John Major Jenkins

John Major Jenkins (1964 - July 2, 2017) was an American author and independent researcher who was best known for his works that theorized certain astronomical and esoteric connections of the calendar systems used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. His writings are particularly associated with 2012 millenarianism and the development of Mayanism in contemporary and popular culture, as an outgrowth from the New Age milieu. He was one of the principal people who promoted the idea that the ancient Maya calendar ends on 21 December 2012 and this portends major changes for the Earth. He self-published a number of books through his Four Ahau Press.

He died on 2 July 2017 from cancer of the kidney at the age of 53.

Alternative view of cosmology

Jenkins considered scientific approaches to cosmology a byproduct of limited thinking. In Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies, he writes, "I primarily wish to promote a visionary approach to these matters, as there is much more to the Sacred Calendar than can be seen with the rational intellect," and that these visionary perspectives "can more closely touch the spirit of the calendar" than does the anthropological literature.

He claimed that a higher state of consciousness and universal understanding exists, and that it is subconsciously present in modern humans through a primordial memory, but that these higher planes of thought were more easily accessible to humans of the remote past, such as the ancient Mayans

Jenkins accounted for this access in Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: "From studies in iconography and ethnobotany, we know the ancient Maya radically altered their perceptions in order to have visions of the underlying nature of reality. They achieved this heightened awareness through the use of hallucinogens." Further, Jenkins believes players of the Mesoamerican ballgame as enacting a sacred drama in which they took on the role of “heroic semi-human deities” who, “through a kind of sympathetic magic” maintained the cosmic balance of the universe.

Jenkins also maintained that, in order to accept and understand his cosmological theories, one must also accept the premise that the Mayan kings journeyed to “distant places,” and continuously “renewed” their kingdoms at specific points in the Mayan calendar. Jenkins is also a supporter of “The Lost Star” theory which extrapolates the existence of a binary companion of the Earth’s sun based on a believed mathematical discrepancies in “earth wobble.”

Appearances

In October of the year 2000, Jenkins work was featured on two episodes of Places of Mystery series on the Discovery Channel.

Jenkins was interviewed and appears in the film Manifesting the Mind a film by Andrew Rutajit, executive producer of Bouncing Bear Films.

Jenkins was featured speaking in the documentary 2012: Science or Superstition. The film explores the interpretations of the ancient Mayans predictions by researchers and scholars.

Jenkins was also featured in the documentary/film 2012: Startling New Secrets.

Publications

• Journey to the Mayan Underworld (Four Ahau Press, Boulder, CO: 1989)
• Mirror in the Sky (Four Ahau Press, 1991)
• Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, Garberville, CA: 1992/1994)
• Mayan Sacred Science (Four Ahau Press, Boulder, CO: 1994)
• Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM: 1998)
• Galactic Alignment: The Transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions (Inner Traditions International (Rochester, VT) 2002)
• Pyramid of Fire, co-authored with Marty Matz, Bear & Company, 2004
• The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History (Tarcher/Penguin 2009)

External links

• Alignment 2012 John Major Jenkins own website. Accessed April 2009
• John Major Jenkins video interview, John Major Jenkins discusses 2012 in a two-part video interview with his editor at Tarcher Books