Hopi Prophecy and the "Fifth World"

Old Father Storyteller by Pablita Velarde (Santa Clara Pueblo Tewa)

"The Emergence to the future Fifth World has begun. It is being made by the humble people of little nations, tribes, and racial minorities. You can read this in the earth itself. Plant forms from previous worlds are beginning to spring up as seeds. This could start a new study of botany if people were wise enough to read them. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in the sky as stars. The same kinds of seeds are being planted in our hearts. All these are the same, depending how you look at them."

 from The Book of the Hopi, by Frank Waters (1963)

As we approach both a time of Thanksgiving, and then the Winter Solstice, I felt like re-visiting an article I posted at the advent of  2012 about  Hopi prophecy, which seems to me more relevant than ever.  They believe the "4th World" is ending, and the 5th World is now beginning. In Hopi cosmology, there were four previous Worlds, all of which were destroyed as each New Age began. We are entering the Fifth Age.  As we evolve into a global society, with a profound global crisis,  as a neo-Pagan practitioner I find it interesting that the Fifth Element, or the Fifth Direction is Center, represented by white, the essence of all the other elements.  

Hopi cosmology, as are all Pueblo cosmologies, is complex, varies from Pueblo to Pueblo,  and has many variations. There is no doubt that there was trade and exchange between the Pueblo peoples and the Maya, and indeed Hopi language shares commonalities with the Aztec language.   So it is not surprising that the Hopi and Mayan calendars coincide in some ways, and also that certain mythological figures are shared in common.  But I am far from an expert, and I can only speak of what I know in the most general sense. 

Hopi "Prophecy rock"

My particular fascination with the Pueblo "previous worlds" stories has to do with Spider Woman (called Tse Che Nako, the "Thought Woman" as well).  As an artist, I feel Grandmother Spider Woman, the unifying Creatrix figure at the Center of the great Web of life, who teaches us to weave the worlds, as She does, with the stories we imagine and tell............is an especially important myth for our time.   What stories are we telling about the World? 

Spider Woman is, in Pueblo stories, the one who leads the "new people" into the next Age, in most stories (although not all)  through the Sipapu, or entrance hole into  the  Kiva, which can be seen as a symbolic womb and emergence from the  birth canal into the new World.

The Hopi have been an oral culture, which means that the prophecies, myths, and ceremonies have been passed on from generation to generation, changing and being influenced by external events.    It's also important, in reading the many popular accounts of the Hopi prophecies on the Web, to realize  that:  

 1) The Hopi are traditionally very secretive about their sacred traditions and do not readily  share them with outsiders - conversely, they may intentionally mislead informants, as a means of protecting their traditional wisdom from exploitation.

2) None of the Prophecies that have been circulating, including the well known work of Frank Waters who wrote "The Book of the Hopi" in the 1950's (as far as I can determine)  were written by Hopi people.

3) There is much hype, co-option, disrespect, and fantasizing of the Hopi prophesies, and Native Americans in general on the part of popular culture, that it's hard to wade through and find what the truth is.

The  "Nine Signs" of the Hopi,  written by Frank Waters in his The Book of the Hopi, is very famous and continues to circulate widely.  The book, however, is controversial, and rejected by many Hopi traditionalists.  Waters reportedly  interviewed over 30 Hopi elders, who chose to share their cosmology and philosophy with the writer.   The "Nine Signs", he wrote, were given to a white minister, who happened to give a ride to a Hopi elder.  The Minister conveniently died in the 70's, and the Elder, who told him his name was "White Feather of the Bear Clan", has never been traced.  As many have pointed out, the Hopi usually have an Anglo first name, and then their last name is in their own native language.  It may also be pointed out that everything in the "prophecies" could have been observed in the 50's, from the widespread terror of nuclear war to "the sea turning black and living things dying" (oil spills).  The West has had, under Christianity, a very long fascination with the Apocalypse, and many groups for a thousand years  have awaited the "Rapture",  when "Christ would return and the sinful world would be destroyed." While it is certainly true that the Hopi have prophecies that concern their Five Worlds cosmology, the  "prophecies" supposedly given by a mysterious dying  "White Feather" are generally regarded as fictional.  

One of the most interesting aspects of Hopi prophecy Waters wrote about  is that of the  "Blue Star Katchina", in which a spirit appearing as a blue star would signify the beginning of the destruction of the old world.  While this story has never been substantiated, still, it is a meaningful metaphor for our time, by a well respected writer.

^"The end of all Hopi ceremonialism will come when  the Blue Star Kachina  removes his mask during a dance in the plaza before uninitiated children [ which has been interpreted to mean the naive or  general public]. For a while there will be no more ceremonies, no more faith. Then Oraibi will be rejuvenated with its faith and ceremonies, marking the start of a new cycle of Hopi life................You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star."

This has been interpreted (in the 80's and 90's)  to mean the comet Hale Bopp, the destruction of the space station Challenger, even UFOs.  I have to note that there were manned satellites  in the late '50's that could have influenced this.  

