The 2012 Story

by John Major Jenkins

  Getting to the heart of the message is important. Similarly, the “prophecy” in the story is a predictable general state of the world at the end of any World Age. It doesn’t concern itself with specific details on when and where earthquakes or asteroids are going to hit. Its symbolic or archetypal content may or may not reflect what is happening in our world. This is a test we can put to the Creation Myth. What is the Maya prophecy for 2012? Does the scenario for the cycle ending recorded in The Popol Vuh, that primary document of Maya prophetic philosophy, find confirmation in the events of the modern world? Is the ancient Maya prophecy for 2012 coming true? Let’s find out.

  THE MAYA PROPHECY FOR THE END OF THE CYCLE

  As we explore the teachings and prophecy in the Creation Myth, we need to remember that the end of the Age, as scheduled by the Long Count calendar, falls on December 21, 2012. The Long Count is the calendar part of the World Age doctrine expressed in mythological terms in The Popol Vuh.

  The Hero Twin narrative in The Popol Vuh contains several important characters. There is One Hunahpu, a primary solar lord. He has a brother, uncles, parents, and grandparents, who are all more or less organized around his adventures. Even his twin sons, the frequent focus of action in the myth, are really just his helpers or subidentities. They are on his side, part of his archetypal purpose.

  Another main figure is Seven Macaw, a bird deity who squawks loudly, proclaiming he is the real lord of the world. His lesson involves the dangers of hubris. He has a son, Zipacna, who figures in his own vignette, but Zipacna’s lesson is simply a reiteration of Seven Macaw’s lesson, so the two figures merely symbolize the same persona. Similarly, all of the Lords of Xibalba belong to the category of characters that, like Seven Macaw, embody an energy of deception and limitation, and oppose the divine destiny of One Hunahpu. They aren’t called the Lords of Darkness for nothing.

  The female figures in the myth are indispensable for the manifestation of One Hunahpu’s destiny. A Creator Grandmother models the first humans from corn dough. A maiden named Blood Moon is magically impregnated by One Hunahpu and becomes the mother of the Hero Twins. One Hunahpu’s mother provides the house and home where he, his brother, and his sons are raised. It provides the stable background to many of the events, a central “hearth-place” reference point.

  There are supernatural deities, too. Heart of Heaven is an overseeing figure, suggesting the importance of the concept of “cosmic center” in the myth. A falcon deity serves as a messenger for Heart of Heaven and may represent the Aquila constellation. Called Xic (“hawk”) among the modern Quiché Maya, this constellation lies on the Milky Way, just north of the Galactic Center. A trinity of deities in another section of The Popol Vuh become lineage founders, the totemic figureheads of family clans among the modern Quiché Maya. They seem to represent three aspects of Heart of Heaven, special local “centers,” each being sovereign over his own domain.

  Generally, amid the panoply of minor characters and side adventures throughout the myth, we can identify two sides: the characters helping One Hunahpu’s rebirth and installation as the new ruler, and the characters who serve deception and darkness, exemplified by Seven Macaw’s vain and false rulership. The chiefs of the two respective teams are clear: One Hunahpu and Seven Macaw. So who are these figures and what do they represent? One Hunahpu is a solar lord. Maya kings are solar lords who symbolically occupy the center of the cosmos. Their throne symbolizes the cosmic center. In Maya philosophy, they are earthly representatives of the higher wisdom that emanates from the cosmic center. As kings, they are responsible for the sustenance of the kingdom by protecting and channeling the energy and wisdom of the divine center. Their identity is interfused with a higher purpose. Their consciousness is centered in the soul’s essential nature, which is limitless and eternal.

  Maya philosophy shares with many wisdom traditions the idea that the deepest identity of a human being is the supreme identity found in one’s eternal and infinite source-consciousness, the undying transcendent center from which the manifest world springs. In Hindu religion, for example, the eternal soul of the individual is called Atman, whereas the eternal soul and source of the universe is called Brahman. In a state of higher consciousness, of realization of truth, the Hindu yogi experiences the previously hidden truth that Atman and Brahman are one and the same. Maya kings have also been initiated into this knowledge, and One Hunahpu is the mythical archetype of this kind of awakened person.

  Seven Macaw is a bird deity, a false sun, who proclaims his divine nature but is in fact something else. He is the ego. The ego identity centered in ego consciousness serves a purpose in the life of humanity, but should be held in right relationship to the eternal soul. The ego complex belongs to the individual self, the mortal and ultimately passing identity of this life. Many problems arise in the world when ego assumes the mantle of the eternal soul and projects itself as an invincible figure, all-knowing and indestructible. Ego is a mask, and the modern world confuses the mask with the real person. Seven Macaw squawks and deceives humanity, magnifies himself as the true sun, and tries to take the place of One Hunahpu (the eternal soul).

