Amid intense worldwide speculation about what will actually occur on December 21, 2012, The Living Maya presents an accessible introduction to contemporary Mayan culture and the details of the 2012 phenomenon. By focusing on the valuable lessons that the Maya has to teach us in this time of transition, it immerses readers into this rich indigenous culture and offers a fresh view. According to Philip Lucas PhD, “Sitler’s approach is balanced, informed, heartfelt, and profoundly respectful of the wisdom of Mayan traditions.”
Based on the strong belief that if people hope to gain a better-informed appreciation of the potential significance of 2012, we must look to the Maya themselves for answers, Sitler provides his personal perspectives and experiences interweaving them with factual information and years of research into the roots of traditional Mayan practices. Offering a rare multi-faceted view of the Mayan way of life in Mexico and Guatemala, Sitler invites his readers to discover firsthand what traditional Mayan life was like—a community of people living in peace with each other and their physical surroundings—and to delve into the core dimensions of this long forgotten culture.
In this roadmap to healing ourselves and our planet, by adopting modern Mayan wisdom, readers are shown how following “the Mayan way” can help us ground our lives in harmony with nature, broaden our perspectives on human existence, connect us with our capacity for compassion, and use the vaunted cataclysm of 2012 as a unique chance for growth. “Anyone who acknowledges that our crumbling family cohesiveness and fast-paced urban lifestyles are toxic and alienating should pay attention to this message. It is another universe of human potential, but one which, if we pay attention, helps us to listen to our own heartbeat,” echoes Barbara MacLeod, PhD.
Chapter 1 Pg. 15-16:
The 2012 Phenomenon
A recent Google search requesting online items that included both the terms “Maya” and “2012” produced more than four million electronic references, a figure that has doubled in less than one year! This massive and expanding internet presence mirrors a rapidly growing virtual library of books and other media focusing on the topic. I have attempted to stay abreast of this 2012 phenomenon for several years and now feel familiar with the main ideological currents that circulate there. Given the extraordinary level of public interest in the Mayan calendar and this anxiously anticipated date, it has been surprising to find that most materials currently circulating about 2012 have only superficial connections to the realities of the Mayan world and that the overwhelming majority of the content in the 2012 phenomenon is inadequately researched misinformation.
To some extent, this is because the Maya themselves have thus far had relatively little input into shaping our thinking about 2012. Even today, only a tiny number of Maya have had any exposure to the topic. The Long Count calendar that the 2012 date emerges from fell into disuse well before the arrival of the Spanish invaders in the sixteenth century, and knowledge of its rediscovery by Western academics has reached extremely few of today’s Maya apart from the most educated. In fact, if you could somehow randomly select a hundred adults from across the Mayan world, I think you would be fortunate to find even a single person who has even heard of 2012, much less a Maya who could tell you something about its significance. Ironically, given its supposedly Mayan underpinnings, the 2012 phenomenon has been almost exclusively non-Maya; but as 2012 makes its way into popular media in the Mayan area, as it is certain to do, these circumstances will change quickly and may have strong social and political impacts, especially in Guatemala.
Contrary to what many of my colleagues in the academic community assume, the 2012 phenomenon’s origins are not in New Age circles but lie instead within the ivory tower itself. The first contemporary reference to the potential significance of the date was made by an astronomer at Vassar College named Maud Makemson, who stated in 1951 that “the completion of a great cycle of thirteen baktuns would indeed be an occasion of the highest expectation” for the Maya. Some fifteen years later, the esteemed Mayanist Michael Coe mentioned that “there is a suggestion … that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the thirteenth [baktun]. Thus … our present universe [would] be annihilated … when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion.” Since then, due to the extraordinary volume of unfounded speculation that has arisen in the last two decades surrounding 2012, this cultural phenomenon has fallen into extreme disrepute among most serious scholars. In fact, academic disdain for the hyperbole of the 2012 phenomenon has reached such an intense level that the primary computer Listserv for Mayan scholars, Aztlan-
L, now explicitly bans all 2012-related posts, and the esteemed archaeoastronomer
Anthony Aveni has dedicated an entire book to discounting what he views as 2012 madness, labeling it “the fashion of our times.”
” … my heartfelt sense is that some of the most valuable Mayan guidance for us comes not from distant stars, but from the culture’s powerful connections with the physical planet beneath their feet. These eminently practical lessons from the Maya have the potential to “ground” our lives more harmoniously in nature’s infinitely complex ways, to broaden our perspectives on human existence, and to connect us more substantively with our innate capacity for compassion.”
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