24 Years Ago—The Harmonic Convergence & 2012
With the recent fuss over Harold Camping‘s date-setting, we recalled an old 1987 issue of The Trumpet. This newsletter was published by the National Research Institute which frequently reported on the activities of the New Age leaders. It is no longer published. However, thanks to the efforts of our friend Dr. Dennis Cuddy, we were able to obtain special permission from Kathleen Hayes, editor of The Trumpet, to reprint the July 1987 issue on the Herescope blog.
What follows is her main article, “New Agers to Surrender Planet August 16-17,” along with several accompanying articles. These original articles are being re-published without any updating. They provide a “snapshot in time” and offer a fascinating glimpse back 24 years ago in 1987 when the New Age leaders were busy setting dates, creating a new paradigm, and trying to bring heaven to earth. (The reader will notice some amazing resemblances between these New Age beliefs and antics and the current activities of the New Apostolic Reformation and Emergent movements.)
Ironically, the leader of this Harmonic Convergence movement, Jose Arguelles, passed away several months ago, and didn’t live to see 2012.
New Agers to Surrender Planet August 16-17 [1987]
They are at it again. The New Age mystics are making another attempt to manipulate Scripture with magical vibrations and pagan rituals. The end result is always the same, the creation of a New World Order.
This latest event is the Harmonic Convergence (HC) set for August 16-17, 1987, and this time its proponents are pulling out all the stops. Included in this event will be: pagan ritual, shamans, witches, divination, purification rites, magic, incantations, crystals, chants, the surrender of the will, individual and collective, and the planet to the god Pan—a pseudonym for Satan, the horned god.
Harmonic Convergence is not only built along the same lines as similar preceding events such as: Live Aid, The Great Peace March, The Good-Will Games, The First Earth Run and, of course, The World Instant of Cooperation of last December; it also plans to capitalize on those events, believing that most of the participants of those events will return to make the Harmonic Convergence a success. Naturally, numbers are important. Again they speak of the need for the critical mass to pull off this shift to a new paradigm.
The difference between this event and all the preceding ones is the drama, ritual, mythology and outright demonic overtones, veiled in an ancient Mayan legend. The legend involves the mythological being Quetzalcoatl.[1] Unlike The World Instant of Cooperation, Harmonic Convergence leaders preach that this is the earth’s last change—the turning point as it were, to circumvent global disaster or Armageddon and finally bring in a peaceful heaven on earth by creating a global village.
Its organizer is Boulder artist/mystic Jose Arguelles, who is also the director of the Planet Art Network (PAN), which is the catalyst for this feverish two-day ceremony of surrender. Arguelles’ inspiration for this came as a result of a vision he received in 1983 and from intense study of the ancient Mayan spiritual/cultural calendars. Arguelles insists that the Mayan calendar is explicit in denoting the dates of August 16-17, 1987 as precise and crucial “calibration points” that, if acted upon, can speed the process of global civilization into a new morphogenic field or a new paradigm. Harmonic Convergence then is a gross worldwide spiritual communion to avert certain future disaster by uniting human consciousness. Arguelles views HC as a “coming together of commonly intentioned people to create a moment of synchronization; and the core of this moment… will be atunement with the earth which will trigger a shift in the mental field. The power of the moment will ripple through human consciousness.”
That kind of verbiage is typical of New Age psychobabble, and depending on one’s point of view it can sound either harmlessly confusing or wonderously exciting. Most people would probably opt for the first point of view. However, as was the case with The World Instant of Cooperation before it, HC evokes images of people doing something positive for the planet. But once a person gets past the tripe dished up for the media, and once again looks deeper, the event and its resultant plan for humanity isn’t so rosy. In short, HC has with it a Twenty-Five Year Plan for Humankind which represents a giant step backwards. It plans to eliminate technological progress, including all automobiles, and make all of the world equivalent to present-day Third World countries. But, I am getting ahead of the story—or, I should say, the legend.
