personal and it is very violating to have that experience casually dismissed as a silly delusion.

When my friend and I debated whether or not people had a purpose. Something suddenly disturbed me as he argued vehemently that we had no true purpose and that our lives were without consequence or meaning.

It was spiritual nihilism: any purpose we can create for ourselves is a delusion. To the spiritual nihilist, nothing has a purpose, we are just bags of meat careening randomly in a sea of nonsense, and nothing can convince him otherwise, because if we think differently, we are deluded.

However, my friend champions the glories of science, without question. But science and spirituality are not forces in opposition. On the contrary, science can be considered an organized religion in a sense. It is a belief system that rests on the principle that truth can be found in repetitious observation. For a long time, science and spirituality coexisted because they explained different things. However when the gospel of science is taken to the extreme: anything that cannot be observed ceases to exist. Anything that cannot be quantified becomes a trivial superstition or quaint notion that has no place in the worldview of the scientist. But this is ignorant and foolish. Truth does not come out of a test tube; no matter how many times the experiment is repeated. Love isn’t a collection of chemicals. Life isn’t a series of reactions. A person isn’t an organization of atoms.

We can hold principles, we have ideas, we can love, we can value, and most importantly, we can build a world around our values and beliefs and act on them to make the world a better place in our image of a brighter future. As the world does not disappear when we close our eyes, the faith that others have does not become a delusion simply because you do not agree with it. Regardless of where belief comes from, the understanding that the world and the people that wander on it have meaning brings us together. Faith in a God or Gods or Spirits or The Self or Goodness or Justice is something that lifts us out of the sea of meaningless and places our feet on something constant. We are anchored and from that point can act with purpose, because we have a purpose.

Spiritual nihilism contradicts the existence of a good or evil, even if the definitions of those terms are subjective. When the universe is devoid of meaning, and we are devoid of purpose, then there is no escape from delusion or distraction. It seems to me a bitter perspective to view the wonderful things that our consciousness allows us to perceive as mere fantasy.

Spirituality is a self expression of self-awareness and purpose. Even if some do not believe in a higher power or belong to an organized religion, we all can hold the belief or faith or understanding that there truly is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the light is there to guide us. We do the best we can with what we have.

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