by John Major Jenkins

Bear and Company (1998)

Charting time was a central concern of ancient Mesoamerican skywatchers. Many cultures in Mexico and Central America  shared  this  common fascination, and were making  detailed  astronomical  observations well over 2000 years ago. These groups included  the Olmec, Zapotec and Aztec peoples, but especially the Maya. Close­ly related to Mesoamerican ideas about time is the  concept of World Ages, which envisions distinct epochs in the history of the human  race. Naturally, there was a great interest in when the next World  Age shift would take place. According to  the Mayan Long Count calendar, this much anticipated event occurs in  2012 A.D.[1]

The  premise of this book is that the astronomical basis of the World Age doctrine is a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. In general, this is not a novel proposition, and was explored thoroughly in Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha  von Dechend's groundbreaking Hamlet's Mill (1969).[2] However, Ham­let's Mill and other more recent books on the topic have focused on Old  World traditions. The possibility that precession was understood in ancient Mesoamerica has received little  attention, and  little concrete evidence for it has yet been put forward. I have assembled my own research toward this end, and am  prepared to demonstrate how precession was at the foundation of cosmologi­cal and calendric science in Mesoamerica.

Ever since Hamlet's Mill resurrected the idea that  ancient astronomy and mythology were closely related, precession has been a recurring leit motif in many books insightfully reconstructing the  esoteric facets of ancient knowledge. Jane B. Sellers' The Death  of Gods in Ancient Egypt (1992) carefully outlined a compelling argument that certain astronomical phenomena including the precession of the equinoxes were understood by ancient Egyp­tian skywatchers. The Orion Mystery burst onto the scene in 1994 and showed how one of the Great Pyramid's sight tubes  (commonly called  "air shafts") aligned with the stars of Orion's Belt in the era 2600 B.C.[3] The authors, Robert Bauval and Adrian Gil­bert,  explained their realization that the Great Pyramid  serves as a  precessional star-clock, in that its orientation defines certain eras in the precessional cycle. A time some 12,500 years ago  is indicated by the Great Pyramid as an era the early  Egyp­tians  were especially interested in.[4] Although the authors  do not  mention it,  12,500 years ago identifies the last time a solstice sun  coincided with the Milky Way. The next  time  this happens, and central to my World Age premise, is the Mayan calen­dar  end-date  in  A.D. 2012. In The Orion Mystery  Bauval  also shares his  discovery that the three main pyramids of Cheops mirror  the three  stars of Orion's Belt in  relative  size  and orientation. As such, the Nile represents the Milky Way. This  is a  type of sky-earth hierophany that we also find in Mayan  pyra­mids, which were cosmograms (images of the cosmos) in stone. In Fingerprints  of the Gods (1995), sleuth-scholar Graham Hancock added to this by showing that the constellation Leo the Lion was rising on the vernal equinox at the "Zero Time" of  10,500 B.C. The importance here is that the Sphinx, now thought to date back much further than previously thought, faces the eastern skies. In other words, Hancock suggests that the Sphinx may have been built during the astrological age of Leo, which occurred around  10,500 B.C. This date supports Bauval's findings and, as Bauval  himself mentions, recalls  Edgar Cayce's channelled information  about Atlantean cataclysm.

These  writers have all focused on precession as a  greatly unrecognized  foundation-concept in the development of Old World religion and science. In compelling and original work published in the  1940s and 50s, much of it stemming from  field observa­tions, French researcher R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz defined  Egypt as the great parent culture from which Old World wisdom emanated. In his book Sacred Science (1961 [1982]), de Lubicz shares the data  which helped him conclude that the ancient Egyptians  were aware  of  the precession of the equinoxes. More  recent  authors have for the most part followed this lead. 

The evidence for precessional knowledge in the Old World is substantial and covers a wide spectrum of myth, tradition, sci­ence and  religion. Much of this evidence is ultimately deemed "circumstantial"  by hard-core  empiricists but,   altogether, provides a strong case for a deep interest in the precession  of the  equinoxes  going back beyond the dim  origins of recorded history.  Various types of alignments that wax and wane  in  the cycle of precession are what concerned the  ancient astronomer-priests,  and the Old World doctrine of twelve astrological ages was only one way of mapping this Great Cycle. My interest is in how the Great Cycle of the stars was mapped and calibrated  among the ancient  civilizations of the New  World,  specifically, in Mesoamerica.

In this book I will describe two different  methods with which the ancient skywatchers of Mesoamerica marked alignments in the Great Cycle of precession. Naturally, becoming aware of this astronomical cycle gives rise to ideas about World Ages, eternal­ly recurring celestial alignments with attendant transformations of cyclic renewal. Epigrapher, art historian, and Mayan  scholar Linda Schele has shown in recent books that, as in the Old World, astronomy  and mythology were closely related  in  Mesoamerica. Mayan  creation mythology describes ages of time that typically end in cataclysm and transformation.

