Absence of Presence

I have taken the luxury of disengaging from my computer for the last week. Time to think.

The date of December 21, 2012 has come and gone leaving many wondering: “What now?”. I, too, have pondered the question.

I told a Spanish story on December 21, 2012 called La Culevera – Godmother Death. The story speaks of the dividing line between the Life/Death/Rebirth cycles represented by the Great Goddess/Archetype – La Culevera. A boy child is born, the 13th one, no less. His father, a poor man, (“of course” said the objective storyteller) walks the Road of Life, seeking a God-Parent for his, yet unborn, child. Godmother Death becomes the Godparent. The “God”parent in myths speaks of our connection to the Great Mystery – the Great Beyond. The number 13 is a key symbol to new beginnings. December 21, 2012 ended the 13th Baktun of the Maya calendar. In the story the 13th child represents a new beginning. Death is the teacher of the New Beginning. The spiritual guidance of the story was to remind us endings/death have the ‘teeth’ to cut our connection from birth to fully embrace Life. The same “teeth” cut the silver cord attaching our spiritual body to our physical body; allowing once again, to experience life beyond the physical.

I believe a great shift occurred in our social psyche when we separated Life and Death. The two are not separate events, they are truly a part of the process of Life/Death/Rebirth. The end of the 13 simply means the beginning of something new.

December 21, 2012 was a ritual dedicated to grief and wishes. As with any ending, there is sorrow, and, of course, Loss. We are not stupid, we know we are not able to sustain our present rate of consumption. The end of the 13th Baktun was a meaningful way to publicly declare/witness what we will miss as the world changes.

The maya world tree is celestial. The roots are the Void in the Milky Way. The Tree trunk is the middle world. The middle world, shamanically, is the place between spirit and manifestation. The leaves/branches of the world tree are are the “pillars” of the Four Directions.

The Void is the ‘perfect centre’. The describable, indescribable place. (shoulder shrug, rueful grin.) {shamanism is a paradox don’t cha know :)} The Void is Pregnant with Potential. In some realities, all things are born in the Void. Our “Wish Journey” had us climb our world tree – microcosm – and join the branches of the maya world tree – macrocosm. Once we were given access to The Stars, by The Gatekeeper, we rode our horses to the Void. Our intention ~ to plant our wishes for the future. Our Click Sticks rang out, resonating the sound of horses hooves hitting the stars as we rode far beyond our world.

Where do we go from here? How can we continue to celebrate our New Life? The New Beginning. Is it a beginning? Or did La Culevera teach us anything? Didn’t she teach us there is no separation between states? Rebirth – now that is a SOUL FULL celebration!!

Post December 21, 2012

Thank you for everyone who gathered physically and spiritually with me to celebrate such an auspicious day. I feel inclined to share an excerpt of a story I wrote. The excerpt describes how I feel about my relationship to all things, all aspects of the great web…

Yekotook searched the land for the Tree. When she finally felt the Tree she slowly knelt before it, offering it her heart and her love. When she reached out and touched the Tree she joined with the timeless consciousness of the Standing Nation. Her thoughts became the Standing Nations thoughts, and hers, in turn, became theirs.

Her Consciousness spread beneath her to the million points of root beneath the Tree. She could not help but marvel, at the connection she had not only with her Tree, but every other tree. Roots joining roots, sharing soil, energy, water, the very consciousness of all Standing Nations. Every cosmic breath, every earthly sigh, was her to feel and hear. The Tree pulled Energy from Gaia, up through the roots, strong and mighty. Yekotook felt, touched and tasted every Gaia moment, past and present. Slowly, up through the trunk of the Tree she was pulled. Yekotook could feel herself merging with the Tree above the ground, merging with whole Forest, all parts of the all the Standing Nations. Her many branches touched every sun, every moon and all the stars that are her brothers and sisters, She knew that every branch of her Tree was the entry, and passage, into another world, another place.