Perhaps the closest to truth is reading Dan Evehema, a Hopi  traditional leader (he died in 1999) , who was one of four Hopis (including Thomas Banyacya, David Monongye, and Dan Katchongva) who decided or were appointed to reveal Hopi traditional wisdom and teachings, including the Hopi prophecies for the future, to the general public in 1946, after the use of nuclear weapons against Japan.  Evehema was co-author, with Thomas Mails, of "The Hopi Survival Kit"^.   The "Hopi Survival Kit" includes a signed affidavit from Dan Evehema approving the book, and is the only written account of the complete Hopi prophecies. Evehema was a member of the Greasewood/Roadrunner Clan.

Hopi legend also apparently has reference to "the  return of Pahena, the white brother".  The legend of  Pahana may be related to the ancient Aztec story of Quetzalcoatl.  In the early 16th century  the Aztecs believed that the coming of the Spanish conquistadors was the return of this mythical  lost white prophet.  Daniel Pinchbeck has written in “The Fifth World and the Hopi Apocalypse” (which I  have taken  the liberty of excerpting from below) that 

“The Hopi prophecies also tell of the return of Pahana, the elder white brother, in a real exchange of knowledge and a true communion, as the Fourth World comes to an end.”   

Which is hopeful.............


Having said all that, I'd like to share a 2005 article by  Daniel Pinchbeck  which I shared back in 2012 as well.   In a later related discussion,  in his 2017  book  How Soon Is Now?  Pinchbeck  explores his idea that the ecological crisis is a rite of passage or initiation for humanity collectively, forcing us to reach the next level of our consciousness as a species. The book outlines the changes to our technical infrastructure - agriculture, energy, industry - and our social, political, and economic system that Pinchbeck believes necessary to avoid the worst consequences of global warming and species extinction.

 

"The Fifth World and the Hopi Apocalypse" 
by Daniel Pinchbeck

Originally published in Arthur No. 14 (Jan. 2005)

Last summer, I visited the Hopi on their tribal lands in Arizona. The Hopi are thought to be the original inhabitants of the North American continent–this is what their own legends tell us, and archaeologists agree. My initial interest in the Hopi came from reading about their oral prophecies and their “Emergence Myth.” According to the Hopi, we are currently living in the Fourth World, on the verge of transitioning, or emerging, into the Fifth World. In each of the three previous worlds, humanity eventually went berserk, tearing apart the fabric of the world through destructive practices, wars, and ruinous technologies. As the end of one world approaches a small tunnel or inter-dimensional passage —the sipapu—appears, leading the Hopi and other decent people into the next phase, or incarnation, of the Earth.

Of course, most modern people would consider this story to be an interesting folktale or fantasy with no particular relevance to our current lives. Even five years ago, I probably would have agreed with them. However, my personal experiences with indigenous cultures and shamanism convinced me, in the interim, that there is more to traditional wisdom than our modern mindset can easily accept. The Hopi themselves say that almost all of the signs have been fulfilled that precede our transition to the Fifth World. These include a “gourd of ashes falling from the sky,” destroying a city, enacted in the atomic blasts obliterating Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a spider web across the Earth, which they associate with our power grid and telephone lines. According to Frank Waters, who compiled accounts from 30 Hopi elders in his Book of the Hopi (1963), the current Fourth World will end in a war that will be “a spiritual conflict” fought with material means, leading to the destruction of the United States through radiation. Those who survive this conflict will institute a new united world without racial or ideological divisions “under one power, that of the Creator.”

The 12,000 Hopi live in a dry and dramatic landscape strewn with enormous boulders, resembling the surface of an alien planet. Their towns are clustered on three mesas—high, flat cliffs overlooking vast swathes of desert. Traditionally, the Hopi are subsistence farmers; they work with ancient strains of corn and beans that are, almost miraculously, able to grow in that arid environment. For obvious reasons, water is sacred to their culture—many of their rituals are aimed at bringing rain. Each spring, each well, is precious to the Hopi. While I was visiting Hopi land I attended a rain dance in the town of Walpi, on First Mesa. Perhaps 50 men of the town—wearing masks and costumes and feathered headdresses —participated in the dance, which was held in the town’s center. The dancers are dressed as katsinas, the spiritual beings that are thought to control elemental forces. The ceremony is a form of possession trance—the goal is to summon the katsinas to temporarily inhabit the bodies of the dancers. The Hopi believe that their culture can only prosper if they maintain direct contact with the supernatural powers that manifest directly through the natural world.

In his book Rethinking Hopi Anthropology, the Cambridge anthropologist Peter Whitely recalls, with an almost embarrassed reluctance, that during his time with the Hopi in the 1980s, he witnessed repeated demonstrations of their precognitive abilities and their ability to influence natural forces through ritual.*** He was transfixed by his first visit to a Snake Dance in 1980: 

“This was no commodified spectacle of the exotic … its profound religiosity was tangible, sensible. Within half an hour of the dance (which lasts about 45 minutes), a soft rain began to fall from a sky that had been burningly cloudless throughout the day.” When he went to see one of his informants, Harry Kewanimptewa, a septuagenarian member of the Spider clan, he would often find that the elder would answer the questions he had intended to ask before he could vocalize them: “I have no desire to fetishize or exoticize here, but this was something about him and some other, particularly older, Hopis that I have experienced repeatedly and am unable to explain rationally.”

