Here’s the nub of the issue that leads us even deeper into the 2012 mystery: How do we get there?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Restoring the Big Picture
The Meta-universe does not subject beings to great suffering to become self aware only to have them dissolve into the great All. Instead we are learning the skills to function as ethical, self-referencing beings in the infinite ecologies beyond our material cosmos.
—DUANE ELGIN, Awakening Earth
We’ve established that a larger perspective, or self-concept, is necessary in order to do two things: actualize our full potential as human beings and effectively address and transform the crisis of the modern world. Both aspects involve reorienting the relationship between ego and this higher perspective, and I’ve emphasized that this goal is a deep principle within the Perennial Philosophy, which is also the essence of Maya spiritual teachings for cycle endings. The crisis, caused by a limited ego consciousness running the show, prevents the transformational breakthrough of awakening to the larger, trans-ego perspective. The entire dynamic and challenge is clarified by a deep archetypal reading of The Popol Vuh. The relationship between Seven Macaw and One Hunahpu embodies this spiritual teaching, tempered by the principle of sacrifice, of surrendering attachment to illusion. On another level, which we left behind in Part I, the rebirth of One Hunahpu at the end of The Popol Vuh Creation Myth is a metaphor for the solstice sun’s alignment with the dark rift in the Milky Way. I framed my overall approach to 2012 with three stages—the tangible nuts-and-bolts reconstruction, the identification of universal perennial wisdom in the Maya material that relates to cycle endings (2012), and finally the possibility of directly experiencing profound integrative truths. This last stage, which we’ll explore here, strives to open the mind and heart to a direct revelation of higher gnosis, the bigger picture. This is important because, according to the Perennial Philosophy, all true knowledge comes from an ecstatic connection with the transcendent.
HOW TO DO IT AND WHAT TO DO
So we have a complete package, but one final item needs to be addressed. How do we transcend the ego and gain the initiatory glimpse of direct gnosis? How do we restore One Hunahpu’s head, his unity consciousness? In Chapter 9 we saw that the Maya prophecy for cycle endings involves the appearance of the vain and false ruler, Seven Macaw, controlling humanity through fear and deception. In laying out striking parallels in world politics that would be amusing if they weren’t so gravely true, we saw that the archetype of megalomaniacal egoism, in individual leaders as well as in corporate mandates, is indeed ruling and ruining the planet. The Maya prophecy for 2012 has come true. But, as The Popol Vuh reveals, that’s only the first part of the prophecy.
The Hero Twins succeed in sacrificing Seven Macaw and the other lords of darkness; they were challenged to sacrifice the hegemony of egoism fueled by illusion to pave the way for the resurrection of One Hunahpu, the awakening of a higher unity consciousness beyond ego. The metaphor speaks truly for the crossroads that humanity finds itself in today. Will we sacrifice our attachment to the illusions of limited consciousness drawn over our eyes by self-serving egoism? Can we recognize that this is an essential key to facilitating world renewal, for creating a sustainable future? And then, how do we do it? Let’s look at these one at a time.
First, will we sacrifice our attachment to illusion? Well, this is a free-will choice and a possibility for each individual. The point, however, is that our civilization’s ruling institutions need to be reformed upon the principle of selfless service. This is a tall order, and I believe the effort will be impossible unless the people inside of the effort are engaged in their own simultaneous inner process of transformation. You can’t just expect to put a bandage on transnational corporate feudalism and expect it to heal. Political institutions must change from within. No amount of legislative machination, or activists demonstrating, or more violent means of terrorism, will help unless the root spiritual cause of the world’s dysfunctional structure is corrected. To fight the world’s external problems in this way is like shadowboxing—one tries to hit phantoms. Instead, a kind of spiritually centered social activism is necessary. This begins to sound like the grounded earth-based spirituality of the Maya, who, rooted in the earth, could look out to celestial spheres with deep knowing. The structures of culture thereby congeal around stable foundations. Rooted in a spiritual center, civilization can flower. Rooted in the shortsighted agenda of ego, it is doomed to collapse.
Second, can we recognize that sacrificing the monopoly of egoism is essential for facilitating world renewal? Well, there is only one being on the planet who would disagree: Seven Macaw. In explicating the profound teachings of the Perennial Philosophy I’ve tried to make the case on rational grounds. Intellectuals will have to do some soul-searching to determine if they agree or disagree, and carefully discern what is motivating their decision. I suspect that those who believe self-serving egoism should continue to run the world, as some kind of benevolent automatically self-regulating over-being within global capitalism and politics, are probably hearing the demented whisperings of Seven Macaw. And they are probably motivated by the fear of annihilation, because they confuse ego with Self, and consequently ego’s loss of power is seen as a mortal threat. Ego fears losing; the Self does not.
Third, how do we do it? How do we embrace the big picture? How do we put ego back into correct relationship with the unitary Self, and how do we actively midwife the renewed world that unfolds from that fundamental shift? How is One Hunahpu reborn? This is the second part of the Maya prophecy for era-2012, and is the focus of this chapter.
