Tommy was suddenly tugging me by the arm, taking me over to meet his mother. When we were close enough, I introduced myself and Tommy said her name was Love of Mountain.
“Tommy has told me about all of you,” she said, her arm around her son. “Now I know why he didn’t want to come with me originally. He must have known he was going to meet you.”
“Why did you come to St. Katherine?” I asked her.
She looked at me proudly. “To visit my namesake,” she said. “Sister Mountain. My father, who was a trader, brought me here when I was young, and it was love at first sight. Secret Mountain and Jebel Musa have the same energy. They both open you up.” Tommy was nodding.
A question came to my mind then with such force that I just blurted it out. “Why doesn’t Tommy have a Native American name, like you?”
She smiled at Tommy. “Because he is stubborn.”
“They have tried to give me names,” Tommy reacted, “but none of the names have been right. When I do something important, I will know my tribal name.”
Then, as though suddenly thinking of something to do, Love of Mountain rushed out of the room, leaving Tommy and me alone. He looked at me as though he had something to say. I beat him to it.
“Tommy, I have to know how all this relates to the Mayan Calendar. You know, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “We need to hurry.”
He led me through an open entrance into a large sunroom of solid glass walls, and we sat down at a table. I could see Coleman in the other room talking with Rachel and several of the new people. For an instant my eyes met Rachel’s again. The room was busy behind them, as everyone seemed to be packing for a trip.
“It is the mythology of my tribe,” Tommy began, “that the mountains of the Red Rock area of Arizona and the Red Mountains here are all connected.
“Native peoples have always seen mountains as sacred places that lift us above the common awareness to glimpse the sacred spirit. This spirit is now seeking to come closer. The Maya knew this and came to this world to bring the message of the Calendar to us.”
“But what is the message, Tommy?” I asked. “The media has twisted it into predicting doomsday. It’s difficult to decide whose interpretation to believe.”
At this moment, Coleman strode into the room, obviously sensing that we were talking about something important. I saw a flash of impatience on Tommy’s small face, which brought up a smile I tried to hide.
“I’m certain I need to hear this,” Coleman said urgently.
Tommy and I both gestured for him to sit down.
“The truth of the Calendar is simple,” Tommy continued. “It has nothing to do with doomsday. It spells out a timeline for the entire Cosmos, and the true purpose of human history. The Maya conceive the Universe as being created approximately sixteen billion years ago, but according to them, the creation didn’t happen all at once. Their Calendar gives the dates of nine Steps of Creation that will have occurred from the beginning until the Calendar ends by 2012.”
He paused and looked at me as if the beginning date of the Calendar was important. I knew why. Only recently have scientists agreed on a date for the beginning of the Universe at the time of the Big Bang, and that date is very close to the one the Maya chose—begging the question: how could the Maya have known the date of the beginning this accurately, centuries ago? Is the rest of the Calendar just as accurate?
“One scholar in particular,” Tommy continued, “has spelled out the dates the Calendar has assigned to each step of creation with great clarity. As I said, the first Step of Creation began about sixteen billion years ago, and included the formation of the Universe and the coalescence of matter into galaxies, stars, and planets, and the beginning of life and its development into the first cells and then into more complex organisms. The Second through the Fourth Steps of Creation brought us mammals, anthropoids, and finally, two million years ago, humans.
“At this point, the remaining Steps of Creation focused on the expanding reach of human consciousness, beginning with a tribal awareness and reaching, about 103 thousand years ago, a regional awareness, where humans developed language and began to become conscious of other human groups in a larger geographical area.
“Next in the Calendar came a national awareness, beginning around 3115 B.C.E., where humans organized first into empires and finally into nations.
“Then on July 24, 1755, another step in creation began, yielding a planetary awareness. This was when we first realized we shared a finite planet and began to interact economically across the globe.”
Tommy paused to emphasize something.
“It’s important,” he continued, “to remember that these steps are not just symbolic. They entail an actual shift in our consciousness. When we reached the planetary step, for instance, we gained the ability to tune in to a consciousness that transcended a flat Earth perception. We literally could more readily feel that we were all together on a round Earth, floating through space.
“And the next surge in creation, occurring on January 5, 1999—the galactic awareness—gave us the ability to stretch our consciousness even farther. It lifted us beyond the planet and gave us even more ability to sense the larger Cosmos. This accelerated the shift from a material and secular outlook to a more awakened spiritual state. We more readily knew we were floating around in space with no real understanding of why. We wanted the real truth of our existence. Religion itself came under question because we wanted more complete answers to our inquiries.
“It was this questioning that led to ideological fanatics thinking they had to defend their doctrines and even force them on people, sometimes violently. This galactic perspective began only two years before 2001, when the wars began over whose religion was best.”
I just looked at him, having had no idea the Mayan Calendar was so specific in its dating.