Eschatology has to do with the belief in temporal end-points or culmination as a historical process.[5] In this sense,  Mesoa­merican cosmology is essentially eschatological. A deeper reading of Mesoamerican traditions, however, reveals that time ends only to  begin anew. Thus, there are indeed end-times in Mesoamerican thinking, but, ultimately, time is cyclic. The period of trans­formation at the end-beginning nexus is unavoidably fraught  with a  chaotic and apocalyptic spirit. This seems to describe our current  age and, in fact, both of the Mesoamerican  methods for tracking precession that we will explore point to our immediate future. It is greatly ironic, and perhaps indicative of something stranger going on, that these Mayan end-times happen  to correspond with the millennial shift of the western Christian calendar.[6]

The  two precession-tracking methods of the Maya  are very straightforward and  are based upon the most  studied and  best known  aspects of Mesoamerican cosmology  and calendrics.  One involves  the end-date of the 13-Baktun cycle of the  Mayan Long Count calendar, while the other involves the New Fire  ceremony, the  Sun,  the Pleiades, and the Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza. The evidence is overwhelming, but not readily recognized in academic circles. Why? Probably because the implications of  what I  present are beyond the scope of what scholars consider safe ground. However, and I must emphasize this, the evidence I pres­ent is not speculative or vague at all. I trust that  even  the most careful reader will find this to be true. I have synthesized information found primarily in academic sources, as my notes and bibliography attest. The conclusions I draw result from a careful and pointed  course of study in  Mesoamerican archaeoastronomy, calendrics, culture and cosmology. As we will see, the possibili­ty that precession was understood by ancient New World  astronom­ers has, in fact, been discussed by Mayanists, but committment in looking for concrete methods has been either lagging or off the mark.  Overall, the  conclusion  that  precessional  knowledge provides the  astronomical basis of eschatological thought  in Mesoamerica is certainly worthy of scientific study. In compari­son, the astounding implications that unavoidably arise, which I will also address in this book (Chapter VI), probably belong more to  a type of esoteric New World metaphysics than to "pure"  sci­ence. In my opinion, both metaphysics and science must be used to interpret this material and do it justice. Consequently, we find that  Mesoamerican genius partakes of the great universal wisdom recent writers have been decoding in the esoteric cosmologies of ancient  Old World civilizations. De  Santillana, von  Dechend, Bauval and Gilbert, Sellers, Schwaller de Lubicz, John Anthony West,  Graham Hancock and the Flem-Aths have all contributed  to elucidating  the Old  World inflection of the  Mystery  of  the Ages.[7] And the New World evidence is just as striking,  perhaps more so.  These findings are, frankly, astounding, but  I don't feel compelled to invoke Atlantean ghosts or extraterrestrials to explain any of this. At Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, we find a cosmic Pyramid-Myth defining  a precessional alignment just as Bauval proposes for the Great Pyramid in Egypt. We also find that the Mayan Long Count calendar, which  ends  in 2012 A.D., highlights a precession-related alignment between  the solstice  Sun and the Milky Way. This is a no-nonsense calendric artifact that is more compelling than anything discussed in  the Old World material. In other words, the two simple facts of the Long Count  end-date and the concurrent galactic  alignment are indisputable.

The methods for marking and tracking precession in Mesoamer­ica are different than those proposed for Old  World cosmology,and sometimes involve concepts that are not readily appreciated by those geared to Old World thought patterns.  For  example,  tropical astronomy must be understood to appreciate Mesoamerican cosmology,  but is almost completely unnecessary  for studying Egyptian star-knowledge.  As pioneer  archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni writes, "In ancient societies, the sky and its contents lay at the very foundation of human cognition" (1984:255), and:

"...judged by the Western cultural yardstick, astronomical  sys­tems developed by indigenous civilizations of the tropical  lati­tudes  are found to be both complex and  fundamentally different from those originating in civilizations of the  temperate lati­tudes. One explanation for this is the radically contrasting  sky orientations that are viewed from different parts of the globe, a determinative  environmental factor in the development of  cosmo­logical systems that should not be neglected..."[8]

I  hope  that this book will open up new directions  in  the study of New World cosmology, and preserve for the  appreciation of future generations the amazing genius of a civilization which we must humbly bow to and honor. We are just beginning to under­stand what they knew. The importance of the  foundation-principle of this ancient cosmovision - the precession of the equinoxes - haa no place in our short-sighted technocracy. Perhaps this  will be our undoing.
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We know about precession today,  but,  as  the authors of Hamlet's Mill write, "The space-time  continuum does not effect it. It is by now only a boring complication" (67).  To the  ancients  it  had the most profound of implications.  Like saying  that the moon is the same size as the sun - which sounds absurd  to the modern mind but is, from the native  understanding that  the moon is Woman and the sun is Man,  perfectly true - precession may  be more relevant than we think. Perspective  is such a relative thing, based on experience  and observation.[9]
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For  human beings on earth, the full moon and the sun  do  indeed appear to be the same size (literally and symbolically).  Science claims to take a larger view, but scientific knowledge is limited by its materialistic criteria. It is not "larger" in  the  right way.  Unfortunately, today we don't need the grand holistic perspective  offered  by  ancient cosmology; our  sights  have  been reduced  to  the task at hand. We are, literally, a very short-sighted culture. We don't need big news.
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It is not the goal of this book to speculate so much on  the "effects" of the upcoming alignments.[10] I only hope to  clearly establish that ancient New World cultures were much more  sophis­ticated  than  we have been giving them credit for. More  to  the point, we should come away with a clear respect for the prominent role played by the precession of the equinoxes in  ancient New World astronomy. And yet, underlying this whole discussion is  my firm belief that precession is somehow related to the epic vicis­situdes of the human journey, defining the ebb and flow of galactic  seasons on a vast scale.