  The drama in the story begins when One Hunahpu journeys to the underworld, encounters the Lords of the Underworld, is deceived and gets his head cut off. The meaning of this is profound, and is identical to the story of Quetzalcoatl’s fall among the later Aztecs.2 The perfect divine being, the consciousness aware of its eternal source, loses itself and forgets its divine nature. A spiritual darkness then falls over the world. In the absence of the divine wisdom’s guiding presence in the world, ego gets a promotion, oversteps its proper place, and proclaims itself as the true self. Worldly power takes center stage and spiritual wisdom is handed a mop to clean up ego’s messes. Everything then becomes inverted and the world falls further into deception and ignorance. In the Christian tradition a similar insight is found in the myth of the Fall, when humanity forgets how to live in the egalitarian partnership and harmony of Eden where God’s presence is directly known. After the Fall, the eternal nature of the soul is forgotten.

  Meanwhile, the eternal soul cannot really be killed, it can only be eclipsed and hidden by the ego, so One Hunahpu works behind the scenes to facilitate his own rebirth, his own reappearance on the stage of history. He magically conceives his twin sons, who later come to the underworld to retrieve his severed head and set things right. But first the Hero Twins must deal with Seven Macaw, whose self-serving vanity causes much suffering in the world. It is when spiritual darkness maximizes at the end of the cycle that Seven Macaw wields the greatest power. He’s perfected the deceptive techniques of controlling humanity through glittery distractions and fearmongering. But it’s all smoke and mirrors, a deception of appearances, for within he is rotting out.

  The ego cannot survive being alienated from its source, the eternal soul, even though it has banished the eternal soul from its consciousness. It’s a paradox destined for disintegration or resolution. The twins feed him his own weakness, his own hubris and ignorance, reflect back to him his own falseness, and Seven Macaw is tricked. Unwilling to consciously sacrifice his illusions of supremacy, he must suffer the blows of fate, so he withers and fades into the background. Ego must ultimately learn to accept having a proper relationship to the higher eternal soul—to One Hunahpu.

  Now the twins illustrate the power of self-sacrifice—the act that Seven Macaw could have done to save himself from so much suffering. They trick the Lords of the Underworld by throwing themselves into the fire, burning themselves up, having their bones ground up and thrown into the river. The Dark Lords, envious, imitate their amazing feat but are destroyed. The twins, however, become fish and are reborn as themselves. They had identified themselves with their eternal essence and therefore do not die; they can come back again fully aware of themselves. This illustrates how ego does not survive the transforming fire of eternity, but the eternal soul does. The eternal soul is the transforming fire of eternity. It all depe
nds on what part of your nature your consciousness is located in.

  Throughout these dramatic adventures the ballgame was being played with One Hunahpu’s head as the ball, the twins against the Dark Lords. The demise of Seven Macaw and the Dark Lords, and the illustration of self-sacrifice by the twins, is the precondition to One Hunahpu’s body getting reconnected with his head, and he is thus reborn. The eternal soul gets revealed as the true center and source, and One Hunahpu takes his proper throne in the center of the sky-earth, reunited with Heart of Heaven.

  The fall of Seven Macaw at the hands of the Hero Twins, Izapa Stela 2. Drawing by the author

  This striking story encodes universal spiritual truths. And the prophecy for 2012 is, simply, this: As 2012 approaches, self-serving egoism will be ruling and ruining the planet, deceiving people. The world will be suffering because the consciousness of humanity is disconnected from its eternal transcendent source and root. Within the throes of egoism, consciousness resists opening to the transcendent perspective. Ego will usurp the role of the eternal soul and then everything becomes inverted, distorted, and increasingly degraded. Our world is indeed ruled by this situation. God is dead; we try to make bodies stay eternally young, science is the world’s religion, and individual personalities in the entertainment biz are elevated to godhood. They are, in fact, called stars, while the stars themselves have become products: Suburu is the Japanese word for the Pleiades. The opposite was true for the ancient Maya and other ancient cultures, for whom the stars were deities.

  Most dangerously, megalomaniacal egoism’s destructive and ignorant agenda is nauseatingly apparent in the political sphere today. The Maya prophecy for 2012 is literally verified in a person who appeared, ruled, and ruined so much while seeking to exercise great control over humanity, all in service to his own selfish purposes. The prophesied appearance of Seven Macaw came to pass, and his name was George W. Bush.

  THE EMISSARIES OF SEVEN MACAW AT LOOSE IN THE WORLD

  That was a bit hyperbolic, for there are many Seven Macaws at loose in the world. Big ones and small ones, we meet them at our jobs, in our families, everywhere. The dog-eat-dog, king-of-the-hill, climb-the-ladder, look-out-for-yourself, utter selfishness of Seven Macaw has become the template, the prerequisite, the membership badge, for succeeding in our debased modern culture. They are the sadistic petty tyrants who seek and find positions of control. As we will see, the Seven Macaws in the world today are both human and nonhuman, and George W. Bush has achieved distinction in exemplifying Seven Macaw to an unprecedented degree. And let us not neglect vice president Dick Cheney as well as Karl Rove, who played significant roles in the Bush II administration. I nominate them all, without hesitation, as the fulfillment of the Maya prophecy for 2012.

