by Ian Xel Lungold

I want to just shout it out but first a little background would be useful to fully appreciate the gravity of what has just happened. Most of us who have come to study the Mayan calendar have been at first intrigued by the weave and flow of creative energies described as those that build our daily reality.

A form of astrology contained within the Mayan sacred calendar that acts as a pathway for ordinary people to rejoin nature’s timing patterns in life. This was seen by most, as a very beneficial tool. So soon we all found ourselves studying a little deeper. . .It is just about here that we ran into the confusions of differing opinions on the dating of the Mayan calendar (current and end date) and the overall purpose of the Mayan calendar. This initial confusion has turned many initially interested persons away from the study and application of the Mayan calendar.

Many people have contributed to the available information about the Mayan calendar. Far above them all are Jose and Lloydine Arguelles. With his ground breaking book "The Mayan Factor" Jose brought the Mayan calendar and the idea that there was more to this calendar than anyone had previously considered to hundreds of thousands around the world. Jose Arguelles has been a brave and brilliant pioneer in the field of the Mayan calendar for the last 15 years and much praise must be spoken of him for that. The problem was he was a pioneer. Pioneers do not have maps of signposts to show the way. They can have no idea when they have strayed into areas that will be blind alleys or dead ends. It was some years after the publication of the Mayan Factor in 1987 that the Maya shaman were able to come down out of the mountains of Guatemala and Mexico to discuss their calendar with the public. (They were being murdered by the Guatemalan and Mexican government troops with American provided weapons if discovered up until the late 80’s). It was from these discussions that questions started arising about Prof. Arguelles’s Dreamspell calendar and the accuracy of its day count. The Maya had a 3000 year long calendar tradition sacredly kept day by day for all that time and the Dreamspell count did not match the Mayan traditional count. This was the seed of most the confusion world wide on the subject of the Mayan calendar.

Then here comes Calleman. Dr Carl J. Calleman, a clinical scientist was drawn to study the Mayan calendar with clinical methods. He discovered a more detailed explanation of what the Mayan calendar was all about and that current world events can be accurately predicted by using the calendar. Since this calendar is a repeating pattern of creation intent and effects, we can now also predict the general future of consciousness and of course mankind up to the end of the Mayan calendar. This recently discovered pattern of intent and effects was found to be following the traditional 3000 year old, count of the Maya and not the Dreamspell system.

Now we have a situation where many people have adopted an understanding and agreements about the Mayan calendar and many other people have recently started gaining a different understanding from a different point of view. Nothing-new here. That’s what all religious wars have been about. Nothing-new here. That’s what evolution is all about which is getting new viewpoints and new understandings.

What is new is that Jose Arguelles has stepped up to be a world hero. Remember I said he was brave? He has just proven it in spades. Lesser men have, over the centuries, in religious, scientific and political pursuits, resisted with everything they had, any new ideas that might challenge their standing in the world. From name-calling and public denouncement (scientific and religious fervor over recent cloning for example) all the way to murder and war; these have been desperate men using any means to protect their interests.

Jose Arguelles has made a place in history for himself by embracing these new facts discovered by Dr. Carl J. Calleman and he encourages his followers to study these new facts. This kind of selfless act, this call for unity in Mayan calendar studies and the advancement of understanding for all, is what is going to see humanity through the coming challenges we face. Continuing the pattern of secrets, denials or brut force used to hide new truths will just lead to more suffering for everyone. While questing more data, exposing and embracing new truths, will advance our evolution of consciousness.

So after reading Dr. Carl J. Calleman’s new book "Enlightenment, The Mayan calendar as Our Guide to the Future," Jose Arguelles offered to write the forward to Carl’s new book. I am with great pleasure presenting the text of Jose’s forward below.

Enlightenment: The Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future by Carl Johan Calleman, Forward by José Argüelles

Since the Harmonic Convergence of August 16-17, 1987, and the Concurrent publication of my book, the Mayan Factor, Path Beyond Technology, interest in Mayan civilization and, in particular, the Mayan Calendar, has become widespread around the planet. Not only have there since appeared numerous books on the Mayan prophecies and civilization in general, but there has also been a revival of the traditional Mayan time knowledge as well, most notably through the efforts of Alejandro Oxlaj (Cerillo) of the Quiche Maya in Guatemala, and, in Mexico, of Hunbatz Men of the Yucatec Maya. A deeper reason for this interest is that the end of the Mayan Great Cycle of thirteen baktuns will soon draw to a close on the Winter Solstice (Northern hemisphere) 2012. It is awareness of this conclusive date which, acting like a signal in the human DNA, prompts so much interest and enthusiasm in the Mayan Calendar, as is demonstrated, for instance, by John Major Jenkins Maya Cosmogenesis 2012.

Carl Johan Calleman’s Enlightenment: The Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future follows in the tradition of the Mayan Factor in being an in depth philosophical investigation and interpretation of the Mayan calendar showing its absolute relevance as a tool and guide for this final stage of the thirteen baktun Great Cycle. As Calleman well demonstrates, the Mayan calendar is a multi-valued system encompassing a deep philosophy of nature and natural rhythms, which in turn afford applications for historical analysis. In this analysis Calleman is acutely aware of the religious and theological ramifications of his interpretations. Not the least of the ramifications stems from that of the infamous Christian book burning of the Mayan texts in 1562. As Calleman writes, "The higher perspective generated by the Mayan calendar is, however, not something that can be turned into a new dogma. . .Rather, the Mayan calendar provides a possible framework for the common exploration by individuals that share a respect for the contributions and views of others.

