Maya Prophecy: Discover What 2012 Holds for You

Book Review by Diana McMahon-Collis

Everyone has been talking about 2012 and the Maya Prophecy.

A slim volume publication bearing that name should not be underestimated; its author, Dr Ronald Bonewitz, has packed a lot into 164 pages.

That it is timely is obvious in the subtitle of the book: Discover what 2012 holds for you.  Many authors have been focusing on 2012.

Those who have looked into the Maya Prophecy and 2012 may have already decided that 2012 is not the key date, although it is an important date.

Bonewitz begins by including a guide to the pronunciation of the Maya language, which comes in very handy when he discusses specific people, places and literature titles.

For instance, Lake Titicaca might not present too many challenges but - faced with how to pronounce the name of the hero god Xbalanque or the father of astronomy, Itzamna - the mini dictionary comes into its own.

It is this kind of attention to detail that makes the book a winner.

Dr Bonewitz takes the time to go over small but important points. For instance, whilst the language is termed Mayan, the Prophecy and the people are “Maya”.

He includes a helpful index so that, if you find something (or someone) useful, you can look it up again easily - a feature all too often overlooked in books of this type.

At its heart, the Maya Prophecy is an adventure story with a chunk of ancient history, woven in together with a mix of supposition, speculation and imagination; this makes for interesting reading.

It is wide ranging. The author explores wide stretches of the world, charting Asia, Europe and the Americas, China, Indonesia, Egypt and Mexico.  He even touches on Atlantis.

As the Maya and other cultures seem to have referred to the same lost land, it appears that myth may be ancient, historic reality.  This book illuminates connections with Atlantis, Mu and the Lemurians.

On a cultural level, many civilizations and peoples are involved in the Maya Propecy: the Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs, Africans and Mediterraneans.

Dr Bonewitz goes into much detail about the ‘Long Count Calendar’, the Maya method of counting time.

Particularly interesting is his understanding of how the calendar links to rulers and gods, not unlike the ancient Egyptian calendar.  He examines the history behind Maya civilisation and Mesoamerica; a necessity in attempting to appreciate how the Prophecy has been handed down to us.

This is not a simple story but the author does bring together all the strands that make sense of the Prophecy and why it is important in our modern times.

We may take calendars for granted but Bonewitz asserts that it is the effectiveness of this ancient people, through mathematics and dedication to the calendar, that makes it possible for us to consider the relevance of an impact event today - an ‘impact event’ typically being a comet or meteorite that will devastate the area where it lands.

In this book, it suddenly becomes possible to see how much time itself is a
construct. We have developed a complex way of organising our sense of
reality, according to time comparisons. Bonewitz also covers the
inter-related areas of astronomy and numbers in depth.

The book moves from historical events to the workings of the mind, extending this though a series of exercises, meditations and guided visualisations; they can be experimented with practically and are intended to ‘connect the reader experientially with the ancient knowledge of the Maya’.

The subtitle of the book, Discover what 2012 holds for you, hints that the Maya Prophecy has a special, personal message.

What is that message?

You will have to read the book to find out!  It is worth having your own copy, in any case, for the practical exercises, which are a real bonus with this volume.

Fully revised edition, expanded and updated to include the latest research;

Published by Piatkus November 2008

ISBN 978-0-7499-2987-9   RRP £7.99