Tuesday, January 10, 2012

09 Ix - Gestation and the Natural Altar


09/13 - nine is the day of pregnancy and growth

Ix - the day of the jaguar, the natural world, the great guide, the elemental altar

In nine months, I will be on my way back to the land of the Zapotec people to celebrate the beginning of the 13th Baktun with great friends. Anything could happen, but we are excited for the future, "apocalypse" and beyond. The graphic novel Promethea taught me everything I needed to know about the apocalypse - get ready for your mind to be blown... then move on, with everything you've got. (If you haven't read this Alan Moore series, get on with it already. While you're at it, check out the original Watchmen and pay close attention to the parts missing from the movie. Just read, gaddammit!)

Nine months. Like birth, the 260 day cycle isn't the scientific exact length of pregnancy, but it represents the length of time that lies between the moment a woman realizes that her cycle has shifted, her basal body temperature hasn't dropped, something feels... different. Between that moment are 260 (or 260) days, nine moons, or one sacred calender year - 13 runs of 20 sets in sequence but forever repeating, going on, forward into the future.

December 21, 2012 marks 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calender. This Baktun marks the passion (I meant to write passing, but I like passion better) of a few months more than 5126 years, a count up from "August 13th" of the year 3114 BCE. Approximately 5 Mayan Long Counts lie within the space of the precession of the equinoxes, estimated to be 25771 years. This "apocalypse" marks the beginning of the "Fifth Sun" or the fifth long count. Predictions about how the world will change "in 2012" should more likely discuss how our world will change in the next five thousand years. If the world is going to end at all, it'll be then. Let's focus our energy on trying to make the next five millenia better than the last, shall we?

***

Being the type to travel so extensively, it is imperative that I carry my "altar" with me, that my sacred space is inside of me and comes with me everywhere. Finding natural altars in nature, like those honoured on this day in the 20-count, is a boon... a sacred surprise that calls out for responsible action. In many ways, our bodies are the sacred altar upon which we live our lives.

How are you going to refine and give gratitude to your body, the altar, the sacred space through which thoughts become action, through which your magic manifests?

No comments:

Post a Comment