Friday, January 05, 2007
VAN DE BOGART AND THE MEANING OF 2012
The Alignment Generation is a review of John Major Jenkins' book GALACTIC ALIGNMENT: THE TRANSFORMATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS ACCORDING TO MAYAN, EGYPTIAN, AND VEDIC TRADITIONS.
John Major Jenkins, in his seminal work Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 , deciphered the ultimate meaning of the Mayan end-date of December 21, 2012, used by the Maya in their long count calendrical system. What Jenkins discovered was that all of the Mayan priests knew of this end date as the renewal and rebirth of a new world age resulting from the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator, and the earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy. Everything the ancients were doing in their civilizations was involved in recognizing the significance of the galactic center. The wealth of ancient architecture left on earth, which mirrored the heavens and had encoded in their stone monuments the direction to galactic center, indicating the ascent to a new spiritual world age, is the hallmark contribution Jenkins brings to the readers of his Galactic Alignment.
Well, now we know why 2012 is so important to New Agers. Given that this review is also located in the Portal Messenger portion of the database, could one conclude that Van De Bogart ranks it right up there with the writings from the angels and the saints? Perhaps he thinks this messenger is more credible. In speaking of this alignment predicted by the metaphysics of Babylonian, Sumerian, and Persian civilizations, he writes:
Supression of awareness on a celestial scale happened once before when people were not allowed to see how the earth revolved around the sun. The vision of Galileo was suppressed by the Catholic church (sic) just 325 years ago.
This galactic alignment is supposed to bring about "spiritual renewal for humanity -- not catastrophe and destruction as is commonly promoted by modern-day interpretaions of the end time." He cites the book HAMLET'S MILL by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha Von Deschend, a ten-year study that precipitated the expulsion of Santillana from M.I.T. for his "unconventional point of view on interpreting the mythology of ancient civilizations". Additional theorists cited by Jenkins include Jay Weidner, Vincent Bridges, Dr. Oliver L. Reiser, Paul LaViolette. Like a good occultist Van De Bogart offers Jenkins' theory that the secret doctrine veiled in a "veneer of Christian pageantry at the convent of La Concepcion."
The knowledge being offered in this book is a bit dated--twelfth century to be exact. New Agers love to resurrect ancient civilizations. Perhaps because it is much more difficult to disagree with them when they do, given that most of us are not historians. Just to keep the argument interesting, DNA is equated with the spiral galaxy. "Magnetic polarities" and "cosmic ray showers" are tossed into the mix. Never mind that the writer making such claims is not a scientist, but rather a University of Pittsburgh philosopher. Might we assume that he made it up as he went along? Ah, but wait...Dr. Oliver L. Reiser "had a close relationship with Dr. Albert Einstein" so it must be ok. In any case the Reiser's theories were "far more scientific than de Chardin's Noosphere concept." That's not saying much!
Jenkins ties these claims from ancient architecture and scriptures to Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's book THE GNOSTIC CIRCLE. Now we have a hint of the source, and it's not human.
There is a bonus. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy and Rene Guenon are part of the mix. Here we get the Perennialists that have had some influence on the Roman Catholic faith. Rama Coomaraswamy, son of Ananda, was a cardiac surgeon, psychiatrist, and Traditional Catholic priest ordained in the Thuc line of succession, who claimed to have been reordained by Malachi Martin, according to Wikipedia. According to Van De Bogart, "Jenkins retrived unpublished papers of [Ananda]Coomaraswamy from the Princeton University Press archive". According to Van De Bogart "One recurrent theme that flows throughout GALACTIC ALIGNMENT is the concept of the Primordial Tradition or the Perennial Philosophy," for which Rene Guenon is well known.
Both [Guenon and Coomaraswamy] refer to an ageless wisdom which comes from a transcendent realm. Coomaraswamy preferred to call it "sophia perennis et universalis": the eternal and universal wisdom. ...The advent of rationalism brought forth the profane sciences, and over the centuries these universal truths have been buried. But now these sacred truths are reemerging as the ascent phase of the precessional cycle begins once again.
Well ancient Roman Catholic Scriptures do talk about the return of Christ. I wonder if Van De Bogart is prepared for that possibility? Of course those same Scriptures tell us that not even the Son knows the date.
Jocelyn Goodwin places this in context. Van De Bogart writes:
In his endorsement of Jenkins' work, author Joscelyn Godwin (THE THEOSOPHICAL ENLIGHTENMENT and ARKTOS: THE POLAR MYTH), wrote: "John Major Jenkins is the most global and erudite voice in a swelling chorus of Galactic Center theorists.
If you are ready for the "Sundoor at World's End", the "Clashing Cliffs", the "North Gate", the "Scorpion Men", you and Van De Bogart will probably have a lot in common. But if you are an apologist for Jesus Christ, I doubt there will be any common ground.
