The Apocalypse Explained – End Of An Age Not The World

A newsletter was forwarded to me by my fiance about the misunderstood Mayan apocalypse and I couldn't help but post it for you to see.  Jenny LePage of Bozeman Massage Therapy explains that it's not the end of the world...just the end of an "age". I won't try to explain it any better than her so here it is in her words.

I’m writing this in the tiny mountain town of McCall, Idaho.  Fireside at a little organic café overlooking Payette Lake, I watch winter and woodsmoke drift by the window outside this place that is becoming my new home.  Snow falls.  Sun clears.  Time passes.  2012 is here.

The shift of this age is different for everyone.   (Yes, it’s true we’re in a shifting age, and don’t freak out.)  Certainly, it is an end of cycles large and small.  What the Maya call the end of 5 great years, or 5 cycles of 13 baktuns, which adds up to roughly 26,000 years and ends on December 21, 2012, is probably the most well known source of 2012 prophecy.  On the winter solstice on December 21, the sun rises in alignment with the center of the galaxy.  Mayans call it the “great mother” or “galactic birth canal.”  In the night sky it is seen as the dark rift in the center of the highway of stars we call the “Milky Way.”  This is one arm of our entire Milky Way spiral galaxy we can see; indeed, everything we see in the sky is part of only this galaxy.  Our galactic center is a dark star or mega black hole that our solar system and all things in this galaxy revolve around.  When this star aligns with the sun and the earth (humans being part of it), as when any large forces align, an influx of chi, or energy, passes.  It allows transformation, cleansing and purification on a grand scale – a new phase in our collective evolution.  Just like a bodywork session with one person, think of the galaxy as one body undergoing a profound treatment.

Western astrologers call this time the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, due to the precession of the equinoxes on the morning of the spring equinox on March 21.  Because the earth has a slight wobble on the rotation of its axis moving in the opposite direction of its rotation, much like a spinning top, over time this creates a shift where the sun rises.  Roughly every 2200 years the sun rises in a new constellation along the path of the elliptical, or what we know as the zodiac, which includes the twelve “signs.”  Again, roughly every 26, 000 years we pass through an entire cycle and begin to wobble back through each sign.  As we end the age of Pisces, the last of the constellations in the cycle of the zodiac, Earth wobbles again into Aquarius.  The influence of Pisces lessens and the time of competing religions makes way for Aquarius, the awakener.  We move from recognizing just the individual to awareness of the group soul.  The opposing spiritual/material forces of the fish of Pisces transition into the collective and connected sense of Aquarius.  Watch the musical Hair and sing along for the cheeseball reminder…

Yogis name each age a yuga.  According to Sanskrit tradition we are ending the fourth and last yuga, called the Kali yuga.  Kali is the destructive force of nature that destroys everything, even time itself; it is qualified by the degeneration of human spirituality and the height of materialism.  At its collapse we then begin a new age and new cycle of ages again.  (I had a lot of fun being Kali last year for Halloween, slaying everything in my path on the dance floor…).  Following the Kali yuga, the cycle begins again with a Satya yuga, or a time of truth when intrinsic goodness, peace and harmony rule.  This is also known as the “Golden Age.”

The Hopi call this time the end of the fourth sun, or world, of humanity.  As a college student around 15 years ago, we visited ancestral Hopi lands for extended educational trips – studying farming practices and tribal traditions, helping make blue corn tamales, peeking into star-aligned kivas, watching moonlit flute competitions and learning to connect with place in the Southwest desert.  Once a smiling tan skinned man hiked us out among the mesas to a secret rock thousands of years old drawing out the cyclical story of creation and collapse of humanity.  Why did we see it?  We are in this time of great change, and in many traditions we are in a time of unity, people coming together to form a oneness consciousness.  What actually happens is beyond our imagination, but the sense is of great change -- that it is time to connect, to bring people together.  This man thought it was time to smile and share.  Hopi call this the “Prophecy Rock.”

Ancient Chinese medicine texts I’ve been reading point to this time of upheaval and transition into a new age.  Tibetans, Egyptians, Mesoamericans…Shamans from cultures all over talk of these changing times.  It would be foolish for us to ignore them, yet the point is not to fear.  It is also important to know that dates and years for these transitions are both debated and agreed upon; more often than not they point to the very dates we are passing through.  No matter; the energy of the alignments surround the time periods as well as the dates, and our shifts have been and will continue to occur for years.  More than a singular cataclysmic event, we are living through a time of extended transition.

