Author and freak, Daniel Pinchbeck, has penned an interesting read titled 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. It's a story about the Maya. It's a story about time. It's a story about the end of time. Drawing from an array of sources, from anthropology, history, physics and other hard sciences, philosophy, and literature, among others, Pinchbeck brings together the many thinkers who believe we are entering a period of planetary change and even human evolution.I want to just bring out a quote from the book by John Jenkins (on page 245) that I found interesting and thought provoking:
"The highest Maya political office required the taking of hallucinogens... imagine the U.S. president ingesting psilocybin mushroomes ten hours before giving the State of the Union address. Such an idea seems far-fetched to the modern imagination, but it made sense to the Maya. The leaders of society should be able to journey into the deep psyche, to access the fount of all creativity and genius, to communie with the ancestors and beings from other realms and times, and to deliver into their country the organizing frequencies emanating from the cosmic source. Our incapacity to envision such a situation is part of the intrinsic incompatibility in worldviews. Something very basic to the Western mindset prevents us from understanding the full profundity of Mesoamerican cosmovision."
What we often forget is that the Maya are still living and practicing their ancient techniques and methods today throughout the Central American region. The Maya are a people who have survived and prospered through the centuries - an example of what we call a modern-day indigenous group which, through intimate knowledge of and respect for their surroundings, has managed their environment in a largely sustainable manner, and continues to do so to this day.
Perhaps it is time that we begin to look at these ancient traditional cultures, and begin to identify what has made them so successful, along with the practices and beliefs that we in the "Great West" know nothing of...
