#2 - 2012

"Alignment; the elements appear" (painting #2) Krallosvierd series, 6' x 7' oil on canvas.

"What have we done?" This may be the theme in 2012 as the human race awakens to the fact that all the global problems, from mass extinctions to environmental destruction, are human made. We did it to ourselves.

_______________________________

Astronomically, 2012 marks the time when the Earth, Sun, and Galactic core will be in alignment. What this means is not clear, but it is certain that everything is in motion and that there are perils aplenty out there unknown to any living thing on Earth. It is also clear that humankind is responsible for the runination of the planet and multiple layers of environmental horrors that only continue to become worse.

____________________________

Path Present....

One does not need ancient predictions, Mayan calendar interpretation, or Hopi Blue Star Spirits to know that things will be very bad in 2012. Things are bad now and getting worse each day. We are rendering even the very air we breath and water we drink extinct. How could things be anything but horrible in coming years? Some ancient native American legend predicts that humankind will have two paths to choose from around 2012...one that leads to continued life and one that leads to disaster. We have chosen and continue to chose the deadend path. Mass extinctions of species and poisoning of water and pollution of air, etc., etc., are things we actively choose to do every day. The horrible fate of humankind coming is not about meteors, solar flares, pandemic disease, and natural disaster, though these things occur...it is about our choice of the deadend path.

_____________________________________

"Given a choice of two world paths; 1) Earthly and natural lifestyles, philosophy, and cosmology with the Universe a Great Mystery = Life, or 2) Belief in gods and supernatural notions, and a false cosmology of a "known" genesis seed = death, humankind seems to be leaning toward death as a preference. It is no wonder that things are so dark and horrible now. It is my hope that 2012 will be a massive shift from Choice 2 to Choice 1 and that a whole new Paradigm will be born, as unlikely as that looks at the moment. I can dream, can't I?"

_____________________________________

Hopi "Blue Star Spirit" coming in 2012...

The other morning just before sunrise I was driving on a straight stretch of road just as the sun was about to come up. The sky was beautiful with bright orange and pink clouds. It was such a gorgeous sight that I could not take my eyes off it even when it became intensely bright. As I turned left away from the sunrise there was a ghost image of the bright light in front of me. After the image toned down it became like a blue photographic negative of the sunrise...like a blue ghost (spirit) sun. I wondered if maybe that might be what the Hopi referred to as the "Blue Star Spirit"...a ghost image of a bright object in the sky, maybe one that is not supposed to be there (in 2012) so that people just cannot take their eyes off of it. Western people generally consider native American and ancient knowledge as "backward" or primitive when in fact their brains were much the same as ours. There were just very different sets of "knowledge" back then, though even with all our so called progress modern humans display an endless variety of insanity, stupidity, and ignorance beyond belief. Perhaps we should stop being so arrogant and rethink some of the ancient knowledge.

_____________________________________

2012 on the Mayan calendar
and the end of the world as we know it. (2008)
    The story going around is that the ancient Mayan calendar has the end of 2012 set as the end of the world.   This may not be the kind of end modern people have in mind, but rather a more Mayan thing I think. An end of "the world" does not necessarily need to be nuclear war, or gigantic meteor, or mass pandemic sweeping the planet. It could be a very different kind of end. Afterall, the Mayans had a very different world view than we do, and in many ways were much more advanced in terms of knowledge of cycles, celestial patterns, and the shifts in civilizations over time, etc. Sometimes referred to as a "Paradigm Shift", this coming end may be the ending of a common way of the world or popular belief systems rather than a literal ending of everything.   Already coming to an end slowly, monotheism and ancient myths long past their prime are overdue for change, especially in the case of apocalyptic Christianity and the calling for the end of the world in the name of belief. Leaving behind extraterrestrial spirit myths and returning to Earthly practice and respect for physical reality (water, air, bugs and plants, etc.) is part of the healing process going on around the world. 2012 may also mark the end of the already defunct Big Bang Theory as it's final followers, the Genesis faithful, let it go as useless model.   This does not need to be an end to all tradition in terms of hertiage and culture however as in the place of the gods new terms can arise, such as "great grand foreparents", etc., which is largely what the gods of each civilization are anyway. Inside each belief system now are people who are seeing things in different ways and making change from the center outward. For some, this might seem to be literally an end of the world, but for many it can be the birth of a new golden age.
   The Mayans may have realized that these large shifts are part of human life and that without these kinds of transformations things become stagnant and die.  2012 then might not be a time to fear but rather a time to look forward to and rejoice about.   It could be one big worldwide Earthling party.
___________________________

