Research Continues - Jaguar Paw and the World Tree

I am in the process of preparing my course on Maya Hieroglyphs so that it can be purchased as a downloadable file or on CD. Many people have expressed an interest in my course and I want it to be accessible to as many people as possible.

I will be teaching the course "live" in March at San Joaquin Delta College and at Santa Rosa Junior College starting in April.

Meanwhile, due to the release of the Hollywood film: 2012, many more people are becoming aware of the 'end of the Mayan calendar' and the energy is building.

Personally, I am going through the Shift and have been for some time. It is something I have anticipated and prepared for as much as one can prepare for something like this. The birth process is both painful and ecstatic. Few mothers would say it was easy, but most would say it was worth it. So, too, we are all going through a birth process. But first, we must undergo the death and rebirth.

As I have said before, I am trying to read everything I can find (more and more coming out each day) about 2012, both to be most prepared for my class and students, and to see what people are thinking about it.

The '2012 phenomenon' is developing a life of its own and I wonder how we will all feel on Dec. 22, 2012 if nothing happened. Talk about 'the morning after'. Ha ha!

I am truly amazed at all the Mayan elders who have suddenly come out of woodwork in the last couple of years. Where have they been hiding? Have they been invisible?

And as for all these prophecies. When were they written or received...in 2005? I can't help being skeptical. But I believe it is a healthy level of skepticism. I am willing to change my mind and do so on a regular basis. I want to be convinced, not just with my head but mostly with my heart, my gut, my intuition.

I am on many lists and recently received a link I found very useful, because it presented a large cornucopia of ideas and information, from several perspectives.

Although I personally do not subscribe to the Dreamspell calendar of Jose Arguelles, there are many people who do. It must be said that this is not the traditional tzolkin as used by the ancient Maya and some living Maya. The Dreamspell calendar is inspired by the tzolkin, but is a calendar created by Arguelles through his own intuitive processes. This has its own value, but it is not the same thing as the traditional tzolkin.

Even though this site promotes the Dreamspell calendar of Arguelles, it still offers valuable general information about 2012 and thus is well worth viewing.

Through it, it got to information about monument 6 at Tortuguero, which actually refers to the 2012 end date in particular. Other texts (such as that on the Temple of the Cross in Palenque) refer to the last 13 baktun ending/creation day that occurred in 3114 B.C. This inscription at Tortuguero has been badly damaged, (wouldn't you know it?) and work is still being done on it.

It seems to say that on the end day, a god named Bolon Yokte K'u may descend. John Major Jenkins discusses this on his site and it is very interesting. I am fascinated by what the jaguar paw at the bottom of the world tree refers to and if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. It's got to be a star or planet or some other celestial body - perhaps a comet passing by at a particular time. In any case, the idea of a god descending on that date could mean a whole lot of things.

In The Flow of Time

My class is coming along fine despite my broken ankle and transportation challenges. I still can't walk or drive and have to be moved around in a wheelchair.

I am so fortunate to have Stargazer Li from Keeping Time in the class. The other night I was presenting the Calendar Round, ie. the tzolkin and haab calendars and Li added so much to the conversation.

She has been following the tzolkin for 13 years. She also produces her own 'modernized' calendar and makes incredible planetary essence blends using planets, rocks and trees. Check out her website - Keeping Time.

The first night of class, I was searching for the flower essences I had chosen to take to help me with nerves (performance jitters), but could not find them. I remembered I had Li's Pluto Potion there in the car, but thought "this is way too potent and I don't need any more excitement tonight." So I didn't take it. The tzolkin day was Etznab (sacrificial knife - obsidian or flint). Ha! The Pluto Potion contains obsidian! Wow, right on target. That first night did feel like a bloodletting ritual for me because I had so many challenges to overcome. I suffered all night and all the next day. I was not able to control my mind. It felt like some heavy karmic thing was being played out which I could at best observe. It also contains pomegranate, the fruit Persephone eats by mistake while in the Underworld. In some way, I feel this time that I am restricted to my house as a kind of journey to the Underworld. I am very familiar with it. I spend a lot of time there for one reason or another.

For the ancient Maya, the Underworld was the place of death and rebirth. The challenges overcome there would prepare one for rebirth. You didn't stay there permanently.

My interest is on the belief system of the ancient and modern Maya. And while the calendar is an intrinsic part of that, I have not taken the time to master it. I see myself more as a synthesizer. I study a wide range of topics, find connections, and pull them together. I usually don't focus on one area and go deeply into it.

It is great to have someone in the class who knows so much about the tzolkin and works with it everyday.

After class, I pointed out to her that there are 260 katuns in a Great Cycle of 13 baktuns. Could each katun relate to a day in the tzolkin? We would be in the last "day" which is Ahaw. Since a katun is approximately 20 years, the last 'day' that is the last katun of the 13 baktuns would have started around 1992 or so.

For more information on flower essences see my herb blog.
For more information on Pluto, see my astrology blog.

What is 2012?

2012 refers to the end date of a cycle in the Mayan Calendar. There is a lot of disagreement as to when the actual date is, but most agree it is December 21, 2012. The reason there are so many theories about the the 'end date' is related to the different ways that our calendar was correlated to the Mayan calendar by the many people who have studied it over the last 150 years.

As far as we know, the Long Count has not been in use for over 300 years. There are Mayan daykeepers who currently use the tzolkin, but that is only a small part of the system and by itself, it is not adequate to correlate the calendars.

For a number of reasons, I support the December 21, 2012. One reason is that this date is the Winter Solstice and, many ancient cultures including the Maya, recognized this astronomical event.

This blog has several goals and I hope to post at least once a week.

Among the goals are:

Reviews of the many books that are now coming out.
Local events related to 2012
At least one forum on 2012.

Along the way, I will write my thoughts on what is going on and what it might mean.

Presently, I am preparing to teach a course at a local community college on Mayan Hieroglyphs and 2012.

I taught the hieroglyph part several times in the past, but since then there have been a lot of new translations. I am in the process of updating the glyph part of the course, then adding the latest thoughts about 2012.

I am producing a CD or DVD Mayan Hieroglyph course which will be available here as soon as it is finished.