What is Written in the Stars?
Since the beginning of time our ancestors marveled at the night-time sky. Archaeoastronomy is the interdisciplinary study of the role that the sky and stars played in ancient cultures around the world. Megaliths like Stonehenge, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, or the various pyramids throughout Mexico are thought to be examples of calendars or ways to track the passage of time by observing the movements of stars. The sheer size of these sacred sites, along with the complex understanding of geometry it took to create them signifies our love for the celestial bodies. Still today people wonder and search for answers to these two questions: Did humanity once have advanced civilizations long ago? Is it possible that we have had contact with or maybe are even related to star beings from other realms?
Down-To-Earth: Let’s keep the conversation grounded by defining terms and invoking the concept of relativity. If we were on any other planet or star in the entire universe looking at humans we would call them some sort of space being or star being. Our planet, and species, are literally floating through space in an endless galaxy of stars. From this perspective, we could consider ourselves star beings. The idea of “advanced civilizations” is also relative. So there really isn’t anything far-fetched about the inquiry into advanced civilizations or star beings as each are relative to our point of reference.
What we do know is that some ancient civilizations understood math, geometry, and the movement of the stars. They tracked days and seasons for obvious planting and harvesting, yet in the past few decades researchers and philosophers have wondered if ancient calendars were also used to track larger celestial cycles. Some argue that ancient civilizations were aware that our planet’s axis points to our pole-star and that our pole-star changes cyclically because we have a slight planetary wobble over millennia. Central to this conversation have been popular discussions about prophecy and the Mayan Calendar..
Roots of a Movement: As a departure from the 1950’s sci-fi movies of alien invasions like War of the Worlds, in the 1970’s people shifted the conversation to explore the possible archaeological and historical evidence of previous advanced civilizations including the notion of contact with beings from other realms. Notable books of the era include Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods, Zecharia Sitchin’s 12th Planet, and Tony Shearer’s Lord of the Dawn. The latter was influential to José and Lloydine Argüelles’ and even predicted the Harmonic Convergence of 1987. Though critics are quick to point out that these books included various mixtures of mythology, fiction, historical reconstruction, and even cultural appropriation, these ideas emerged alongside various social movements that represented a sort of collective ‘awakening’.
Following the tumultuous civil rights era, the psychedelic 60’s, Woodstock, the American Indian Movement, first wave feminism, and the divisiveness of the Vietnam War, a sort of consciousness revolution took place. These were the seeds that sprouted into the modern meditation, yoga, self-help culture in the west. This is when talks of healing historical wounds through decolonization efforts, exploration into indigenous wisdom, and the environmental movement began to take root with the first Earth Day. It is significant to note that these ideas also coincided with the beginning of our modern space age shortly after humans landed on the moon and we first saw a picture of our planet from outer-space.
Harmonic Convergence 1987: As Baby Boomers became Yuppies in the 1980’s a new generation was bringing forth a resurgence of these ideas that first took hold in the 70’s. José Argüelles’ writings inspired the Harmonic Convergence, the first globally synchronized event of its time, to happen on August 16–17, 1987. These dates marked the end of twenty-two 52-year cycles (1,144 years). These twenty-two cycles were divided into 13 “Heaven Cycles” which began in 843 A.D. and ended on April 22, 1519 (the exact day Hernán Cortés landed in Mexico). According to Argüelles’ interpretation of the Mayan Calendar this is also when the 9 “Hell Cycles” began and were predicted to end 468 years later on August 16–17 of 1987.
The Evolution of an Idea: In the decades that followed there were some amazing advancements in all aspects of science. Epigenetics, genome mapping, smart phones, quantum computing, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and the internet are just a few examples. In short, our whole understanding of who we are, where we came from, and what we are capable of as a species has been undergoing an unprecedented transformation in these past 50 years. If you were to step into a time machine and go back to the early 70’s and see how much technology has advanced, you would certainly feel that we are now living in a reality that could have been a sci-fi movie from the 1950’s. A typical smartphone has more computing power than the large collection of “super computers” that were used to put the first humans on the moon.
The Harmonic Convergence 2020: 33 years after the first Harmonic Convergence there is now a lot of scientific research to validate the consciousness movement and we now have the internet to broadcast it to a global audience. If the seasons and the stars revolve around predictable cycles then so too does the evolution of consciousness. Are we yet at another cosmic turning point?
The best questions about ancient civilizations and beings from other planets remain unanswered yet humanity continues looking to and reaching for the stars. The journey is both inward and spiritual as well as outward and technological. There is a natural curiosity within us to explore all possibilities. If you are interested in other writings in this series please check out Global Coherence: Humanity’s Evolutionary Leap 2020.
One thing that is certain is that we are experiencing an acceleration of technology and consciousness in our world. Many previously held ideas about the nature of reality are being challenged. We are seeing old belief systems and societal structures collapse and are witnessing the emergence of something new, even if we don’t quite know what it is yet. There is a merging of the ancient and the future happening through a portal we call the present moment. Now is a very potent time to be alive on our blue planet as she spins through an endless galaxy of stars, dizzy with possibilities.