In an attempt to better understand the significance of the Mayan calendar and what the Nazis were after in these steamy jungles, Jack made good use of his military connections to gain access to archives not open to the public. During his efforts he discovered that more critical information was in these classified pages that the U.S. Government kept locked away than in any books he had read to date. They contained detailed Nazi plans to remove resources from a wide variety of remote locations throughout the world.
Although pillaging was indeed their obsession, the Nazis did not just take from the Maya. They in fact left behind journals locked away in the ancient Mayan pyramids in what was now Guatemala. The journals included translations from the ancient rulers, leaders, and astronomers of the Mayan people. These translations spoke of secret societies that held information about the overlords or gods who were in control of the underworld. They also spoke of these overlord visitations and how they walked among the Mayan people and how they were revered as sacred beings. In essence, these were the lords of the people and they controlled the people.
These translations also revealed more detail about the Mayan calendar than Jack had known. Document after document detailed how and why the calendar was created and how the gods shared information with the people. Finally, Jack had made real progress after months of dogged research.
From the journals of long-gone Nazi officers, the most important fact revealed was why this information was necessary for the people. The journals contained aircraft landing coordinates of some kind similar to what Jack knew from his Air Force training. But again this ancient people could not have calculated these figures themselves. They didn’t have the mathematical formulae and didn’t have any form of lighter than air travel that would have required landing coordinates. Yet here was clearly ancient knowledge hidden in Nazi journals. So even though the Mayans didn’t have the math or the technology, they had the knowledge. And they had it Jack reasoned because the overlords wanted them to have it. And the overlords wanted them to have it because they needed the Mayan people to do something or be prepared for something. As bizarre as it seemed to Jack, all he could come up with was that the Mayan people needed to know where a craft from outer space was going to land. It seemed crazy to Jack that there might have been visitations from non-human beings two or three thousand years ago.
Jack further speculated that, beyond this landing coordinates, these ancient gods understood and shared with the indigenous people a wide array of knowledge about how the universe worked, such as the rotation of the planets around the sun and how the galaxies moved through space, something that the Mayans were not capable of knowing on their own and that European astronomers would not begin to grasp for another millennium.
Jack believed he was likely one of only a few humans with this information gleaned from the calendar. Jack did not necessarily believe in the mythology, but the accuracy of the calendar depicting events in history and how the linear process worked piqued his curiosity. The calendar was broken down into nine levels. Each level contains thirteen tuns. A tun was a way of measuring time on the Mayan calendar, like days and nights only much longer. The first level of thirteen tuns equated to 16.4 billion years, the second level; 820 million years, the third level; 41 million years, the forth level; 2 million years, the fifth level; 102 thousand years, the sixth level; 5,125 years, the seventh level; 256 years, the eighth level; 12.8 years. The ninth level was made up of 13 Uinals, each lasting 20 days and culminating on December 21st, 2012. This final level was known as the Universal Conscious Level.
Even with this complex mechanism for measuring time, how were these people able to predict events in time so precisely? Jack had become intrigued by the Mayan calendar, but it was the mathematics behind the precision and the predictions that motivated him to work on this particular project. He had dedicated much of his spare time to researching and attempting to better understand and hopefully solve what he believed was the mystery of the Mayan Calendar.
This new found mathematical data along with the Nazi’s involvement was a link to the understanding he was looking for and what he coined as his new discovery. He felt regenerated, as if his enthusiasm for life had returned.
Jack told all of this to Dana and felt a sense of relief that someone was so willing to listen.
“You seem to have taken a distinct liking to their calendar and its precision and its history with the German Nazis,” Dana said.
“That’s true. I still don’t know why, but I feel connected with this culture for some reason.”
“How does your family feel about this?”
“They clearly don’t understand the importance of my work and nothing I say will convince them that this work is important to me!”
“I hear what you are saying and I feel your passion around this work but does it need to be placed ahead of the need of your family?”
“Wait, my family is the most important thing to me and so is my work. Why can’t I have both?”
“Jack, choices are important here. You will have to make some hard ones soon. Be prepared for what may lie ahead and choose wisely and pay attention to your dreams. Dreams tend to be mirrors of our subconscious for our conscious to see. They rarely make logical sense. A part of our personality is named intuition. Are you familiar with this term?”
“Yeah, both my daughters have mentioned it to me. Something like a gut feeling or hunch or something like that.”
“Intuition is a way of seeing things outside of the rational or logical mind. This sense comes from deep within our embedded knowing reflected from the very beginning of time as we humans know it. We tend to operate from the logical mind most of the time and it serves us well as we navigate our day-to-day lives. At times when we are navigating, something happens and our compass simply freezes for a moment and we may or may not feel right about something in our lives that has happened, is happening, or is about to happen. Does this make sense Jack?”
“I see what you are saying.”
“Then to take this a step further, intuition can be described as subconscious logic or a tool to help guide us toward or away from some event that may be about to occur that our conscious logical mind needs help dealing with. That does not mean that you will not do something foolish or stupid, it only means that other forces are at work in every choice we make.”
