THE ORIGINAL MAYAN PROPHECIES
by Kenneth Johnson
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The Mayan K’atun Cycle is detailed in the collection of manuscripts known as the books of Chilam Balam and was yet another time-wheel that marked the predictable changes in sacred time as they manifested themselves in human life and human history. Knowing the movement and flow of the cycle, one knows the rhythm of history itself, which thus becomes predictable. Pattern in history becomes the basis of prophecy, for the pattern can be relied upon to repeat itself eternally. This attitude towards history as an eternally repeating process is embedded deep within the Mayan consciousness.
After Cortez sent the Aztec Empire crashing into destruction, his fellow conquistadors began carving up pieces of Mesoamerica for themselves. Though the conquest of Yucatan was slow, most of the peninsula was under Spanish rule by the mid-1550s, but the village shamans of Yucatan continued writing down their knowledge, preserving it for the benefit of descendants yet unborn
Though hieroglyphic writing had vanished in the Yucatan, the Maya were quick to learn the new Western alphabet. Many villages had a town clerk who could read and write. The Maya secretly continued to preserve the memory of their ancient ways in their own language, even if in a different alphabet. The copyists were often the village schoolteachers or “choirmasters.” Because these individuals were responsible for basic education and for the liturgical music sung in churches, they were among the members of the population most likely to be taught to read and write. One wonders if the Spanish priests were aware of what their schoolteachers and choirmasters were doing after working hours when they sat in their homes, writing by candle light, carefully recording ancient writings that were definitely not Christian.
Each 20-year prophetic cycle had a “thaan” or “word” which encapsulates the entire cycle. I have included the thaan which marks the tone for each of the coming cycles in both English and in the original Yucatec Mayan so that one may verify the prophetic statements listed here.
K’atun 2 Ahau
December 22, 2012- September 7, 2032
Tan cochhom uii i; tan cochhom uah i.
It was halfway famine; it was halfway feast. (Chilam Balam of Chumayel) [1]
We entered the 20-year k’atun of 2 Ahau on Dec 22, 2012, and it will continue until September 7 of 2032. The message is: “It was halfway famine; it was halfway feast,” which refers to an increasing social disparity of “the haves and have nots.” Here are some examples from previous 2 Ahau k’atuns.
731 to 751 – This was the cultural apex of the Tang Dynasty of China. The Emperor ruled over a powerful kingdom which is known for the extraordinary poetry and painting it produced. But during this twenty-year cycle the emperor became increasingly absorbed in his relationship with his concubine. Life was good for those who were ensconced within the Emperor’s inner circle, but his complete lack of attention to domestic politics created unrest among those whose needs were ignored.
1500 to 1520 -- The social disparities that arose in this cycle were even more extreme. In Europe, frustration and anger over corruption within the Catholic Church became rife as “princes of the church” acquired wealth through the selling of indulgences, ecclesiastical offices, and so on. Salvation had a price. On the other side of the world, states subject to the Aztec Empire increasingly perceived themselves as mere tools for imperial policies.
1756 to 1776 -- The British colonists in North America had been useful in the wars between England and France for control of the continent, but the wars were over and the colonials were rewarded only with increasingly oppressive taxes. Resistance began. A similar process took place in France, where the royal family was dangerously out of touch with the populace. Though the tale of Marie Antoinette’s remark – “If they have no bread, let them eat cake” – is most likely apocryphal, it serves as a symbol of social inequity as perceived by the common people.
The cycle of 2012-2032 began with the “Occupy” movement. The movement’s slogan, “We are the 99 per cent,” points uncompromisingly to a perception that the modern world has once again become sharply divided into the “haves and the have nots.” We are twelve years into the k’atun now and the polarization of society has become sharper and more extreme; The vaxxers vs. the anti-vaxxers, Israel vs. Gaza, and Trump vs. the World. I registered for the draft during the peak of the Vietnam War; American society feels more polarized to me now than it did even in that turbulent epoch. Cybernetic technology has created its own category of “haves” and “have nots.” Individuals who are too young for retirement and social security are unable to obtain work because their potential jobs are quickly taken by younger people with better technological skills. A simple laborer in search of employment who is told to submit a detailed resume online might just as well be told to eat cake when he needs bread.