I can sympathize with Whiteley’s plight. Since I started exploring shamanism almost a decade ago, I have found myself living in two worlds simultaneously—the world of Western rationalist discourse with its empirical and materialist emphasis, and the shamanic realm of magical correspondences, supernatural forces, dream messages, and synchronicities. The shamanic realm is one in which human consciousness is not an epiphenomenon or dualistic byproduct of a purely physical evolution, but an inseparable aspect of the world, intertwined with reality at every level. It seems that quantum physics has attained a perspective that is similar to the shamanic view, acknowledging a direct relation between the observer and observed.

I went to the Hopi as part of my research for the book I am writing on prophecies, studying the Mayan and Toltec obsession with the year 2012, the Apocalypse described in the Biblical Book of Revelation, the Hopi foretellings, and various modern Western philosophers and visionaries whose ideas offer a context or system for understanding these predictions. Before I visited the Hopi or even read much about them, I had a few powerful dream experiences that seemed to indicate, to me, the importance of my imminent encounter with this ancient tribe. After seeing the film Naqoyqatsi (“Life as War”)—the last in the trilogy of films beginning with Koyaanisqatsi (“Life out of Balance”), by Godfrey Reggio (appropriating Hopi concepts with no input from the tribe) — I had a dream of fiery demons at computer workstations, and awoke with the sense of a visceral supernatural presence flying through my house. The night before I left for the Southwest, I had an even more specific and frightening nightmare. In this dream, I was killed and dismembered by a disgusting-looking demon—who was simultaneously, in typical dream dislogic, the famous conceptual artist Bruce Naumann. In the dream, I returned to Naumann’s studio or the demon’s home and said, “Great—now that you have killed me, I control you.” I went to a bookcase and picked up a huge leather-bound volume titled “Grimoire” (a Medieval catalogue of imaginary beasts and supernatural creatures) and melted it down over a fire. As I did this, I heard incredibly loud Native American chanting and maniacal laughter. I awoke, once again, with the sense of a powerful presence, a kind of unhinged or wild diabolical force, looming overhead and then soaring away.

While traveling to Hopiland I scanned several books of Hopi anthropology and folktales and found that the being who had haunted my dreams closely matched descriptions of Maasaw, the complex creator-deity of the Hopi. According to Hopi legend, when the Hopi first emerged from the Third World to the Fourth, they met Maasaw, who gave them the rules of conduct for life on this new land and introduced them to the rudiments of their agricultural system. Maasaw brought the sun into the Fourth World; but once he had accomplished this, he left the daylight world forever to haunt the realm of night and darkness. The name Maasaw literally means “corpse demon” or “death spirit” in the Hopi language, and he is considered to be the ruler of the land of the dead. Maasaw resembles the ambiguous deities found in Hinduism and Tibetan Tantra, who have wrathful and benevolent manifestations. Since his disappearance from the earth, Maasaw often appears to the Hopi in dreams as a terrifying presence, wearing a ghoulish mask. According to some accounts, Maasaw’s deviation began long ago in the Third World, where he became arrogant and defiant. His assignment to rule over the underworld was a kind of demotion. I wondered why—as seemed to be the case—this spirit had introduced himself to me, in my dreams, even before I arrived in Hopiland.

I thought that I needed to learn more about the Hopi prophecies—and indeed, I did manage to visit an elder in that extraordinary desert landscape. Martin Gasheseoma took time off from working on his field of corn and beans, to tell me that the “purification,” as foretold, would soon come to pass, that there was no way to prevent it. “It goes like a movie now,” he said. However, even before I had found my way to this meeting, my perspective had shifted. I had realized that the essence of the prophecy—the solution to the riddle—was not in some transcendent or otherworldly event, but in the very immanent and real world around us.

The Hopi way of life is threatened with imminent extinction. In the 1960s, the Peabody Coal Company was given a concession to mine coal on their land. They were also awarded the right to use water from the aquifer under Black Mesa to slurry the coal down a pipeline, built by the Enron Corporation. This operation wastes 1.3 billion gallons of pure drinking water annually. Of course, there are other ways to transport coal, but this is the cheapest for Peabody, and the company has continually fought against and effectively delayed all efforts to change their destructive practices.

In the 1980s, it was discovered that the lawyer who negotiated the original deal for the Hopi was, at the same time, on the payroll of the Peabody Corporation—and the Hopi have received a tiny fraction of the revenue they deserve, while forfeiting control of their own destiny. According to US Government Geological Surveys, by the year 2011, the aquifer will be finished—already the Hopi are finding that the local springs on which they rely are drying up.

