The Most Important Year in Our Lifetime

by Emanuel Kuntzelman

In both the literal and symbolic sense, we are living in a time of great evolutionary change, and in my opinion, we can’t really talk about what the year 2012 means for us as a global community without addressing the Mayan calendar and its prophesies surrounding this momentous year.

There are many misconceptions that have accompanied these prophesies regarding Dec. 21, 2012. For those who have not spent much time reading about the extraordinary Mayan civilization and their calendar, I want to take a moment to emphasize the science behind this transformational time in which we now find ourselves, and the incredible knowledge the Mayans had regarding the cosmos and evolutionary cycles.

The first time the significance of 2012 came across my radar was back in the late 1980s. I was reading an article by José Argüelles, who was one of the first researchers to reveal the significance of the Mayan calendar and its 2012 end date. The Mayan civilization was very sophisticated, particularly in their knowledge of astronomy. Without the use of our modern technology and powerful telescopes, this ancient civilization was able to calculate our 26,000 year cycle within the Milky Way galaxy, and how the night sky is not fixed, or rather, how the earth moves 1 degree every 72 years in its relation to the constellations.

The fact that the Mayans were able to understand such subtle changes in the cosmos is a testament to their patience and respect for Nature and the heavens. Their calendar is based on years of meticulous observation, and their understanding of our evolutionary cycles is not to be dismissed. Even though the Mayan calendar abruptly ends Dec. 21, 2012, this doesn’t by any means signal an apocalyptic vision or end of times. It does, however, signal the end of a great cycle, a 26,000 year cycle, and the beginning of a new era.

Whether you believe in these prophesies or not, we have been given a symbol for transformational change, one we are already clearly in the midst of at the present time. The current processes of social organization and world economy are not sustainable. The industrial growth model of the past 150 years has to change, and why not choose this year, 2012, to say this is the time change really does take place? 

What does the end of a 26,000 year cycle have to do with global change? The important thing to understand is that we are currently crossing the center of the galactic plane and finding ourselves in a new position within the cosmos. If we think of this momentous event in terms of the changes we find when we cross the equator, we can see this could potentially create major shifts in perspective.

Despite the great significance based on the winter solstice of Dec.21, 2012 as the moment of large scale change, many astronomers say this singular “moment” could actually take place anywhere in an 18 year time span. The sun blocks part of our ability to measure our orientation with the plane of the Milky Way, causing room for error in the Mayans’ predicted timeline for when the earth will cross the threshold of our galactic equator. Rather than a specific date, this could have taken place anywhere from 1998 to 2016, so pinpointing one day is a little arbitrary.

Although Dec. 21 makes a fine date in terms of being a symbol in the great change of an era, I don’t think anyone needs to worry about going to bed on Dec. 20 and waking up the next day to see the whole world has changed overnight. I prefer to look at this year as the beginning of a transformation into higher consciousness, one where our society reorganizes into a global community based on principles of compassion and cooperation instead of our current pursuits of the separate self and the competitive struggle of the rugged individual.

Now what, we might ask, does this mean for us normal human beings sitting at home trying to get a grasp on personal transformation? In my lecture series and discussions of wave theories, I’ve described this as moving through the trough of a wave and literally changing directions in the evolutionary process. I think this is the time, or at least this is a good enough symbol, to say ‘now is our moment.’

When a wave does hit its trough and starts to move upward, everything changes, just as crossing the equator or the Milky Way creates a shift. The spiral energy reverses flow, and all the momentum of the materialistic age suddenly comes to an end. As we shift our momentum to ascend the opposite side of our evolutionary wave, we literally enter a whole new order of perception. We begin to see ourselves, and the purpose of our lives, in a completely new perspective.

If the old perspective was our obsession with the separate self and the search for meaning and enlightenment within the context of the psychology of the individual mind, the new perspective is a quest for meaning within shared experiences as they are perceived by others. No matter how deep of an understanding of the individual self we obtain, unless we find a way to share this information and make it useful to fellow humanity, it really has no meaning.  When we take action, network, and cooperate at a grand social level, this movement will take on more strength and more power bringing humankind together in the common understanding of compassion and cooperation for the good of the whole.

We all know in our hearts that this shift in perspective is the one, just, moral way to organize our society. Yet, for hundreds of years we’ve been locked in this material drive brought about from the need of physical survival and comfort and organization – which has been very useful in the natural process of evolution, but it has served its purpose. It’s time to find a deep social and environmental concern with planet earth, and give it the respect and love it needs as a true mother of humankind.

The shift in perspective depends on each of us to take action for compassionate change. It starts by reaching out to friends and family members, reconnecting and deepening ties, or patching up old grievances and misunderstandings to truly make our social circles loving and cooperative.

When we do this with unconditional compassion, and take action with an honest intention to share love and good will, we gain confidence to move further outward in our connection to the community network. Global change requires positive action and a commitment to the understanding that it is our moral duty to serve the global community, and figure out within ourselves what is the best way we can do this. What are our skills, talents, inclinations, and how can we best serve humanity and mother earth?

Once we get insight into our personal passions, then we can begin to dedicate ourselves to a new course of action to promote social justice, higher understanding, and cooperation between all of our fellow human beings. In this important year ahead of us, we must make 2012 as a symbol of a movement from the separate self to the holistic human, a shift from competition to cooperation and a global transformation from callousness to compassion. This is our singular moment in a momentous new year.