The Mayan calendar, properly understood, is thus in its essence alien to all fundamentalism, to everyone believing that there is but one true religion that holds to the whole truth. For this reason in a sad way we may understand why the Catholic Priests would burn all the books of the Maya; these would threaten the monopoly of the truth that the Catholic Priests at the time strove to establish. Today, however, more and more people turn away from organized religions out of a desire to seek the truth for themselves. This fosters a revival of the Mayan calendar on a worldwide scale among all those aspiring to the unity of humanity." (pp.93-94).

This point of view is broadly ecumenical and universal and speaks of the most spiritual nature of the Mayan calendar. It also speaks of Calleman’s fascinating effort to create a grand synthesis of humanity’s spiritual history—a history of the human mind—and an analysis of the present and near future that is based on a strict adherence to the Long or True Count, including the value of the 360-day tun cycles. Equally fascinating is Calleman’s analysis and interpretation of the thirteen baktuns as alternating day and night cycles, and as related to the cosmology of the thirteen heavens. In this regard he sees that we are passing through a Galactic Underworld and that after the 2012 date we enter into a Universal Underworld.

But for Calleman, as we approach the 2012 date, what is most important is that he sees a great spiritual awakening and unification occurring. "Based on our knowledge," he writes, "of the Mayan calendar there is then little doubt that as we approach the completion of the Cosmic Plan, the number of Enlightened people will increase vastly. The proof from the Mayan calendar that the mind has a history then offers great hope to mankind. . ." (p.236)

What I find interesting about Calleman’s work is that it substantiates the premise of the Mayan Factor, that the Mayan civilization and the Calendar in particular are the overlooked factor in any consideration of the course and history of human civilization. Calleman has been able to explore and investigate from his perspective the depths of the Mayan calendar demonstrating its fundamental spiritual and mental nature which speak to a level of synthesis which the world sorely needs today. Even more importantly, Calleman sees the Mayan calendar in relation to the divine or cosmic plan. "Thus the Mayan calendar remains our most important tool for studying the cosmic plan, and this is clearly an analytical tool generated by the Western hemisphere." (p.239)

It is also interesting that the Mayan calendar inspires in Calleman a genuinely holistic and global understanding of ourselves. For though the work I have pursued in my investigation of the Mayan calendar differs in certain points from that of Calleman’s—and it is wise to be open and fearlessly study all points of view—we share in common methods of applying fractal units of the calendar as tools of analysis. For both of us it is clear that the Mayan calendar is well disposed to fractal holographic applications based on the key numbers—nine, thirteen and seven. The reader will find Calleman’s fractal-based interpretations utilizing many graphics to be thought provoking and stimulating.

Finally, I would like to emphasize Calleman’s perception of the two critical Venus passages that will soon be occurring. The first will occur on the date June 8, 2004; and the second on June 6, 2012. These dates, marking the passage of Venus in front of the Sun, are for Calleman an augur of the ". . .final transformation of the human mind into a mind of light." Venus passages always occur in pairs. The last two pairs occurred in 1874/1882, and before that 1761/69. Of course the dates of 2004 and 2012 are most significant. The 2004 date must be seen as the herald of the Great Calendar Change, July 25-26, 2004, while the second passage in 2012 initiates the Closing of the Cycle. For the 2004 date, Calleman is calling for a world wide meditation. This meditation would be a great opportunity to set the stage for the spiritual triumph of the Great Calendar Change. While on the True count the June 8, 2004 is 6 ehecatl (wind) a sign of Quetzalcoatl, on the Dreamspell count that day is 3 Monkey, one of the Thirteen Clear Signs on the tomb of Pacal Votan. And it will occur but one week before the 52nd anniversary of the opening of Pacal Votan’s tomb.

Pondering the meanings of Calle- man’s book, let us all search in our hearts and minds and seek the higher unification of the spirit which is afforded by the study and practice of the Mayan calendar in all of its forms. Let us prepare to use the Mayan calendar as a tool to study the course of events generated by the Cosmic Plan, for are we not in the end all fashioned of one soul? Calleman’s text on the Mayan Calendar can only bring whoever reads it to a new threshold of understanding. Let us all move forward as one to the One!

José Argüelles-Valum Votan

Closer of the Cycle

author of Mayan Factor, and Time and Technosphere

Overtone Moon 28, Kin 186, Yellow Rhythmic Star

True Count: Uaxac Etznab Gregorian: December 12, 2002

You have just read a piece of history in the making. This new unity among the world’s study of the Mayan calendar will allow for rapid distribution of new understandings about the "Schedule of Creation" like never before. Instead of possible contention or confusion round about the Mayan calendar we now have reason to celebrate!

This also makes Dr. Carl J. Calleman’s book, Enlightenment, the Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future," a land mark piece of literature. Besides presenting scientific evidence of a "Divine Plan" and factually establishing where we are in that plan, this book creates the unification of 100’s of thousands of Mayan calendar students and practitioners all over the world.

If you would like to suggest publishers who might be appropriate for our consideration please pass them along to us as soon as possible to ian@mayanmajix.com and we will put them on our list to interview for the granting of publication rights. This has been a long time coming folks. Let’s get this out there right now. Its time!

In service, Ian Xel Lungold with Jose Arguelles and Dr. Carl J. Calleman