In the middle-class New Age culture and “New Edge” festivals such as Burning Man, much lip service is paid to Native American traditions. Perhaps millions of white people hang dream catchers over their beds and put kachina dolls on their shelves. Despite this sentimental interest in indigenous culture and spirituality, precious little, or nothing, is done by us—those of us with the leisure for yoga and raw food and sweat lodges, who often sanctimoniously consider ourselves to be especially “conscious” or “spiritual” beings—to help the Native Americans on this continent. The indigenous people are resettled next to toxic waste dumps, abandoned to the least arable lands, ignored when the fish in their rivers are poisoned, when their resources are robbed from them. In every way, they continue to be treated with condescension and contempt.

This is also what I intuited from Maasaw’s mocking laughter and deviant presence in my dreams: Some deep schism of the soul remains to be recognized; the wound can only be healed if we work to forge a real relationship with the indigenous world, to expiate our dominator culture’s guilt and denial through pragmatic action in this reality, as it is now. If this is the case, then the Hopi situation represents the perfect place to begin the reversal: They are probably the oldest and perhaps most well-known indigenous group in the US, zealously studied by ethnographers for over a century, while repeatedly and blatantly betrayed by the US government and private corporations.

As climate change accelerates along with the global depletion of resources, we are being forced to recognize that our current system is unsustainable, even in the short term. The Hopi situation provides a microcosm of the global crisis—a cruelly ironic situation considering the essential meaning of their culture. As Whiteley notes, “The phrase ‘Hopi environmentalism’ is practically a redundancy. So much of Hopi culture and thought, both religious and secular, revolves around an attention to balance and harmony in the forces of nature that environmental ethics are in many ways critical to the very meaning of the word ‘Hopi.’” Visiting the Hopi, it occurred to me that indigenous prophecy, in itself, arises out of a deep level of attunement to the natural world, rather than anything “spiritual” or immaterial.

According to Vernon Masayesva, of the Black Mesa Trust (www.blackmesatrust.org): “It is our water ethic that has allowed us to survive and thrive in one of the most arid areas on planet Earth. It is the knowledge and teachings of our elders that have sustained us. This water ethic that has been handed down to us by our ancestors we are eager to share with everyone who will be facing water shortages—and according to some studies, water wars—in the next few decades. When the water is gone from Black Mesa, so will be the traditional cultures that could have taught the world so much about living successfully with less.” The Hopi prophecies also tell of the return of Pahana, the elder white brother, in a real exchange of knowledge and a true communion, as the Fourth World comes to an end.

Like so many manifestations of our neurotic and alienated culture, the Koyaanasqatsi films create a mood of inescapable doom and approaching cataclysm. Personally, I reject this attitude. We still have time to save the Hopi and other indigenous groups — perhaps, by extension, ourselves—if we are willing to learn from them and fight for them, rather then appropriating their spirituality while ignoring the destruction we keep inflicting upon their world.

http://arthurmag.com/2011/03/04/the-fifth-world-and-the-hopi-apocalypse-by-daniel-pinchbeck-arthur-no-14jan-2005/

**"How Soon is Now? by Daniel Pinchbec Watkins Publishing,  March 2018.

"The Hands of Spider Woman" .... Excerpt from "A WEBBED VISION"

What might we see, how might we act, if  we saw with a webbed vision? 

The world seen through a web of relationships…as delicate as spider’s silk, 

yet strong enough to hang a bridge on.” 

Catherine Keller, Theologian

 From a Broken Web 

I began this Blog in 2007 when I went to Michigan on a Fellowship with Aldon B. Dow Creativity Center and Northwood University.  The basis for my Fellowship was a personal and Community Arts Project I developed based on the ubiquitous Native American "Legends of the Spider Woman". .... a mythic Presence throughout the Americas that has called to me for many years.  My quest to "follow the trail of Spider Woman" has been fraught with beauty, synchronicities, and many conversations with kindred souls.  

The Dictionary defines an "archetype" as: 

"the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.  (in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches."

I suppose the mythic and conversant intimacy I feel with "Spider Woman" could thus be explained, by a psychologist,  as the 'presence of a universal archetype that has inspired me'.  I do live in the Southwest, and pentimentoes of the earlier Native American cultures are ever beneath the surface.  I tend to think that "archetypes" are not just psychological patterns, but that they  have a primal life of their own, and they grow and change through time and culture.  Even saying that, it doesn't quite ring true for me.  Spider Woman has been a mentor and guiding intelligence for me, and She has an important message for us all in this time.   She, in my opinion, is not confined to any one culture or time or interpretation - She is simply too big for that!

Spider Woman (called by the Keresan Pueblo people Tse Che Nako, "Thought Woman") is an  archetype that occurs, with many variations,  from the Mayan Earth Mother to the Spider and Cross symbol found among early Mississippian Mound Builders to the Great Weaver of the Navajo, and a Creatrix figure among  the Pueblo peoples.

