Ceremonia Sagrada Indígena de la Nueva Era Maya

On December 21, 2012, I began the journey towards my dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker for important environmental causes. My greatest passion as an activist was educating people about the importance of organic agriculture and organic seeds. I also had a lifelong spiritual connection to indigenous wisdom, indigenous cultures, and had just experienced my first sacred plant medicine tipi ceremony a few months before, which was absolutely beautiful and forever life-changing.

What became my sacred path, and ultimately where I found my true purpose, was in the ancient Mayan Empire of Mexico and Guatemala. I was determined to go there for December 21, 2012 because of the perpetual myths I had been told for decades on the west coast of the USA where I grew up. Primarily, however, I really established my Visual Effects career by working on the Hollywood Blockbuster feature film “2012”, an apocalyptic destruction film that perpetuated the false conspiracy theory that the world would end on the last day of the Mayan calendar. During that time of creating the film, I began studying the actual prophecies of the Mayan people. It became something I just had to go do, so I joined a documentary film crew about transformational festival culture that was going to the Mayan pyramids.

Upon arrival to the festival, I was quickly appalled by the capitilzation I witnessed by new-age authors and so-called wisdom keepers of the Mayan calendar prophecy. Someone informed me that simultaneously, a new organization called Unify, was hosting a globally synchronized “moment of peace and presence through unified ceremony, prayer and meditation.” They had organized and planned to livestream footage of all the sacred events happening around the world on that day, to connect us all as one global family via the internet. What intrigued me about this, was Unify had paid for, organized, and gotten permission from the Mexican government to allow a group of indigenous activists from all around Mexico to hold a sacred fire sunrise ceremony at the base of Chichen Itza. These type of indigenous ceremonies became forbidden at most Mayan temples when they were turned into National Parks by the government. Obtaining the rights to perform such a ceremony, as well as obtaining the license to film it, was truly a moment of activism accomplishment.

So I decided to convince the transformational festival documentary film team that I had joined, to ditch the festival, and support the indigenous activists by filming their sunrise ceremony at Chichen Itza instead. We arrived around 4 in the morning, where the Mexican army then jeeped us in to the temple entrance grounds. It took the indigenous activists and Unify organizers, over an hour to convince the Mexican government officials to actually allow us to go through with the ceremony, as well as bring our cameras in. Nearly minutes before the sun began to rise, they let us all in, and the ceremonial drumming began. Strangely one other spiritual group had somehow gotten into the temple grounds before us, all wearing white, standing in a redctangular formation, as they watched their non-indigenous spiritual leader descend down the steps of the ancient pyramid. Appalled once again, I followed the indigenous leaders to the other side of the pyramid where they were forced to hold their ceremony because of this mockery. Regardless, it was truly an honor to witness a sacred fire ceremony that had been forbidden from the very people whose ancestors built those pyramids. And the sixth sun then rose, and the fifth era began.

After the sunrise ceremony at Chichen Itza on December 21, 2012, the indigenous leader of the group, Lobo Blanco, held a personal prayer with me later that evening. In his prayer, I was able to understand what he was saying in Spanish… that all the colors of the sacred seeds of their ancestral indigenous corn, represent all the different colors of people and cultures from around the world… and their coming together on this sacred day, La Nueva Era, unified as a family of interconnected relations with all the elements, all the plants, and all the animals on our sacred planet, Madre Tierra, are then mirrored back to us, in the beauty of the stars.

This moment was when I realized that the importance of organic agriculture and organic seeds were deeply connected to indigenous wisdom and indigenous cultures all around the world. Inspired and blown away by this deep wisdom that I had yet known, my journey continued to Paleque, Chiapas, San Cristobal de las Casas, and eventually Lake Atitlan in Guatemala where Mayan culture still thrives because of the dedication of indigenous elders that continue to pass down their wisdom. When I arrived at another music festival that I got gifted a free ticket to, I found myself not interested in the festival, but only drawn to the GuateMayan Elder, El Corazon del Lago, Tata Pedro Cruz Garcia of Tz’utujil Mayan Nation, who held ceremony every day and every night by the lakeside to honor this prophetic time.

After spending a few days with Tata in ceremony, meeting his family members, and having my actual Mayan calendar birthday explained to me by his students and wisdom keepers dedicated to Mayan cosmology. I decided to tell Tata that I had worked on the Hollywood Blockbuster apocalyptic feature film “2012” and that my Visual Effects shots were the iconic shots of the ocean rising and then killing the Tibetan monk in the Himalaya Mountains. He could not believe it. He could not believe that I was standing there with him, at Lago de Atitlan. He ordered an immediate ceremony at the sacred fire with everyone on the lakeside. In that ceremony, he shared with everyone how offensive it was that people around the world had been exploiting his indigenous Mayan culture and sacred calendar, to perpetuate false prophecies, conspiracy theories, fraudulent spiritual teachings, and ultimately monetizing people’s fear… all in the name of his ancestral lineage and indigenous Mayan culture. He publicly offered me forgiveness, to the entire group, for my role in this.

What happened next, was unforgettable, and changed my life forever… He then offered me genuine, deep gratitude, and publicly honored me in ceremony, in front of everyone, blessing me with burning copal, sacred tobacco, and playing his medicine drum. He said, that even though people perpetuated false prophecies about the Mayan Calendar, that is was people like me that is giving him the opportunity and the platform, right now, so he can finally teach the world about his ancestral Mayan indigenous wisdom, sacred teachings, and prophecies. All the 2012, end-of-the-world, fear-based, fabricated narratives that were essentially created for profit, ultimately captured the minds of nearly the entire world. The same reason I was deeply inspired to travel to Guatemala and learn the truth of Mayan indigenous prophecy, was a testament that people around the world are finally ready to listen and learn from indigenous elders and wisdom keepers.

The Mayan prophecy has already proven that we’ve entered a Nueva Era on this planet, where indigenous elders and wisdom keepers who were previously forced to hide their spiritual and ecological ancestral traditions from oppressive forces, are finally feeling safe and inspired to share their sacred teachings with the world… because people are finally listening, and if we don’t act now as an interconnected human family that is truly dependent on our sacred Mother Earth for survival,, then the apocalypse narrative may just come true.

 Story & Photography by Christine Peterson