I sometimes get a newsletter from Michael Winn, a well known Taoist - here is his take on the 2012 phenomenon...note, I don't advocate anything he says, just sharing a Taoist take on it all:

Inside Chi Flows Naturally:



I conducted Taoist alchemy rituals at this Mayan temple in Tulum on the Gulf coast of Mexico for many years at Spring Equinox. Tulum is the only Mayan temple (out of thousands) on the sea, and the only one at which no human sacrfice was made - so the energy was "clean", not filled with ghosts. Mayan culture amongst esoteric groups is considered to be a mix of neo-Lemurian (Pacific) and neo-Atlantean culture. Taoists are the inheritors of the earth-centered Lemurian tradition; in China stories about "Mu" persist today.

Dear Lovers of Natural Cycles and their Original Source (Tao),

There are many folks out there vulnerable to apocalyptic predictions and media hype. Some of them are wondering if there will be a recognizably comfortable life AFTER December 21, 2012. One public poll found 1 in 7 people believed the world could end this year. There are over 300 books about 2012 for sale on Amazon. The Guatemala Tourism Ministry is hosting an event it expects 30,000 foreigners to show up for. I get emails every day from people asking "what should I do to prepare?"

I hope to clarify five things in this newsletter:

1. What exactly is happening ASTRONOMICALLY? Scientific observations on the Mayan Galactic Alignment.

2. What ancient Mayan inscriptions and calendar actually predict.

3. Fascinating parallels between Chinese and Mayan culture that suggest historical influence, and possible parallels in their calendar time cycles.

4. The ASTROLOGICAL significance of this galactic alignment to humanity. My own experience tracking this in the inner planes using Living Astrology (= direct communication with embodied natural beings, planets, stars, etc.). This goes beyond academic Talking Heads and channelled new age chatter.

5. The absolute best thing for YOU to do this Winter Solstice 2012, and going forward, to make sure you are not shocked by the coming changes. I list 3 separate Solstice ceremonial dates, starting with the Dark Moon tonite.

I also offer reminders of tools to cultivate yourself (winter seminars, summer retreats in 2013 - note the website is updated - and reminder of special 30% savings on Tao homestudy DVDs and CDs until Jan. 6, 2013 - assuming that life goes on past Dec. 21 .

My general advice for the next cycle of Time:

Don't settle for being an armchair philosopher: "Talk does not cook the rice", is my favorite Chinese proverb. If your body is not involved in some movement or meditation practice, you are NOT changing anything. Passive readers just move their mental furniture around inside their brain as the Titanic (metaphor for one's natural connection to the Life Force) slowly depletes and sinks into dark watery depths.

There is a lot of very interesting ground to cover here, and material that you will not find in most discussions of 2012. Enjoy!

Contents:
» 1. What is Actually Happening, Astronomically?
» 2. The Actual Mayan Predictions
» Solstice Ceremony: Choosing a Time, How to Design Your Own
» Summer Retreat Program 2013 - WEBSITE is LIVE
» 3. Parallels between Chinese and Mayan culture
» RSVP for Dec. 22 Solstice Concert & Meditation
» 30% Holy Gift Savings on Tao DVDs & Homestudy until Jan. 6, 2013
» 4. What is the ASTROLOGICAL significance of 2012?
» 5. What's the best thing to "DO" on Solstice?
» Winter seminars in Mexico, Holland & USA
» Entrance to Celestial Paradise (Hieronymous Bosch painting)
1. What is Actually Happening, Astronomically?

Anyone can see the Milky Way galaxy on a clear night, as it has hundreds of millions of stars. From the top it looks like a spinning pinwheel, with our solar system on what's called the Orion arm. We spin around the Milky Way's galactic center every 225 million years.

Separate from this galactic cycle, the Earth's axis also makes mini-spirals at a tilted angle that creates a 26,000 year cycle called the "precession of the equinoxes". This creates the seasons on Earth, a rhythm that controls our life. The Earth axis tilts to point at different constellations, grouped by human cultures into 12 zodiac signs that each take about 2160 years to pass through. No "12-ness" objectively exists in the sky - the zodiac is purely a product of human imagination. Its our need to make sense (as "mythical truth") of celestial events. of our human journey through Time and Space.



John Major Jenkins: "according to Mayan cosmology, the Milky Way's Dark Rift is a kind of "cosmic vagina" near the Galactic Center. It is the place where the Sun is reborn at the end of the age." from: Galactic Alignment: Transformation of Consciousness in Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Tranditions.

At Winter Solstice on Dec. 21, 2012, the Sun-Earth axial tilt will cause 24 hours of darkness at the North Pole and 24 hours of light at the South Pole.