The Mayan and Hopi Calendars ended in 2012, signalling the end of the Fourth Age and the  advent of the Fifth Age.   Among  Pueblo legends it is Spider Woman who comes at the end of each Age to lead the "new people" through the Kiva hole (which might be seen as a birth canal) into the next World. 
 

"Kiva at Spruce Tree House" by Adam Baker

I believe She calls to us now, across the ages and across human cultures, to remember that we also are "making the world with the stories we tell", and that at the core of the New Story that MUST ARISE for us to survive into the next Age there is the profound truth of the unity and  inter-dependency of  all life.  The "Great Web" that lies beneath and above and within every manifestation.  

Perhaps the World Wide Web, within which I write, is Her latest appearance......

I've just begun to return to that body of work I did recently, to the many many images I have done over the years that are Woven, Rooted, Webbed..........and I find I do not speak this woven language alone, I have many, many colleagues who are also "Spider Woman's grandchildren".    Among my archives I  found a short excerpt from  a performance piece with two "voices" I wrote some 12 years ago, and never developed.........but I felt like sharing it here.

There is a simple Loom on stage. Long threads extend in various ways from the Loom, some disappearing off stage.  A woman sits musing at the loom.  

Weaver (Voice 1):

At the very very very very very
small quantum level
it gets strange, very strange indeed.

It seems that particles, the playful dust motes of eternity,
can be both solid, and not solid
particles, and waves,
form and not form
Depending upon where the observer is,
who the observer is,
and what the observer is thinking.

Form, it would seem, has an identity crisis.



Voice 2 (off stage, unseen):

Tse che nako
Thought-Woman,
is sitting and thinking as she weaves.

She thought about her two daughters
and together they created this world
and the four worlds below.

The spider, Thought-Woman,
named all things
and as she named them
they appeared. She is thinking of a story now
and the story I'm telling you
she is thinking
as I'm telling you

Weaver (Voice 1):

Water, Dr. Masuru Emoto has discovered,
Is talking to us all the time.
We can learn to listen he says
by freezing water, 
and observing what happens to the crystals that form

"Water", he writes, "exposed to the words "thank you"
 formed beautiful geometric crystals, no matter what language was spoken. 
But water exposed to "you fool" and other degrading words
resulted in broken and deformed crystals."

What's a word, but a crystallization of a thought?

Last night I wrote "thank you" on my water bottle
with a magic marker
I am drinking gratitude now


Voice 2 (off stage, unseen)

Tsityostinako the Spider was called
"thought woman" by Pueblo people
because they believe Her thoughts 
are always becoming something.

Tsityostinako lives
at the empty  Center of the Web
singing  the world into being
with the stories She tells.  

"Your father", she told her daughters,
"lives in the Sky, 
but we live here, in the land and in the red  clay,
and among the leaves, and the night,
and the day, and the animals, and those who fly,
and swim, in all the peoples of the worlds."

Then She taught Her daughters how to sing.

"Here's a basket for each of you", She said,
"filled with seeds, and little pictures of animals.
Go plant what's in each basket
at the four quarters of the world,
and everywhere in between."

And that's how her granddaughters the Yellow Women
were born, along with corn and mesquite and coyotes,
and that's how Sun Youth,
and Spider woman's grandsons
the Warrior Twins were born.
And ravens, and wrens,
and eagles and mice
and how all this world
become populated.

Weaver (Voice 1):

Grandmother Spider can be so small,
like a spider, very difficult to see.
Each strand She spins is so transparent
so invisible,
you'll never see it
unless you learn to look
in a certain way.

So small and yet  everywhere
always there, maybe, whispering in the wind,
on your shoulder, even  now, as you ask
these questions with an open heart. 
Always there, talking,
trying to help Her grandchildren.


Voice 2 (off stage, unseen)

She is sitting in her room now,
thinking up a good story,
an old story, 
a New Story:

I'm telling you
the story 
She is thinking.

"Spider Woman Speaks" Performance

Yesterday I participated in a Performance Showcase at the Carport Theatre, the wonderful community theatre created by multi media artist Kathy Keler here in Tucson.   It was my pleasure to see two pieces (which were  created and  pre-recorded with the great help of Kathy) and  performed by Diane Warren.     The first performance was  Spider Woman,  who is found, sometimes, in the deserts of the wide South West.   Because you came there with empty hands.

https://soundcloud.com/user-972033003/spiderwomanwithmusic3-2

Empathy is the Next Human Evolution

“What might we see, how might we act, if  we saw with a webbed vision?The world seen through a web of relationships…as delicate as spider’s silk,yet strong enough to hang a bridge on.”

Catherine Keller,  From a Broken Web

Here is something  I believe is at the heart of what the archetype of  Spider Woman means to me, what Her evolutionary work (remember the many Pueblo  legends of Spider Woman being the "Midwife" of each new age?  I wrote a bit about this on the advent of 2012).  In these sacred stories of the birth of each age, and the ending of the old age, it is Spider Woman who leads the people through the Kiva, or birth canal, into the new world. 

