Metaphor | 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.

Webster’s Dictionary defines hardcore as:

1: a central or fundamental and usu. enduring group or part: as a: a relatively small enduring core of society marked by apparent resistance to change or inability to escape a persistent wretched condition (as poverty or chronic unemployment) b: a militant or fiercely loyal faction.

Dynamic, on the other hand, is defined as:

2 a: marked by usually continuous and productive activity or change

So what do we make of this seeming contradiction? At once, “hardcore dynamic” suggests both a state of unswerving dedication that resists all change, while dynamic suggests a state of constant change. In fact, there is no contradiction here at all. Change is the only constant in the universe. Hardcore Dynamic represents an unswerving uncompromising dedication to living with change, leveraging change, and being an agent of change. No, this is not some Barack Obama hyperbole – but its no coincidence that “change we can believe in” has become a marketing slogan for a presidential candidate who really did beat many odds. Change is the power of chaos inherent in the universe. It is a power that can be futile resisted, or it can be embraced and utilized. This unswerving dedication to change is actually the power of chaos magick.

Grimorium Verum - The Magic Place

Magickal power is found in the seeming contradiction between loyal, unswerving dedication and continuous change. The power in “contradiction” comes from manifesting The Tao – uniting the duality inherent in the universe, a duality that exists in everything and is free of judgment. In the same way there must be balance in all parts of nature, from good and evil, man and woman, light and dark, there is a balance between hardcore and dynamic. Two powerful means that when united are capable of transforming the world.

Spiritual people are often caught up in a “search for truth.” But in reality, the lie is just as important, if not more so. The lie, the illusion, the deception – these have been tools all too often used for evil, but they can be used for good as well. Lies are a powerful agent for personal change. What is hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds but a calculated self deception? What is an entertaining magic trick but a deception of the senses? What is faith in that which we have never experienced or personally known but an illusion?

Finding balance between two poles through unity is the basis of what is currently known as magick and it is really a way to break out of social programming, to overcome the mold we have been cast in and to achieve what we want. We value this balance, but often set these “positive” activities apart from what they truly are – contemplating and wrestling with the polar opposite of what we label as “good” in the world. My commitment to the left hand path (and perhaps to libertarian politics) recently caused an intimate friend to call me a “darkworker” – she, of course, was fully in the “light” as she cast judgment upon me. In reality, we are both on the same spiritual path – which is why we found each other. We simply have different socio-political and aesthetic sensibilities. The spiritual path I speak of is to unite the poles within our souls and without in the universe, to embrace the world and commit to the present, despite the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the change and the stasis – to transform ourselves and ultimately transform the world.

The magick tradition has techniques that allow one to do this. Magick, especially chaos magick, is not really an occult art but a set of methods for profound personal change through the use of symbols. Interestingly enough, we see magick fused with chaos. Crowley defined magick as causing “change to occur in conformity of the will,” or to put it simply to control ones personal reality – and this magick is set against chaos, by definition a force over which we have no control.

Returning to the truth vs. illusion metaphor, in many chaos magick rituals, the practitioner creates an illusion of change in the mind, and then represents this illusion in a symbol, or sigil, therefore forcing the illusion out of the mind by creating a tangible symbol for it. Thus the intangible becomes the tangible, and ultimately the conscious illusion turned unconscious symbol ultimately manifests as reality. Is it not alchemy? To turn iron to gold was simply another metaphor for the profound effects of merging opposites to manifest the Tao. Illusions and darkness seem to be everywhere these days, but it is up to us to leverage these powers, to merge our conscious and unconscious, illusions and truth, chaos and control – to create The Tao. This is the Hardcore Dynamic.

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