   "The history of civilization is not a horse race. The Paradigm that often seems to be "in the lead" is often the one just about to drop out. Belief systems, some literally chiseled in stone, pass away as previously radical new ideas grow to take their place. Seeming to come out of nowhere, the new thinking has actually been around a long while, dormant or sleeping, right in the midst of the old ways."
___________________________
In step with Mayan time?... (2007)
   Today I was doing a little walkabout in Concord while my car was in having it’s yearly service. The book I am currently reading is “Blackfoot Physics”, by F. David Peat, and I had just been reading a part about Mayan calendars and the way in which they kept time partly as we do (with a 360 day + 5 system) and also in other ways which were related but different, etc.   As I was walking across an empty parking lot, right in the middle of it, taking my time and walking at a nice even pace, I noticed that my left foot hit a stripe and then my right and then neither foot hit a stripe for several parking spaces and then the pattern repeated…left foot on a stripe then the right and then missing the next three and then over again. This seemed to me to relate to the way in which Mayan calendars interrelated and meshed – the lunar the yearly the Mars, Venus, etc., etc.

Then it occurred to me that this related in some way to the idea of wave/particles – being at once a wave and also a particle interrelated, etc. If they were neither one at all, but went along as something else, something that occasionally “hit the stripe with it’s left foot and then it’s right” (sort of) being for an instant in a place like a solid thing (particle) then moving (waving) along for a few beats, etc., etc. What this “other thing” might be? Well I’m not the person to guess this, but I could probably paint it later on if this comes to me as an image. As I was walking along, since there was no image I know of for this, what I envisioned were strands of DNA flowing along intertwining and twisting.

Then later in this same walk, I imagined this - What if two equal beams of light were shining directly toward one another. If an observer was in the middle looking toward one and away from the other, what would they see? Would the beams interact with each other? Would they just flow through each other? Would the observer see any beam at all, being inside the one flowing past and away? What does this mean? I have no idea. This is just something I thought about today while my car was being worked on.

These sorts of things do not exactly lend themselves to paintings or images that would necessarily be very interesting….a parking lot with a man walking through it, or two suns shining on each other with a little observer sitting in the middle? So, mostly I make symbols of ideas representing stories or elements of ideas, etc. Sometimes there is no story and only image and sometimes the opposite.

I suppose today I had a little walkabout on Mayan time.

___________________________________________

"Just imagine being alive during the time of one of the great historical shifts in history, such as the end of the Roman Empire. What might it be like? Would you know what major change was going on, or would you believe things would stay the same forever? How would it feel if everything you believed in changed? Take a look around. These are the times we live in today. A great time of change is here now."
___________________________________________

The New and Improved Zeus?

What's with these gods today? Has the place and purpose of the gods really changed very much over time? Zeus was the maker of law and keeper of order in the ancient Greek world. After the advent of democracy he became chief judge and peacemaker, and a "civic god". Various cults came and went with different versions of gods and goddesses, some of which had children among mortals who did their work for them on Earth. These same myths and beliefs continue today in different, or not so different, forms even though fewer and fewer people hold true to the actual specifics of the particular beliefs. Zeus did not just disappear, he just transformed and blended into other belief systems now seeming to be at odds with the ever faster racing pace of the evolution of technology and the modern age of reason.
Do you believe what your parents and grandparents believed? Things are changing faster as time goes by such that my Great Grandparents would barely recognize this world if they could see it. Big changes have happened and big changes are coming. That's just the way it is.
___________________________________________

  Making Change...

