Thoughts for Indigenous Imaginations by Luis J. Rodriguez

Written by the first Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Luis J. Rodriguez, edited by Seven Dhar

On the occasion of my oldest son birthday, I draw on cosmological studies and my own interpretations of highly developed and complicated indigenous ideas, mostly Mexika (so-called Aztec) and Mayan.

My son Ramiro is now a practitioner of Mexika Danza and Native American spirituality. I offer this to move ideas, the imagination -- a way to see that can help bring more clarity about Nature's core laws and principles.

The operating ratio of the Earth: 13:20 is the base-operating ratio of the Earth. There are actually 13 moons in a solar year, 13 strands in DNA, 13 levels of sky in so-called Mesoamerican cosmology, 20 months of the calendar, 20 fingers and toes, and so on.

This ratio helps attune human life to the timeship called Earth. The ratio is also expressed as 13:260 (the 260 days of the Mexika Tonalpohualli calendar, which is also true for the key calendar of the Mayan, the Tzolkin).

There are also 260 days in the gestation period of a human being in the womb, which comes to 13 months (not 9), with 20 days per month. There are even more complicated mathematical links since math is the language of the universe.

And 260,000 years is also the end of the five 5,200-year cycles that marked the 2012 Harmonic Convergence. And 52 years is a life cycle in humans and in Mexika cosmology, where every material possession would be discarded and a new fire would begin the next 52-year cycle for a city or tribe.

However, since the European invasion in 1492 (during the period of Christian consolidation of Spain and the Spanish Inquisition to ethnically-cleanse Spain of Moors/Africans and Jews) brought imbalance as well as human, earthly, and spiritual poison to the land, the operating ratio has been 12:60 (12 months a year with two 12-hour periods of day-and-night, 12 for a dozen, 60 minutes for an hour, etc.)

Since then we’ve been out of tune, misaligned, in what is called the “Dark Dreamspell of History.” This is also why there are 520 years from 1492 invasion to 2012. Conquest, colonization, disease, wholesale theft of land and minerals, the rise of destructive capitalism, and other darkness marks this period.

While tremendous growth in societal structures, technology, and instruments has occurred during this time, we also see the greatest destruction of people ever –- and the greatest destruction of land and resources, leading to climate change and other imbalances. Almost all 12:60 systems of human structure, labor, production, or wealth are been built on and are a breeding ground for inequality and imbalance. This has also produced a “memory” virus.

The purpose of the 12:60 ratio is to erase all memory of the proper Earth ratio as well as the complementary relationship of feminine and masculine. In other words, it serves to disconnect our minds and hearts from indigenous DNA.

Along with the 12:60 ratio comes the imposition of patriarchy from Europe and the Mideast, where the Fatherland, the country, the patrias (which is where we get the word “patriot”) became more important than the Motherland (the whole planet).

But the genetic memory is still with us, in our bones if not in our conscious mind. Tapping into this gives us the healing power to be balanced in this world despite the pervasive fracturing, imbalances, and injustices of our so-called civilization. 

Now, 13:20 is the ratio of the proper relationship of feminine and masculine needed for all birth and regeneration. This is what Ometeotl (“Two Energy”) means. The Creator spirit, the Supreme Regenerating Principle of the Universe shows it: 13 is feminine, whereas 20 is masculine. Therefore, Ometeotl is not a god to be worshipped, detached from us then personified to be like us, but a principle of life to be respected, affirmed, honored, and lived by.

Knowing these laws/principles/ratios is turning necessity into mind. As Marxists say, "Freedom is the appreciation of necessity." We can only do what we want to do when we know what needs to be done.

The human experience as matter

What is called "matter," the material aspects of our lives, comes from the word “mother.” Mother Earth is our universal birthplace, recreated in a woman’s body, where spiritual beings become matter.

As is said, "We are spiritual beings having a human experience" taking a human journey—not beings on a spiritual quest. We are actually both feminine and masculine, which entails not pitting one against the other, which would lead to misalignment. Matter has finite qualities, laws of birth and development, limitations and dangers. 

