Will the world end in 2012? Or is it merely another unfounded, unyielding Y2K scare?
CU and Naropa students gathered Tuesday in Eaton Humanities to attend a talk given by Mayan elder Miguel Angel Chiquin, regarding Mayan beliefs about Dec. 21, 2012.
After an impressive number of eager students piled into the hall, Chiquin was introduced by Arturo Aldama, Ph.D., CU’s associate chair of ethnic studies. Aldama then invited the audience to help themselves to homemade tamales, chips and soda before the talk began.
Chiquin’s talk was translated by Aldama. He said Mayan beliefs concerning 2012 have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years.
“We are the messengers of Mayan ancestors,” Chiquin said. “With all due respect, what will be talked about here doesn’t come from the most prestigious universities in the world. It is the silent knowledge of the grandfathers and grandmothers who have been kept alive for centuries.”
He travelled from the Mayan Nation in Coban, Guatemala to share with young people some of his traditional knowledge about the Mayan calendar. He said he was given special permission to share this wisdom by his elders.
“In 1992 there was a council of all of the most important people from the Mayan communities,” he said. “It was decided that the Mayan spirituality is an open window and a cosmic bridge to understanding the reality in which we live.”
Chiquin said people in the Mayan community don’t speak of the end of the Mayan calendar, which does take place in 2012, as being the end of the world.
“From the context of Mayan cosmology there is an infinity of Mayan calendars,” he said.
The calendars cycle every 5,000 years. He said we are about to enter the calendar of fifth sun and at that time, “everyone will clarify the light and the sacred spirit.”
According to Mayan tradition, during the first three suns human beings were made out of clay, wood and straw, none of which worked out very well. During the fourth (current) sun, human beings were made of corn, which was almost right, he said.
“(The human beings were) almost perfect,” he said. “But they got too intellectual and killed the spirit.”
Chiquin went on to say that through dark times there have been external forces that have pushed the Mayan people to remain strong.
“Our people have lived a period of 5,000 years that have been very difficult,” he said. “The native peoples began to walk through a very dark tunnel. But the culture, spirituality and energy of our peoples more than ever is present.”
Chiquin said the Mayan people were cleansed of resentment by their ancestors and that their goal is sharing wisdom.
“(We need to) bring a message of goodwill, humanity, clarity so we can all walk on the path of light, clarity, (toward Dec. 21, 2012),” he said.
Mayan tradition practices a five-day preparation retreat prior to every Mayan New Year. To prepare for a new 5,000-year long calendar cycle, the retreat is five years long and commenced in April 2008.
During this retreat, there are community ceremonies every 52 days and individual ceremonies every 13 days.
“The purpose of these ceremonies is to put yourself in balance with the world (and cleanse the energy of Mother Earth),” Chiquin said.
In Mayan tradition there are 20 energies that circle Grandmother Moon. Every child born anywhere in the world carries the same four of them, in addition to up to 13 more depending on what day of what year the child is born.
Each energy represents specific traits possessed by those who carry the energy. The “Aj” energy is associated with people who are great speakers, healers and artists. “Iq” is the constant energy of the Creator, the cosmic between the body and the spirit.
This past Mayan New Year, Feb. 22, 2010, marked an auspicious alignment of six significant energies known to accompany big happenings in the past. Their alignment is expected to present tests or challenges until April 14, 2012.
“Our youth is the light and clarity of the next 5,000 years and as warriors they need to be clear in their mentality and their spirit because they have a great mission,” Chiquin said.
Scott MacDonald, a 20-year-old junior Spanish ethnic studies major at Naropa, said Chiquin’s message was an uplifting one.
“I thought it was incredible and it did give me hope for our future as a human race,” MacDonald said. “It was positive for me, hopeful. Ultimately we’ve all got it in us to do what needs to be done, we just need to figure it out.”
Another student said she felt it was a rich cultural experience.
“I think it was good to hear someone from the Mayan culture really give an authentic explanation of all that they talk about regarding 2012 the end of the world,” said Paula Abitia, 19-year-old sophomore sociology and ethnic studies major.
Abitia said she and her friend Veronica Lamas, a 19-year-old sophomore political science and ethnic studies major, are in the Nu Gamma chapter of Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, which co-sponsored the event.
“It’s comforting to know that the world is not gonna end and we have 5,000 more years after 2012,” Lamas said.
Chiquin said the Mayan calendars are part of something bigger.
“These calendars are part of a larger cosmology which will never end,” he said.
Afterward, Mayan handmade bags were on sale to raise funds for the Mayan people, and Chiquin left the audience with a lighthearted send-off.
He said, “We will see each other in the next 5,000 years.”
Contact CU Independent Writer Ana McIntosh at Anna.mcintosh@colorado.edu.
