Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Meaning, Consciousness, and the Mayan Prophecy


Although my name is spelled M-a-j-i-a, it is pronounced Maya. My parents didn't know how to spell the name.

The story is that my dad had a dream he would have a blonde haired, brown-eyed daughter named Maya. He claims he had never heard the name before, so didn't know how to spell it. His family is of Swedish-Italian descent so it was probably the Swedish influence that led to the insertion of the nonsensical "j" in my name.

His dream wasn't actually prophetic because I have blue eyes.

Anyway, I've always been interested in the Mayans for obvious reasons.

The Mayan prophecy of 2012 has become a very popular narrative. It seems relatively clear that most of us have no idea what the Mayans really intended with their calendar.

However, narratives have a way of being embellished and transformed with each telling.

That is the nature or stories, even ones based in empirical experience and "fact."

The version of the Mayan prophecy that I like best is the one that describes the birth of new degree of consciousness.

I think humanity as a whole has reached a higher stage of consciousness.

So many of us homo-sapiens abhor the government, corporate, cultural, and interpersonal violence that surrounds us and strive for compassion, empathy, justice, responsibility, and wisdom without dogma.

It is indeed unfortunate that this level of consciousness has been achieved at precisely the moment of our utter imperilment.

Human life on earth is imperiled by a collapse of ecosystems caused by our wanton consumption and contamination. There is no doubt about it.

Fresh water is at risk. Food production is at risk.

Species are dying off at a rate matched only by previous global extinction events.

Half the world's population is near starving or starving and the other half is slowly sickening from diseases that have been known to humans but never so many have experienced them so intimately - cancer, diabetes, heart disease, autism, asthma, allergies, migraine, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, etc.

I believe our genome is at risk from the chemicals and radiation we have created and shed liberally upon earth.

The chemicals and radiation we have contaminated the earth with may be our undoing, if we don't end up killing ourselves over declining availability of fresh water and food.

So, at our greatest moment of imperilment - or perhaps it is because of it - we have achieved a consciousness of ourselves as a species - humanity - and of our planet as whole - Earth - and of the vital necessity of the complex webs of life that make up the biosphere.

We are aware. Well, not all of us; but, lots and lots of us are aware and I think many among the younger generation see it, despite the vacuousness of their consumer culture.

I'm not sure if the Mayan prophecy was really even about consciousness because I know how stories lose meaning when stripped from their historical and cultural contexts, only to acquire new meanings in relation to their present zeitgeist.

In a way it doesn't matter what the Mayans really meant. What matters is how the story means for us now. And I think the story about our higher level of consciousness is an important meme.

It is perhaps our salvation from the darker prophecy of doom also attributed to the Mayan prophecy.

No doubt the dark prophecy of the end of the world is one that appeals to us now because we sense its reality - we understand viscerally (if not fully cognitively) that we have created a global catastrophe for humanity and many animals on the planet.

Perched at the top of the food chain with attributes of thought so sensitive to disruption, humanity will suffer the most from our disregard, our global eco-contamination; although, it will take the greatest span of time for effects to be evidenced.

But we cannot blame the Mayans for that dark dystopic future; we created our imminent doom industriously over the last hundred years or so.

Perhaps our heightened consciousness is just in time to save us; perhaps our awakening is our salvation.

We had better start exerting the leverage necessary to transform the violence and greed that still runs rampant among us, particularly among our so called political and economic "leaders," "executives," and "officers."

We don't have much time to make massive changes in our so-called civilizations. That is a prophecy this Majia is confident about.









 

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful, it gave me shivers.

    Thanks,
    NoNukes

    ReplyDelete

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