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The Passing of José Argüelles  José Argüelles passed away on March
23, 2011 (2 Imix) and I would like to write a
few words as a recognition of the very important
contributions he made to our understanding of
the Mayan calendar especially through his book
The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology
. This
work was published by Barbara Hand Clow at Bear
and Co as part of a preparation for the Harmonic
Convergence event, August 16-17, 1987. It became
a great source of inspiration for myself as well
as for many others and for a few years I regarded
it almost as a bible to Mayan cosmology. In this
book Argüelles introduced a few very radical
thoughts for the first time: 1/ The shifts in
the Mayan calendar and especially the Long Count
provides for an understanding of human history.
2/ What is important in the Mayan calendar are
the non-astronomical cycles of 260 and 360 days
and 3/ The energies of the Tzolkin provide a
matrix for the evolution of the longer cycles.
Although he had forerunners such as Peter Balin,
Tony Shearer, and Frank Waters, Argüelles'
ideas were groundbreaking and created the necessary
opening that allowed for us to realize that the
Mayan calendar could be true and then also help
us understand the contours of a cosmic plan.
The Mayan Factor was a seminal work that at the
time was way ahead of the thinking of everyone
else. His successful promotion of the Harmonic
Convergence event that coincided with a broad
spiritual awakening, also led many to conclude
that the Mayan calendar had something to say
about the spiritual destiny of mankind.
Unfortunately,
Argüelles' post-Harmonic Convergence work
with the Dreamspell calendar meant the reversal
and abandonment of exactly those advances that
had been presented in The Mayan Factor. Even
if the Thirteen Moon calendar became popular
in many parts of the world, it was never recognized
as a contribution by any serious student of the
Mayan calendar. Moreover, the way it was initially
presented brought much confusion. My own criticism
and disappointment of this calendar was not so
much motivated by the fact that Argüelles
broke with Mayan orthodoxy, but more because
the calendar he had invented was not transparent
and that its origin was kept hidden. This failure
should however not cloud the fact that Argüelles
was a great pioneer; everyone who today works
for a better world through the Mayan calendar,
and the guidance this may give us, owes something
to Argüelles. It is still possible for us
to build on the abovementioned advances from
The Mayan Factor and come to understand, in much
more detail than was possible then, the underlying
patterns of evolution in an increasingly chaotic
world. Although Argüelles is known to have
liked the idea that the Mayan calendar developed
through nine waves, he however never came to
live by these. The fact that he passed away on
the First Day of the Ninth wave that recently
had such a dramatic start thus has significance
to me and perhaps also to others and as we go
along I think this will clarify further.
Carl Johan Calleman,
Seattle, 3 Imix, the 16th day of the first uaxaclahunkin
of the Ninth wave.
Carl Johan Calleman is the author of Solving
the Greatest Mystery of Our time : The Mayan
Calendar
(Garev 2001), The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness
(Bear and Co, 2004) and The Purposeful Universe
(Bear and Co, 2009).
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