Yekotook savoured the timeless joy and wonder of the Standing Nation, the ageless beauty of motionless movement…

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Over the decades I have seen so many ‘special’ dates come and go that I have become very cautious. It seems that human beings can easily adopt crazy superstitious ideas that really have no justification at all. At times the needle on my BS detector has been in the Red Zone!!

Yet with so much genuine goo intention fixed on the 21st of December I don’t just want to be cynical. I want to encourage anything that can help us create a more conscious world in 2013. I would love to see the beginnings of a world in which more of us open our hearts and commit to deep love.

Yet, I also long for a world where, we learn to think more clearly, discriminate more carefully, and collectively move beyond pre-rational superstition to trans-rational awakening.

So…. my wish is that the 21st of December 2012 sees us finally wise enough to no longer fixate on magical dates in the hope that a better world will just happen of itself. But, rather, that this winter solstice brings us the courage and self-empowerment to create a better world ourselves, by bringing deep love to LIFE!!!

Like Yekotook, let us merge with the consciousness around us. Feel every cosmic breath. Savour the Timeless Joy of being a part of the something much greater than our singular selves. Happy Solstice.

Welcome to the New Birth. Welcome to the beginning a new long count calendar.

Duality and Numbers and the Sacred

December 21, 2012 is full of, as one quick glance will show you a plethora of 1’s and 2’s. The numerology of the day is an 11/2.

2 is the pair, the duo – the beginning of duality, the first coming together, when the self recognizes itself in another – a reflection of never ending mirrors. Duality comes into consciousness – right/wrong, male/female, dark/light, day/night. You can name your own reflections of duality, of that I have no doubt.

2 is the agent, the go-between, the diplomat and peacemaker, because unity can only be accomplished though a meeting of the minds, a compromise on each side.

2 represents the feminine principle of receptivity, the yin, which seeks a union of two distinct entities. It is the gestation period in which things begin to form. 2 collects and assimilates. It seeks a balance between opposing forces, and therefore represents co-operation, attachment and partnership. It is the peacemaker, with an avid attention to detail. Because 2 is so keenly aware of opposites, it has a pronounced sense of rhythm and harmony. Music appeals to its sympathetic and emotional nature. The maternal, patient and sensitive characteristics of 2 cause it to place others first, before itself. Union is its goal, not separateness; therefore it is obedient to and understanding of others. It seeks harmony and assimilation above all.

The numberology of Solstice is the Master Number 11. This day is auspicious because 11 is the most intuitive of all numbers. It represents illumination; a channel to the subconscious; insight without rational thought; and sensitivity, nervous energy, shyness, and impracticality. It is a dreamer.

The 11 has all the aspects of the 2, enhanced and charged with charisma, leadership, and inspiration. It is a number with inborn duality, which creates dynamism, inner conflict, and other catalyses with its mere presence. December 21, 2012 is most certianly been a catalyst date.

We gather on Solstice to focus on a goal which beyond outselves. We are turning outward to prevent and ameliorste fears and phobias. The 11 walks the edge between greatness and self-destruction. Its potential for growth, stability, and personal power lies in its acceptance of intuitive understanding, and of spiritual truths. Today, peace is not found so much in logic, but in faith. We are drawing on the psychic number.

Today there is a bridge, or connection, between our conscious and unconscious realms, attuning us to a high level of intuition through which spiritual messages can flow. All of this amounts to a great capacity for invention.

11 altruism and community – Today bestows upon us courage, power and talent all the while asking to feel the true mastership of service. Love thy neighbour as thyself – 11 is a number of strong intuition, wisdom and inspiration.

