December 21, 2012 has come and is soon gone without any sign of armageddon thus far. Seriously, did anyone really expect cataclysmic events of biblical proportions to unfold because the Mayan calendar had to end at some point and that point was now. Our calendar ends every year in Champagne-fueled disasters that for some may make January 1 feel like doomsday, but every year the world moves on more or less as we know it. Thank God.

I do not however think that the end of the Mayan calendar is an omen completely without its significance.

“The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air” -marks the opening of the Lord of the Rings-trilogy. Maybe our world has not changed dramatically yet but I do feel (or rather hope) that we are standing on the threshold of great changes.

Anyone who has the ability to be honest and to think a thought through to its conclusion must see that humanity cannot and will not go on forever on the track we are now on. It just doesn’t add up. Sooner or later we will cause our own downfall and extinction unless the world of man changes. Dramatically. We cannot go on hurting, molesting, killing, robbing, torturing and hating one another. This happens on all levels of human relationships and it is rampant. From bullying in primary schools, cheating on one’s spouse, pocketing what isn’t rightfully ours and mundane raping and pillaging, up to the global political scene where nations are at war with each other creating disasters affecting millions upon millions. Not to mention what we are doing to our home, the only planet we have access to in the foreseeable future. Earth can be a gloomy place indeed, and to far too many their life experience here is an existence that falls nothing short of descriptions of hell found in the scriptures.

So how is the world changing? I believe that humanity is slowly but surely waking up to a mindset that is completely different from what we have seen in all of our years up till now. This change has been described as entering the age of aquarius or as the awakening that many are experiencing through the New Age or New Thought movements that are attracting new followers in all corners of the world every day.

These movements may sound like hippie-mumbo-jumbo to many. I mean, floating around believing that love is the answer to every problem, that your thoughts create your reality, that there are no coincidences and that everything actually could and should be well. What’s that about? I mean, shouldn’t these annoyingly harmonious people just wake up, smell the stale coffee stench and take the world for what it is? A harsh reality where you need to stand your ground and fight to get the life that you want? Or perish in the attempt, like good people have been doing for millennia already?

I don’t have the answers or truths for anyone but myself. But I am grateful that life has shown me a path where I have the opportunity to more and more choose how I want to view the world. And that I am able to and willing to question the so-called truths that we take for granted in life. If you hit me, do I have to hit back? If you do something hurtful to me, do I actually have to get hurt? If you betray me, do I have to get angry or upset? If I love you and you don’t love me back, do I have to feel sad?

To me, this is what the end of an era is all about. It doesn’t really matter whether the Mayans actually were predicting this shift in human consciousness or just coincidentally got bored of writing the calendar at this particular point in time. The world is slowly changing, with more and more people leaving the chains of dogmatic religion, and destructive and codependent mindsets to embrace ways of thinking, living and loving that do not limit themselves or others. New people are added every day. Until the 100th monkey effect takes care of the rest and makes the change inevitable. Well, or that’s the master plan. More or less. The old ways may have served us well in getting us out from the caves to where we are now. But now I believe we are ready to take our existence to the next level: Introducing Humanity 2.0.

This slow transition is  the significance I see for the new era that we are entering.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!

Spiritually Yours,

Kristian