Something important, some people think, is going to happen on
 August 16 or 17 or 22, 1987.
 
         A Cherokee woman, a "medicine woman", and also a Tibetan
  Buddhist, has stated that at the end of the Mayan calendar, August
  22nd or so 1988, the current Dark Age will be coming to an end.
  
  what happens AFTER August 22, 1988?
  
  After August 22nd, armored white men suddenly appear on our shores and take
  over in the name of the King of Spain!
  
  Actually, that date is August 16 17, 1987!  and it is referred to as the
  Harmonic Convergence, 25 years before the end of the long cycle chronicled
  by the Mayan calendar.  The Harmonic Convergence is to usher in a 25-year
  priod of increasing harmony and cooperation  among people and between people
  and the rest of planetary life.  the fact that the Mayan calendar period
  ends in 2012 does not mean Apocalpse, as I understand it, but rather the
  end of a long evolutionary cycle that we've been in for a very long time.
  To really get into the nitty-gritty of this, check out Jose Arguelles'
  The Mayan Factor, just published by Bear & Co., Santa Fe.  Available in
  bookstores.
 
 According to a lost unknown book that was published in either Santa Barbara or 
 Santa Cruz, the Zapotec version of the events of precisely August 16, 1987 are 
 somewhat different:  August 15 is the last day of the nine cycles of "hell" 
 (counting from that day in April that Cortez set foot on Veracruz). August 16 
 is "one-reed, one-reed," the first day of the first of thirteen cycles called 
 "heavens of decreasing choice."  On that day, August 16, 1987, *everything* is 
 possible. (the following is speculation by my Mayan guru, based on meditation 
 on the question of why they are called "heavens of decreasing choice.") On 
 August 17,  1987, there will be a few little things that our choices on the 
 16th have precluded. My Mayan guru has lost all trace of this book, even the 
 memory of its name. He would like to end this posting as a lost and found ad. 
 He would like to find out how to get a copy, if possible (of course, on August 
 16, everything will be possible -- he is hoping
 for something sooner). The guy who wrote the book "seemed to be a Zapotec 
 theologian poet." At least the lines of text were sort of in the middle of the 
 page and ragged on the right.
 Everything will be possible. Already, the little vegetation-spirits with the 
 missing genetic material have fanned out from the great tree of Tule, between 
 Oaxaca and Mitla. We will have "ears of corn the size of a man, cotton growing 
 in the fields in all the colors of the serape, and peyote that tastes like 
 honey."
 
 Friday, June 5th  at Shared Visions in Berkeley there will be a meeting with Alli
 Antero, author of All Rites Reversed. We'll examine the significance of
 "what is coming to be called Harmonic Convergence." The Shared Vision
 announcement goes on saying:
 "The Mayan Calendar indicates that this August 16/17 begins a period of
 re-construction and blossoming before the last days of a 5,125 year era 
 culminating in 2012 AD. During this period it is said within the traditions
 of Native Peoples, world-wide that the Living Earth's consciousness will
 reassert itself to guide humanity. Antero suggests that ceremony, among
 which is what he calls Earth Surrender Rites, will support and clarify
 our conscious synchronization to this next stage of evolution.
 
 Another news for Mayan Millenium fans: Jose Arguelles author of the 
 Mayan Factor will discuss his Harmonic Convergence (August 16/17) ideas
 at another of Shared Vision's Earth Mysteries series, June 18 Thursday, 8 pm
 
 I hear he wants 144,000 people to go to power spots and om. Not
 a bad idea. Mt. Tam is one obvious node.
 
 "The Mayan Great Cycle is actually the description of a galactic beam measuring
 5200 tun, or 5125 earth years in diameter.  The earth entered such a beam,
 August 13,3113 BC, and will leave it in the year 2012 AD.  The purpose of the
 electromagnetically charged Beam is to acccelerate the evolved DNA into a
 technology-extruding organism that creates in effect a planetary exo-nervous
 system.  When the exo-nervous system is in place acceleration becomes
 exponential and phases into synchronizaton.
 
