José Argüelles

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José Argüelles
Born January 24, 1939 (1939-01-24) (age 70)
Rochester, Minnesota
Occupation Author, teacher
Genres New Age spirituality and metaphysics

José Argüelles (born January 24, 1939) is a Mexican-American author, artist, and educator. He is the founder of Planet Art Network and the Foundation for the Law of Time. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Aesthetics from the University of Chicago, and has taught at numerous colleges, including Princeton University and the San Francisco Art Institute. He is the identical twin brother of poet Ivan Argüelles. As one of the originators of the Earth Day concept, Argüelles founded the first Whole Earth Festival in 1970, at Davis, California.

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[edit] Artist

As a painter and visual artist, he has provided illustrations for numerous books, as well as mural paintings at different universities. After experimenting with LSD in the mid-1960s, Argüelles produced a series of psychedelic art paintings [1] that Humphrey Osmond—who originally coined the work "psychedelic"—named "The Doors of Perception" (after Aldous Huxley's 1954 book of the same name, itself a title drawn from William Blake's 18th-century poem). In a 2002 interview Argüelles says of his artwork, "as fantastic as painting was, it was a limited medium in terms of audience."[2]

[edit] Fame

He gained notoriety for his role in organizing the Harmonic Convergence event of 1987, and his book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology, published the same year. In The Mayan Factor Argüelles devises a complicated numerological system by combining elements taken from the pre-Columbian Maya calendar with the I Ching and other esoteric influences, interspersed with concepts drawn from modern sciences such as "genetic codes" and "galactic convergences".[3] The book first popularized the Hunab Ku design as a symbol within New Age discourse, after altering its appearance from that originally presented by the Mexican author Domingo Martínez Parédez in his 1953 publication Hunab Kú: Síntesis del pensamiento filosófico maya.

Argüelles produced "Dreamspell: The Journey of Timeship Earth 2012" and a game/tool "Telektonon: The Talking Stone of Prophesy". The former is the source of Arguelles' 13 Moon/28 Day Calendar. This calendar begins on July 26 (helical rising of the star Sirius) and runs for 364 days. The remaining date, July 25, is celebrated in some quarters as the "Day out of Time".[4]

[edit] The "Law of Time"

In his 2002 book Time and the Technosphere, Argüelles devises and promotes a notion that he calls the "Law of Time", in part framed by his interpretations of how Maya calendrical mathematics functioned. In this notional framework Argüelles claims to have identified a "fundamental law" involving two timing frequencies: one he calls "mechanised time" with a "12:60 frequency", and the other "natural [time] codified by the Maya [that is] understood to be the frequency 13:20".[5] To Argüelles, "the irregular 12-month [Gregorian] calendar and artificial, mechanised 60-minute hour" is a construct that artificially regulates human affairs, and is out-of-step with the natural "synchronic order". He proposes the universal abandonment of the Gregorian calendar and its replacement with Argüelles' thirteen-moon calendar, in order to "get the human race back on course" by the adoption of "[his] calendar of perfect harmony so the human race could straighten its mind out again."[6]

[edit] Criticism

Although Argüelles states that his tools and calendar are clearly not a Maya calendar, much criticism of it focuses on the fact that his works remain completely unsupported by any professional Mayanist scholar. Amongst many criticisms leveled at it, it is pointed out that the interpretation merely co-opts an ancient tradition by recasting it in New Age terms, unknown, unused and undocumented among the Maya. Many of Dreamspell's influences come from non-Maya sources, such as the I Ching, numerology, and assorted mystical and psuedohistorical works like Erich von Däniken's earlier Chariots of the Gods?.[7] What's more, Argüelles' calendar is based on a different day-count than the traditional Maya calendar. As mathematician Michael Finley notes:

"Since the 365 day Maya haab makes no provision for leap years, its starting date in the Gregorian Calendar advances by one day every four years. The beginning of Arguelles' year is fixed to July 26. Thus his count of days departs from the haab as it was known to Maya scribes before the Spanish conquest. Arguelles claims that the Thirteen Moon Calendar is synchronized with the calendar round. Clearly, it is not."[8]

His calendar is also not correctly synchronized with that observed by the Maya. For example, in the traditional count January 1, 2005 is 5 Muluk, while in the Dreamspell it is 2 Etznab.

Argüelles countered this criticism by stating that his calendar is "correct and biologically accurate...for the whole planet", and that he is the "heir of the legacy of Pacal Votan and the instrument of his prophecy, Telektonon". [1] Argüelles is now one of several individuals who have contributed to the spread of Mayanism, a collection of beliefs based on metaphysical speculation about the ancient Maya.

