2012

Every day I heard more news about the 21st of December 2012. The word is spreading over the internet so fast that I think it has became dangerous really, people are really concern about it, some even on the fringe of being panic. I'm not going to quote every single theory, you can google them easily, what worries me is that according to my perception there's a mass hysteria going on in crescendo, and we still have three years for this to grow to dangerous proportions.

In 2000 there was also a little of hysteria about the end of the world, also a lot of talking about planetary alignments, earthquakes, meteorites falling, etc. The truth is that in 2000 we face a major even for human technology, in our computer-based world, but a lot of money and effort was put to make the transition to Y2k without any significant problem, but no earthquake, solar flare or end of the world happened. The thing is that in 2000 the internet access was not as widespread as today.

Now there's also the thing about money, people are making a lot of money with this, books, videos, "survival kits", all you can think about, now even a hollywood film. Search all the 2012 dedicate websites, they end up selling you something or asking for a donation for the "project", or just want to increase their visits and get more payment from their sponsors. (I don't have any in case you wondered, my blog is sponsor free)

There's little knowledge, specially in the english speaking world about the Mexican ancestors, they know that the mayans were some people who live in Mexico (when their geography lessons are good enough, otherwise they say in southamerica) and that they made human sacrifices like Mel Gibson told them... etc.

But let's talk about the issue.

One common misconception is to say that the maya calendar ends at 21-12-2012, well it doesn't, their calendar was cyclical, that is specially notice in the short count, where cycles of 13, 20, 29 365 day happened. The long count was set up for the purpose of counting astronomic events (eclipses, transit of planets, stars, etc.) that is why is so long, because is not fixed to the earth solar cycle. So it doesn’t mean an end of times, just a beginning of a new era, as the previous ones.

The popol vuh, which collects the old Mayans myths about the creation talks about four attempts to create the human race before the gods succeeded, however the concept of different "suns" was not really developed in detail by them, just mentioned as a concept of four stages.

This was "perfectionated" or better said the myth expanded by the Mexica (Aztec) civilization, even when the Mexica adopted a lot of the Mayan and Teotihuacan lore, they were very different cultures, I like to say that you imagine them as ancient Greece vs Rome, Mayans vs Mexicas, one more focus on philosophy and science the other on war and conquest, it's a good western parallel, with the obvious differences, don't buy Mel Gibson view btw is just bollocks!. According to that we are already on the fifth sun (or even in the sixth).

The first sun was the Nahui-Ocelotl (four jaguar), a world which inhabitants were giants, and this giant creatures were destroyed four times every 52 years by jaguars until there were no more. The jaguars were a totem animal of Tezcatlipoca, a war fire god. The 52 years were the Aztec count of the New fire, a ceremony of renewal of the world.

The second sun was Nahui-Ehécatl (four wind) this sun died after 7 new fires (7 times 52 years) a great hurricane kill a lot of the living things and it was also the rising of the monkeys.

The third sun was, Nahui-Quiahuitl (four volcano or fire rain) it last for 6 new fires, when a great rain of fire that Xiuntecuhtli, god of fire and volcanoes bring to the earth, most of the inhabitants of the world died, and it was the rise of the birds and turkeys.

The fourth sun, Nahui-Atl (four water) end with a terrible flood, after 3 new fires, on this one just men were allowed to survive, and it was the rise of men.

The fifth sun, Nahui-Ollin (four movement) was created by Quetzalcóatl, a wind creation god, who also is the god of wisdom and peace, for example he in the form of kukulcan was the one who stop human sacrifice of the mayans according to their legends. He give to men life with their own blood. This sun is the expansion and grown of human civilization and it started when Teotihuacan the city of gods was founded.

All this is based on the Sun stone, a great stone disk (now at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico city) of more than 3.5 m of diameter and 25 tons. You could notice that the suns have some resemblance to archaeological and palaeontological evidence, the giants being the dinosaurs and giant mammals, the rise of the monkeys as the first apes, the rise of birds the transformation of dinosaurs into birds after the extinction, the flood and the rise of homo sapiens, and the beginning of civilization.

