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Mayanism is a non-codified eclectic collection ofNew Age beliefs, influenced in part byPre-ColumbianMaya mythology and some folk beliefs of the modernMaya peoples.[1][2]
Contemporary Mayanism places less emphasis on contacts between the ancient Maya andlost lands than in the work of early writers such asGodfrey Higgins,Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg andAugustus Le Plongeon, alluding instead to possible contacts withextraterrestrial life. However, it continues to include references toAtlantis.[3] Notions about extraterrestrial influence on the Maya can be traced to the bookChariots of the Gods? byErich von Däniken, whoseancient astronaut theories were in turn influenced by the work ofPeter Kolosimo and especially the team ofJacques Bergier andLouis Pauwels, authors ofLe Matin des magiciens. These latter writers were inspired by thefantasy literature ofH. P. Lovecraft[4] and publications byCharles Fort. However, there remain elements of fascination withlost continents and lost civilizations, especially as popularized by 19th centuryscience fiction andspeculative fiction by authors such asJules Verne,Edward Bulwer-Lytton, andH. Rider Haggard.
Mayanism experienced a revival in the 1970s through the work ofFrank Waters, a writer on the subject ofHopi mythology.[5] HisBook of the Hopi is rejected "as largely ersatz by Hopi traditionalists".[6] In 1970, Waters was the recipient of aRockefeller Foundation grant to support research in Mexico and Central America. This resulted in his 1975 bookMexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness, a discussion ofMesoamerican culture strongly colored by Waters' beliefs inastrology,prophecy, and the lost continent ofAtlantis.[7] It has gained new momentum in the context of the2012 phenomenon, especially as presented in the work ofNew Age authorJohn Major Jenkins, who asserts that Mayanism is "the essential core ideas or teachings of Maya religion and philosophy" in his 2009 bookThe 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History.[8]
Mayanism has gained renewed vigor due topseudoscientific nonfiction by authors such asErich von Däniken,Zecharia Sitchin, andGraham Hancock, whose theories range from invokingancient astronauts and otherextraterrestrials from outer space to revivals of the idea that ancient peoples fromlost lands brought wisdom and technology to the Mayas. The implication of this is that the Mayas had access to aspects of ancient knowledge, spiritualism, philosophy, and religion that are useful for coping with the modern world, whether by avoidingArmageddon, embracing a mysticalApocalypse, or constructing a futureUtopia.
Mayanism has a complex history that draws from many different sources on the fringes of mainstreamarchaeology. It has gained growing attention through its influence onpopular culture throughpulp fiction,science fiction,fantasy literature, and more recentlycinema,graphic novels,fantasyrole-playing games, andvideo games. It has also drawn inspiration from the success ofThe Celestine Prophecy byJames Redfield, a novel that refers to the fictional discovery of a Pre-Columbianself-help manuscript in South America.
Mayanism has been promoted by specific publishing houses, most notablyInner Traditions – Bear & Company, which has produced a number of books on the theme of 2012 by authors such asJosé Argüelles,John Major Jenkins,Carl Johan Calleman, and Barbara Hand Clow.Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. has published works by New Age authorsDaniel Pinchbeck andJohn Major Jenkins that have further contributed to a growing interest in Mayanism.
Mayanism can be traced to sources such as the sixteenth-century bookUtopia byThomas More, who developed the concept of autopia in the New World (an idea first explored byChristopher Columbus in his 1501Book of Prophecies). During the eighteenth century, speculations about the origins of ancientMaya civilization sought to associate Maya history with Biblical stories ofNoah's Ark, theTower of Babel, and theTen Lost Tribes of Israel. This included speculation about legendary culture heroes such asVotan andQuetzalcoatl.[9][10]
In the early nineteenth century,Alexander von Humboldt andLord Kingsborough contributed further to such speculation. Humboldt and Kingsborough were in turn cited byGodfrey Higgins, whoseAnacalypsis (1833) contributed to the emergence ofperennial philosophy and claims that all religions had a common, ancient origin in aGolden Age of the distant past.[11][12]
In the late nineteenth-century,Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg made significant academic contributions (including re-discovery of thePopol Vuh), but towards the end of his career became convinced that the ancient Maya culture could be traced to the lost continent ofAtlantis. For example, in 1857 Brasseur identifiedVotan as aPhoenician ruler who foundedPalenque and in an article published in 1872 attributed mythological Mesoamerican cataclysms to an early version ofpole shift theory. Brasseur's work, some of which was illustrated by the talented but very inaccurateJean-Frédéric Waldeck, influenced other works ofpseudoscience andpseudohistory, such as the research ofDésiré Charnay,Augustus Le Plongeon,Ignatius L. Donnelly, andJames Churchward. Le Plongeon and Donnelly in turn influenced the work of writers such asMadame Blavatsky[13] who brought misconceptions about the ancient Maya into early New Age circles.[14] These ideas became part of a belief system fostered by psychicEdgar Cayce in the early twentieth century and later popularized in the 1960s by authorJess Stearn. One example of early Mayanism is the creation of a group called the Mayan Temple by Harold D. Emerson of Brooklyn, a self-proclaimed Mayapriest who edited a serial publication titledThe Mayan, Devoted to Spiritual Enlightenment and Scientific Religion between 1933 and 1941.[15] Attempts at a synthesis of religion and science, a common theme in Mayanism, are one of the contributions fromTheosophy while Emerson would be an early example of aplastic shaman in Mayanism.
