Jose Arguelles- the visionary who decoded the Mayan calendar

I was saddened to hear that Jose Arguelles died on March 23. He was my daughter India’s godfather, and a sort of godfather of “The New Age” movement. He was the first to decode and interpret the Mayan calendar and brought us the Mayan prophesies. He launched the Harmonic Convergence, initiated the whole 2012 phenomenon and gave us Earth Day. 


I remember the Harmonic Convergence well, it was held over Aug 16-17, 1987, and I was asked to host an event at the Palladium theater, in Hollywood, with actor Levar Burton. Tens of thousand of well-meaning, New Age groupies around the world were following Jose’s guidance, by celebrating the first stage of planetary awakening. 


To be precise, what we were really celebrating was the end of the last in an endless series of hells. Although, it does seem if this final hell has been slow to pack up and go home!


I could really sink my teeth into a hell-free ideology!


In 1988, I was filming in Hawaii, when I met Jose and his wife Lloydine. It was interesting for me to hear from right from the source, how the Harmonic Convergence movement had birthed of its own accord, with no push from Jose. It had been a veritable grass- roots phenomenon that swept the globe like wildfire. We all found it ironic that I had hosted one of his events, before actually meeting him!


My eye caught a poem on the wall in their powder room. The words were hauntingly beautiful and I asked Lloydine if Jose had written it. She pulled me aside and whispered, “It was written by Jose’s son, Jason, who recently passed away. Please don’t mention him, he gets too upset.”


I jumped into my sleek little convertible and went to do some sightseeing around the picturesque town of Paia. The country road was narrow and winding, and I knew that I was driving too fast. 


It was a beautiful sunny day in paradise, radio blaring, wind in my hair, who could resist the accelerator? Not me!


Suddenly, I felt as if my body had been ‘taken over’ by an energy or sensation that I did not recognize as my own. I was both heavy and light - simultaneously. Something eased my foot off the accelerator, and the car slowed to a crawl. 


I heard a voice – and it was not mine. 


“Tread lightly upon this earth, like your lover would trace his finger  down your face.” 


I do NOT talk to myself like this! And definitely NOT in that poetic language! 


I became fully present. 


I continued to drive slowly, and became acutely aware of every sensation - the feel of the soft leather steering wheel on the palm of my hands, the hug of the bucket seat around my hips and up my spine, the feel of the breeze playing with the feathery fabric of my clothes. 


I could feel the car glide gently along the curves etched by the road, quite like that ‘finger’. 


Suddenly driving was lovemaking. What a new experience!


I felt ashamed by my lack of reverence and previously unconscious behavior.


I returned to the Arguelles’ home and shared my experience. Jose’s eyes welled up, and for the first time since his death, he opened up about his son. He had been killed in a car crash and he was sure that he had intervened on my behalf.


As we near the much anticipated, Dec 21, 2012, the man who started it all, will be gone. But never forgotten!