Another alignment is simultaneously happening at this Winter Solstice: our Earth's South Pole axis will point beyond the Sun at a dark patch in the Milky Way known as the Great Rift or Dark Rift. This dark patch in the visible Milky Way is caused by stellar clouds. Buried inside that dark area is the Milky Way's galactic center, in the constellation Sagittarius, about 28,000 light-years away. It boasts a black hole weighing some four million times the sun's mass, which the ancients could NOT see without infrared telescopes. But some Mayans noticed the black patch in the middle of the visible Milky Way, and created a 5,126 year calendar whose end coincided with Earth's alignment with the Dark Rift in 2012.

NASA has been bombarded by the public asking about this 2012 Solstice. If you want NASA's take on it: http//:www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

The short summary of NASA is that the black hole in the Milky Way's Galactic center is too far away to affect the Earth gravitationally or disturb its electro-magnetic field, and no, please do not kill yourself because you think the world is about to end.

More significant is the factual revelation, described in several books and sites, that the Earth has REGULARLY been aligning at Winter Solstice with the galaxy's Dark Rift since 1980, and that it will take about 36 years - until 2016 - for the Earth's slowly tilting axis to fully cross this darkened area of the Galactic center. (Depending on how you measure the Dark Rift entry/exit points, some count 33 years, etc.).

So crossing this Galactic Center alignment is a long, slow cosmic event, and 2012 is only being hyped because of the Mayan calendar ending then. We're not actually aligned with the "true" center of the Milky Way, its black hole, in 2012, but are 6.6 degrees north of it (to the naked eye, 13 widths of the moon). We have another 3 years to go before the Earth's axis is out of the Cosmic Woods and back into the "light" on the other side of the Dark Rift.

Those are the simple facts from astronomy's point of view. Science covers a narrow band of reality, and we'll discuss some other bands below.

2. The Actual Mayan Predictions

(Thanks to Bruce Randall for connecting me to Prof. Mark van Stone (to view actual mayan glyphs, see www.Markvanstone.com).

Mayan culture runs from about 300 BC to 900 CE, preceded by Olmec and followed by Aztec cultures. There are 33 different Mayan language groups in Central America, and most have different calendars.

Mayan scholars are agreed that one Mayan "long calendar" ends around 2012, but there is NO PREDICTION made as to its effects, certainly no doomsday predictions of destruction or earth changes. Winter Solstice is definitely NOT an important Mayan event.

The glyph on that Long Calendar stone stele says something like "the 9-God Tree (King) will get dressed", meaning the ruler will do a formal royal ceremony to mark the end of that cycle. That's pretty good advice in my book - I suggest we all do a Solstice ceremony to mark the event. However, I would be doing a Winter Solstice ceremony in any event, as it is my favorite "holy-day" created by Nature.

Other Mayan calendars extend beyond 2012, with major cycles ending around 2039, so there's no collective Mayan sense of the world ending in apocalypse. Modern Mayan spiritual groups have criticized the Guatemalan government for exploiting the 2012 story for profit, and distorting the nature of their real ceremonies. This makes the hype to be mostly Western fundamentalist religious or new age projection onto the Mayan Long Calendar.

Let's not forget our own European history regarding calendars. One writer summed it up nicely:

"In the year 999 CE (common era), most of Europe was convinced the world would end as 1,000 CE rang in. Believers gave all their belongings to the church and sat in the streets and waited. When destruction did not come, people were left to carry on with their lives – minus their belongings, which the church refused to return.

"We seem to have come no further in our naivety. For years we’ve heard about a huge earth upheaval set to happen on December 21, 2012 – precisely at noon, no less. Supernovas, pole shift, rogue planets, black holes, volcanoes, floods, meteorites and more have been postulated to destroy the earth.

"The 2012 doomsday theory is actually quite serious. NASA has reported calls from panicked people asking if they should kill themselves or their pets. Others are building survival shelters, assimilating arsenals and stocking up on supplies that they are more than willing to defend - hence the ammunition. Others are emptying their savings to buy bizarre items they believe will protect them through the presumed upheaval..."

Of course, what usually happens the day after some apocalyptic prediction has failed is that the predictor comes out with a new story: "God (speaking through me) has given humans a brief reprieve....better stay in my fold, so I can protect you from the next round of God's anger..." It's amazing how many continue to play the role of sheep.

The thing to remember about calendars is that they are usually invented by advisors to Rulers. They are totally human, and thus involve some subjective choices as to what time cycle is most important.

Pope Gregory XIII was told about problems with Pope Julian's calendar losing 11 minutes every year, and issued a law changing the calendar. But to get things back on schedule, ten days had to be slashed. So on October 4, 1582, millions of Europeans went to sleep and woke up the next morning on October 15. Ten days were suddenly "missing", and no alien abduction was involved....

