By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--January 1, 2012
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Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900. Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centres. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some peripheral centres continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early 16th century. Maya history can be characterized as cycles of rise and fall: city-states rose in prominence and fell into decline, only to be replaced by others. It could also be described as one of continuity and change, guided by a religion that remains the foundation of their culture. For those who follow the ancient Maya traditions, the belief in the influence of the cosmos on human lives and the necessity of paying homage to the gods through rituals continues to find expression in a modern hybrid Christian-Maya faith.
The Maya underworld is reached through caves and ball courts. It was thought to be dominated by the aged Maya gods of death and putrefaction. The Sun and Itzamna, both aged gods, dominated the Maya idea of the sky. The night sky was considered a window showing all supernatural doings. The Maya configured constellations of gods and places, saw the unfolding of narratives in their seasonal movements, and believed that the intersection of all possible worlds was in the night sky. There is a massive array of supernatural characters in the Maya religious tradition. Good and evil traits are not permanent characteristics of Maya gods, nor is only "good" admirable. What is inappropriate during one season might come to pass in another since much of the Maya religious tradition is based on cycles, not permanence. The life-cycle of maize lies at the heart of Maya belief. This philosophy is demonstrated on the Maya belief in the Maize God as a central religious figure. The Maya bodily ideal is also based on the form of the young Maize God, which is demonstrated in their artwork. The Maize God was also a model of courtly life for the Classical Maya.Regarding human sacrifices (which the related culture Aztecs also practiced), the book Gods and Goddesses: A Treasury of Deities and Tales From World Mythology (Edit by Dr Miriam Hallam) describes this:
Tlaloc, a pre-Aztec rain god with a close affinity to the Mayan god Chac, was one of the most powerful gods in the Aztec pantheon. He could bring water to make the corn grow. His benevolence was of utmost importance, and at the end of the dry season many small children were ritually sacrificed on mountain top altars to ensure that a season of plenty would follow. Itzamna was a sun god, and lord of the east and west, and of day and night. He was founder of the Mayan capital and brought maize and cocoa to mankind, established religious ceremonies and rituals, and divided out the land. He was the most revered and benevolent, god of the Maya pantheon. Although Itzamna was benevolent, at Chichen Itza, in the Yucatan peninsula, human sacrifices were regularly made to the gigantic statue of a crocodile, thought to represent him. This was done to ensure that he did not turn against the people he had greatly benefited.
Itzá were a Mayan-speaking people who occupied a large, remote region in what is now northern Guatemala. The story of their eventual conquest in 1697 is a remarkable tale, a barely known episode of American history. What is most striking about it is that during the decades leading up to their fall, the Itzá Maya had prophesied their own end. Numerous written accounts tell us how King Kanek’ had a strong sense of his inevitable defeat, when, according to the sacred prophecies, a new era of the Maya calendar called a k’atun would begin. Yet, native prophecy played as much a role in the defeat of the Itzá as the political machinations of the time, or as did the superior weaponry and numbers of the Spanish soldiers. For the Itzá, the year 1679 was the inevitable “end of an era,” a foretold turning point when time would fold and repeat itself, and political change and transformation were utterly unavoidable. In a fascinating twist on how we usually look on the course of history, native prophecy made the Itzá look upon their conquest and conversion to Christianity as a foregone conclusion.
While researching the 2012 end-date of the Maya Calendar, John Major Jenkins decoded Mayan galactic cosmology. Mayans discovered the periodic alignment of the Sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy is the formative influence on human evolution. These alignments also define a series of World Ages. The fourth age ends on Dec. 21, 2012, when an epoch chapter in human history will come to an end. Maya Cosmogenisis 2012 reveals Mayan insight into the cyclic nature of time, and prepares us for our own cosmogenesis--the birth of a new world.The problem with using the Mayan dates for the "end of the world" is that these people did not see their universe in a similar manner as modern folks do, according to Stuart. This is especially true regarding Mayan creation and destruction cycles. Writes Stuart,
The Mayan worldview saw the universe as an evolving and developing system, punctuated by episodes of destruction and reformulation as it lurched toward the historical present. Over vast time periods, the gods performed multiple experiments with the creation of people until they got it right. I find it interesting that in very general terms, Mesoamerican myths describe the process of "Creation" as a series of starts, destructions, and restart. This recurrence of creation & destruction fits well with the idea that the present world may not have a well-defined ending.But Stuart insists the entire idea that the Mayans in their calendar prophesied a 2011-12 end of the world is superstitious drivel:
Many of the books on 2012 have evocative, even alarming titles. According to these strange-sounding books and TV shows--and none of them is ever consistent in its message--the ancient Maya, having some keen insight into the mystical workings of our planet and the cosmos, were able to predict that the world would end or in some way be radically transformed in the year 2012--on the winter solstice December 21, to be exact (although, again, some sources differ on the precise day). This is all complete nonsense. As someone who has studied the Maya for nearly all of his life, and who specializes in reading their ancient texts in order to understand their history, religion, and culture, I have to lay down the line and assert that any such statements about the Maya predicting the world's demise or, alternatively, some "transformation of consciousness" in 2012 is, to put it as simply and directly as possible, wrong. Not only wrong, but misleading.
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.