TURNING IT ALL INSIDE OUT
Our playbook should be The Popol Vuh, which elaborates in archetypal terms the process of transforming Seven Macaw into One Hunahpu, utilizing the necessary key, which is: sacrifice. Yes, a big scary word with lots of blood and violence oozing out. But all the world’s religions and metaphysical systems of spiritual transformation agree: Sacrifice is the key. Preferably self-sacrifice, for the simple reason that if we don’t do it, the universe will do it for us. The former method can be quite exquisite and fulfilling while the latter alternative is not so pretty. Luckily, the thing that needs to be sacrificed is the thing that runs the show at the end of the cycle: illusion. The macabre interpretation of sacrifice is unnecessarily literal. So far, so good. Unfortunately, illusion is deeply entangled with ego, and unraveling the ego-illusion mess can seem as difficult as untangling a fifty-pound knotted ball of yarn.
A long laundry list of methods and techniques for freeing the ego-identity from the tangled knot of illusion is well known, including yoga and meditation, sacred plants and shamanic healing work, and devotional prayer or chanting. I personally believe that developing a meditation practice is a very good thing to do—and best of all, it’s free! Vipassana meditation (breathing meditation), in particular, can have beautiful and profound effects on one’s life. We want to bring a presence of mind to our actions and awaken a deeper field in which the results of our actions can be directly perceived and felt. We shouldn’t expect to sustain this mode of consciousness constantly, but an initiatory glimpse of the deep interrelationship between our thoughts and actions and the larger field of other beings and nature can radically change how we behave in normal consciousness.
For example, if one experiences (by whatever means) a spiritual opening in which one feels, for a second or a minute, a deep compassion for all created beings and a deep knowing that all life is interdependent and connected, your lifestyle and behavorial choices are going to reform around this conviction. I’m trying to ease into this slowly, so I used the word “conviction,” but really the experience is more of a revelation of truth than a decisive commitment to a particular belief. The experience imprints the soul with a deep knowing, a true vision of the way reality operates. This doesn’t mean peace and harmony and the lion lying down with the lamb. As Joseph Campbell said, “No, the lion is going to eat the lamb, but that i
s the way of nature.”1 This is being in the Tao, the flow, allowing the thing-in-itself, including the thing that you are, to be. Talk to your friends, coworkers, and family members. You might be surprised to discover, after a little gentle prodding, how many people will say they have had an experience something like this at some point in their lives.
HEALING MODES OF BEING WHOLE
There are many ways to awaken a sense of wholeness, of being and acting in congruence with the unfolding of life. This effort is predicated on the understanding that the tower of ego is an unsatisfactory place to be, that it has gone rogue, turned pathological, dislocating human beings from their humanness. There are many ways to catch a glimpse of essential wholeness, the unity consciousness of One Hunahpu restored, and different temperaments will benefit from different approaches. I’ll discuss three methods representing three broad categories: sacred plants (initiation/transforming), meditation (knowing/being), and service work (action/doing). Ideally, all human beings should have some direct experience with all of these areas.
In the first example (sacred plants), the concept of initiation is centrally important. Sacred plants and shamanic techniques of transforming the consciousness are not the only methods that can result in an initiatory experience; others include any safe initiatory process that supplies the seeker with a death-rebirth journey in which the egoic reference point is temporarily suspended. I’ve chosen sacred plants (psychoactive tools of shamanism such as peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, ergot) for two reasons: (1) they have a prominent role in the 2012 discussion, both popular and academic; and (2) they informed the beginnings of Western philosophy.
Shamanic rites of initiation are intended to induce a transformative death-rebirth experience for the initiate. Purification of irrelevant dross, negative thoughts and emotional patterns, and unhealthy intentions is the goal of these rites. In addition to the all-encompassing rite of passage induced by the use of sacred plants, which Stanislav Grof likens to a death-rebirth experience, these traditional ceremonies usually also involve fire transformation. From Siberia to Amazonia, shamanic fire ceremonies follow the same patterns and share the same intentions.
The [shaman’s] mastery of fire also often includes control over symbolic actions, especially initiation rites that “cook” candidates or subject them to the heat of incubation. The shamanic master of fire is responsible for transformative processes burning at the core of spiritual life: the symbolism at the center of the hearth or social units, community groups, all civilized life, and the cosmos itself… the shamanic experience of consumption correlates directly with ecstasy. Consumption by fire signifies the death inflicted by supernatural powers during ecstatic trance. Ecstatic death consumes the spiritually awakened or inflamed human being, who is transported to an illumined state of consciousness.2
Subjecting initiates to “the heat of incubation” pertains to the spiritual heat that transforms; the imagery here is reminiscent of that used in alchemical transformations. Fire is, after all, the great transformer. These shamanic rites survive primarily in indigenous societies that draw time-tested methods for transformation from the storehouse of what works. Curiously, their practices directly parallel initiatory trials in Western mystery schools and Roman Mithraism. A long lineage of more ancient wisdom schools goes far back to Egypt (for example, the Hem-Shu school), not to mention shamanic schools in ancient China. These effective transformational rites survived as an underground stream of esoteric knowledge, passed down as ancient lore to initiates who would visit their shrines and oracles. The oracle at Delphi, for example, was one of many conduits of initiatory wisdom that were visited frequently by Plato, Socrates, and other Greek thinkers. Historically, Egyptian mystery schools influenced Greek thought as a result of pre-Socratic philosophers having interactions with Egypt and the Middle East. These visits by Greek thinkers to the founts of ancient Egyptian wisdom triggered the Greco-Hellenic renaissance. The mysterious figures of Parmenides and Pythagoras occupy an early place in the formulation of Greek philosophy, prior to Plato. Western philosophy and politics, it should be recalled, look to Greek philosophy as their prototype.