How exciting!  Certainly we are in a fluctuating time; global warming and economic and political collapse surround us and great leaps in technology transform and connect our world rapidly – exponentially!  All this happens while visionaries begin to materialize a new world…visionaries like you and me….

What does this mean for each of us?  As microcosms of the macrocosm, we shift both individually and collectively.   Our change is both personal and whole.  It is different for everyone, yet the same in some sense.  So much of what we are living through involves transitioning into the unknown.  There is no way we can possibly predict such a big transformation because the potential is beyond what we have known.  And in fact, we are already in it; as our stars line up overhead we already feel the influx of their chi, or energy, just like an acupuncture session on a large scale.   This energy will continue to influence us beyond the actual dates of Dec 21, 2012 or March 21, 2013.  In fact, nothing particular may happen on those dates.  However, it is certainly a time for celebration as we move from darker ages into a time of more light, as suggested by so many traditions.

In my practice in Bozeman, over the past few years especially, I have watched dramatic leaps in so many clients.  I have also seen fear and resistance.  While it is good to think through change and look at all the factors, it is important to work with it instead of resisting.  The more we hold on with fear, the less freely we can love.  When we resist, the process becomes more painful, the lessons harder.  This is the very change we are undergoing collectively – moving from head to heart and stepping fully into our selves as conscious human beings.  Doesn’t make sense yet?  Take a breath and feel oxygen, life force, transferring to every single cell in your body, because it does.  Can’t feel it?  Imagine it, and feel what you can.  This is real.  You are real.  You can learn to feel more.  We all start somewhere, and exactly where you are is the perfect place to start.  Keep going and don’t stop.  Listen to that loudening intuition.  Take that trip.  Look into that change in jobs.  Call that person you’ve been thinking about.  Maybe go back to school.  Maybe it’s time to retire and enjoy life, before it’s over.  Maybe it’s time to work more.  Listen to your gut sense.  Follow the strand pulsing from deep within your heart, softly.  It’s the truest thing you’ll ever know.  Keep your head on too; just pay attention to the rest of it as well.

In my own process of transformation, I have been debating what to do with my business for over a year while I’ve been in a long-distance relationship.  You all know how much I love this practice, working with each of you in my beautiful space while holding a larger vision of healing humanity.  I love Bozeman and my community; Montana has been home for almost 13 years, when I first worked as an Outward Bound instructor based in the beautiful town of Red Lodge.

There has been no easy answer.   Do we stay in Bozeman?  Do I sell this business?  Do I hire and manage it from afar, visiting often?  As I watch my hair turn white from the strain of this process, the answer becomes clear.  Ok, it was already changing color, but lately there’s much more white and it’s changing rapidly.  A simpler life is the choice -- an easy practice in a small space in a slower town, with more time for yoga, study and writing books perhaps.  Growing food, baking bread, making babies.  We are both excited about flexibility; more school calls - masters, phd, acupuncture! So do different places to live and visit.  Who knows?  Maybe we will stay in Idaho forever.  Maybe we will move back to Montana; everything’s an option!  McCall is where we’ll start.

Leaping right into new life and honoring the great shift of our time, I am leaving right at the solstice. My business will be transferred into the hands of another skilled and motivated massage therapist, Vladka at European Massage.  Current gift certificates will be honored with her business.

I know it may feel traumatic that I’m leaving so suddenly.  The process has been ongoing for over a year, with deep intention placed in a laborious and love-filled decision.  When I visit Bozeman (we plan to visit frequently) I will let you know so you can schedule an appointment if you like!

There are not enough words to express my gratitude for working with you in the wonderful town of Bozeman and in the sweet healing space on Main Street.  It is truly a gift to have a dream so big that my heart needs to follow it, and I wish the same for each of you; that you all dream big dreams, young or old or in between, then open your hearts as big as they get and find the courage to follow them.

Blessings
Mahalo ~ Thank you
Namaste ~ Adoration and reverance to you, in parting
Aho ~ Amen, so be it
Om mani padme hum ~ May all beings be free and happy

Jenny

So there you have it.  If you would like to celebrate the end of the age and the starting of the new one...