K’atun 13 Ahau
(September 8, 2032- May 25, 2052)
Emom u kikel che y etel tunich. Elom caan y etel luum.... Ho p’el kin uil chian kin, ca bin pacatnac.
Descended will be the blood of sticks and stones. Burned will be heaven and earth.... For five days the sun shall be eclipsed, then it shall be seen again. (Chumayel) [2]
The k’atun prophecy for 13 Ahau predicts an eclipse lasting five days. Many 13 Ahau k’atuns have come and gone throughout history. At no time has an eclipse lasting five days ever been recorded. But the idea of an eclipse that lasts for days is a world-wide poetic metaphor for a “world turned upside down,” as can be seen, for example, in the story of the beginning of Kali Yuga in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. There is a Hopi word that describes this cycle: koyanisqaatsi, which means “a world out of balance.” There is another word from the Quechua language of the Incas. It is pachacuti, which quite literally means “the world turned upside down.” When the disparities inherent in K’atun 2 Ahau are not addressed by world leaders and problems are not solved, they reach a boiling point. Then they explode, and the natural order of the world is overturned.
751-71: China went into full revolt against the Emperor, who had failed utterly to pay attention to the act of governing. A military leader mobilized an army and launched a rebellion. The courtesan who was held responsible for the emperor’s lack of interest in governing was assassinated. The world of the Tang Dynasty – the apex of classical Chinese culture – was turned upside down.
1520-39: The edifice of Medieval Christendom came toppling down. A monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, sparking northern Europe into a Protestant Revolution against Catholic hierarchy. During the same year, a conquistador named Hernan Cortez was forcibly ejected from the Aztec capitol of Tenochtitlan. Instead of giving up, he mobilized the leaders of the subject states to revolt against their Aztec overlords. While historians disagree on the precise nature of her role, legend has it that Cortez was greatly helped by a nineteen-year-old slave girl, commonly called Malinche, who had extraordinary linguistic abilities and a gift for fiery rhetoric. Herself a citizen of one of the subject kingdoms who had been sold into slavery, she knew what to say. The Aztec Empire was conquered. Within a few years, another pachacuti occurred farther south when Pizarro brought the Inca Empire of Peru under Spanish control.
1776-96: It was just a few months after the beginning of this cycle that rebellious colonials in North America signed the Declaration of Independence and went into revolt against Britain. By the time the k’atun came to an end, France had taken the same path. The dominant form of political polity – monarchies ruled by noble families – was replaced by nation states ruled by parliamentary governments. The world had once again been turned upside down.
A cynic would say: “There’s always a war going on somewhere.” While this is true enough, all the 13 Ahau k’atuns I have cited above gave rise to revolutions which had a global rather than a purely local impact.
If we fail to respond to the need to bring our new technological world into greater harmony with a greater number of living beings, the pattern of history will need to replicate itself; what we refuse to do by choice will be done by cataclysm.
Somewhere, in a place yet unknown and with skills yet untested, a new Malinche is waiting.
Ka’tun 11 Ahau
(May 26, 2052 – February 10, 2072)
Emom can u al; emom canal utz’ub. Pecnom u pax, pecnom u tzoot, Ah Bolon y Oc Te.
The heavenly fan, the heavenly bouquet shall descend. The drum and rattle of Ah Bolon-yocte shall resound. (Chumayel) [3]
After the storm and the fury, the cataclysm and the revolution, after the world has been overturned, the god Bolon Oc Te will descend to plant a new World Tree, a new world brought into being.
After the world has been “turned upside down,” it must be set right again. The first act of setting the world right again is to raise the central axis of the universe, the great World Tree or World Mountain of shamanic cosmology. Whether at the beginning of a world age or at the beginning of a new 260-year prophetic cycle, Bolon Oc Te must raise that tree again. He descends with his fan and his heavenly perfume, as well as with his drum and rattle. He is here to perform a dance, a dance of the world’s creation, an ageless and timeless dance performed many times before.
And it is around this tree that we all must dance.
[1] Edmonson, Heaven Born Merida and its Destiny, p. 228.
[2] Edmonson, Heaven Born Merida and its Destiny, p. 255, and Roys, Chumayel, p. 134.
[3] Maya text, Edmonson, Heaven Born Merida, pp. 114-5. English, Roys, Chumayel, p. 133.