(Note: Updated information about the prophecy has been published in Darkness Before Dawn – Part 1-B)
—
“It was halfway famine, it was halfway feast” [1].
This is the translation of the original Maya prophecy for Katun 2 Ahau (2012-2032). In the next chapters, we will match this prophecy with real trends and we will make realistic forecasts for the next fifteen years.
Physical energy configurations, such as fossil fuel resources and renewable energies, will be factored in, and we will make predictions on how human beings are likely to respond to the challenges facing them in the coming years.
Having the Right Attitude
If we are internally (spiritually, mentally and psychologically) prepared for the external material changes in the world, they will appear to be positive, and our approach to them would be pro-active, courageous, responsible, motivated and engaging.
“As above” (spiritually and internally)
“So below” (materially and externally)
If we are not internally prepared for external changes in the world, they would appear to us on the outside as negative, disastrous, calamitous and unfair, and our approach would be that of fear, denial, evasion, resistance, victimhood and escapism.
A Concise Prophecy
The first thing that we notice about the prophecy for Katun 2 Ahau is that it is reasonably short: “It was halfway famine, it was halfway feast” [1]. This is the section that is considered to be the most important part by translators. The rest of the prophecy consists of a few additional sentences, which we will touch on later.
The wording of the English version differs, depending on the translation and the codex from which it was taken, but “It was halfway famine, it was halfway feast” is Munro S. Edmonson’s interpretation and is from The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel.
Edmonson’s version comes across as less symbolic than other translations as he has already applied some interpretation to the symbolism used; this serves the objectives of this article well as we will use it as a reference point for the rest of our discussion.
Interpreting the Prophecy
The words “feast” and “famine” could be further interpreted in various ways. In the context of our discussion, we will consider these words to generally mean “economic growth” and “economic decline”.
In his book, The Mayan Prophecies, Kenneth Johnson explains that most scholars apply mainly two interpretations to this prophecy – namely, that in half of the Katun there would be prosperity and in the other half poverty or that there would be social disparities between the rich and the poor which would cause a lot of social tensions during the Katun.
Prophecies can sometimes (less commonly) be interpreted literally. The meaning often falls somewhere in between the symbolic and the literal. As a thought experiment, we will consider the possibility of there being a literal meaning, too, during our analyses.
First Easy, Then Difficult
As explained in Part 3, Katuns (19.7-year time periods) are divided into two 9.85 year halves – and the half has a length close to that of a decade. However, Katun-halves do not necessarily start or end at exactly the same time as decades do.
The energy of a Katun ascends during the first half, reaches a peak in the middle and descends during the second half. We will, therefore, assume that the prophecy should be read in reverse, i.e. that the first half of Katun 2 Ahau (2012-2022) will continue to be relatively “easy” (there will be continued economic growth) and that the second half (2022-2032) will be difficult (there will be an economic decline of some sort).
Forecasting and Probability
In order to arrive at some realistic conclusions and make forecasts with a relatively high level of probability, we will take an open and philosophical approach to this broad and complex subject by consulting mainstream as well as quality non-mainstream sources.
Due to our scope being somewhat limited, we will keep it concise while being as comprehensive as possible at the same time. In the process, we will inadvertently touch on issues or topics that are frequently ignored or avoided for reasons that we will also delve into later. But first, let’s start with some context.
Prosperity and Poverty
Presently, we live in the most materially prosperous time in recorded history, notwithstanding the poverty that can still be found in many parts of the world. Considering how familiar we are with the abundance of choice in everything that we do and consume, imagining the arrival of “famine” in a real sense is almost impossible for those of us living in the developed world.
Poverty – unlike famine – is, however, something that we can relate to, at least to an extent, because we come across it often enough. Homelessness can be observed even in the richest countries and, in recent years, the arrival of large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers has added to the phenomenon.
Some people in the developed world may even have come close to poverty themselves due to personal financial crises or temporary local economic downturns. That happened, for example, in several first-world countries after the global financial crisis that started in 2008.
In reality, the average middle-class person is basically only a few lost pay cheques away from poverty. However, unlike in the poorer countries, there are relatively good social support systems and safety nets in place in developed nations that can assist people in getting back on their feet.
An Unbalanced World
The abundant standards of living that people are used to in the first world rely on large volumes of resources and supplies coming in from other parts of the world. People in developed countries have, over time, grown accustomed to having access to a much wider variety of manufactured goods and agricultural produce than what their local environments are able to consistently provide [2].
Virtually all under-developed nations rely on imports, too, but their reasons for importing have usually more to do with survival or with maintaining a basic minimum standard of living as opposed to it being based on demands for having as much variety as possible. Some countries fall somewhere in between with sections of their populations just surviving while other sections live in abundance.