    Throughout human history, change has not always been something embraced and welcomed with open arms. Even in the face of global devastation people tend to fight for keeping things the same.   Usually this means that change is something that happens out of our control or is forced upon us by outside circumstances. Even now in 2008 these principles are still at work and we kick and scream resisting major change at all cost...literally at "all cost"...while change marches on and approaches with the certainty of the rising sun.
_________________________

Ahead of time...
   Seeing a critical and important idea ahead of its time is the closest thing we can come to time travel. If we can see what's coming, and what is going to happen related to what we are doing, like taking a trip into the future and coming back with that knowledge, then we can alter the future now and prevent what is currently sure to happen by making it more unlikely. What this has been called in the past is "revolution", but what it might be called in modern times is "transformation".   It's all about big ideas, especially the ones most people fail to question (in time). It's not easy, but it is vital and the Earth as we know it depends upon this.
______________________________________________________________
Holistic Universe (journal entry, 2000)

   And though it’s been said many times, many ways, life is a mystery and that’s that. Everything is related to everything else, and life is a system, and so on and so forth.

Though everything may be one integral, holistic, interconnected whole, part of exploring and examining life involves breaking it down into bits and sections to take a look at different aspects one by one. It is an illusion that there is autonomy between mind, body, and spirit, yet it is useful to talk about these as though they were separate. A tree does not exist without the air, water, soil, insects and birds, etc., yet of course we experience the thing as a separate entity, a “tree”. The great redwood forests exist as one integral system in which everything plays a part. From fungus to ferns, from insects and birds to deer and bear, it’s all interconnected. And it is so for people on Earth as well. The water and air are (were) alive, and the soil teamed with creatures. All that is changing now, and we really do not seem to know why. It’s mysterious.

One thing that is integral, yet often ignored in our experience, is the unknown. In philosophy, religion, politics, science, and in general, there is a great fear of change. This fear fills in the blanks, and adds to the edges of the map something other than mystery. The act of simply not knowing does not hold a great deal of respect in our civilization.

“Change always carried the threat of the unknown, and human beings have a long history of resisting it. Medieval geographers and theologians retarded the exploration of new worlds for centuries by their reluctance to use the ancient term terra incognita to describe places on the maps where Westerners had not been. It was more comforting to define the limits of the world on the basis of unfounded speculation than to face the fact that a good part of the world actually was unknown.”

Daniel Boorstin, “The Discoverers”, 1983

This definition of limits of the world applies to popular views of life, consciousness, spirituality, and the universe. The fact that life is a mystery is filled in with supernatural deities and divine realms. If mental process and imagination are unknown, it is explained with a ghost in the machine type myth, and the human body is inhabited by an immortal incorporeal entity, with millions of definitions and versions to suit every culture and individual. Where the cosmos is unknown, it is filled in with a magical genesis seed bringing everything from nothing, with no logic required.

What difference does it really make what shape the cosmos is, how old the stars are, or how it all began? It’s about the same difference as between believing the world is flat, or that Zeus rules the world from the top of Mount Olympus, and engaging in an open and creative exploration of the natural world around us. Fundamental ideas about the universe reflect the core principles of a civilization. The mythology of a people is part of who they are.

Mythologies, theories, religions or politics that do not intrude upon the course of the natural world (air, water, soil, species extinctions, individual freedom, etc.) may be harmless to future generations to come. Core ideas that do not reflect the natural world, but rather place humanity in an extraterrestrial place, and view the universe as having supernatural origins, have contributed to actions that have brought life on earth to the brink of disaster.

Ideas are extremely critical.

The underlying force and creative energy of the cosmos is mysterious and the same for everyone, just as breathing is part of being a human being. However, ideas about this vary greatly and to differing degrees.

