Initiations are electrifying experiences. We need a SHOCK to the system to cleanse it out, circulating that chi, purifying ourselves as we go through a spiritual making of medicine.
“A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.” – Gurdjieff
This is why the great mystic GI Gurdjieff, a teacher of radical transformation would create unsettling situations for his adept initiates. The loyal followers of his 4th way teachings were shocked into enlightenment. As Gurdjieff so bluntly put it “A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.”
Even today western esoteric organizations carry out illuminating rituals and dramas that shock the initiate. One’s circle of light is amplified and expanded through these immersive conscious expanding experiences that the we call initiation. Without that shock to the system the experience would not be the same. Fasting can be one of those shocking experiences that allow you to reflect and process in order to purify while receiving the temporal benefits that come from it.
“I fast for greater physical and mental efficieny” – Plato
A number of scientific studies have suggested intermittent fasting has numerous health benefits, while mystical studies such as those carried out by members of the Rosicrucian order, AMORC suggest numinous benefits. So what exactly is fasting?
If you were to pose that question to a practitioner of the Jainism tradition, the Jain would likely inform you that fasting is a method of healing that is significantly more beneficial than taking medicine or healing herbs.
Making Our Medicine
Allowing our temple, the temporal human body, to become one with the duality of the ouroboros by eating itself in an effort to regenerate itself, through fasting is a way to detach from that which owns us. You don’t let the impulse of food control you, you control it by exercising your will and strengthening it.
Today marks the end of my three day “water only” fast. I Initiated this illuminating process on August 8th and did so without even realizing it was the Lions Gate, a cosmic alignment and portal considered to be a gateway into higher realms of consciousness. During this time, I began my fast.
I haven’t consumed any food since sundown on August 8th. When I woke up before sunrise on the following morning I felt called to fast without any prior planning. My three day end point would be on one of the most significant dates on the Mayan Calendar – but this alignment was unintentional.
For the avoidance of food, I grabbed my bicycle and peddled ferociously for the next forty five minutes. This not only changed my breath, but in doing so changed my consciousness by producing a meditative flow. A suitable state for a moment of truth.
It was a spontaneous decision to restrain myself from my relationship with food for the next three days but for reasons I can not explain; I felt compelled to answer this inner calling. On most occasions my instincts serve me well, so I followed the pull that felt like a divine order. A spark of inspiration.
It wasn’t until after I made a post on Facebook about my decision to fast and invited friends to join me that I realized the astrological significance of the dates I established. I began crossing the threshold by starting my water only fast on the date of the Lions Gate, before passing through the gate hungry as a lion.
These sort of synchronistic events have a way of aligning themselves with significant moments in our lives, and often confirm that we are on our path.
For Example:
When my wife and I planned our wedding, a traditional Maya ceremony celebrated at the ancient ruins of Uxmal for the 24th of July, we didn’t realize our special occasion would land on last day of the Maya year. We originally planned to explore a mysterious cave recently discovered by locals on the 24th followed by the wedding ceremony on July 25, and falling on the Maya Day Out of Time, but we decided to shift some things around in order to get married first. This enabled us to spend our honey moon doing what we love – exploring ancient caves, pyramids and ancient temples throughout the Yucatan peninsula.
What is the Maya Day Out of Time?
July 25 is called The Day Out of Time and is based on a theory linked to the Mayan Tzolkin Calendar.
The Day out of time is the culmination of the Thirteen Moon Calendar year originated from the Mayan sacred science of time. On this day Sirius (the dog star) rises with the sun.
It’s also worth mentioning that we were married by one of the Yucatán’s most venerated J’men (Shaman) whom conferred our traditional Mayan wedding ceremony. He would also bear witness to what we felt was an unusual event.
Immediately following the day keepers closing words at our wedding, a large stone fell from the sky. The cosmic period at the end of a sacred sentence.
We all stood with a look of disbelief, taking a pause to process what had just happened, but the shaman broke our silence. He confirmed that it was a sign of approval from the gods.
Our plan to marry on this day, the last day of the Maya calendar cycle was unintentional, yet it symbolically reflects the closing of a cycle for us and the beginning of a new one. A chymical wedding indeed:
For the three days spend fasting I not only abstained from food but took a break from social media as well. I used most of the time to meditate, read, research and work on writing my upcoming book. While reviewing my notes on the Maya, I realized another synchronicity was about to occur.
What I came to realize is that my three day water only fast not only started on the Lions Gate but it would end on August 11th, the Mayan day of creation.
Maya Day of Creation
The Mayan Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Maya’s creation date of 4 Ahaw, 8 Kumk’u (August 11, 3114).
This a highly significant calendar and along with that date is linked to the so called Maya 2012 End Date prophecy that the mainstream media took overtly and spun out of context. This collective thought took flight manifesting fear among the uninitiated.
We’ve been bombarded by an influx of misinformation on the internet. Who hasn’t seen images of the Aztec sun stone as the Mayan calendar?
But it was the mainstream media who made famous this day on the Mayan calendar.
