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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Mayan Blowout?



My previous post (from 12-17-12) collected such intriguing comments that I thought the subject would reward closer inspection. As friend Willie knows, I am probably not the ideal person to do this. It was he who introduced me 7 or 8 years ago to the Mayan Long Count prophesies through a long-running discussion between his friend, Professor Hoopes, and  Daniel Pinchbeck. I became also slightly acquainted with Terrence McKenna's cosmological abstractions and with José Argüelles' artistic and philosophical efforts to devise a correct and biologically accurate calendar for the whole planet. 

I suppose it is unavoidable for researchers who freely share their findings to be appointed willing or unwilling pontifices of speculative subcultures. The calendric year is said to have started at some remote point in the past with the appearance of the Pleiades asterism in the east just before the dawn light, so there has been ample opportunity for this enthusiasm to assert itself. It  develops, after all, in response to mystery.

This collection of essays, Trainride Of The Enigmas, concerns itself with mysteries. Why? Because we need them. Voltaire said, of God, that if He did not exist we would have to invent Him. Indeed, as humans learn the language of the universe --Nature-- it follows we need to form some idea of its personality, what it expects of us and we of IT. This is invention and it is a very big deal. A Mysterium Tremendum --or some other skull-thumping thunderclap a phrase-- can round things off well enough but getting through life, quantum navigation, wants more detail than thunderation.

We need the little everyday mysteries by which we learn, learn to read, to do, to read the expressions of others. We need them for the next round of greater mysteries which, in solving, guide us into love, conscience, duty, and --as ALL diarists and bloggers discover-- an understanding of those forces that shape our lives. Then, and only then, can we examine tremendous mysteries to any useful depth.

These are the mysteries to which we apply our whole minds and give our minds meaning. And to those who are disappointed tomorrow, there's a spare in the trunk.

12 comments:

  1. I must be getting old....I don't like mysteries and I don't like surprises. If everything goes kaput sometime tomorrow I hope I'm sleeping when it happens. At least it will be one thing that happens to everyone on the planet at the same point in time regardless of what time they think it is.

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  2. As always,your Trainride Tremendum forces me to think and I like that. The mysteries along the way never impede the delightfully smooth ride. I have no plans to get off at the next stop - - unless, of course, Armageddon derails us.

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  3. Delores-- Isn't Australia a day ahead of us? I just consulted a globe and it's still there!

    Jon-- Armageddon will never happen until it decides how many d's it has. I think you spelled it right but it's like Sagittarius, which grows another t whenever I glance away.

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  4. Technically, it's heading towards 1 a.m.in the UK, and is becoming Winter there. It won't be Winter here for several more hours. It looks like the Mayan hoopla is, as expected, just another excuse to drink. As for me, I'll have another Irish cream and go see if the latest episode of Coronation Street has been posted.

    And I love mysteries. Yes, please keep bringing us mysteries!

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  5. Lady Austan-- My privilege and pleasure, mysteries. Quickly, the game is afoot!

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  6. Heehee all! I'm sure you know that it ain't over until http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIVfbylUU-M

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  7. Willie-- Ah yes, Tiger Tunes performance by the KX men's social club at Ouachita Baptist University. They look a bit horny in that one!

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  8. I first heard about this date a decade or so ago in Copan, Honduras. The guide of the Mayan ruins there told us the story and I assumed that (since today is my wife's birthday) that I had forgotten and my world ended. I took no chances this year and had her present wrapped before her birthday (and neither did I use Christmas paper, another no-no for one whose birthday is so close to the other holiday). See you around blogland tomorrow!

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  9. Sage-- Today, the 22nd, I can commend your prudent preparations for yesterday with some authority. As a Sagittarian, I wholeheartedly approve!

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  10. Very well said. Life is a mystery I guess. Perhaps it's why we try new thing or go new places - just to see what's around the corner.
    Thank you for your comment on my blog last week. I like your sweet story of the boys walking down the street. Sometimes the smallest of gestures....

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  11. Tesha-- Thank you. Most kind. I hope this holiday brought you strength and joy.

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