Having found a deep interest in cosmology when I was 13, and later experiencing remarkable dreams leading to passionate exploration and the formation of a monumental, decade long project, this was still not enough for me to challenge the tyranny of popular science and mythology by writing a book. Having been harassed and attacked at various times for my ideas, it seemed the wiser thing to remain strictly an artist.

It is only after seeing unmistakable signs that catastrophic, irreversible environmental devastation is taking place, and seeing signs that more and more people are ready to approach different views toward living on Earth, that I’ve known my time has come. And I do feel that some of my ideas and dreams may contribute to real and lasting positive change.

Another thing that has changed in my work, making the writing of this book a more reasonable undertaking, is the answer to a common question I’ve been asked. The question is, “What then would you have me believe in, if not that?” to which I would most always answer, “Nothing. It’s all a mystery.” That’s not a very original ending for a book, now is it? And it is not a very satisfying replacement for someone looking for a viable alterative to an omnipotent male deity, genesis, or the incorporeal soul. Now that I do have something more than “nothing” to answer, the book at last has a heart. The new answer is that everything is real, and that the cosmos came from somewhere other than nothing, and that we humans are connected with everything. Of course, I have a bit more to say than that. In any case, it is, of course, up to you what makes sense, what is good news or bad, and what really resonates with the natural world we live in.

_____________________________________________

The awakening transformation of cosmology... (2006)
   In the future, current popular scientific and religious views of life and the universe will exist only in history books, if we manage to make major changes in time that is. Technology is progressing much faster than the evolution and transformation of philosophy and cosmology, and the lack of understanding has lead to devastating effects on all life on Earth.
   The universe is not a closed equation, but the existence of human life on Earth is, at least given the current direction of belief systems related to pollution, waste, and contamination, etc. As goes the Universe, so goes Earth and humanity, so far as belief systems and current popular science goes, so far. It is typical, though not usually spoken aloud, to consider "the Universe" (all of time, space, and matter) as separate from the human spiritual realm which is believed to have an eternal nature immune to the physical universe.   In popular religious belief systems, the Earth could be completely destroyed but the human spirits, souls, ghosts, etc., would persist and exist forever, etc. When I asked a University professor what would happen if the classroom was sealed and all Oxygen removed from the room, she replied that her body would fall dead to the floor but her spirit would still be standing there.  This is a very common belief that the essential nature of the human being is not connected to Earthly elements, even though it does not seem to be well thought out related to what that spirit would have to do, for example, physical sensations and senses would be gone, emotions would be irrelevant, things to do would be quite limited, etc., and what a disembodied spirit standing in the middle of a classroom would have to do completely escapes me, especially in terms of "existing" for millions of years, not to mention eternity which is a very long time. Yet, this is a typical belief in human nature being separate from Earth with the planet being expendable.  Beyond prayer and belief in terms of actual action in the world, these are very dangerous ideas indeed.
   Ideas are killing us, especially those beliefs that human beings are extraterrestrial in nature and that the universe sprang from a magic seed. We have the power to change all this before it is too late..
   All over the world, people are waking up to see that life and the universe
are not what we think they are, and we are finding our place on Earth and the precious nature of air and water and the natural world from which we come.
Just looking at the changes in the environment and the quality of drinking water and fresh air in my lifetime, currently at age 54, the situation is shocking. This is not new news and millions of people are working on these issues, but I have not found many people waking up to the connection between ideas and beliefs at the heart of what is happening. This connection is being seen little by little and it is taking much longer for this awakening to come, but it is happening.
   Earthlings are waking up and seeing what we have done and that our thoughts and beliefs really matter and that it is time for major change. We have the choice of being in control of making these changes or having changes come upon us out of our control and being the victims of change. Things are changing either way.
_________________________________

2012, the end of the gods? Will it come in time? Or, will be destroy everything before then? Is it a global philosophical IQ test, the prize being a golden age versus the losing penalty being total destruction of the ecosystem, and life as we know it? The Mayans among us do not seem to be saying much about it, perhaps because it is already written.