Now, the Aztecs prophets talk about the end of the fifth sun when Quetzalcóatl returned to them, that was when the solar, lunar and Venus calendar match, and that along another prophecies and omens make them put the end of that sun in the gregorian year of 1519. (I don't remember the name in nahuatl, sorry) So when Moctezuma II take the crown of the Mexica Empire he knew the end of the world and the return of Quetzalcóatl was imminent and there are several accounts that he wanted to stop it, so a lot of sacrifices of animals, plants and humans were done, and their priests were desperate to stop the world end. Unfortunately for them their attempts were in vain since Hernan Cortes arrive in 1519 to the coast of Yucatan, two years later the capital city of Tenochtitlan capitulated in favour of Cortes and his army (btw an army mainly of indigenous people who wanted to defeat the Aztec empire). So the general agreement is that the fifth sun ended with the arrival of the Spanish, and the children of the fifth sun give rise to the new mixed race, see also theories like the cosmic race by Vasconcelos.

Now, back to the Mayans.

The Mayans have a counting system on base 20, (from zero to 19 and back again), the Arabic system that we use is base 10, it seems that the Mayans said, wait a minute, we don't have just 10 fingers, we have 20 with our feet, their mathematical and astronomic knowledge was really great, they marked the solstices and equinoxes. solar and lunar eclipses and other astronomical events from thousands of years with a real great accuracy, one example is the pyramid of kukulcan in Yucatan (one of the winners of the new wonders of the world btw) which in every spring equinox sunrise, its shadow give the impression of a serpent going down of the ladders. Or the calculation of venus cycle in 583.935 days (actual calculations give an erratic movement that goes from 583.92 to 583.94) there are a lot of evidence on that. So, the mayan calendar was not arbitrary or just based on their system of numerology, but in the actual astronomical reality and the relationships between the sun, moon, earth, venus (they put a lot of attention to it), stars, etc.

Any way, they had two systems of counting, the civilian and religious one. The civilian was divided in two, a solar one with 365 days and a lunar one of 29 days, (actually the conversions to our decimal system gives 365.24 and 29.53 which is very much accurate). The religious one was what is called as Long count, it start the 11th of august of 3114 BC. It's not clear what that beginning represents, specially taking into account that in that time there were no Mayans, actually no civilization at all in America, so certainly not the beginning of the world, nor the beginning of THEIR world.

Perhaps if we see the other way around that will be more clear. Life did not start in the 11th of August, 3114 BC; it is however around the times when great cultural and historical events begin, the dawn of civilization. 3000 BC is an accepted date for the end of the neolitic period for many cultures, on that millennia many things happened, the first Egyptian dynasty, the foundation of Troy, the construction of New grange, the construction of Stonhenge, the early dynastic period of Mesopotamia, the expansion of the first Sumerian cities, etc. So we can take that date roughly enough as a good approximation of an important beginning in human civilization. Then, the 21st of December 2012 could be the beginning of a big change in human civilization, and maybe in 5000 years (if we don’t drive us to self-extinction due to environmental issues or wars) historians will be saying that that date roughly enough was a good approximation of an important beginning in human civilization.

There is no one single archaeological evidence, codex, or even oral myth of the mayans, nor the aztecs, that talks about the end of the world on that date.

Now this all 2012 end of the world came when there were attempts to synchronize the mayan stones and calendars with the Aztec calendar, it seems that they could synchronize the year, since both have the same structure, how ever, the day of Nahui-Ollin is the fifth of may, not 12th of December (Btw on 5th of may 1519 its said that Cortes decided to conquer the Great Tenochtitlan, however there's little evidence, but in July he arrived to Veracruz and the formal plans started). So, some theories emerge about this era ending with movement (earthquakes) on 2012. After that and adding a lot of New Age rubbish, the "prophecies of the end of the world" emerge.