This wasn’t the Maya’s first public appearance before paparazzi and press. The enigmatic Maya civilization has been making head lines in the media since pioneering Yucatan explorer John Lloyd Stephens and illustration artist Frederick Catherwood stumbled upon the pyramid site of Copan in 1839, and penned Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán. The book went on to become a best seller, giving the public a view into the ancient landscape of this nearly lost civilization. It propelled the Maya to stardom.
So little was known about the Maya however they managed to have a profound impact on our imaginations for several centuries.
Today the Maya civilization is considered to be the greatest of all new world cultures and known to be the only fully literate society in Mesoamerica. The Mayan adepts were naked eye astronomers. They kept track of the age of the moon. They recorded eclipse cycles and calendars for synchronization of the cycles of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They archived records of cosmological events that they observed without the use of modern technology, relying on repetition and volume. A true attest to the persistence of the Maya people of ancient Mexico and perhaps the Olmec mother culture before them.
The milk way illuminated the nights sky, venerated by the Maya and thought of as a crocodile. As the sun sets each night, Xibalba, the underworld, rotates above the earth and becomes their night sky. The Mysteries of the Maya never expire for they are timeless.
We’ve only come to better understand the Maya over the last two decades.
It was the enlightened minds of a renegade group of archeologists, iconographers, epigraphers, artists and amateurs. Sometimes it takes this outside the box line of thinking to break ground.
The cast of cosmic decoding characters include Linda Schele, David Freidel, David Kelley, Peter Matthews, Michael Coe, Floyd Lounsbury, Merle Greene, George Stuart – and later his son David Stuart, who meticulously worked on finally cracking the Maya code.
Cracking The Mayan Code
But this unusual crew made waves only after the first major break through came from an unlikely candidate. In 1952 Russian Yuri Knorozov proposed that the Maya system might be similar to Egyptian Hieroglyphics. His theory suggested that it could be a system composed of word signs representing the sounds of syllables.
Early Mayan scholars disregarded his work, but we must take into consideration hat this was at the beginning of the Cold War with Russia. It was in the interest of western scholars to erect a wall of resistance around the work coming out of Russia.
I believe Yuri Knorozov was on to something significant with his overt comparison of Maya glyphs to Egyptian hieroglyphs, but he fails to recognize the esoteric implications of the glyphs in Egypt as pointed out by RA Schwaller de Lubicz in his doctrine of the Anthropocosm.
Schwaller’s great work broke free from obscurity and was brought to light when championed by my mentor, the late symbolist author and rogue Egyptologist, John Anthony West:
Traveling to Mexico, inspired by the great work of the aforementioned masters and my travels throughout Egypt with John Anthony West, I began to wonder how the Mayan glyphs and temples compared that of the ancient Egyptians. I began researching the Maya through the eyes of a symbolist applying Schwaller’s metaphysical approach using number pythagorean mysticism as one of sevaral lenses and integrated other esoteric insights to help develop a deeper understanding for Mayan art and architecture. Does the high wisdom of the ancient Maya parallel that of the ancient Egyptians?
Did the Maya possess an understanding for the principle, process and function of the number mysticism encoded in their glyphs? Are the Mayan ruins living temples, reflections of man below in relationship to cosmos above? Putting the esoteric and harmonic proportions aside, one can overtly see how the monster mask face on the acropolis at Ek Balam comes alive.
We give a full explanation of the esoteric aspects depicted in the image above on site during our annual community adventure, a symbolist tour of Mexico: The Mysteries of the Maya intensive study trip.
The Maya civilization received a resurgence in popularity in the late 1990s when the mainstream started to perpetuate the end date scenario of the Mayan Calendar.
In his 1998 book, Maya Cosmogenesis, John Major Jenkins shed new light on the subject opening the door for a plethora of 2012ologists. One of his primary influences, Jose Arguellas, is author of The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology.
If we dig deeper down the rabbit hold we find Frank Waters and his Mexico Mystique, the Coming of the Sixth World of Consciousness as the root source of inspiration for this new age line of thinking. His book could be considered the cornerstone for the doctrine that states the date is aligned with the end of the physical world.
Mayan 2012 End Date Prophecy
2012 has come and gone and while the temporal world as we know it did not end, an astronomical event did take place indicating that a cycle has expired, and therefore experiencing a resurrection.
By following the trail of the historic records and applying discernment we can demystify the end date 2012 Mayan prophecy. This makes the Maya no less valid as they were indeed metaphysical masters of time and measure.
Just as the the primordial cycle before the Maya Day of Creation expires, my three day water-only food fast has come to end. This was a time and space for making my medicine. A purification process.
I come out of this living resurrection reborn with a renewed feeling, enhanced mobility, heightened sensibilities, and body regenerated. My medicine has been made and the mysteries of the Maya have not been lost in the midst of time.
P.S.
I’m leading another intensive study tour through the Yucatan peninsula to experience and study the Mysteries of the Maya. This is a symbolist tour of Mexico unlike any other exploration. This is an Adept Expedition. If you feel called to join us click this link: The Mysteries of the Maya intensive study trip & community adventure.