 "Acceleration is measured by the collapse in the time it takes one human to
 communicate to another from halfway around the globe, accompanied by a
 concurrent increase in population.  Once maximum acceleration is achieved, when
 communication is electronic and virtually instantaneous, then it becomes
 synchronization: the equally exponential rate of linking up every single human
 organism with each other through utilization of the planetary exo-nervous
 system, theus creating a sensitive aggregate operating as a unified, planetary
 consciousness.  Once maximum  synchronization is attained, the exo-nervous
 system will fall away, being replaced by the more efficient medium of
 telepathic synchronicity.  The planet will then be initiated into the Galactic
 Federation."  (Jose Arguelles in _All_Rites_Reversed_ : _Ritual Technology for
 Self-Initiation, by Alli Antero, with Preface by Robert Anton Wilson)
 
 However, Arguelles vision is based on the assumption that the acceleration
 of communication, particularly by electronic means, leads to a fuller and
 more intimate communication. This is, apparently, based on the assumption
 that an increase in knowledge results from the faster exchange of words and
 thought. I question this. I think the case could be made that the more bits
 of information that a person has to assimilate more quickly, the dumber they
 get; at least their stress level rises, their memory begins to develop holes,
 and non-thought-related input, such as intuition or body-sense, may be more
 likely ignored.
 
 What if we don't subject Arguelles vision to an analysis of scientific vigor,
 and accept it as it intended to be, i believe, poetic truth. Thern the question
 is whether it makes sense to believe that blanket communications can give space
 to synchronization and over time it can lead telepathic synchronicity.
 
 As for as the Galactic Federation, I dunno, but it's very plausible to me
 to imagine that when synchronization happens there will be a leap in 
 planetary consciousness that well can open gateways to unknown dimensions
 of galactic existence.
 
 and where do I find a power spot in Wisconsin? or do I just know somehow when
 I get there? huh?
   
 I didn't think I was subjecting Arguelles' vision to an analysis of scientific
 vigor; since it was based on my own experience of the last three years with
 computers/teleconferencing and such, it was more based on an analysis of
 gut-level vigor.  Be that as it may, Arguelles vision may be poetic truth
 (maybe) but as I recall from reading EARTH ASCENDANT (or whatever it was
 called where he first spelled this Mayan stuff out) he certainly arrived at
 it through methodical analytical (almost mathematical) means. As poetry it 
 certainly is striking and beautiful stuff. I guess I've always been a little
 wary of jumping to cosmic conclusions based on someone's nifty poem...
 
 Just another perspective on the Mayan stuff... 
 
 Having just returned from the Yucatan, I have some rather
 non-factual stuff to offer.  (I almost said share.. whew!)
 
 Last Saturday morning, I was overlooking the Mayan community of
 Uxmal from atop the Sorcerer's Pyramid.  The smell of the 1,200
 or so year old buildings still graces my nostrils.  And as with
 my visit to Stonehenge fifteen years ago, my life is somehow
 changed having experienced touching stones carved and hauled by
 our predecessors.  
 
 There was no literature or poetry to read; the Spanish bishops
 seem to have destroyed all or most of it.  And I haven't really
 absorbed the mayan mathematical concepts enough to comment on
 them.  It's impressive to me that they and other Mesoamericans
 were able to measure and predict lunar, solar and venutian cycles
 and eclipses.  The mystery that surrounds their appearance and
 demise is deep and in some ways painful.
 
 I found myself imagining that I was witness to the power the
 magicians and rulers held.  At times, I felt that time had melted
 away and I _was_ there.  With my 20th century cynicism of
 charlatans and false gods, I felt unsure of what actually had
 happened/was happening.  I just knew it was a powerful
 experience.
 
 I like to look at Harmonic Convergence 
 both as a series of future events 
 that will announce the era of end of denial (1992-2000), 
 and as *the* thing that's happening through us, right now.
 
 That's what it sounds like the convergence is all about -- linking
 our intentionalities in as many ways as possible.
 
 One important part of this whole time for me is the emergence of ritual in
 our Western culture.  The Christian rituals I learned as a child never "taught"
 me anything real -- as have some of the Native American rituals I've been
 part of recently, or Alli's grounding and centering ritual he briefly led us
 through last week at Shared Visions.
 
 One point in that ritual and in all this is allowing the Earth (the entity that
 chose to be incarnated this time as the Planet Earth) to speak to you and to
 allow yourself to resonate with the core energy that comes from the Earth's
 core.  It gives me chills of excitement.
 
 Try it -- sit outside on the ground, and allow yourself to feel your spinal
 cord connecting to the Earth, allow the bottom of it to open as if it were a
 camera lens, and allow the energy and life force of the Earth to enter you.
 Breathe the Earth energy into you on your inhale.  On the exhale, breathe the
 Earth's energy deeply into all parts of your body and being -- until you feel
 DENSE with the Earth's energy.
 
 I'm going to be at Shared Visions Thursday (June 18) at 8 p.m., probably along
 with some of the 144,000 other beings of light! to hear Arguellos talk about
 all this.....