Spider Woman, the great Weaver, weaving the world with the stories that She tells, casting a thread to the new people, a thread of the great Web that resonates with every other thread.

I like to think that the Internet is Her latest appearance.  

Photo by J.J. Idarius

“Hope now lies in moving beyond our past in order to build together a sustainable future for all the interwoven and interdependent life on our planet, including the human element.

We will have to evolve now into a truly compassionate and tolerant world – because for the first time since the little tribes of humanity’s infancy, everyone’s well being is once again linked with cooperation for survival.  Our circle will have to include the entire world.”

Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad,

from The Guru Papers

As  I think about how I and friends and colleagues are going to the World Parliment on Religion in Salt Lake City this October (thanks to Macha Nightmare), it seems to me that Grandmother Spider Woman is a deity who should, and will, be there, although perhaps little spoken of.  But as so many have said so much more eloquently than I, the new and ancient  theology for a global civilization facing a global crisis must ultimately be a theology of holy  inter-dependancy. 

Interconnectedness, Spiritual Ecology, quontum entanglement.  And I also believe there is a profound need for new forms of spiritual iconography and meaningful  ritual  that reflects that paradigm of ultimate unity...........work for artists of all kinds. 

 

"What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as of one harmonious being?"

 Joseph Campbell, from "The Power of Myth" (with Bill Moyers)

To me Spider Woman is also about synchronicity, that vast, mysterious, and sometimes funny as well,  Web of Being that underlies our lives.  So interestingly, as I was contemplating all of this, along with practical matters like hotels, I received an interesting email from Trish  and Rob Macgregor, a writer team exploring Synchronicity (among many other things) whose Blog I often visit for its wise, and often surprising, articles.  Trish and Rob are working on an article about "planetary empaths", and wanted to know what I and others thought the world might be like in 15 years or so, if we had any impressions.  There's a bit of  Spider Woman forcing me to stop and think, and I copy how I responded to their question below. 

I'd like to explore this idea much more in the future, because I think it really is important.......

Hi Trish,

Funny, I've been reading a lot of articles lately on empathy (came up on Facebook), and the word keeps turning up, including my own recent article.  

I think strongly that the next human evolution is not intellectual, or technological, or even cultural - it's empathic.  We feel ourselves connected to each other and to the planet in its diversity. Understanding and maturing this process would create entirely different kinds of appropriate human societies.  This idea ("the next human evolution is one of empathy") is a thought that keeps coming into my mind for the past few years, and lately I've been seeing it discussed in different contexts, so I am not alone in this idea arising into the collective consciousness.  

 And I don't think empathy is the same as "telepathy" - empathy is the emotional body, and evolution of empathy means helping the emotional body or emotional mind, individually and collectively, to mature, be discerning (because being an empath means you take on every one's stuff, and often don't know where it's coming from, or you think it is you, or you just get sick)......and find a different kind of  language for perception, healing, and energy exchange, one that is based on a fundamental understanding, emotional understanding, of deep interconnection.  

So having written that...........I think that those seeds of change, and many individuals who are highly empathic, are here, trying to germinate, especially in response to the pain and crisis of the planet.  

But taking root.............I strongly feel that such ideas and groups and individuals as well will need to be in small communities, possibly alternative communities of various kinds, certainly they will need support groups............because  they will have a hard time surviving in the face of all the conflict and confusion (and violence) that I am certain is coming.  Our civilization is not sustainable, nor is our economic system, and all kinds of reactionary forces (Republicans, right wing patriarchs, fundamentalist religions, and all kinds of racial scapegoating as people look for someone to blame) will continue to arise as times become more difficult, and resources more limited.  

And yet..........I have a real sense of, well, hope?  I see all kinds of good things happening that you won't hear on Fox news.  I almost feel that empaths are a response to our need for planetary evolution - they arise from a greater purpose, perhaps, from the mind of Gaia.  

Does that make sense?  Thanks for asking me the question..................

" The new myth coming into being through the triple influence of quantum physics, depth psychology and the ecological movement suggests that we are participants in a great cosmic web of life, each one of us indissolubly connected with all others through that invisible field.   It is the most insidious of illusions to think that we can achieve a position of dominance in relation to nature, life or each other. In our essence, we are one."

Anne Baring

The Spiritual Significance of 2012

 A friend passed this article  on to me, and I thought it worth sharing here - very insightful.  (This article is from a collection of material gathered from authors of “Transforming Through 2012, A Multimedia eBook about the coming shift.” http://transformingthrough2012.com - republished with permission from Science Of Mind Magazine, November 2011 Issue)

The end of the Hopi calendar, and entry into the "5th World", is thus also about the "Return of Spider Woman", the cosmic weaver who is also, in the Pueblo mythological universe, the midwife who guides the "new people" through the Sipapu in the sacred kiva, (or birth canal) into each next world, offering a thread (or a ladder) to rise up into the New World...... I reflect that in the Circles I've participated in, there are 5 directions: North, South, East, West, and Center. The Center is that which unites everything, the breathe, the dark space, ecological interdependency, the Web.  Integral."