  The goal of Seven Macaw is to rule and control humanity and magnify his own wealth and appearance in the world. Seven Macaw’s goal is accomplished with three primary tactics: lying, distraction, and fear. Seven Macaw lies to his subjects regarding his appearance, qualifications, and ability. In truth he is inept and unqualified, so he must lie. He magnifies himself by associating himself with greatness. He declares, “Look at me, I am the sun!” Going hand in hand with the lie are the distracting ornaments that Seven Macaw wears and flashes, blinding his subjects with superficial glitter. This has the effect of driving the lie in, deluding his subjects by distracting them with flashy clothes and symbol-laden regalia. If Seven Macaw pulls off his deception, his subjects will be left with a feeling of awe, that he is powerful, a force to be reckoned with and feared. Fear is the third key ingredient in the accomplishment of Seven Macaw’s goal of control and subjugation.

  As a perfect example of all of the above, let us recall the events of May 1, 2003. In a widely televised and well-executed propaganda stunt, President George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier at sea, as copilot aboard an S-3B Viking jet. Moments later he emerged from the jet in full flight gear, helmet tucked under arm. After strutting across the deck and waving to the cameras, he proceeded to shake hands with the prearranged observers. Although many questions lingered about continuing violence in Iraq, the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction, and the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, President Bush gave a nationally televised speech later that day under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished,” saying “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”

  Since this brazen announcement, total coalition fatalities (up to May 2009) have exceeded 4,270.3 Clearly, combat operations have not ended, and the mission has not been accomplished, unless the mission was to establish a permanent presence in Iraq. This is a distinct probability, considering that the United States has been funding and building an extravagant new embassy on the banks of the Tigris River, very close to the heart of Baghdad.4 A for tresslike compound the size of Vatican City, it sits on 104 acres and will have its own defense force and self-contained source of power and water.

  Although the flight suit stunt was a fairly transparent publicity ploy, commentators in the media fell for it and reiterated, indeed amplified, the propaganda deception it was intended to implant in the minds of Americans. Talk show host Chris Matthews said, “Here’s a president who’s really nonver bal. He’s like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West.”5 Later that day, on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews continued, “We’re proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who’s physical, who’s not a complicated guy like [former President Bill] Clinton or even like [former Democratic presidential candidates Michael] Dukakis or [Walter] Mondale… Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It’s simple.”6 Former Nixon administration official G. Gordon Liddy, after viewing the footage, said that Bush’s flight suit made “the best of his manly characteristic” and “Al Gore had to go get some woman to tell him how to be a man. And here comes George Bush. You know, he’s in his flight suit, he’s striding across the deck, and he’s wearing his parachute harness, you know—and I’ve worn those because I parachute—and it makes the best of his manly characteristic…. He has just won every woman’s vote in the United States of America. You know, all those women who say size doesn’t count, they’re all liars.”7

  On the May 4, 2003, edition of CBS’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer and Time columnist Joe Klein rhapsodically pontificated:

  Schieffer: “As far as I’m concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time. And if you’re a political consultant, you can just see campaign commercial written all over the pictures of George Bush.”

  Klein: “Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day.”

  These are actual quotes from the mainstream media. Ann Coulter and Wolf Blitzer also contributed gems to this chorus of adulation and high praise. If there was any margin of misunderstanding in the intended effect, the right-wing cheerleaders in the mainstream media were at the ready to literally tell the viewing audience what they should think of it. They were very effective and devoted servants of Seven Macaw. How could a leader with such an impeccable “manly characteristic” be guilty of, say, initiating an illegal war of aggression?

  An unfounded, unprovoked war of aggression against another sovereign nation is a crime against humanity, according to the U.S.-led international charter drawn up by prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials. It was noted that those who initiate a war of aggression bear individual criminal responsibility, both for waging an unprovoked war and for the various wartime crimes that follow. During the first Nuremberg trial in 1946, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson respected this legal guideline and secured the conviction of more than a dozen of the most prominent Nazi leaders. The most damning charge, resulting in eleven death sentences, was “initiating an unprovoked war of aggression against sovereign nat
ions.”

  In the effort to secure support from Americans for the impending war, a deception was foisted upon the American people. After the trade towers went down on 9-11, a false connection between Saddam Hussein and the Osama bin Laden/Al-Qaeda front in Afghanistan was asserted and repeated by the Bush administration and in the mainstream media. This was yet another conscious strategy of obfuscation designed to pull on the patriotic heartstrings of honest Americans. It’s a time-hallowed strategy in the playbook on how to control public opinion, and it doesn’t matter if the facts are ignored or distorted.

  Manipulating and deceiving people and foreign governments is easy as long as you are able to effectively launch one very powerful weapon: fear. Seven Macaw strikes fear into the heart of his subjects and thereby keeps them trembling and under his spell. The propagandists, such as Karl Rove, knew that one need only repeat, repeat, and repeat the method. The words “terror” and “terrorists” were thus endlessly repeated by Bush, Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, literally hundreds of times in a given speech. If you can keep the public in shock trauma, you not only control them better, but you can pass all kinds of crazy self-serving legislation that wouldn’t have a chance otherwise.