For the Greeks, oracles served much as shamans do for indigenous societies, as intermediaries between this earth realm and a supernatural higher source of knowledge and information. The oracle at Delphi was associated with a goddess and snake cult, evoking the Hindu doctrine of the kundalini “serpent energy” that rises and awakens spiritual seekers. The primary mystery religion in the Greek world was enacted annually at Eleusis for more than a thousand years. It finally succumbed to the destructive intolerance of Christianity around 300 AD. The practices of this fascinating initiatory school were shrouded in mystery and its participants were forbidden to reveal what they had seen inside the Mysterium (the Sacred Theater). Its graduates were the founding minds of Western thought, including Plato and Socrates and many other Greek philosophers and statesmen. Modern scholars interested in the role of psychoactive plants in religion have successfully reconstructed long-lost aspects of the Eleusinian Mysteries, finding that the sacrament used in the visionary mystery play enacted at Eleusis was a psychoactive elixir called the kykeon.3 One of these authors, Carl Ruck, has gone on to explore more examples of the use of psychoactive substances in connection with Christian symbolism and the Greek Classical world.4 The larger implications of the forgotten sacraments of religion are admirably explored in Irvin and Rutajit’s The Pharmacratic Inquisition: Astrotheology and Shamanism.5
Stated simply, at Eleusis the founding fathers of Western philosophy and science were radically informed by a vision induced by a psychoactive elixir whose chemical analogs are components of LSD. They all experienced initiatory visions that were described as an illumination from within, a revelation. A teaching story or mystery play was performed, which may have been the famous Myth of Demeter that involved the origin of the seasons and the necessity of sacrifice to the chthonic underworld lords so that light, the sun, could return every spring. Sound familiar? Sacrifice, transformation, underworld lords, and renewal are all present in this mythos, echoing the archetypal outline of the Maya’s Hero Twin Myth. Plato wrote of underlying “Ideas” (equivalent to archetypes) that are the essences behind all created Forms. He thus anticipated the existence of inner psychological archetypes more than 2,300 years ago.
There are strange stirrings in the other writings of Plato, however, that suggest a reactive counterresponse to his mystery religion experience. Another thread of Greek thought was the striving for order, to schematize nature and the mystery of life, and this truly was the beginning of the Western descent toward modern reductive science. Plato (born in 427 BC) was preceded by the mysterious figure of Parmenides, who was active around 475 BC. He was a shaman-poet who experienced a mystic initiation in a Plutonium (the cave-chamber of Pluto, lord of the underworld), and there in the darkness he saw the light. He wrote an ecstatic anagogical mystery poem that has lost much of its original sense and transformative punch through dozens of translations. Parmenides was not unlike a Maya shaman who descends into a cave to engage the underworld journey and, there in the darkness, awakens the inner vision to perceive the intangible truths that underlie manifest reality.
Classical scholar and Perennial Philosopher Peter Kingsley has recovered the long-lost true story behind the teachings of Parmenides and, most unfortunately for the history of Western thought, how he was misunderstood by Plato.6 Kingsley argues that a fundamental misstep occurred at the dawn of Western civilization. The esoteric initiatory mystery teachings of Parmenides were appropriated and distorted by Plato and Aristotle, who merely demystified his words. This desacralization of reality has become the defining hallmark of Western politics and secular humanism. What’s wrong with the essential Mystery? It belongs to its own ontological category of experience, so why should one even attempt to demystify it? You can’t solve a mystery, but you can suck the transformative power out of it by labeling it “not real.” Kingsley encourages Western science
and philosophy to back-engineer its true origins and reinstate the original Parmenidean teaching, that in the darkness of the fecund womb of the initiatory cave, true knowledge awaits one who sincerely seeks to understand reality. This is how Western science and philosophy can reclaim its nondual roots, to awaken its forgotten indigenous mind.
Kingsley convincingly has shown, with deep scholarship and a clear voice, that we have gotten it all wrong, we have been sold a lemon; Western philosophy is rooted in a coup. Plato appropriated Parmenides, who journeyed in the Plutonium, the mystic initiatory cave of darkness, the womb of the unmanifest plenum of infinite potential. His experience was like that of a Hindu yogi or Buddhist monk, seeking the spiritual source in, as Kingsley said, “the dark places of wisdom.” This dark place of wisdom is a womblike environment and is the source of all manifest existence, the place where in deep meditation you can find the higher space of source consciousness and an integration of the formless ground with the forms of manifest reality.
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