The Mayan calendar is an innovation to behold. It went back prior to their time, into the future, and after their time. Countless years of observing nature as a whole allowed them to create an amazingly accurate time keeping system. The Mayans had keen insight into the nature of life and the calendar was a product of that. Learning from nature, they watched the sky as a tool to help figure out when it would rain, the winds, the seasons, and when the earth prepared for its many changes. Cyclical calendars were derived because nature is cyclical. The Maya didn’t just observe the sky; they observed more specifically the sky, earth, air, water, and fire. These elements were looked at as a whole. Earth, air, water, fire, and the sky were all pieces to the intricate life puzzle. Each one is unbalanced without the other. The Mayans learned this by living and respecting the intertwining dance of the elements.
To better understand the Mayans we need to understand their thought process and how they learned. Mother Nature taught them quite a bit. If you have ever had an astrology chart done you will be told what elements you were born under and whether they are balanced. Each astrological sign is assigned to either Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. Three signs belong to Earth, three belong to Air, and so on. Which sign the planets are in when you are born constitute your elemental balance. According to psychological astrology, your elements say a lot about your personality. Say seven of the ten planets (sun and moon are included as planets for astrological purposes) are in water signs, you would be considered an emotional, changeable, mysterious type of person. You would be considered out of balance as well because the remaining couple of planets are weakly placed in the other elements. You would be lacking the grounding of earth, the balanced rational mind via air, and the productive spark of energy from fire. The fifth element you might hear of is Aether, it is considered spirit or in Mayan times, the sky including stars, rays, and things unseen coming from above.These elements weren’t always used in psychological prediction through astrology. The elements were respected as necessary parts of life.
In Mayan times, Earth referred to the physical ground we stand on. The seeds, the plants, the trees, and the flowers sprouted forth from the earth. Water referred to the rains, oceans, rivers, and creeks. Without water the seeds of earth would not bring forth their fruits. Air referred to the air we breathed, temperature, how fast it moved also known as wind, and what it carried such as pollen. Without air, the water couldn’t fall and feed the seeds of earth. Fire referred to not only literal fire, but the sun. Without the warmth of fire, water would accumulate and even freeze, seeds would either drown or disappear, and the air was cold. Aether was the sky and how it moved, what happened when certain stars were visible and invisible. These are the elements in early Mayan form of astrology that created the calendar we know today. It wasn’t just observing the sky, it was observing what happened with life under the stars. Whether you believe the rotation of the planets effect the earth is not relevent. What is relevent here is that Astrology is a dirty word nowadays. It is used to explain the horoscope in the Sunday paper. When people conjur up that word in their minds that is what they have been taught. To treat the Mayans knowledge of astrology as quackery or garbage is denial. The Mayans knew that the sky was a tool to predict the behavior of this planet. Why care about the sky unless you are gaining something from it. They gained the knowledge to survive life on earth by working with nature and its elements.
Modern civilization’s arrogance has thrown caution to the wind and treated nature disrespectfully. We have split earth, air, water, fire, and the sky into their own pieces and haven’t put them back together. When you are only looking at one piece of the puzzle it becomes so much easier to view it as a single object, manipulate it and not fear the repercussions of altering that single piece. In our quest for comfort and ease of life we have unintentionally lost the ability to know nature as a whole, especially those of us that live in concrete jungles.
I am just as guilty as anyone. I go from comfortable building to comfortable car back to comfortable building every day. The only connection to nature I had was my mother. She grew up on Lake Erie (literally, it was her backyard) and I had the pleasure of living there for a time as a child. We used to sit outside on the cliff and watch the water, stars, and clouds on a regular basis. Not for the purpose of science of course but just for a way to spend time together. It ingrained in me that observation of nature is just a way of being. When I do walk out of my comfortable building on the way to my comfortable car, I always look up and around. Even if it is a brief one minute, I take in a deep breath and marvel at our world. I have never lost the wonder of nature. Its intelligence leaves me in awe.
