Sometime in the summer of 2006 my film crew and I set out on a journey to document the legacy of one of the last great Aztec medicine men and his apprentice. The product of our work became the award-winning and highly controversial film, Serpent and The Sun: Tales Of An Aztec Apprentice, and my book Darkness: The Power Of Illumination.
We arrived right at the time that Mexico was experiencing some of their largest protests in 20 years. As we arrived in Mexico City, a version of "Occupy Mexico" was seemingly happening right before our eyes. Thousands of Mexican citizens were encamped in the city center and in the streets, protesting injustice.
We traveled hundreds of miles, met with leading anthropologists and archeologists, Aztec and Mayan elders, tribal councils, and indigenous and non-indigenous guardians of the Aztec and Mayan cultures and lands.
One thing that became abundantly clear was that neither the Aztecs nor the Mayans were any more concerned about 2012 than the Catholic priests were concerned about the rapture. Several prominent shamans and tribal elders actually told me that they do not believe there is any pragmatic science behind the western interpretations of the 2012 prophecy.
This train of thought was made even more evident when I interviewed medicine man and Aztec leader Ehekateotl for the film, 2012 Prophecy: Truth, Apocalypse And The End Of The World?. This film is the only known interview given by Aztec Shaman Ehekateotl about the true meaning of 2012 to the Aztec people.
Even prominent scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have created a new video to address false claims about the "2012 Apocalypse," which they assert will clearly be a "non-event."
From all of my years of working with and documenting shamanic cultures and traditions, I have not noticed anything that would lead me to believe that any doomsday prophecy will be fulfilled. Despite this alarmingly inadequate cache of evidence against the end of time, the media keeps upping the ante. Almost daily there is a story in the media endorsing the fact that there is a mysterious end in sight. Could it be that there is less money in promoting progress instead?
It occurred to me that perhaps it may be the same profiteers who benefit from dramatizations and fear that have been creating this increasingly manic vortex into which many otherwise well-meaning people have fallen.
Could it be time to change the paradigm? Can we take a cue from tribal cultures and instead utilize reason and science as measures of validity for this and any "prophecy" that has been interpreted for us?
Our film 2012 Prophecy: Truth, Apocalypse And The End Of The World? explores these issues and more in detail.