Jose Arguilles Dies, Leaving a Remarkable Legacy

The Passing of José Argüelles by Carl Johan Calleman

José Argüelles passed away on March 23, 2011 (2 Imix) and I would like to write a few words as a recognition of the very important contributions he made to our understanding of the Mayan calendar especially through his book The Mayan Factor: Path beyond technology. This work was published by Barbara Hand Clow at Bear and Co as part of a preparation for the Harmonic Convergence event, August 16-17, 1987. It became a great source of inspiration for myself as well as for many others and for a few years I regarded it almost as a bible to Mayan cosmology. In this book Argüelles introduced a few very radical thoughts for the first time: 1/ The shifts in the Mayan calendar and especially the Long Count provides for an understanding of human history. 2/ What is important in the Mayan calendar are the non-astronomical cycles of 260 and 360 days and 3/ The energies of the Tzolkin provide a matrix for the evolution of the longer cycles. Although he had forerunners such as Peter Balin, Tony Shearer, and Frank Waters, Argüelles’ ideas were groundbreaking and created the necessary opening that allowed for us to realize that the Mayan calendar could be true and then also help us understand the contours of a cosmic plan. The Mayan Factor was a seminal work that at the time was way ahead of the thinking of everyone else. His successful promotion of the Harmonic Convergence event that coincided with a broad spiritual awakening, also led many to conclude that the Mayan calendar had something to say about the spiritual destiny of mankind.

Unfortunately, Argüelles’ post-Harmonic Convergence work with the Dreamspell calendar meant the reversal and abandonment of exactly those advances that had been presented in The Mayan Factor. Even if the Thirteen Moon calendar became popular in many parts of the world, it was never recognized as a contribution by any serious student of the Mayan calendar. Moreover, the way it was initially presented brought much confusion. My own criticism and disappointment of this calendar was not so much motivated by the fact that Argüelles broke with Mayan orthodoxy, but more because the calendar he had invented was not transparent and that its origin was kept hidden. This failure should however not cloud the fact that Argüelles was a great pioneer; everyone who today works for a better world through the Mayan calendar, and the guidance this may give us, owes something to Argüelles. It is still possible for us to build on the abovementioned advances from The Mayan Factor and come to understand, in much more detail than was possible then, the underlying patterns of evolution in an increasingly chaotic world. Although Argüelles is known to have liked the idea that the Mayan calendar developed through nine waves, he however never came to live by these. The fact that he passed away on the First Day of the Ninth wave that recently had such a dramatic start thus has significance to me and perhaps also to others and as we go along I think this will clarify further.

Carl Johan Calleman, Seattle, 3 Imix, the 16th day of the first uaxaclahunkin of the Ninth wave.

Carl Johan Calleman is the author of Solving the Greatest Mystery of Our Time: The Mayan Calendar, The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness and The Purposeful Universe .

His web site is www.calleman.com and information about the Ninth wave can be found at www.treeoflifecelebration.com.