A Warning from the Ancients

News reports and personal conversations these days often focus on fast-exploding events in Washington, the Middle East, and Ukraine. We are hammered by one crisis after another: political insanity, murders, police shootings, and constant warfare.

We self-medicate by zoning out on movies, “reality” TV, and sports. We lose ourselves in hours of texting, scrolling, and media consumption.

We’re hypnotized by a barrage of micro-disasters. Meanwhile, the truly existential threats - climate change, environmental collapse, mass extinctions, and staggering inequality - are obscured by the smoke and mirrors of Spin Masters. We've been anesthetized to the macro-catastrophes that imperil us and generations to come.

And, of course this isn't accidental.  It's a strategy – one used throughout history by those who seek ever more power and wealth by keeping the rest of us confused, divided, and docile. Today that strategy has reached unprecedented heights. 

As I prepare to lead another group to meet Mayan shamans and explore their magnificent pyramids and other sacred sites of Guatemala, I'm struck by the similarities between the collapse of their ancient civilization and ours right now. The Maya offer a clear warning: don't repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. Don't continue down the path to self-destruction. 

The following excerpts from my most recent book (in italics and lightly edited) illustrate their teachings.

Our first stop upon entering the excavated city of Tikal is a giant kapok tree, with its impressive, flying buttress roots – the Guardian Tree. One of the Mayan shaman/teachers who accompany us during our time in Guatemala, Nana (“shaman”) Juanita, asks us to form a circle around the tree. In her native language, which she translates into English, she requests permission to enter this magical site and asks for guidance and protection while we’re here. “In return,” she promises as she places her heart and forehead against the tree, “we commit to teaching about the need to live as a part of – not apart from – the natural world.” 

Juanita steps back from the tree and explains that Tikal, like other classical Mayan cities, is sending us a message. “To build these amazing places,” she says, “my ancestors cut the forests, drained the swamps, and brought on devastating climate change. They destroyed the environment, just like the modern world is doing today. Greedy, power-hungry kings demanded larger cities and bigger pyramids. 

“The people paid heavy taxes, in the form of agricultural produce, pottery, jewelry, woven and other goods, in addition to hard labor.  Because of climate change, the crops failed, and the city-states fought each other over diminishing resources.” She glances around, taking in each of us. “Sound familiar?" 

Just before reaching the towering fifteen story high Jaguar Pyramid, Juanita leads us between two massive stone walls that face each other – the arena where Mayan ball games were played.

She stops in the shade of the ballcourt. 

“During the period of decline, beginning around AD 800, when the climate changed and resources were decimated, the games played here distracted the people from the seriousness of their situation and the failures of their leaders. So these games, along with patriotic speeches, wars, and punishment to dissenters, enabled the kings to keep building their huge pyramids and live lavishly.” She offers a slight smile. “I ask again: does this sound familiar?”

The people who come on these trips are enthralled by the mammoth pyramids, the jungle with its monkeys, toucans, and coatis, the Mayan culture, and the wisdom and dedication of teachers like Nana Juanita.  But perhaps the most important takeaways are the questions that are raised about our own world. We spend the last two days of the trip at a luxury hotel on the shore of Lake Peten Itza where we perform more ceremonies and debrief. During the discussions, people ask questions like:

• Did the wealthy and powerful in Tikal not pay taxes – as in the US today? 

• Were the rulers and their advisers involved in political bickering that distracted them from solving the very real problems they faced, like our politicians now?

• How could people who built such magnificent structures not understand that their wanton destruction of the environment was threatening the future of their civilization? 

• Doesn’t it seem counter intuitive that if they did understand the consequences, they nevertheless continued along a path of self-destruction? And that they obeyed power-hungry leaders who convinced them to wage war on their neighbors, instead of joining forces to end the crises they created? 

• Doesn’t it also seem counter intuitive that the US, China, and much of the rest of the world is blindly proceeding along that same path?

Experiences like this teach us that the hope for the future lies in the lessons of the past which ancient cultures offer. Nowhere is this clearer than in the magnificent Mayan cities of Central America.  The Mayan Prophecy of 2012, which is very different from the Hollywood version, tells us that 13 years ago a portal opened to higher consciousness – a consciousness that can transport us away from the precipice of disaster. But, the prophecy says, it is up to us to decide whether or not to pass through that portal. The Mayan teachers and the people who go on these trips are trailblazing a path through that portal.

If you are interested in joining me on the next trip to Tikal and the land of the Mayan in March 2026, here are the details.

If you want to read the rest of my latest book — the one quoted above — a novel titled Message from Pleiads written under my penname J.P. Moody, you can go to my website or order it directly.