There are infinite numbers of time cycles, micro to macro, that one can focus on. Atoms and molecules have tiny fast vibrational cycles. Electrons vibrate in 8 different levels of orbit, which defines material science's Periodic Table of the Elements (received in a dream by a scientist). Human circadian rhythms run in 25 hour cycles. Hours themselves are totally a human invention, there is no scientific measure of them. Nature has innumerable cycles ranging from day (Earth rotation), lunar (month), solar (year), to galactic year and mega-galactic cycles that get into hundreds of millions of years.

Different traditions focus on different cycles, some of them invisible spiritual cycles. Taoist numerology identifies many different cycles: 7 as cycle of man, 8 as cycle of earth, and 9 as cycle of heaven, as one small example. 8x8 = 64, number of hexagrams in I Ching, and number of codons in human DNA. Or is it derived from 2, also connected to earth, to the sixth power, also equals 64?

It is pointless to argue about which cycle is dominant or true. What is important to humans: which cycle can you FEEL in your body and psyche and consciously respond to, in order to creatively shape its effect in your life?

Humanity's global fascination with Winter Solstice 2012 and the Mayan Calendar is far more important than pinpointing some causal moment in physical time. It means people are responding to something important that is afoot in the global psyche. And they need something to focus on in their physical time line, to satisfy their unspoken but felt need.

Galactic Time cycles are huge events - this one takes 36 earth years. Most humans cannot grasp something that big - hence their willingness or preference to fixate on one date, Dec. 21, 2012. But that leads to distorted emotional projections about the fixed event, as in this case.

Even Winter Solstice is at least a 3 day event, and one can extend it by aligning it to the New Moon or Full Moon preceding the event to a two week period. See my calendar for ritual participation in this Solstice, below.

Solstice Ceremony: Choosing a Time, How to Design Your Own


Double Dragons Guard Moon Pearl. ANY natural celestial Being (from the Moon to the Milky Way) with a physical body can be safely used as a portal to Tao / Source.

I am doing triple ceremonies this year. All my recommendations occur at midnight, as that corresponds to Winter in the daily cycle of time. But if you cannot do it then, find a time that works, your intention is more powerful than clock time.

1. The most powerful natural confluence of forces is at midnight December 12 or 13. This aligns the dark moon with the "dark sun" of Winter Solstice. A ritual performed then gathers the power of both sun and moon in concentrating whatever cosmic energies are present during the Solstice period.

2. December 21, 2012, midnight. This is loaded with human energy of millions of people, from projected fears of change to projected hope for change. Great time to celebrate the ongoing End of an Old Era and its outmoded cultural, political, economic, and spiritual structures. May they die a quick and painless death as millions awaken to the source of love and creative freedom within themselves. There will be a lot of chaos released this evening, but if you have the skill to capture and digest that, it could be very empowering.

3. December 22, 2012, midnight. Celebrate the ongoing Birth of a New Heaven on Earth. See below if you want to RSVP to my event. The energy will be more clear and peaceful, and easier to feel the harmonious expansion of the new Light within Humanity and the Earth. Time to plant the seed of one's intention for the next cycle.

To read about the history of the Winter Solstice, and how it has been appropriated by various religions (such as Christmas), and If you want ideas on how to do a ritual, please read my old newsletter. Winter Solstice Ceremony (How to Create One) http://www.healingtaousa.com/c...=mode2&articleid=114. You may need to register at top of page to get a cookie that opens my Article archives.

quote:

Originally posted by Jacques: So on October 4, 1582, millions of Europeans went to sleep and woke up the next morning on October 15.

Interesting factoid: St. Teresa of Avila happened to die on October 4 of 1582, which is why her feast day is October 15 each year.

I can see that the arrival of December 22, 2012, will clear the air, given that one in seven people are afraid the world will end on December 21.

Very interesting about STA, Derek. I didn't know that.

Stephen, do you place much credence in the sort of analysis present by Winn? In the first paragraph, he mentions "neo-Lemurian (Pacific) and neo-Atlantean culture." I don't think there's sound evidence that either Lemurian or Atlantean culture ever existed. He also goes on about certain rituals to perform, but I wonder what he thinks this will accomplish?

Taoism also raises the issue of "chi," which I find to be a fascinating topic. No doubt Winn has chi flow patterns in mind when writing about the solstice and rituals, right?

I take it you're asking, Jacques, Phil. I don't know anything about Mr Winn or the Atlanteans.

Oh, d'oh!

Phil, I always had the impression that taoism was less religious and more spiritual. But after I started receiving Winn's newsletters I realised that taoism is indeed religious and of the shamanic or animistic type.

Plenty of talk of connecting with the spirit world and of encountering other beings on the astral plains. I think, that this is where Winn meets his Atlanteans and Lemurians.

My first sense is caution..."ascended masters" have been trying to sell these kind of lines to New Agers for half a century at least.

I've seen a youtube clip of a taoist using chi to heal and then later displays other feats like lighting paper on fire and encountering a ghost inside an old knife - see here.