The Making of an Illusion
Abundance can only truly be measured by consuming what is only locally available in order to measure if the environment can support local population numbers and consumption habits. If it can’t, we are overconsuming. If nobody has local abundance anymore, then global abundance is an illusion and everybody is overconsuming everywhere.
The downside of not living within one’s own means as a group is that it makes you reliant upon others, and it also puts a strain on them. The same can be said of unbridled population growth worldwide, regardless of how rich or poor countries are. Ultimately, everybody will be impacted.
In the process of living out the illusion of abundance, the future, in terms of arriving at a reasonable quality of life for everyone worldwide, is being consumed in advance, especially by populations that demand a higher quality of life than others [2].
Limits to Limitlessness
A global economic system that depends on infinite economic growth driven by unlimited resource extraction, coupled with endless hyper-consumption as a lifestyle, has – over time – been exported around the world and virtually all nations have adopted it.
The consequence of this is that the first world has locked itself and the rest of the world into a very specific and very set trajectory, i.e. endless, infinite, unlimited, non-stop material growth and expansion forever – or for as long as the raw materials and fossil fuels would last.
Although it is, perhaps, not always obvious, we actually live on a rather small planet with finite resources. Logically speaking, it is just a matter of time before we do, in fact, start running out. The only question is: “When?” [3].
Catching Up
In the meantime, lots of consumer goods and technology have, in recent years, also become available to those who can afford them in poorer nations, and that has significantly increased the quality of life of people worldwide.
Technology has, in many cases, leapfrogged infrastructure development completely, thereby accelerating the process. Overall, one can thus see a trend where the developing world is increasingly catching up with the developed world, and this is happening as we speak.
Huge progress has been made in infrastructure development, too, especially in developing countries with booming economies, with China being a prime example of how fast such developments can occur.
On the face of it then, one could easily arrive at the conclusion that the nations and peoples who were left behind previously would be able to catch up in the foreseeable future. However, such continued worldwide progress would depend on uninterrupted supplies of affordable fossil fuels and many types of raw materials.
A Precarious Situation
Should, for instance, the flow of resources and food supplies between countries be interrupted or become constrained for some reason, people in most nations would be severely affected. Hardly any countries are self-sufficient anymore, and they all rely on imports and exports.
Having said that, some nations are still more self-sufficient than others, due to being naturally endowed with important raw materials or by having favourable conditions for agriculture and food production. Some countries have smaller populations and, thus, fewer mouths to feed and fewer cars to run – so there’s an overall lower strain on their environments and a lower demand for fossil fuel.
In many poorer nations, there are still people who predominantly rely on local produce due to subsistence living and agricultural lifestyles. People in urban locations in developing countries often still live within cultural environments that are generally more community oriented or more based on a spirit of sharing and that of supporting each other.
Whose paradigm shift is it anyway?
The San people from Southern Africa, considered to be the oldest living tribe on the planet [4], will not experience a major paradigm shift should, for example, food imports stop coming into the countries that they reside in. Many of the San still live from the land – usually in very arid areas – and they continue to hunt for their food and conserve water as traditional practices.
The San people are the epitome of human survival due to having preserved their way of life for centuries. They have resilience. Should, for example, first-world city dwellers experience sudden interruptions in food supplies, experience extended power cuts or find a lack of fuel at filling stations, a complete paradigm shift is guaranteed. Modern-world city dwellers do not have resilience.
Another example of people with resilience is the Amish community in the USA who have maintained their rural way of life for hundreds of years in communities that are based on self-reliance, self-sufficiency and simplicity. Importantly, they have avoided becoming too dependent on advanced technologies. The most likely paradigm shift for the Amish would be city dwellers arriving in their rural areas asking for assistance with survival.
That being said, even the Amish and the present-day Maya people in Central America (for example) rely on goods that are brought to local markets with vehicles that operate on fuel and diesel. Therefore, should there be any form of fuel supply shortages in general, even more- resilient groups would have to adapt. However, due to having preserved and maintained most of their survival skills, along with their orientation towards simple living, it would be much easier for them to cope than for the majority of consumer-oriented city dwellers who simply don’t have any reference points for “going back in time”.
J.J. Montagnier is a futurologist and travelosopher based in South America. His writings on the Mayan calendars are intuitively inspired and are influenced by his knowledge of Jungian psychology. The author visited Central America in 2015 to do research on the subject. This article has been written for general consumption and some concepts have been simplified. The views and opinions are those of the author.