[edit] Planet Art Network

Argüelles co-founded the Planet Art Network (PAN) with Lloydine in 1983 as an autonomous, meta-political, worldwide peace organization engaging in art and spirituality. Active in over 90 countries, PAN upholds the Nicholas Roerich Peace Pact and Banner of Peace, symbolizing "Peace Through Culture".

The Planet Art Network operates as a network of self-organized collectives, centralized by a shared focus of promoting the worldwide adoption of Argüelles' Dreamspell 13-Moon/28 day Calendar. The network upholds the slogan "Time is Art", suggesting that time is a vehicle for our creative experience, instead of the familiar saying "Time is Money".

[edit] First Noosphere World Forum

He is currently director of the Noosphere II project of the Foundation's Galactic Research Institute, inclusive of the First Noosphere World Forum, a project that involves creating a dialogue that unifies a network of organizations working to promote a positive shift of consciousness by 2012 with the vision of the whole earth as a work of art. url=http://www.noosphereforum.org

[edit] Bibliography

  • Arguelles, Jose Mandala 1972
  • Argüelles, José (1975). The Transformative Vision: Reflections on the Nature and History of Human Expression. Shambhala Publications. 
  • Argüelles, José; Miriam Arguelles, Chogyam Trungpa (Foreword) (1995). Mandala. Shambhala. ISBN 1570621209. 
  • Argüelles, José (1996). The Arcturus Probe: Tales and Reports of an Ongoing Investigation. Light Technology Publishing. ISBN 0929385756. 
  • Argüelles, José (1996). The Call of Pacal Votan: Time is the Fourth Dimension. Altea Publishing. ISBN 0952455560. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Arguelles, Jose Mandala 1972 (The psychedelic mandala-like paintings of Jose Arguelles are reproduced on color plates in the back of the book)
  2. ^ Moynihan 2002
  3. ^ Hess 1993: 72
  4. ^ Mutch, Stella. "A Day Out of Time". Going Coastal Magazine. http://www.goingcoastalmagazine.com/articl20.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-30. 
  5. ^ Terminology and statements in quotation marks taken from 2002 interview with Argüelles, as transcribed in Moynihan (2002)
  6. ^ Moynihan (2002)
  7. ^ Feder 1990: 189; Hess 1993: 72–73
  8. ^ Quotation is from Finley (2002)

[edit] References

Anastas, Benjamin (2007-07-01). "The Final Days" (reproduced online). The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~tkeene/apwhAnastasThe%20(Mayan)%20Final%20Days.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-18. 
Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23805-2. OCLC 51305869. 
Feder, Kenneth L. (1990). Frauds, myths, and mysteries: science and pseudoscience in archaeology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing. ISBN 0-87484-971-3. OCLC 20692716. 
Finley, Michael (2002). "Jose Arguelles' Calendrical Dreams". The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy. http://members.shaw.ca/mjfinley/arguelles.html. Retrieved 2007-09-24. 
Hess, David J. (1993). Science in the New Age: the paranormal, its defenders and debunkers, and American culture. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-13820-8. OCLC 27811150. 
Lamy, Philip (2001). "Ufology". in Brenda E. Brasher. Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism. New York: Routledge. pp. 410–413. ISBN 0-415-92244-5. OCLC 46792684. 
Moynihan, Michael (November-December 2002). "Visionary of the New Time: Michael Moynihan Speaks With José Argüelles" (online republication). New Dawn magazine 75. http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Interview%20With%20Jose%20Arguelles.html. Retrieved 2009-06-15. 
Sitler, Robert K. (February 2006). "The 2012 Phenomenon New Age Appropriation of an Ancient Mayan Calendar". Novo Religio (Berkeley: University of California Press) 9 (3): 24–38. doi:10.1525/nr.2006.9.3.024. OCLC 86912726. 
South, Stephanie (March 2009). 2012: Biography of a Time Traveler, The Journey of Jose Arguelles. New Jersey: New Page Books. ISBN 978-1-60163-065-0. OCLC 2008054800. 
Upton, Charles (2001). The System of Antichrist: Truth & Falsehood in Postmodernism & the New Age. Ghent, NY: Sophia Perennis. ISBN 0-900588-30-6. OCLC 45799654. 
York, Michael (1995). The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-8000-2. OCLC 31604796. 

[edit] External links

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