“I do feel a need to follow this to its end and I can’t say why but I do feel drawn to it.”
“Just remember, Jack, that your life is about choices and no one ever makes them for you. And please take a moment to prioritize what is truly important to you, this work or your family.”
Jack was torn about his priorities yet felt good about his meeting with Dana and that Dana had helped him see things in a different perspective. Jack wondered how it was that here, in San Francisco, and at this exact time he was able to meet this man and how Dana was so able to seemingly read his mind. Maybe he was just a very good therapist.
“One more question, Jack.”
“What is it, Dana?”
“You shared about the connection with the Mayan culture, their calendar and the Nazi interest during World War II. Were there any other images related to either the Nazis or the Mayans?”
Jack thought for a moment and responded. “The Swastika symbol seemed to be noticeable not only in my dreams but in the piles of reports when the Nazis were involved but that seems logical to me.”
“Anything else?”
“Well… I suppose the name Cum-Hau! Yes. I forgot to mention this part but I did see an image in my dreams and in the Nazi files and the name Cum-Hau seemed to be associated with the image. Also there were other images that made no sense to me. They were strange drawings depicting human-like forms but I had no reference to make sense of them. They must have some meaning, don’t they Dana?”
Dana contained his emotions when Jack mentioned Cum-Hau and the images. This god and the other images played an important and ongoing role in Mayan mythology and cosmology,
which Dana knew, but which he was not ready to reveal to Jack. “More than likely it does but again dreams are symbols relating to who we are and can reveal a great many things we cannot and may never fully understand. I have heard of this Mayan god named Cum-Hau. He is indeed the Mayan lord of the underworld and plays a significant role in the Mayan mythology.”
“Is there something I need to be aware of or pay attention to?”
Dana was cautious with this question. “I am not sure but alas, our time is up.” They both stood and Dana was hurrying Jack. “Just pay attention to your priorities and be clear when you choose that it is in your and your family’s best interest.”
With that, Dana and Jack shook hands and Jack returned to his hotel and recounted his conversation with Dana.
After Jack left, Dana quickly made a phone call. “Yumma, it seems that he is active once again.”
“Cum-Hau? What shall we do now?” Yumma asked.
“We will wait and observe. We cannot afford to make another mistake. We cannot get to Sarina alone, so I have set Jack on a path that should bring him to the attention of Cum-Hau.”
“Do you think that Cum-Hau will take the bait?”
“He needs a human in the spirit world to fulfil his plan and Jack Conti is an easy one to manipulate. There are no guarantees but Jack is Sarina’s father so this is the best option we have.” Dana hung up the phone and walked to the window in time to watch Jack get into his car and drive away wondering how Jack might have responded if he had revealed all he knew.
Jack finished his work in the city and on his way back to his hotel he stopped at a museum to visit a Mayan exhibit. He walked through the displays to see if there was something new that his research had not uncovered. Nothing caught his eye as he wandered past the artifacts and displayed documents.
Jack left the museum and had a few hours before he needed to pack for his flight back home and was thinking of Ann as he wandered in and out of the curio shops down the streets in the Sunset District. Jack wanted to get something for her as a way of showing his appreciation for her dedicated work with his research. Most of what was for sale did not interest him until he came across an authentic Mayan bracelet in a Central American store. He looked at the tag on it. It read that the bracelet was made by an artist from a village deep within the Guatemalan jungle and that it was a sacred object used by the Mayan mystics, even today, to help keep the universe in balance. The store owner saw his interest and offered the story about the small village from where the bracelet was made. The family members were direct descendants of craftsmen of Mayan royalty and this type of bracelet was used to help balance the light and dark energies. “It is said that the maker of this style of bracelet is but one in ten thousand and that this particular bracelet style is one of a kind, not found anywhere else in the whole world in any other culture,” the storekeeper said with a wide grin.
Jack was intrigued by its beauty and amused by the writing on the tag as well as the store keepers enthusiastic telling of the story. Jack also knew better. This bracelet was not made last week or last month. He could tell from its markings, its style, and its wear that it was old, very old. He could tell because it seemed to glow as he held it in his hand and grow heavier. This was no ordinary piece of jewelry; on that score the storekeeper was right. For those reasons alone, Jack had to have it.
But he also wanted it for Ann. She had been so instrumental in his work around the Mayan calendar that he simply had to buy it for her. It was a solid bracelet that was open on one end to slip it over the wrist with two forged loops on each end of the opening. He had had two beautiful charms with Sarina’s and Ann’s names engraved on them by a jeweler friend back in Idaho and realized that they were crafted as if they were made for this bracelet. He laughed about the coincidence and decided to hang those on the bracelet when he got home and that sealed the deal. He haggled a bit with the storekeeper for the fun of it and then purchased the bracelet.
Jack finished his military duties and left for home later that night. In the airport, as he was walking to his flight, he swore he saw Dana out of the corner of his eye walking with a tall man who was easily a head above Dana in height, but when he turned to get a better look, he saw only the crowds of people walking to and from their gates.