Copyright © 2018 · All Rights Reserved · Gypsy Café
[Please note that this series is a work in progress and some edits to the content may occur after publication. Some content initially earmarked for follow-up chapters might eventually only appear in later chapters due to limitatons in scope of each chapter. Final versions with expanded content will later appear in e-book format].
The Energy Shifts series now has a dedicated home at: http://energyshifts.net/
References & Statistics:
- Edmonson, Heaven Born Merida and its Destiny, p. 228.
List of countries by food consumption: https://ourworldindata.org/food-per-person - List of countries by food energy intake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake
- World food waste statistics: http://www.theworldcounts.com/counters/world_food_consumption_statistics/world_food_waste_statistics
- Which countries waste the most food? https://wastelesssavemore.sainsburys.co.uk/whats-happening/swadlincote/blog/which-countries-waste-the-most-food
- List of countries by oil consumption: https://www.indexmundi.com/energy/?product=oil&graph=consumption&display=rank
- List of countries by oil Imports: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_imports
- To be explored in the next article – in the meantime please see the Video: Final Warning – Limits to Growth.
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/worlds-most-ancient-race-traced-in-dna-study-1677113.html
Main Resources:
The Mayan Prophecies – The Renewal of the World 2012 – 2072, by Kenneth Johnson, (published in 2012).
The Book of Destiny – Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Mayans and the Prophecy of 2012, by Carlos Barrios (published in 2009). [1] [2].
The Historical Value of the Books of Chilan Balam. Author(s): Sylvanus Griswold Morley. Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Apr. – Jun., 1911), pp. 195-214.
The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, by Ralph Roys (published in 1933).
The Katun Prophecies of the Paris Codex. Thesis by James V. Rauff. Loyola University Chicago.
4 Comments
JJ,
Interesting ideas, but I wonder if the paradigm shifts will be what we imagine. First, I wonder if third world countries will wake up and alter their paths before they fall into the same distorted ideas of “progress” that the first world countries brag about. Yes, we have flush toilets and processed food, but are they really better than traditional methods?
Cultures like the San and the Amish are commendable, but they risk being overrun or undermined by “progress” too. They risk having their land and water poisoned or stolen, for instance.
I fear for the third world countries that follow the first world’s example, but their governments have been seduced into believing this is the only path to prosperity. Yet the US, for one, is in debt until the sun burns out, and we are drowning in environmental toxins and unsavory attitudes.
Katharine,
Thank you for commenting and for the points you raise. I will be elaborating on some of the reasons why we seem to be so stuck on the same path, but in the case of the developing countries – they look up to the developed world and they are inspired and motivated by it to emulate it – the “glittering prize” of reaching the same level of development is much stronger than keeping themselves down. So for this reason, but also others, I don’t think many countries would be holding themselves back – anyway, the only way to remain economically competitive and relevant and to stimulate economies is to keep on going – basically the world’s financial system is integrated and nobody is allowed to fall off the wagon.
Absolutely correct about indigenous cultures and communities – and in many cases they have been forced to modernise or relocate – due to the things you mention. On the point of pollution and contamination – this is increasingly a problem worldwide – I can see the pollution everywhere where I go to here in South America – and I have also noticed that people don’t seem to care all that much about it either. You also very rightly point out that the economic system is debt based and virtually all countries have debt-based economies, but some are more in debt that others. The illusion of abundance is funded by debt… which means its even a bigger illusion than we realise.
Hi Jacques,
Great post. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that while many Americans believe they are living in the best and most powerful nation in the world, our overconsumption and reliance on other peoples’ resources makes us incredibly vulnerable. Should the flow of resources be stopped, the situation here might get quite dire.
I can even see this happening in the not-too-distant future. As America’s dominance slips, and as ecological and social crises intensify around the world, people in developing countries may well decide that they’re tired of providing for our hedonic lifestyles. Should that happen, it would not be long before the Sun set on the American Empire.
As a side note, I’ve decided that if I go for a PhD, I’m going to seriously look into enrolling in a Canadian school. Not that this decision is in any way related to my projections for the US’ future.
Josh, I think you have summed up very well the situation for several first world nations that are heavily dependent on external resources, especially fossil fuels and food imports – the smaller nations are less vulnerable, I will elaborate more in my next post about the possibility of an energy crisis and whether we will be able to convert to renewable energies in time before we run out of fossil fuels.
A PHD in Canada sounds like a great idea – Canada is an amazing country for bio-diversity – I’m sure you will have loads of outdoors exploration opportunities out there. I think some countries are better than others in terms of transitioning to a simpler way of life if/when/should circumstances call for it. For that Canada’s probably a good bet. I haven’t visited there yet, but would love to go – they have awesome trekking and hiking (and photography) opportunities.