Our journey has a purpose—to learn the mastery of consequences. In matter, we learn how to breathe, walk, think, act, do, impact, and so on. We can become negative or positive—both are possible. We can eat health-enhancing mushrooms or poison ones. (Some of the most beautiful and appealing mushrooms are the most poisonous).

We learn the consequences of our actions and inaction. We learn about the lures of the attractive and intoxicating and their limitations, while also learning about the long-range, the qualitative, the slow gathering of in-depth knowledge. We need not pose one against the other. They all matter (“mother”) again. Our bodies matter because they are matter. They are finite, needing care and healthy choices.

But there is a part of us that is infinite, eternal, abundant. There is a way to tap into the abundant aspect of our nature. It is imagination and creativity, inexhaustible wells from which we can draw. The feminine energies account for these. The masculine energies account for our prudent, practical, step-by-step plans, proposals, and actions. Both are important until we pit one against the other.

External nature is both finite and generative, the latter becoming engaged when we work within the laws/principles of what allows natural things be born, grow, die, and be reborn again. There is abundance in nature; she teaches us this everyday.

Nature is our best and greatest university. Our mother (matter) is therefore the greatest source of masculinity. It is also the place where the feminine acts out its power to go beyond limits.  Attunement –- tuning into nature’s energies, powers, and our own nature and relationships –- is re-aligning to the 13:20 operating ratio and to the proper relationships (harmony) of feminine and masculine.

Life, like a guitar, gets out of tune, imbalanced, off kilter. But with consciousness, learning, ritual, ceremony, and art, we can get attuned again. We can get to a higher level each time. It’s all about aligning or tuning the six “strings” of our being — the spiritual, mental, emotional, psychological, creative, and physical.

In human/Earth development, we have been out of tune for 520 years. We are in the process of beginning to re-align. Or we will cease to evolve, which would mean that we cease to exist. The point is evolution, unlike the narrow religious “believers” who claim otherwise. “Believing,” after all, is not knowing). What is “God’s” way, the way of Nature, taking the form and content of evolution/revolution through new stages of growth?

The spiraling process of growth — “punctuated equilibrium,” “the negation of the negation,” the “thesis-antithesis-synthesis” — is how indigenous people saw development. It was not seen as merely linear nor only as cyclical. It was a combination of both (masculine and feminine) to create spirals.

The DNA strand is a spiral, as is the Milky Way, as are vortices, as is the development of new species. Another way to look at this is to note that every day of our life is the same, a cycle. It is the development from the previous day, with variations of sun, moon, stars, elements, seasons, but pretty much what we expect.

Every new day is also something that has never happened before: nobody has ever walked on this Earth under this specific configuration of sun, moon or stars, and so on. Just as all human beings go through a similar process of conception, gestation, and birth, growth, death, each human born is unique. Specifically, each one of us is bound with particular combinations of fate and destiny, nature and nurture, environmental and internal factors, purpose and meaning.

Yes, other beings have populated the planet. Yes, we’ve been “here” before. But at the same time there has never been a person like us in this time, in this place, under these conditions. We are connected and at the same time singular, including unique attributes, propensities, destinies, and physical properties and imprints (fingerprints, voice patterns, face, etc.).

Birthdays and 13-year cycles

There are four cycles of 13 years before a person becomes 52. For the Mexika, each cycle is a time of re-calibration, a threshold time, when doors open, new possibilities emerge, and growth is qualitatively changed.

Remember, 52 years is the big transformative time before the final cycle, when we prepare to enter the other side.

So, son, on your 39th birthday, know that you are ending the third cycle, entering the fourth. This is a time of destiny-making and more mature decisions. It is a time of fruitful endeavors and achievement. The third cycle is mostly a learning cycle, beginning after our brains become fully shaped and molded around the age of 26 (the end of second cycle).

Pray for guidance, protection, and inner-strength. Stay on your path. If you stray, just get back. Let there be no more dramas, no more deep turmoil. Now a part of your soul settles in. Another part is ready to be seen, to accomplish your destiny. It’s time to get retuned.