So, basically we are talking about a cosmological and astronomical date of great significance, yes. Probably the beginning of a new era on conciousness, very likely, at least some of us would like to see it, but a gradual one, not a change from one day to another.

So, don't worry too much about this, and better start being worried about your life, the impact you have on your surroundings, in the enviroment, in the people around you. Do you want to see a global event that could change human history forever? Yes? really?! well, start for yourself!! Be the change you want to see.

The Truth about 2012 from NASA Lunar Science Institute on Vimeo.

My music

Part of the studies about paganism and druidry are focused on trying to expand our creative side, the best way to do this is through the arts, and for me there's nothing better than music.

I have found a way to distribute my music online so that others can download it for free, and I still get paid for it, and obviously still keep all the rights to it.

So if anyone fancy it, please check out the music I will be uploading to my artist profile...

ÆLFARH

As a quick reference, I make a variety of New age/Ambient music

As a bonus, a quantity of the money I make is donated to a charity of my cause. I have chosen World Wildlife Fund (WWF). So if you fancy some free music and wanna help me get paid for doing what I love, and some charity bonus, please check my stuff out

Pagan Past, Pagan Present, are they conected?

Authenticity and coherence are two words that have been around my mind in the last couple of weeks. Interesting discussions have being held on the Caer Feddwyd forum, as well as in the OBOD one.

Neo Paganism is clearly a religious movement that emerges immerse in the post modern movements. One of the main characteristics of post modern thought is that it cuts out any frame of reference to work in a relativistic way. A lot of the New age religions are happy to work this way, using an eclectic mix-it-all, everything is valid as long as “it feels ok” frame of mind.

Even when the origins of neopaganism are way back the postmodern movement, modern neopaganism has not being immune to it, actually the opposite, has welcome it with open arms.

In the particular scenario of celtic paganism there has been a branch, that emerge in the 1980’s that saw that relativistic point of view as something not worth of following, this branch is known as Celtic Reconstructionism (CR). It was the antithesis, the opposite to the romantic druidry that incorporates celtic themes, Greco-roman, hermetic, masonic, general mystic and esoteric, and oriental concepts into its cauldron to get the result. CR, however quickly found that it doesn’t have a great amount of information from which reconstruct the old religion of the Celts, since the Celts were an illiterate civilization, so, apart of a few Classic accounts as the famous Comentarii de Bello Gallico by Gaius Iulius Caesar, and other texts, very little was known. So CR look into the Irish and Welsh medieval texts as the corpus of celtic lore. The scholars since the XIX century have had the theory that those texts were a very accurate source of how the old pagans view their gods and customs, with a little of “interference” of the Christian themes put in them by the medieval Monks. Now, the actual trend in scholarship go for a new look, saying that it is impossible to separate the pagan themes on the medieval texts, and that actually is hard to tell which ones are pagan or not.

Of course every social discipline has its trends, and most of the time we see that trends emerge as antithesis of the previous one, and it’s not until some time that a synthesis can be found, in the continuous spiral of knowledge. Social sciences are not exact, and they depend a lot in suppositions and interpretations, especially when they deal with the past. There is a current scholar trend that is trying too hard to find a Christian Biblical origin for everything in Irish lore, disregarding the pagan themes, opposite to the nativist view that disregard the Christian elements.

But this trend of the academia put CR in a big trouble, the authenticity they claimed is now doubted, some CRs put so much effort in distance themselves of the romantic druids that began to see the medieval Irish and Welsh texts as their “holy books”, and of course if a holy book is debunked, the building shakes.