Last year at Solstice we were preparing for this solsitce. We worked with Eros, the Spirit of Love and Duality. Here, as a refresher, are some of the thoughts I shared then:

Eros –Primordial Being
Primordial – generally when we think of that word, most of us follow it with ooze. Well, I beg of you not to think of ooze this evening when I mention Primordial.
The word “parthenogenesis” comes from the Greek parthenos, meaning “virgin”, and genesis, meaning “birth”.
Hesiod, Aristophanes and the Orphica are the oldest written reference to Eros. It is difficult to find even glimpses of the primordial beings because written history came so long after the myths of the primordial beings.
Aristophanes, Birds 685 ff (trans. O’Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) :
“At the beginning there was only Khaos (Air), Nyx (Night), dark Erebos (Darkness), and deep Tartaros (Lower World) Firstly, black-winged Nyx (Night) laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Erebos (Darkness), and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang the graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated [or fertilised] in deep Tartaros with dark Khaos (Air), winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light. That of the Immortals did not exist until Eros had brought together all the ingredients of the world… Thus our origin is very much older than that of the dwellers in Olympos. We are the offspring of Eros; there are a thousand proofs to show it. ”
Duality of Eros
Now I want to stop and tell you that Eros was a two faced Being. Orphica, Argonautica 6TH Cen “ two-sexed, two-faced, glorious Eros”. Eros is portrayed as a beautiful golden-winged hermaphroditic deity wrapped in a serpent’s coils. When we reconsider what Aristophanes said “He mated in deep Tartaros (the lower world) with dark Khaos (Air), winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race”..
The poets describe him as an incorporeal being invisible even through the eyes of the gods. Eros is the coming together of that which has always been separate. (touch on the theme the illusion is we are all separate) The Unconscious and the Conscious… the primordial creative cause, the element that binds and attracts spirit and matter together. The binding together the two aspects of Eros, the penetration and blending energy of matter with its counterpart and complement, spirit. Esoterically, Eros is the leading force within a seeker that takes him away from a level of duality to a level of unity and wholeness. For my aspectors this is important: Eros is the key to transformation, by placing a seeker on the axial center ~ your spiritus mundi. This level of being brings about the integration of ego with soul. Hence, Eros is the Being that gives us the possibility of letting go of the past and living in the present moment, embracing spontaneously everything within and without our reach. Introducing the spiritual element into the nature of psyche itself. The coming together of spirit and the nature of our Soul – Psyche is referred to as the Goddess of the Soul.

This power of vision is eros, which bestows a passionate bond between the seer and the seen.

Maya World Tree

 The Mayas believed in a world of three layers: Heaven, the middle world, and underworld. Its roots were in the underworld, its trunk in the middle world, and its branches in the highest layer of the other world. The tree represents the Milky Way.

To the Maya, the universe created in this order:

First came the earth and the seas, then animals. Then there were experimental people of mud who were destroyed because they could not stand up or worship properly.

The next people were made of wood, but they came to an end because they were willful and did not worship properly.  Finally, because the gods built with corn, a successful human was made.  

The Milky Way itself was celebrated by the Maya. They called it the World Tree, which was represented by a tall and majestic flowering tree, the Ceiba.

The Milky Way was also called the Wakah Chan. Wak means “Six” or “Erect”. Chan or K’an means “Four”, “Serpent” or “Sky”. The World Tree was erect when Sagittarius was well over the horizon.

The Milky Way rose up from the horizon and climbed overhead into the North.

The star clouds that form the Milky Way were seen as a place where all life began. During the months of winter, when the so-called “Winter” Milky Way dominates the sky, it was called the “White Boned Serpent.” This part of the Milky Way passed overhead at night during the winter months.

“The Sacred Tree was known to the ancient K’iché simply as “Crossroads.” It seems that when a planet, the sun, or the moon entered the dark cleft of the Milky Way in Sagittarius (which happens to be the exact center of the Milky Way, the Galactic Equator), entrance to the underworld road was possible, which could then take the journeyer up to the Heart of Sky. On December 21, 2012 the earth’s equator, the sun and the equator of the milky way align perfectly, creating a long awaited celestial event.

