“Today, human evolution is at a turning point where an old paradigm and a challenging new awareness are uneasily trying to coexist. We are wedded by habit and tradition to an outmoded view of the Universe, and yet civilization is pregnant with a new, exciting, and optimistic understanding of life. ~ Bruce Lipton, Spontaneous Evolution

The past year (past two years, past decade, past lifetime) has been full of lessons, inner and outer adventures, and major paradigm shifts. Many of us have gone through major changes in our personal and communal lives that have deeply affected our emotions, families, careers, homes, views, and path. Society as a whole is shifting into a state of higher consciousness—maybe?

The new year in the Mayan calendar is on Saturday (February 19, 2022).

Right now, we’re in the middle of the Wayeb, the final five-day period of the old year and a time to mentally and spiritually prepare for the new year. It’s a time for retreat, reflection, and introspection. We’re in the middle of the Tijax trecena, a 13-day period of healing, cutting away, editing, letting go, and releasing.

The past year (Feb 19, 2021-Feb 18, 2022) was the Year of the Hummingbird, as the year bearer was 9 Iq. Nine is the number of femininity and fertility. Iq represents the wind, imagination, and communication.

The coming year bearer is 10 Kej as observed by the Mayan elders in the highlands of Guatemala. Ten is the number of community, togetherness, manifestation, and collaboration. Kej represents the deer, the Four Directions, strength, spiritual leadership, and our connection to the wilderness.

(There are 20 nahuales and 13 energetic tones in this Mayan sacred day count calendar system. Find out more about yours!)

The energy of the coming year is of greenness, of care for Mother Earth, of coming together to raise awareness of the planet and her habitats, ecosystems, and environment. How can we stand up as spiritual leaders within our community? It’s about our connection with nature, animals, plants, and being hand-in-hand with the natural world.

The last time 10 Kej was in power as year bearer was 52 years ago. That year—1970—the year the Environmental Protection Agency was established in the U.S. and the year of the first annual Earth Day in April. It was a time of political protests and clashes and of people caring about looking after the natural world. That’s the energy of the coming year, as well.

It’s imperative to reconnect and make meaningful agreements about the natural world.

We are destroying our Mother Earth, that much is clear. Can we turn it around? It’s already too late for the species that have gone extinct. For the ecosystems destroyed. When will we wake up and change our ways?

No matter what our methods and ways of life may be, no matter what culture we come from or live in, we are beginning to collectively wake up to the fact that we are all intertwined in this one field of time and space, waves and particles.

There is no me separate from you. There is no “us” separate from nature. We’re animals, and we breathe because of plants. We’re made of the same stuff as the land and the ocean, the stars and the sandcastles.

Yet our culture of corporations and elitism, corruption, and capitalism has taught us otherwise. Our conditioning has taught us to be either competitive or passive, cutthroat or carefree, and, most definitely, consumers of media, marketing, and stuff.

Babies don’t need to go to daycare so that their frazzled moms can go back to work in two weeks. That’s worse than unnatural; it’s actually abusive for both baby and mother. This is just one example of the countless ways our society mistreats its citizens.

“Those who tell the stories rule society.” ~ Plato

It’s high time for some new stories. For long walks in nature with our beloveds. It’s time for the poets, artists, visionaries, and writers to rise up and weave some new tales, revising the no-longer-beneficial parts out.

How do we evolve? How do we unite? Do you feel a sense of urgency?

With gratitude to the modern-day teachers of ancient Mayan cosmovision and wisdom, I wish you a cheerful and change-making Mayan new year!

~