This is a continuation of my review of 2012: The Beginning, an intriguing new documentary on 2012. In the previous post I focused primarily on the contribution of the Mayan participants. In this post I will cover the contribution of Western scholars, some mainstream and some "non-traditional."
At the top of the batting order is one of my all-time favorites, Geof Stray. As you may recall I previously devoted a full post to Stray's chapter in The Mystery of 2012 and I later ran a three-part review of his more recent book, Beyond 2012 -- Catastrophe or Awakening?
Stray compares the Mayan 2012 prophesy with the Maori notion of the dissolving of the veil between the physical and spiritual planes, a concept which we have discussed in several previous posts. Unfortunately, that is pretty much the extent of his contribution. It is really too bad that he didn't have much more on-camera time.
On the other hand, we see a great deal of John Major Jenkins, another acknowledged authority in the field. Like Stray, Jenkins has been studying the 2012 question for about 25 years, starting way, way, way before it became a pop culture fixture.
According to Jenkins his interest has "...always been driven by getting to the heart of the mystery." He says his work has "...never been about doomsday....in fact, quite the opposite...." His focus has been on the more spiritual aspects and, echoing the words of the Mayan shamans, on the possibility for transformation and renewal. He also adds that such period endings require a "sacrifice of the illusions that keep us imprisoned by the values and beliefs of the previous cycle...."
In an especially evocative scene Jenkins is filmed examining the rarely seen Tortuguero Monument 6, the only Mayan stella that explicitly mentions the December 21, 2012 date. It is literally kept under wraps at the Carlos Pellicer Museum in Villahermosa, Tobasco, Mexico and can only be viewed by special permission, which the film crew was obviously able to secure.
Jenkins is visibly awed to be in its presence as he points out some of its more salient features.......his pointing finger hovering just above the stone's surface, but never quite touching it. According to him the monument is the "key to understanding what the ancient Maya were thinking about."
Michael Grofe, a more traditional Maya scholar and an adjunct professor of anthropology at nearby American River College, discusses the divide between those scholars who are willing to entertain the possibility that the Maya were genuinely interested in the 2012 end date and those who "dismiss the entire thing." He notes that the latter group is probably turned off by its association with the apocalyptic, end-of-the-world slant and/or with New Age ideas such as the "rebirth of consciousness".
He judiciously places himself somewhere in the middle, thus signaling that he at least has an open mind on the subject.
Barbara MacLeod is an independent anthropologist specializing in the Mayan language and she, too, talked about the split between the "New Agers" and the traditional scholars, noting that "rocks are being thrown on both sides," a schism that she would like to see healed.
Evidently she has made the most comprehensive available decipherment of Tortuguero Monument 6, having first started working on it in the 1970's, so she speaks with some authority when she postulates the notion that there is indeed a paradigm shift currently going on.
Edwin Barnhart, Director of the Maya Exploration Center in Palenque, Mexico, is another mainstream scientist, and his focus is on what they, the Maya, are saying about 2012. Echoing Jenkins above, he believes that they see the turns of baktuns, such as the one rapidly approaching, as "an opportunity to change," as "a time to put away things that have gone stale," an act which will require "the bravery...to change."
There were also interesting contributions by archaeologist David Sedat, revisiting a rarely seen tomb, and Robert Sitler, a Mayanist whom we have encountered previously, explaining the Mayan calendar system.
..........To Be Continued