The star clouds that form the Milky Way were seen as the tree of life, where all life came from. Near Sagittarius, the center of our galaxy, where the World Tree meets the Ecliptic was given special attention by the Maya. A major element of the World Tree include the K’awak Monster, a giant head with a kin in its forehead. This monster was also a mountain or Witz monster.

A sacrificial bowl on its head contains a flint blade representing sacrifice, and the Kimi glyph that represents death. The Ecliptic is sometimes represented as a bar crossing the major axis of the world tree, making a form that is similar to the Christian Cross. On top of the World Tree we find a bird that has been called, the Principal Bird deity, or Itzam Ye. There is also evidence that shows the Sun on the World Tree as it appeared to the Maya at Winter Solstice.

In the Mayan sacred book — the Popol Vuh — they speak of the World Tree, a magical tree that generates the four sacred directions moving out from the sacred center — Yaxkin — a system for humans, that shapes and accesses, the spiritual worlds. According to mythology, the World Tree was the first creation in the universe and then everything emanated (and continues to emanate) from it.

Sacred Cultures have always used trees to organize the Earth’s intelligence and shamans have always traveled in them to visit many worlds. What do I really mean by “sacred cultures”? Sacred cultures believe the material world emanates from the spiritual world, and they use key symbols to show how the spiritual world is organized, such as Sacred Trees. In Celtic culture they honor the Oak Tree, in Indian spirituality it is the Banyan tree under which the Buddha experienced enlightenment, in Norse mythology Yggdrasil is a giant ash tree that links and shelters all the worlds and the Kabbalah has its Sacred Tree of Life.

Sacred trees all have certain things in common — roots that reach down into the underworld, a great trunk in the middle world, and branches and leaves that reach the upper world — the cosmos. We can travel them to access worlds because, sacred trees are the living structures of all the world.

Regardless of the heritage, all sacred science in ancient cultures thought of these trees as circulation systems for human consciousness. The truth members of still intact sacred cultures, continue to access knowledge from these many dimensions. Whereas contemporary Westerners have often forgotten almost everything except what they can see everyday. This huge perceptual loss makes the present/agreed upon world into an unnecessary and limiting prison. I cannot imagine being in this reality without orienting myself by this multi-dimensional enfoldmen. I refer to this concept as the multiverse, offering 90% more than what I perceive in the material world.

Mayan believed the dual spiritual dimensions of the lower and upper worlds completely surround and enfold our world of normal space and time. For me, this idea of the lower and upper worlds is real, experiential and all these levels of consciousness are completely accessible to anyone.

In Mesoamerican theology, the world tree grew at the locus of creation, all things flowing out from that spot into four directions. The tree thus forms part of what Mircea Eliade refers to as the “symbolism of the center.” The center is, first and foremost, the point of “absolute beginning,” where the latent energies of the sacred world first came into being. This source of all creation was often seen as a vertical axis, or axis mundi, which stands at the center of the cosmos and passes through each of the three major layers of existence—underworld, terrestrial plane, and sky. As the symbolic expression of this axis mundi, the world tree at once connected and supported heaven and earth while firmly fixed in the world below. In addition to serving as the vertical pivot point of the cosmos, the world tree also oriented the horizontal plane of the world by extending its branches outward toward the four cardinal directions.

In ancient Maya inscriptions, the human soul was called sak nik’ nal (“white flower thing”), referring to the white flowers of the ceiba tree. The implication is that the soul first came into being as a sacred flower on the branches of the world tree, thence to be clothed with flesh at birth.

The Maya saw a world axis in the ceiba tree. A gigantic ceiba is supposed to stand at the center of the world, where it connects heaven and the underworld with the earth. Souls of the dead ancestors rise through the roots and ascend via its trunk and branches into the celestial realms. The sacred ceiba tree stands for the fifth world direction–up/down–and is the roost of Seven Macaw, the Big Dipper bird. This connection with the Big Dipper supports the idea that the Maya world tree was aligned with the north polar axis.