The Mayan Calendars: Time to Make Choice

Often we talk about the Mayan calendar as if it was something fixed and eternal that has stayed the same throughout the ages. Such a view is far from the truth since the calendars that the Mayan people have been using have undergone change depending on their own shifting outlook. This in turn has depended upon how the different polarities of consciousness have altered the perception of reality also of the Maya much as what has happened in the rest of the world. In my view, the Maya is not a special race endowed with a superior calendar gene, but a people on our planet who inhabited a special location (equatorial West) and therefore in specific periods have developed an enhanced sensitivity to the waves of consciousness that have propelled the evolution of our planet.

This enhanced sensitivity was especially apparent during the so-called Classical culture (AD 200-900) when the calendrical knowledge of the Mayan culture peaked and in my view it is this that we today especially need to retrieve. It was in this culture that the Long Count rose to prominence and the nine levels of Bolon Yokte Ku were described. An example of how the Mayan calendar system was influenced by the different cosmic energies is how the Long Count loses its role after the fall of the Classical culture (the oldest inscription with a Long Count date is from 32 BC and the latest in AD 909 and it only sporadically appears in texts from later centuries). The Post-Classical Maya then started instead of the Long Count of thirteen baktuns (394 years) to use so-called Short Counts of thirteen katuns (19.7 years). This by itself was a very significant calendrical change. What is interesting to note about it is that when the frequency of shifts increased twentyfold (as the Planetary Underworld started to make itself felt) the Maya changed their calendar system to reflect this frequency increase. This is much as what the impending frequency increase of the ninth wave seems to compel us to do at the current time. Eventually, especially with the arrival of the Europeans, also other calendrical changes came and the Short Counts and 52-year calendar rounds went out of use.

These shifts in calendars are reflections of how the mind set of the Maya (as well as of the rest of humanity) have changed as there has been different energies coming in from the cosmos as described by their calendar. This is only natural, since there would be no reason to follow a prophetic calendar (which both the Long and Short Counts were) if it does not reflect the actually dominating frequency of cosmic change. The abandonment of the Long Count in favor of the Short Counts about a thousand years ago is incidentally also the reason that most contemporary Mayan elders would hesitate to pinpoint an end to the Long Count, since the information they have about this comes from archeologists and not from a continuous use of their own of this count. Thus, while the rest of the world discusses if this will happen in 2011 or 2012 there are Mayan elders that think it will not happen in our lifetime, but in 60 or 100 years from now. At least to me this seems very unlikely.

The only specifically Mayan calendar that has played a significant role over a very long period of time is the 260-day tzolkin. Its oldest known inscription is in the Zapotec site of Monte Alban from 550 BC and it has been in use up to the present time. Also the extent of use of this calendar has however undergone significant change over the ages and during the endarkened consciousness of the Planetary Underworld it came to be limited essentially to the mountain villages in Guatemala. Hence, also the use of the tzolkin calendar has been subject to consciousness shifts taking place among the Maya and elsewhere. Thus, for instance, around 550 BC, notably the midpoint of the Long Count, a sensitivity for the spiritual qualities of the tzolkin had developed in the Western hemisphere of our planet and we have reasons to believe that already at this point individuals became associated with the qualities of their day-signs of birth. The same time, again the midpoint of the National Underworld, is arguably also the time of birth of human individuality on our planet, and then notably in Greece.

What I mean by the birth of human individuality is that prior to the 6th century BC the humans that we know from history are either kings or semi-mythical figures, such as Imhotep, the chief architect of the Egyptian pyramids, or Homer, the bard of the Iliad, whose personal characters disappear in the mists of the ancient world. It is hard, if not impossible, for us to truly identify with them as individuals. Around the 6th and 5th centuries persons like Socrates and Perikles, or even the Persian Kings, that strike us as human individuals start to appear. Hence, it may argued that the shift that took place at the midpoint of the National Underworld carried not only the emergence of the tzolkin, a calendar which endows individuals with particular qualities, but also in another part of the world human individuality and a new ego. Hence, on a global scale the consciousness change that led to the emergence of human individuality was synchronistic with the emergence of the tzolkin. The same theme then returns that the calendars used by the Maya was related to the ruling consciousness field of any Underworld and in fact, as mentioned above, also the tzolkin almost went extinct during the Planetary Underworld.

It is in this perspective that it becomes interesting to speculate as to what the consequences may be of the use of a 9+9-day count and its transcendence of the tzolkin. It would seem that this transcendence then would be linked to the transcendence of our individuality and especially the ego, which was born in the dualist National Underworld. This seems to imply exactly what I have been saying previously about the different polarities of the Underworlds, namely that unity consciousness will now in the ninth wave come to transcend duality. The ego then will not be slayed, but relegated to a lesser role in service to the All rather than as the ruler of our lives as is currently very often the case with people. I feel the ninth wave is about totally surrendering to the All and its purpose with creation. This surrendering is the main thing to do in order to successfully make the climb and be able to witness the “descent of Bolon Yokte Kuh” the simultaneous manifestation of all the waves. As the nine + nine day count of the Ninth wave becomes active March 9, 2011, and even before, we will to some extent be confronted with a choice as to whether to follow the 260-day tzolkin with its various individuality-generating day signs or the 234-day ninth wave of unity consciousness. Since the ego is a product of the same wave as the tzolkin it would then seem that we are to some extent presented with a choice between individuality and unity consciousness. The traditional tzolkin may be described as the calendar of individuality, whereas the now emerging nine-day count is the calendar of higher consciousness, which also transcends national and ethnical borders as we would expect from a Universal Underworld.

It is then natural if people ask the question: ”Is the nine + nine count Mayan?” If you define Mayan as an ethnic concept the answer would most likely be no, since as far as I know such a count has never been used in the Mesoamerican region, except a somewhat similar nine-day count. There was in fact no serious reason for the Mayan people to use such a count at any earlier point in time. On the other hand it is a count that is very much in the spirit of the ancient Maya as it is based on the system of Nine support levels of Bolon Yokte and in our own time may be seen as a logical consequence of this if you are looking for a universal truth. To shift to this count as the frequency increases is really similar to how the ancient Maya shifted to the short counts as the seventh wave made its presence felt. This people then did not ask what was the orthodox answer, but what calendar that would be in resonance with creation and this is what I am suggesting that we do today as well.

The nine + nine count creates a remarkable opportunity for us to choose our paths in the time ahead based on what calendar we use. This is indeed a free choice, since after all the lower waves will not disappear just because the ninth wave is activated. Yet, the climb to the ninth level would imply that the emphasis is placed on the 18-day count even if we also follow the tzolkin. It seems reasonable to assume that in order for Bolon Yokte Ku to appear in his full regalia it is necessary that a sizable part of humanity indeed chooses to climb to the ninth level, which then also implies following the 9+9 day count. The time acceleration that this count implies also by itself will propel us to live increasingly in the present moment. In this process we will let go of many of the particular individual traits that have been so important to our ego identities and as this happens we will open ourselves to the unconditional love of the All.