We are currently in the midst of a series of discussions regarding the '2012 phenomenon', and at our next Befinity (Hillcrest) meeting will be examining some of the ideas around the 'apocalyptic' perspective. Our intention, however, is not to promote a sensationalist view. This may be necessary to
sell magazines and movies, but it’s not particularly helpful to those who are
looking for a balanced, undramatised perspective. Our aim is rather to provide some
insight into how the whole story has emerged, and thus to bring the hype 'back
down to size', as it were.
The most important question to ask, in my opinion, is WHY is it happening? Is it because there really is some kind of looming threat? Or is it a kind of collective cry for help? Is it perhaps the case that we, as a species, are feeling more vulnerable, more threatended, more powerless than ever before, and need desperately to believe in some kind of intervention by some kind of higher power, whether from within or without?
We are continuously bombarded by messages of imminent environmental, economic and social collapse, and there is a pervasive sense that we don't have the answers. Could the various voices of the 2012 phenomenon - whether they say that disaster is upon us, or that we will be 'saved' by a transformation of consciousness - thus be nothing more than the expression of our collective mind, trying frantically to make something tangible and, in some cases at least, hopeful, out of our ill-defined, but terrifying fears? In this view, the end-date of the Maya Calendar simply becomes a conveniently timed 'crystallization point', around which the whole phenomenon has taken shape.
Perhaps, in the end, the why doesn't matter however. Perhaps the only thing that matters is that the vast amount of 'noise' around the 2012 phenomenon has served as a global rallying call to those who care about transformation - personal, social, economic and environmental. It's a call without precedent, which has reached all corners of the global village, in a way that would not have been possible 20 years ago. So, whichever way you look at it, the timing of the end-date of the Maya Calendar must be seen as remarkable.