“Scholars are still arguing over the dates somewhat,” Tommy continued, “but the general outline of creation is most important. They predicted this sequence of human progress centuries ago.”
I recalled then that Tommy had mentioned that the Calendar had predicted nine Steps of Creation. He had mentioned only eight. I asked him about it.
“The Calendar predicts another Step of Creation,” the young man continued, “one that is already coming and can be felt. It is intended to bring in an ideal world.”
I perked up, remembering that Tommy had told the group that the Calendar was itself a prophecy similar to the end-times visions of many religions. Most of these scriptural Prophecies talked about a coming Messiah figure who would usher in an ideal world, and now he was talking about the Calendar also pointing to an ideal world.
“Tell me more about what the Calendar predicts,” I said.
He waved me off with a flip of his hand, obviously wanting to make another point.
“My tribe believes,” he pressed, “that this last step will not be imposed on us. Enough of us must learn how to tune in to the next level of creation. And to do that, we must first receive the consciousness the Integrations speak of, beginning with the Integration we’re working on now, the Eighth.” He was looking at me as though I particularly had to “get it.”
We were interrupted then by the sounds of more movement in the other room. Through the door I could see Love of Mountain and several others rolling back one of the Persian rugs and opening a huge trapdoor in the floor. She looked at Tommy, motioning for him to come help her.
Coleman and I both stood up.
“You know what they’re doing, don’t you?” Coleman said. “They’re getting ready to go to the mountain.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I don’t know, and they don’t seem to, either. But they’re sure they have to go.”
We were walking back toward them when Rachel abruptly appeared and grabbed my arm.
“I have to talk to you,” she said forcefully, leading me into the sunroom and out a back door into a garden courtyard. The area was paved wi
th flagstone and surrounded by thick hedges and flowering plants. The aroma of water lilies came from a small pond in the corner.
“Everyone’s packing,” I said. “What are they planning to do?”
“They’re going to Sister Mountain,” she replied. “Something’s about to happen up there.”
“How do you know?”
She looked at me seriously.
“I know quite a lot,” she said. “If you weren’t avoiding me, you might realize that!”
I just looked at her.
“Why are you avoiding me?” she pressed.
“Because I’m trying to stay in Alignment,” I snapped, wanting to run back in the house.
She smiled and looked at me as if I was a child. “If you had just connected enough to really talk to me, you wouldn’t be confused about this. Do you know why I’m here, why I’m trying to reach the real you? This isn’t about anything romantic. It’s about the Integrations.
“The Template of Agreement is not just for resolving the extreme polarization that’s occurring in politics and religious ideology. It’s also about bridging the myth and polarization that keep men and women apart.”
She shook her head. “You know what I was taught as a child by my mother? That men and women are completely different animals, with a different outlook and language, and doomed forever to misunderstand and manipulate each other. She taught me to lie and control to get what I wanted from men, and as I tried to manipulate my way through one failed relationship after another, I grew to hate men for making me do that.
“And I hated my mother for not preventing the world from being that way. I quit speaking to her for years… and then she died before I could get back home to talk to her.”
She looked over at me and I tried to stay with her gaze.
“I know now,” she said, “that it wasn’t her fault. I wasn’t the only one with this misunderstanding. We all play the game of sex and security. You think you have to be in control so you limit your connection with me, or manipulate it in some way. But the fact is, this habit of closing off to some women is something you’ve probably always done.
“I bet you’ve never really opened up to any woman. You were busy manipulating, hoping to entice them into a relationship with you, or, on the other hand, dismissing them altogether if they didn’t seem like a sexual possibility. We’re all stuck in not fully connecting with those of the opposite sex—women using their sexuality to manipulate men, men manipulating women to get sex. But now, as we figure out how to really tune in to each other, we’re on the verge of being able to blow past sexual manipulation altogether.”
I was watching her speak, struck by her open, authentic expression of all this. It was done with a deep soul Connection to me—yet it was a Connection that meant nothing more than that: deep Connection.
“How did you get so clear about this?” I asked spontaneously.
“My mother told me.”
“I thought you said she died before you could speak to her.”
“She did.”
I just looked at her, thinking of the implications of her remark. And in that moment, I realized that my fear of connecting with her seemed to be fading.
“I’ll tell you soon about my communication with my mother,” Rachel went on. “But that’s not what we need to be doing now. This distance between men and women has to be healed. For most of us, it’s been romance or nothing when it comes to the opposite sex. And we can’t go forward into another elevation of consciousness until this changes.
“If a template group works at all, it’s because it sets a new pattern by agreement and sends that energy out into the world, to help set a new cultural standard in the collective mind. So what you and I heal here and now influences the world in that way. We have to get back to where we were on Secret Mountain. We have to be souls to each other!”
She reached into a large satchel that she carried and pulled out about a dozen crumpled pages. “I don’t know how much of the Eighth Integration you’ve read. But here it is.”
I found a bench near the fountain and began to read where I had left off. It immediately held me spellbound.