 Nassim Haramein  comments eloquently:  "Every atom of your body is connected to every other atom in the universe, as it exchanges energy and information with the vacuum.".  

The Spiritual Significance of 2012 
by Mead Rose  

Spider Gorget with Cross/Circle

So why all the hubbub around 2012? The answer is that a number of seemingly significant changes appear to center around that date.

• In astronomical terms, 12/21/2012 is the winter solstice occurring simultaneously with crossing over the galactic midline.
• Astrologically, we are also transitioning from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age.
• In addition, it has been put forth as the end date of the Mayan calendar and as the fulfillment date of several other indigenous prophecies.
• Terence McKenna also turned up a pattern of events when he superimposed numerical values associated with the King Wen sequence of the I Ching onto human history, which he referred to as Timewave Zero and which appears to converge on that date as well.

There is both disagreement about and speculation beyond the basic points shown above. While the astronomical and astrological facts remain indisputable, the significance of them is open to interpretation. Additionally, when one examines the prophecies of the Maya and other indigenous peoples one discovers that they refer to a process and are not tied to a particular date.
Regardless of debates about target dates, it seems clear that change is upon us simply as a consequence of living on a planet with a burgeoning population and dwindling resources. It is becoming clear that we need to evolve past obsolete, consumption-heavy economies and competitive social strategies and transition into more resource-friendly, cooperative ways of living.

One fairly consistent theme in all the talk about 2012 is the idea that we are moving into a time when all our ancient notions are challenged. To quote songwriter Emily Kaitz: 

"Uncharted waters, Empty skies, Everything you’ve learned up to this point, No longer applies."

Long cherished notions of “the way it is” are beginning to come under scrutiny. These assumptions include:

• The fundamental nature of time and space
• The notion that we are alone in the universe
• The faith that our elected officials will act in our best interests
• The belief that intercession between individuals and divinity is necessary

For many, this scrutiny is a challenge to their religious faith and points to discrepancies between religion and spirit. One of the difficulties in responding to questions about the spiritual significance of 2012 is that that what defines spirit is changing. In the past, the borderlines between spirit, science, thought and physical existence were quite clear and now those separations are falling away in the light of new understandings.

One way to shed light on the whole question is to examine the ancient prophecies in the regard that spirit is eternal and human beings are fairly constant regardless of external changes. It is noteworthy that prophesies from diverse tribes show thematic congruence, even among tribes who are highly isolated and rarely exchange information with other tribes. For example, we find that when we compare Mayan and Hopi prophecies, the underlying themes are similar:

Scientifically recognized Mayan Calendar expert Carl Johan Calleman reveals that according to understandings gained via conversations with Mayan elders, the December 21, 2012 target date is erroneous and that the Mayan Calendar end date is actually October 28, 2011. Dr. Calleman elaborates on his interpretation of Mayan prophecies explaining that the “descent of the nine gods” refers not to anthropomorphic deities but instead to levels of cosmic consciousness impacting humanity at specific times. He has painstakingly documented historical events correlated to previous impacts to test the validity of his interpretation. He predicted March 9, 2011 as the commencement date of the 9^th Wave, just two days before the Fukushima earthquake, an eerie precursor.

Dr. Calleman offered commentary on the coming spiritual shifts saying, “We’re going into something where there will be no middle man or middle women between ourselves and God; and the Divine. We will be the only authorities in regarding our relationship to God. That’s where it’s going. No intermediate so to speak.” He explained that it was the ‘filters’ upon consciousness that necessitated the need for somebody to convey the experience from spiritual reality. “I believe that this wave is about developing resonance with the cosmos and it is a large thing. In order to do so, in true resonance with the cosmos, it also means that you must do that yourself directly, without any intermediates…It’s all about becoming a citizen of the cosmos, a child of God with out any having to intervene, so to speak.”

This idea of a transformation of consciousness is echoed in the Hopi prophecies.
Author Kymberlee Ruff tells of the Hopi Prophecy Rock, and whether humanity would choose to depart from the “Two-hearted Path” leading to nuclear annihilation: “Up until very recently, many of the Hopi Elders were not certain that we would choose the ‘Path of the One-Hearted.’ Fortunately, I have been told that in the last few years, we have turned a corner. Many Holy and Noble people have performed the sacred rituals and ceremonies, asking Mother Earth to give us another chance. An evolution of consciousness has occurred just in time to save our planet. I have been told to share with you that, in the last few years, we have passed over into ‘The Fifth World.’

With 2012 approaching, there are so many doomsday stories circulating, describing an impending time of catastrophe and destruction. This is why I was asked to tell the story of the ‘Two Paths of the Hopi Prophecy Rock,’ to tell you that the day after December 21, 2012 is actually going to herald a time of great peace…So as chaotic as the world may appear right now, it is an illusion. Something wonderful is happening.”