This could be seen as a battle win by the romantics, that will say, I told you so, it makes no sense in looking hard into the past since it’s not accessible to us, so let’s just take what inspires us and feels ok. One example is how the book The Druids by Ronald Hutton has being taken by the druid community, Ronal Hutton even when it’s a respected scholar, he also has strong links with OBOD and even run a grove, so it’s clear in reading his text that there’s an agenda behind; in his book he portraits an interesting portrait of Druids as archetypes that had being used in different places and different times by people according to its own agendas. Which of course is true, the problems is that he goes further and say that nothing can be known of ancient celtic religion and it’s philosopher-magician class, and of course that is what some romantic obodies wanted to hear.

But, a synthetic point of view is emerging in the celtic pagan and druidry circles, of which I have to say, I’m happy to share opinions. One that see the truth not in the hard CR theories nor in the Romantic Relativistic ones, but somewhere in the middle.

Megli put in the Caer Feddwyd forum an excellent phrase that illustrates very much the point: The only sound basis for religious speculation is a mixture of feeling (experience, intuition, instinct) and judgement (logic, sense, rationality, a sense of coherence.)

I do think that the truth is a mixture, a synthetic view from the opposites. The medieval texts are clearly not pagan tales with Christian dust to be removed, they are product of a syncretic culture that emerge from Ireland after the conversion, and that even today can be witnessed to some extent in the peculiar Irish Catholicism that is practiced.

So, are the medieval texts really not worth of interest to the Celtic pagans? Of course not!, they are of interest, because they have pagan ideas and characters on them, maybe the sources from which the truths we hold arise may be muddy waters indeed but does not the lotus and lily grow best in the swamp? There are several themes that could reflect a pre-christian frame work, war, battle, kingship, young against old, light against darkness, nature of magic and the elements, otherworldly images, etc. that even when not accessible in a straight forward way, can be reached with some work.
The thing is that we can’t rely only on those text, we need to look at the archaeology findings, to the classic accounts, compare them, trying to see the whole picture, we have to view those texts as a whole, and try to find the truth on that tapestry of images. How? Well, that is where the experience, intuition and instinct came into the game, and if that is not enough, then using freely our inspiration to find our way, but always being honest on what is a modern invention and fiction and when it’s not.

Of course studying those texts, reading the available material is a slow process, and could be hard work, the cost a lot of time and, yes also money since books are usually not for free; but if we are not afraid of that the result is a very satisfactory growing of intellectual and spiritual knowledge that fulfils our paths.

Alone – Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then - in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life - was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

This story is not true in the sense that most people use the word. It emerges out of the mists of time, rooted deep in the heritage of Britain. It is a weave of mythologies, theologies, and histories. It is the story of two people, and a story of our peoples. It has no beginning and it has no ending.

The Apple and the Thorn is a story, who explore two iconic characters of mythical England. Vivian, the Lady of the Lake and Joseph of Arimathea. It’s a story where two faiths, two worlds coming together, full of passion and love, of inner thoughts and inner experiences, shared by its authors.

It tells the story from two different points of view, the voice of Vivian is Emma, the voice of Eosaidh (Joseph) is Walter, or you can say that it’s the other way around, they are the voice of the characters; that is something that gives an added value to the reading experience. It appeals to both Christians and Pagans alike, and there’s a beautiful love story inside, not only between the main characters, but a love to the traditions, the nature and the land.

It appeals me the most the part told by Walter on the Eosaidh character, since is a character who grow and learn a lot during the book, he learn to love the land and its spirits, to honour them, in parallel to his love for Vivian, who in contrast, didn’t develop or learn very much during the tale, it lacks of the humility and openness of the one who wants to learn, and is portrait as a person who believes has all the answers and the right path, she just don’t get another way that is no hers; however her character also gives a lot of meaningful experiences about the pagan spirituality that enriches the tale.

In general is a good reading, very easy to go through, once you started it’s difficult to put it down, and at the end gives to the reader a feeling of hope and tolerance, as well as invite to have a reflexion on these both faiths, their weakness and strengths, as with the weakness and strengths of the readers’ own path.