To completely join minds, it said, we must intend Oneness, but we must also come back to a love state that totally transcends sexual complexity. It named this emotion Agape.
I looked away for a moment and thought about the word. Agape was Greek, and it meant a particular kind of love: one of the soul for all of creation, but most particularly, a love for other people that is platonic in nature. Centering in this kind of love, the Document went on, even more than intending Oneness or Conscious Conversation, lifted those in interaction into their highest soul wisdom. Moreover, this elevation was multiplied many times when practiced by a group.
I put down the pages then and walked into the other room, finding Rachel standing in the doorway waiting for me. Our eyes met, and this time I just let myself go fully into her eyes, setting the intention for Oneness and opening to love.
Suddenly, I felt a perceptible movement in my heart, a surge of emotion that created an even greater centeredness and freedom from apprehension that I hadn’t experienced since Secret Mountain. It was right, and totally in Alignment in every way, and never had to be defended. It was Agape.
In my peripheral vision, I noticed a few people in the other room looking at us, but I remained focused on Rachel. She rushed up to me and turned me in the other direction to face the windows that overlooked the courtyard.
“Look how beautiful it is outside,” she said. “Remember how the world looked on Secret Mountain? We’re truly working our way back there with each Integration. The next step is opening our senses fully to the way the world really looks when we’re all connected together in a state of love.”
For a moment I took in the beauty. But part of me didn’t want to go there yet. All I wanted was to experience this level of Agape again.
I turned around to face Rachel.
I wanted to ask her another question, but the power of the eyes staring at us from the other room was drawing me to them. Everyone was crowded into the doorway looking at the two of us, including Coleman, who was jumping up and down near the back, waving the pages of the Document he held in one hand.
I returned their gazes with the same deep Agape I had projected toward Rachel, and without paying the slightest attention to who was male or female. The energy level and Agape with the group exploded within me even more. They all seemed delighted.
“Wow,” I said out loud.
Rachel came around, stood beside me, and looked at the others.
“Every time,” she said, “that someone integrates Agape for the first time, it creates a ripple of heightened love in everyone around them, like heat in a greenhouse—or a conversion experience in a crowded country church.”
OPENING TO PERCEPTION
For twenty minutes, I walked around and talked with everyone I had met in the group. All of them took time for me, even as they hurried to pack. Most spoke English, but they also easily and spontaneously interpreted for each other as a matter of course.
Together, they reflected a rich cross section of life in the region, from bakers to teachers to engineers, and represented most of the known traditions and sects. To a person, they had experienced a Breakthrough Connection in their own way and were proceeding through the Integrations one by one. As we talked, I realized we were becoming a larger template group.
In fact, many voiced that Agape between people was primarily a concept that had grown out of Western, Judeo-Christian thought. But those in other traditions pointed out that their histories were also full of icons that emphasized the importance of soul love. I myself was aware of a concept in Eastern thought, from Jainism, called Ahimsa, which, if not considered academically identical, was the same in practice. We finally agreed that while most traditions pointed to this level of Connection in some way, the Christian and Eastern religions seem to give it the most emphasis.
At one point, I looked
at my phone and found Wil had texted, saying that he had arrived safely and had experienced the Eighth Integration with a smaller group in Cairo. Hira had also communicated, saying much the same thing. She had found another template group of her own in Jerusalem. Both she and Wil had come to the same agreement about the Eighth Integration as those of us here.
Soon after, Adjar texted as if on cue. He, too, agreed with our conclusions, and took the time to express the difficulty his tradition seemed to have with Agape love, especially between men and women who were not married. He mentioned some minority views in this regard that he thought would now be getting more attention.
I sat down by myself to think for a moment, still high from the Oneness and Agape that had elevated us. The honesty and wisdom of Rachel, I knew, had changed me dramatically, and I knew I would never experience conversations with women in the same way again.
Of equal impact was the summary of the Mayan Calendar Tommy had provided. While he didn’t finish telling me about the predicted last Step in Creation, I understood even more why he had earlier called the Calendar a prophecy. The remaining last Step in Creation was thought to be a coming wave of Divine creation, one that was meant to somehow move us toward this more ideal world so many were sensing.
I began, then, to notice people walking around the house looking at the paintings and plants in a particular way. Some of them went out to the sunroom and stared at the hazy sunset through the glass. After a while, I realized they were trying to see more beauty. This made perfect sense. The group here seemed to have completed the Eighth Integration and was moving on to the Ninth.
The observation brought back the memories of the search for the Ninth Insight of the old Prophecy. Back then, the old Prophecy found in Peru had predicted that one day we would begin to see the world as immensely beautiful and even light-filled.
I was now sitting on the arm of a chair in the great room, and Coleman came in and sat on the sofa across from me, as if he had something to say.
“Some of the people in this group,” he said, “have already begun to integrate the Ninth. They’re pretty far along.”