Seems there is a lot of overlap between the energy work and encounter of these ghosts, masters, and other beings...and yet they don't lead these men (and woman) to Christ, I would be suspicious.

What do the rest of you think?

I agree, Jacques. Some kind of nontheistic working with "energy" going on in Taoism, and usually it seems to be in the direction of expanded consciousness (which, of course, is considered a manifestation of the divine).

Now that solstice day is almost over and (to my knowledge) nothing spiritually significant has happened, maybe those who've been frightened can settle down and try to find meaning in this marvelous world we have been given. "Ordinary" life in "ordinary" times is filled with opportunities for wonder and awe.

I will say, however, that the last three days have been most difficult for me, energy-wise: some kind of intense and very dense stuff has been working its way through my ribs and ears, causing much pain and leaving me feeling mentally disoriented at times. This feels different than the usual kinds of knots and blockages I experience from eating the wrong foods, watching too much TV, reading too much, etc. etc. I've wondered if it's related to some of the energy issues Mr. Winn wrote about. I hope it passes soon.

quote:

I will say, however, that the last three days have been most difficult for me, energy-wise: some kind of intense and very dense stuff has been working its way through my ribs and ears, causing much pain and leaving me feeling mentally disoriented at times. This feels different than the usual kinds of knots and blockages I experience from eating the wrong foods, watching too much TV, reading too much, etc. etc. I've wondered if it's related to some of the energy issues Mr. Winn wrote about. I hope it passes soon.

interesting Phil.. matthew has this too.. it has been going on for a few days..it is worse at night for him a bit better during the day..but he says it is painful... i have an odd ear too.. not painful.. more a sense of fullness that comes and goes...and a clicking sound with the typical high piercing nada. but louder than normal...

I was very energy sensitive yesterday, but I have a heavy head cold which may not have helped . The images I saw on television of Mayan shamans performing rituals stayed in my psyche all day. I wonder if these are 'ordinary' times, or if perhaps the energy's changing. Never was an end of the world scenario, even for the Mayans, but a subtle shift into something new? It'll all unfold, I suppose...or not.

Well, I emerged from my under-ground bunker this morning to see that the Mayan prediction of the end of planet Earth was a fizzle. However, I didn't want to spew totally cynical energy into the universe, so I did pop the cork off a vintage bottle of sparking grape juice to celebrate whatever new energy / consciousness was being born.

Honestly, I had unusually miserable insomnia the evening of Dec. 20. But I attribute it to reading about the Sandy Hook killer that evening before bedtime. What happened to those children was so evil, and I felt like that darkness was moving through my psyche that night--a kind of hell that night.

About Winn and Phil's question about why do a solstice ritual, you can predict my eye-roll response when I read this on his website:
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A Winter Solstice ceremony is designed to get us to surrender into the yielding, mysterious arms of the Dark Goddess, who alchemically impregnates herself and rebirths the Light God of the Sun. ... This solstice event has been recognized by many major religions as expressing some divine power, and they have aligned their major holy-day celebrations around ... The Romans had to declare that Jesus was born around Solstice, as part of a campaign to get believers to switch from similar Old Religion holidays (Mithraism's holy child of a Sun God) to the new state religion of Christianity.

The Taoists simply stuck to the natural facts, since that suited their natural cosmology - no need to dress it up with a humanized divinity. Why not just have each human being BE that divinity?
----

Ha! No thanks. Not buying it.


St. Paul spoke about the appropriate response to such ceremonies based on natural cosmology: have nothing to do with them. I believe St. Paul. I would sincerely warn people to stay away from Mr. Winn. What he is promoting is wrong, however a nice guy he may be.

There's a better way to contribute to universal peace and love. You can and should join your intentions and energies with those who have this goal in their heart. I recommend praying the Divine Office every day (not just on the Winter Solstice!). Join Christians all over the world who have been doing this for centuries.

“The purpose of the Divine Office is to sanctify the day and all human activity.” – Apostolic Constitution, Canticum Laudis.

The Liturgy of the Hours is the richest single prayer resource of the Christian Church, with prayers, psalms and readings for each of the Hours, changing each day and through the seasons.

“The Office is... the prayer not only of the clergy but of the whole People of God.” – Apostolic Constitution, Canticum Laudis.

You can even get it as an app!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shasha,

Very good post, Shasha. I can't imagine why people who believe in such things as "Dark Goddess" think their rituals will make any difference in the first place. These are precisely the kinds of practices that Christians made a break from.

Things are better energy-wise. I think I just get stressed out about all the Christmas hoopla that goes on in my family. It's all good, but way more extraverted than I'm accustomed to. I try to be a good sport and go along with all the big meals, singing, games, gift exchanges, and what not, but it's a real sacrifice to do so -- and, as such, it does help to expand the heart.