Mayanism has no central doctrine. However, a basic premise is that the ancient Maya understood aspects of the human experience and human consciousness that remain poorly understood in modernWestern culture. This includes insights intocosmology andeschatology as well as lost knowledge of advanced technology andecology that, when known, can be used to improve the human condition and create a future Utopia. However, as a New Age belief system, Mayanism scorns academic scholarship, giving preference to knowledge gained throughrevelation andprophecy and totraditional knowledge.[16] The beliefs of Mayanism tend to be characterized by a combination ofesotericism andsyncretism, rather than being the result of either formal controlled field research or detailed scholarly research that has been based on a broad range of primary sources.[17]
The significance of this date in Mayanism stems from the ending of the currentbaktun cycle of theMaya calendar in 2012, which many believed would create a global "consciousness shift" and the beginning of a new age. This has come to be known as the2012 phenomenon. Speculation about this date can be traced to the first edition ofThe Maya (1966) byMichael D. Coe, in which he suggested the date of December 24, 2011 as one on which the Maya believed "Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation."[18] This date became the subject of speculation byFrank Waters, who devotes two chapters to its interpretation, including discussion of an astrological chart for this date and its association with Hopi prophecies inMexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness (1975).[7] The significance of the year 2012 (but not a specific day) was mentioned briefly byJosé Argüelles inThe Transformative Vision: Reflections on the Nature and History of Human Expression (1975)[19] and (without reference to the ancient Maya) byTerence McKenna andDennis McKenna inThe Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (1975).[20]
Waters' book inspired further speculation in the mid-1980s, including revision of the date by the McKennas, Argüelles, andJohn Major Jenkins to one corresponding with the wintersolstice in 2012. Interpretations of the date became the subject of further speculation byJosé Argüelles inThe Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology (1987), promoted for the 1987Harmonic Convergence. It received further elaboration in theNovelty theory ofTerence McKenna. The supposed prediction of anastronomical conjunction of theblack hole at the center of theMilky Way galaxy with the wintersolsticeSun on December 21, 2012, referred to by Jenkins inMaya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date (1998)[21] andGalactic Alignment:The Transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions (2002)[22] as having been predicted by the ancient Maya and others, is a much-anticipated event in Mayanism. Although Jenkins suggests that ancient Maya knowledge of this event was based on observations of theDark Rift in the Milky Way as seen from Earth (this dark rift, it is said by some Mayan scholars, was believed by some Mayans to be one of the entrances toXibalba), others see it as evidence of knowledge imparted viaancient contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The relevance of modern Dark Rift observations topre-Columbian and traditional Maya beliefs is strongly debated, and academic archaeologists reject all theories regarding extraterrestrial contact, but it is clear that the promotion of Mayanism through interest in 2012 is contributing to the evolution of religioussyncretism in contemporary Maya communities.Psychonaut authorDaniel Pinchbeck popularizedNew Age concepts about this date, linking it to beliefs aboutcrop circles,alien abduction, and personal revelations based on the use ofentheogens andmediumship in his 2006 book2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.[23]
Carl Johan Calleman differs in that he sees 28 October 2011 and not 21 December 2012 as the pivotal end date. Calleman does not see the date as an apocalypse but a slow transformation of consciousness with people beginning to experience a higher 'unity consciousness'.[24]
Shamanism has become a significant component of Mayanism, in part due to the scholarly interpretation of ancient Maya rulers as shamans and the popularity ofCarlos Castaneda, whose books described his apprenticeship to aYaquisorcerer. However, Castaneda's work is seen as being fictional, inaccurate, misleading, andplagiaristic, and there is substantial evidence to support the interpretation that both "Carlos" (a character in Castaneda's books) and don Juan (the sorcerer) are fictional creations.[25][26][27] Although the Yaqui are indigenous to theSonoran Desert region of northern Mexico and southern Arizona, far from the Maya region, Mayanism often conflates the concept ofToltec (Castaneda) with theToltec who interacted with the ancient Maya. This stems from 19th century speculations by Brasseur and Charnay about the Toltecs as a white,Aryan race that brought advanced civilization to the Americas either through a migration from Asia across the Bering Strait (according to Charnay) or emigration from the lost continent of Atlantis (according to Brasseur).[28]