The Maya learned how to work with nature, not against it. It was respected and learned from. It was living and breathing. Nature and man went hand in hand. Earth, air, water, fire, and the sky all worked together and altered each other in very important ways. The warmth of the sun (fire) dried the rain (water). Wind (air) blew seeds and pollinated the ground (earth) and life was created. These things happened when certain stars (the sky) were visible. They didn’t need text books to learn this, they lived it. Life was their school.
Take out one of the five elements and life becomes exceedingly difficult if not impossible. Without Fire, there would be no warmth to signal life to spring up. Take water out of the equation and death is certain. Humans are composed of 90% water. Take air out the equation and fire doesn’t have a vessel to spread warmth, plants don’t have the ability to be pollinated, and humans can’t breathe. Take earth out of the equation, and, there is not a ground for plants to spring forward towards the sun, no trees to produce oxygen into the air, there is not a ground for humans to stand on. We need earth, air, water, fire, and the sky for human survival. It’s non-negotiable, it is one of the most important and underestimated cycles of life.
Why is it that modern humans are working against the fundamentals of life? We alter the elements individually while ignoring the consequences to the whole. The Water element is under attack by chemicals. Pollutants are being dumped into our oceans, lakes, rivers, and creeks. Earth is under attack. The ground is being destroyed, forests are disappearing and chemical soup ponds are created daily. Air is under attack. The bees and bats are disappearing. What in the air is causing the bees to disappear? Cloud seeding particles, smoke stack emissions, and car exhaust for a start. Even the Sun is under attack. We luckily cannot do anything to destroy the sun, but we can alter the way its light gets to us. Are the hundreds of satellites orbiting this earth diverting or changing sun rays? The Sky is under attack. Even our skies have space junk. We have put garbage into space!
Are we inching closer and closer to the point of no return? If we take out an element, life is about guaranteed to end in dramatic fashion. That is a fact. Earth, air, fire, water, and skies have been utterly disrespected by modern man. Poison our waters and you know for sure you are eating poisoned food. Poison our air and know for sure you are breathing poison. Poison earth and know that poisoned water and poisoned pollen produced poisoned life. Poison space and know the rays that do get to us are altered and poisonous. We are in the process of killing Mother Nature.
Mother Nature is a lot like our own physical mothers. In our own lives we live in cycles. We love and depend on our mother for our very survival as a child, give her hell and pretend she doesn’t exist as a teen, we then grow into maturity knowing she was always right. The Mayans were the children who thrived under Mother Nature. They observed and soaked every piece of information that Mother Nature had to provide. We are the unruly teens trampeling all over and disrespecting our mother. If we do not mature soon and respect the nature of life, we will be punished. We collectively need to clean up our acts or Mother Nature will do it for us. And not in a pleasant way. Mother Nature can only handle so much before she cleans house.
We as humans must stand up for this planet and its natural way of life, now! We can embrace the past and integrate it with modern life. I know we can do it. God forbid we eat an orange that is natural looking and not dyed to make it look pretty. What we do to animals for food is sickening. Our animals are abused in addition to being pumped full of chemicals that we consume. Our processed food is full of chemicals to make it look and taste better. Do we really need caramel coloring? What is caramel coloring? What is wrong with the way it looks naturally? The answer is you won’t buy it unless it looks perfect. Not only are we being poisoned by our food, these same corporations are poisoning planet earth. The same corporations that make our life comfortable and easy are killing us and the planet. We allow it, we buy the products. It has to stop. We have to become conscious of our behaviors. Everyone can choose to make a small change. Those changes will add up and become big changes. We are only here for a small time. Let’s leave this planet in atleast the same condition we entered it, if not better. Definitely not worse. Here we are talking about the Mayans, what will the future say about Americans, Germans, Italians, Mexicans, Asians, Persians and everyone else in 2000 years?
Humanity FTW!
xoxo,
punkrockhers
punkrockhers@humanityftw.com