Or is it? One thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that we as human beings create our own reality. But this creation process goes far beyond the subjective limits of individuated consciousness. With individual transformation comes the realization that all beings are in need of liberation, that to acquire and appreciate the finer things in life also means doing so without subjecting others to undue hardship.

Like it or not, the world we live in is the product of an ongoing collaborative experiment in consciousness. While enlightened personages such as the Dalai Lama exemplify living the simple spiritual life, they are exiled from their homeland by governmental decisions of a totalitarian regime made to accommodate an ever-growing population.

In the midst of our search for new, cooperative solutions to problems for which we have no previous experience, the brute force expedients learned throughout humanity’s history of war and strife contend for dominance. Based in scarcity and fear, old paradigm you-or-me thinking tends to spread by turning otherwise enlightened minds into sharks or shark bait. Deep spiritual conviction is required to avoid falling prey to the fear-based thought patterns.

Furthermore, avoidance is not an answer. Withdrawing from the difficulties of the modern world is to withdraw one’s self as a needed community resource. Past models allowed people to entrust others to take care of difficult problems. Recent economic problems have shown us that this is not a wise strategy. All too often, turning one’s gaze away from complex problems, amounts to letting the fox guard the hen house.

The approaching changes require a new sort of moral courage. Already we are seeing the start of planetary changes from earthquakes to solar flares to floods. People are waking up to corruption and misbehavior on the part of our elected leaders. As spiritual beings, we must be willing to open our eyes and hearts to see and feel the wounds of humanity and mother earth to witness the extent of the healing that must take place. It is then incumbent upon us to put aside fear and hold fast to a vision of universal peace, cooperation and personal responsibility for emancipating people and the planet from the bondage of history.

West Kennet Long Barrow Crop Circle 2009

This moral courage must extend from our innermost hearts into our families, neighbors, organizations, institutions and planet. Beyond that, there are many who believe that extraterrestrial intelligences are waiting for us to complete this key step in our development before admitting us into their galactic associations. Dr Steven Greer of The Disclosure Project and others have revealed that very real economic forces are at work sowing fear and deception to prevent the equally real technologies of abundant energy, telepathic interfaces and gravitational propulsion from being made available. Imagine a Galactic Federation just like Star Trek (complete with a Prime Directive of non-interference). Imagine the Starship Enterprise encountering a planet which attempts to control its citizenry by withholding key technology and making movies about alien invasions. Even if you don’t accept the part about the aliens, consider that there are economic interests with an investment in the status quo of selling fossil fuels and nuclear energy when other technologies are available.

The 2012 experts and indigenous elders indicate that each individual must choose to respond to fear with love and when others are fearful, to do what it takes to bring them into the light of love, peace and understanding. Doing so will eventually cause us to reach a “tipping point” which will shift humanity’s matrix into the new reality so many of us desire.

One of the key abilities we all need to cultivate is the ability to meet new and sometimes bizarre information not with horror or disbelief but instead with the recognition that as with any process of healing or growth, there may be pain and a need to let go of the past. As humanity emerges from millennia of strife, the future may occur as, “being dragged kicking and screaming into heaven.”
Perhaps some of the best spiritual advice for coping with the radical shifts around 2012 comes from mathematician and physicist Nassim Haramein. Dr. Haramein recently won an award for his paper on ”The Schwarzschild Proton,” where he demonstrated the viability of considering the proton to be a quantum black hole containing the entire mass of the known universe. In one stroke, the paper solves discrepancies between Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. At first glance, this seems to carry no spiritual significance, but upon closer examination reveals that the separation between science and spirit is arbitrary. Ever since childhood he had difficulty with Euclidean dimensional concepts and arrived at his unique theories through attempting to understand the structure of the vacuum. Some label his work “sacred geometry” and indeed he has been able to integrate the Kabalistic “Tree of life” and “Flower of life” into his mathematical understanding of the geometry of space.

“I urge you to spend some time in contemplation, realizing your infinite nature, realizing your connectivity to the structure of space, to the vacuum as a whole, realizing your connectivity to all things through the inner self. All the masters who have walked the earth have encouraged us to learn to turn our senses inward because within the atomic level, within the singularity that centers our existence is the infinite potential of creation. This is what connects us to all things.
I believe that spending more time turning your senses inward and connecting with your fundamental nature, and then applying that to the external world in your day-to-day life might be one of the most crucial, the most important, things you can do. When you align with your fundamental nature, with your singularity, with the infinite potential inside yourself, you are fundamentally aligned with your dharma, your mission, your deepest possible recognition of self. Such an exploration can lead to great things in your life.

Every atom of your body is connected to every other atom in the universe, as it exchanges energy and information with the vacuum. This infinite energy and knowledge can infuse your consciousness, and change your life beginning today. Do not be apprehensive about the changes clustering around 2012, for they will force us to make the evolutionary leap into a world of abundance and wonder.”

It is clear we are in a time of transition. The message coming from the 2012 experts is a message to respond to the coming changes with love instead of fear. This requires the moral courage to see things as they are and then to make the choice towards love and responsibility and to help others to do so for themselves.