Much has been said of this, in the books mentioned above, and much more might be suggested.[11] We can only hope that one day we may fully understand the overarch­ing importance of this Great Year and the role it plays in the unfolding of human culture and in the evolution of consciousness.

At the dawn of agriculture in the Paleolithic, human beings began to understand the nature and potential of the yearly cycle. Their time-concept was enhanced, they planned for a future barely appreciated by their  immediate ancestors,  and the  resultant effects on human culture were transformative.

The same might be said for us in regard to our understanding of the larger Galactic Season of precession; if we can enlarge our spacetime concept and appreciate the immanent potential of this Great Year, the  future of the human race might be brighter than we can presently imag­ine. Suffice it to say that we are, in fact,  living in the Mayan end-times, and something completely unprecedented does appear  to be going on. This book is primarily  concerned with showing that the ancient inhabitants of the New World were privy to a cosmo­logical knowledge that we are just beginning to understand. Mayan Cosmogenesis 2012 is a "first reconnaissance" into this  profound knowledge as it flowered in Mesoamerica. According to this  anci­ent  knowledge, a door into the heart of space and time opens  in A.D. 2012. May we all take a step forward.

 

 
NOTES

1. Linda Schele (1996) indirectly challenged a basic premise  of my work, the position that the 13 baktun cycle end-date in  2012 A.D. was considered by the Maya to be a World Age shift. For  my response see Appendix 7, "Response to Counter-Arguments."

2. See Appendix 1 for an introductory commentary on Hamlet's Mill and its authors.

3. This was originally put forward by Badaway (1964) and Trimble (1964).

4. Bauval makes it clear that he doesn't believe the  pyramids  themselves were built that far back. Nevertheless, Bauval  writes  that the pyramids were designed to refer to that ancient era,  as  the primeval "First Time."

5. This "historical" process has an astronomical basis: preces­sion. It would be misleading to call this astrology, because precession is an earth rhythm, rather than a causative influence impinging upon us from the stars. However, it's probably a little of both, because precession does change our relationship to the larger cosmos.

6. One  might speculate here that early  Mithraic  astrologers, following  the rediscovery of precession by Hipparchus in 127 B.C.,  projected forward to the alignment of the galaxy with the solstice sun.

The reason for suspecting this is the  coincidence of  the Christian year 2000 with the alignment. In this light, focus would be directed on the early Christian theologians who set in place the Christian calendar. However, the problem is that Christian  dating is based upon the birth of Jesus, a  supposedly historical event. This implies other scenarios which I have no space to address here, but at least will state: 
 

1) Historical events  (such as the birth of Jesus) do unfold  in  numerological resonance  to the end-date alignment;

2) Church  astrologers and theologians manipulated historical records and biblical documents so  that the future astronomical alignment would correspond to  a

year 2000.

Another angle: Researchers have identified a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in 6 B.C. as the likely "sign in the  heavens"  that signalled  the birth of the Messiah. As explained in Santillana and Dechend (1969) and Sullivan (1996), the trigons of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions were possibly used to track precession. Thus, the conjunction of 6 B.C. provides a connection between the "zero year" of the Christian calendar and a method for tracking preces­sion. 

7. See the Bibliography for complete source information.

8. Aveni (1981:161). "Tropical Archaeoastronomy."

9. See Appendix 6, "Caspar's Lesson." Regarding the  scientific knowledge  that the sun is "really" much larger  than  the moon (i.e., that Man is bigger than Woman), the fact that the develop­ment of this conceptual doctrine parallels the denial of the female (yin) principle in Western civilization is startling  food for thought.

10.  For a  look at the bigger metaphysical picture, see  Clow (1995).  Terence McKenna's thoughts on the  upcoming  shift are central  to his Timewave Zero theory (1993). Also  see McKenna's Hyperborea website.
 
11.  I've  done a great deal of research along these lines, and developed a visionary cosmology called "The Tree of Life cosmolo­gy." 


I would direct the interested reader to my books Mirror  in the Sky (1991a) and Jaloj Kexoj and PHI-64 (1994c).

 

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