December 21st. 2012 and the Maya World (1)

Hundreds of internet websites in dozens of languages together with a rapidly growing assortment of books, videos, international workshops and electronic discussion groups speculate wildly about the significance of the Maya calendar and of the year 2012. In general, this excitement focuses on an approaching period of huge planetary transformation that will include cataclysmic changes and humanity’s subsequent emergence into a new age of expanded consciousness. Predictions concerning how this global shift will take place include spectacular scenarios such as a sudden inversion of the Earth’s magnetic poles, the descent of a spiritually uplifting galactic beam and even the arrival of master spiritual beings from distant stars...

Dawn at Tikal, Guatemala

Although the 2012 date itself is indeed part of the Maya heritage, surprisingly, careful investigation of the major trends within the 2012 issue reveals few solid connections to the Maya world. Even the authentic links that do exist between Maya culture and 2012 beliefs can get lost in a confusing patchwork of poorly documented competing New Age theories that are sometimes based on inaccurate facts and misinterpretation of Maya traditions. For example, in spite of the claims of some 2012 believers concerning the centrality of December 21 in ancient Maya culture, the 13 pik date only appears on a single occasion in the entire known body of Maya hieroglyphic texts. Even in this tiny text (Monument 6 at Tortuguero in Tabasco, Mexico), there is no mention of the events described in current popular writings. Similarly, the varied and elaborate sets of “Maya prophecies” found on-line, the majority of them in Spanish, are largely New Age creations lacking solid basis in Maya sources.

‘New Dawn’ Magazine; the ancient Maya site of Palenque

The Long Count calendar from which the 2012 date emerges fell into disuse well before Spanish invaders arrived in the 16th century. Knowledge of its rediscovery by Western academics in the late 19th century has reached extremely few Maya living today. School curricula in the Maya world do not typically reflect native values and include little emphasis on the Maya cultural heritage. As a result, few Maya students have the opportunity to learn formally about their own culture except for the relative few at the university level. Those exceptional Maya who actually know of the 2012 date, must have learned of it directly or indirectly through contact with non-Maya sources. While many Maya have long spoken of a time of coming great changes, the specific references to 2012 are a recent addition. Such reclaiming by the Maya of their own cultural heritage is yet another step to their eventual freedom from oppression by their Hispanic fellow citizens.

The Observatory building, Chichén Itzá

While little content in the 2012 issue has solid basis in Maya culture, there are at least two legitimate historical sources and several minor social currents within the Maya world that do actually refer to world era change and planetary renewal, the core themes of the 2012 phenomenon. The older of the two historical sources is an ancient hieroglyphic text found on Monument 6 at the site of Tortuguero in the Mexican state of Tabasco. Monument 6 contains the only ancient Maya text thus far discovered that refers unequivocally to the 2012 date. The legible parts of this extremely brief text say that, “the thirteenth pik will be finished (on) Four Ahaw, the third of K’ank’in. (An undeciphered event). The descent of Bolon Yokte K’u “Nine Foot Tree God(s)” to (undeciphered place).”

Monument 6, Tortuguero site, Tabasco, Mexico

The only other historical source for authentically Maya predictions possibly related to 2012 is the collection of colonial-period texts from the Yucatan Peninsula known as the books of Chilam Balam. While the cryptic nature of these deeply esoteric texts has lent itself to highly creative speculation by several New Age teachers, the Chilam Balam books do, in fact, contain at least one minor reference that has a legitimate, if weak, link to the 2012 date. The books describe prophecies linked to a series of successive k’atun periods, each measuring 7200 days, slightly less than 20 years. The text states that, “4 Ahaw k’atun is the eleventh k’atun according to the count. Chichen Itza is the seating of the k’atun. The settlement of the Itzas comes. The quetzal comes, the green bird comes. He of the yellow tree comes. Blood-vomit comes. K’uk’ulkan shall come....” Yukatek Maya oracle scribes named k’atuns in accord with the period’s closing date in their 260-day ritual calendar. The current k’atun, the one ending in 2012 on the northern hemisphere winter solstice, is a 4 Ahaw k’atun since it ends on the day 4 Ahaw.

Chilam Balam Chumayel manuscript, Princeton University Digital Collections

Apart from this indirect reference to 2012 in the Chilam Balam books and the single, short hieroglyphic passage on Tortuguero Monument 6, there are no other historical Maya texts that clearly refer to the year. Even the sacred Popol Vuh, arguably the most sacred of all Maya texts, makes no mention of the year 2012 or of future world change. However, within several Maya communities today there exist several significant references that parallel ideas central to the 2012 movement. While these sources are practically unknown among most 2012 believers, these authentic indigenous beliefs are similar in that they point to an approaching period of significant, even catastrophic, world change and subsequent renewal but without explicit reference to the year 2012. For example, within the prophetic tradition of the Macewal Maya in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, there has long existed a strong belief in a rapidly approaching cataclysmic period of warfare that will lead to the destruction of their current world and the creation of a new Maya society. In 1930, for example, one Maya man in the village of Chemax declared:

The site of a Macewal shrine

In a similar vein, according to Paul Sullivan, Maya of the Macewal village of Xcacal Guardia believed in 1989 that war was “not much further off than the year 2000 and that it is inevitable.” One Mexican anthropologist familiar with the Macewal communities states that, “the wait for fulfillment of the promises of the Cross, the imminent arrival of the end of the world and the creation of a new Maya society are dynamic elements that are present, strong, alive and active.”

Maya altar offerings

Similarly, among the few remaining Lacandon Maya traditionalists in Chiapas, there has also been a belief that the end of the world is at hand. In 1978, the late well-known spiritual leader of Najá, Chan K’in stated, “Our Lord Hachakyum will make everything die .... The grass wishes to die. The seed, the animals all wish to die. And the True People also [the Lacandon] – we all die. In thirty years Hachakyum will destroy the world.” The tradition of world end and renewal is so strong among the Hach Winik (Lacandon) that they have a special word for it, xu’tan.

Lacandon Indians, 1933-34 (photo by Georgette Soustelle); it’s believed that the first man on the left could be Chan K’in

Recently, a Mam Maya traditionalist in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Guatemala, drew my attention to prophetic traditions persisting among highland Maya that also predict a new world era. He said that he believes that Maya are approaching the culminating period of a divine trial in which they have had to endure nearly 500 years of oppression under Guatemala’s non-indigenous population. He stated that Maya are currently witnessing a process of purification that will prepare them for what he called in Mam the Ak’ah Sqixa or New Dawn. According to his understanding, the light of this New Dawn will return the Maya to their rightful place as rulers in their own lands. Once again, as with the Macewal and Lacandon prophetic traditions, the world renewal traditions among the Mam, K’iche’, Kaqchikel and other Maya in highland Guatemala tend to reflect their own particular historical circumstances, in this case, their brutally harsh experience in the region since the arrival of the first Spaniards in the early 1500s.

Graphic portrayal of discrimination against the Maya under Spanish rule

Gaspar González, a Maya novelist and prominent cultural activist, is one of those few Maya who have spoken explicitly about the year 2012. González referred to the recent Guatemalan civil war as part of an extended period of severe tribulation that would prepare his people for the next cycle in human experience. He said that the current age of the human beings made of corn was ending, and that beginning after 2012, there will be a societal rebirth into what he called “una nueva era de la luz” (a new age of light).

Cemetery in Rabinal, Guatemala