Dana and Yumma were peering in Jack’s direction and were chanting quietly keeping Jack in their line of sight. Jack was required for the success of their plan, and they were both using their spirit powers to inject thoughts into Jack’s consciousness so he would seek out Cum-Hau and make the choice they needed him to make.
Jack was looking forward to returning home as he boarded his plane. The comment Dana had made about prioritizing helped Jack to think and attempt to sort things out in his mind. He missed his family, especially his daughters Sarina and Ann, especially Ann.
Ann was closer to Jack and two years older than Sarina and, like her father, keenly desired to understand these ancient Mayan people and their incredible calendar. But that desire was not rooted only in wanting to satisfy her own curiosity; it was also a way to be closer to her father. So Ann worked with her father, pouring over research books in the library helping Jack find more information he might have otherwise missed over the years.
Ann was nineteen and a scholar in her own right fueled by Jack’s love for research that helped pave an academic pathway for her. Mona always supported Ann in her quest to further her education and was excited about Ann’s enthusiasm to work with her father and how close they were becoming. The two made a great team.
On the other hand, Jack and Sarina did not make such a great team. Unlike Jack’s linear, logical view of the world, Sarina experienced the world as feelings, cycles, and colors. She was an artist at heart, and although she was quite capable of book research, her deepest focus was literally on the heart of the matter. So Sarina wanted to know about peoples, cultures, and spirits. And because Jack could not integrate such thinking into his scheme of things, he found himself less and less able to talk with Sarina or to have her assist him with his work, like Ann. Although Jack loved Sarina as much as a bookish, head-oriented man could love anyone, he had little common ground with his younger daughter and his lack of emotional intelligence left him unable to bridge the distance between them.
Because of Jack’s blindness to Sarina’s gifts, Jack and Sarina grew apart over the years. She remembered her father and how she, Ann, and her mother used to visit the museums with him. Her father seemed so content in those days of her early youth. Those indeed were the “good years.” But loyal daughter that she was, Sarina could not bear to blame the loss of this idyll on the father she idolized. So as Ann and Jack worked closer and closer together, leaving little or no place for Sarina, she instead became furious with Ann for taking their dad for herself with no apparent regard for Sarina’s needs or feelings. Sarina was jealous of Ann and Jack’s close working relationship and found it hard to be around them as they poured over information solely about the calendar and talked, sometimes late into the night hours.
This is not to say that Sarina was not interested in the Mayan calendar; it’s just that her interest lay more in those things that resonated with her intuitive personality. She reveled in the mythology of the ancient civilizations that created the calendar and less in the mathematical equations and logical analysis that were embedded in it. She wanted to explore more with her father about the mysteries and how the shamans worked into the stories. Sarina wondered how the mystics navigated between the human and spirit world. Sarina had wondered why Ann and Jack were less interested in this part of the equation, but their lack of interest in the mysticism became so painfully obvious to her that Sarina veered away from their work and explored more on her own, alone. This was the beginning of her own journey, which would immerse her later in her life in the mystics of many different cultures throughout the world. Sarina loved the culture of the people of the world and found refuge in the stories she read, which comforted her longing to be closer to her father. Bu
t on one particular night far in the past, Sarina painfully learned how what she loved would not get her the acceptance she craved.
It was another one of those long nights and Ann and Jack were working late again; Sarina was determined to reassert her and Jack’s relationship.
“Ann, look at these documents! They seem to reveal a matrix of sorts, which lays out the calendar in a circular fashion.” Jack was excited and began to obsess about going to the ancient lost Mayan city described in Dana and Ginger’s book.
“Dad, this is truly fascinating. What do you make of this?” Ann handed Jack a copy of a translation that she had found while researching in the university library in Boise, as the local library contained little about the Mayan people.
Ann heard a mousy knock on the door and looked over to see Sarina slowly opening the door, just a crack and pause. Ann reached over and pulled the door open and Sarina stepped in. Sarina shot a scowl at Ann and then sheepishly turned to Jack. “Dad,” she said. “I found some information about a particular ritual the Mayan people used.”
“Not now Sarina,” Jack said. “Can’t you see we’re busy?”
“But dad …”
“WHAT IS IT, SARINA?” Jack bellowed as he slammed a notebook on the table and glared at Sarina.
“I just wanted to share what I know about the Mayan culture.”
“And, dear Sarina, what might that be?” Jack sat back in his chair shooting Sarina a condescending look.
Sarina was becoming emotional. “Well, it’s just a feeling or rather an intuition …”
Jack leaned forward in his chair. “Sarina, I don’t have the patience for your intuition. I am, or we are researching important documentation and Ann and I are busy and have no time for this foolish school girl crap!” Jack was becoming agitated at Sarina’s insistence on sticking her nose into this business and he did not hold back his emotions. He leaned back in his chair and was glaring at Sarina again with absolutely no regard for her feelings.
The Song_A mysterious tale of the Mayan spirit world and the Mayan calendar Page 3