So let’s look beneath the gloss of the euphoric-sounding press releases and really examine the genesis of this latest New Age attempt to bring in a New World Order. First off, Arguelles didn’t just dream up these dates of August 16-17. Supposedly, they are based on the ancient Aztec and Mayan prophecies as well as those of the Hopis, Lakota Sioux and other Native American Indian tribes. But the emphasis is clearly the Mayan sacred calendar and its relationship to the return of the legendary figure Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent.[2]
“The Mayan return will be experienced by some as an inner light and by others as feathered serpent, rainbow wheels turning in the air.” Individuals who will experience these perceptions will be the ones meditating or involved in ritual magic at the time of the Convergence dates. Most significantly, “Harmonic Convergence will not only signal a return of Quetzalcoatl, but the elimination of Armageddon as well,” says Arguelles. Moreover, he equates Quetzalcoatl with the Christ and says the Harmonic Convergence could be viewed as a second Pentecost. However, like the return of the Mayans, Quetzalcoatl also will not appear in the physical sense; he will do so as a wave length of a consciousness available to those who are harmoniously attuned.
Also returning August 16-17 will be the spirits of all the gods and goddesses. These spirits plus the consciousness of Quetzalcoatl will bring forth a tremendous outpouring of psychic energy and occultic power. Then, says Arugelles, as the old paradigm dissolves there will be an “imprinting [of] the new upon a critical mass of humans in one moment of resonant baptism.” In other words, those participating in Harmonic Convergence will be “imprinted” or “baptized” by Pan. This action is a mockery of Revelation 7:3-4 when God personally imprints His seal on the foreheads of the Israeli bondservants.
Harmonic Convergence is a pagan celebration intended to turn people away from Christianity or regard it with contempt, while at the same time leading people to accept the ancient religion of Sun worship which prevailed in Egypt and saw the erection of the Tower of Babel. Arguelles admits that the HC celebration is directed and channeled “through religion of the Sun.” The religion of the Sun is synonymous with the worship of Baal, which brought upon the Sun practitioners the wrath of God.
So like the deception of the World Instant of Cooperation, Harmonic Convergence, too, is more than people appeasing Mother Earth. It is a deliberate attempt to mock God and make Christianity the religion of darkness or evil. Arguelles believes that mankind turned away from Sun worship with the advent of Christianity in the new world, and the result has been disastrous. Quite interesting is how Arguelles twists history to make Christianity the religion of darkness and evil. He believes that when mankind abandoned the ancient Sun worship to embrace Christianity and progressive technology, it simultaneously accepted the religion of darkness. The man credited to bringing Christianity to ancient Mexico was Hernando Cortex, the Spanish conqueror.
However, Arguelles claims that Cortez was in reality the wicked ancient Mexican Tezcatlipoca in disguise. In The Mayan Factor, Arguelles writes that hell on Earth began when Christianity became the predominant religion, and when the ancients turned away from Sun worship. “In truth, this turning away is a surrender to the forces of darkness, called by the ancient Mexicans, Tezcatlipoca, the Dark Lord of Time. It is Tezcatlipoca, the trickster counterpart as Cortez, arrived in Mexico in A.D. 1519 announcing the entry into the present 468-year ‘hell-cycle.’”
But say Arguelles and other supporters of HC, the hell period is over as of August 15, and with it the old paradigm. Harmonic Convergence marks the beginning of the new paradigm and with it the return of the ancient Sun worship and combined paganism. The Mayan calendar and prophecy notes that the birth time of the new paradigm (New World Order) will be December 2012.
The energy field created by the two days of celebration to Mother Earth will begin the shift immediately after the celebration. “By Tuesday, August 18, the infrastructure of a new planetary society will be operative,” promises Arguelles. Additionally, he claims, “A new paradigm, a New World Order, will be established, characterized by an end to the arms race, demilitarization, a redistribution of global wealth, an end to pollution, environmental harmony and de-industrialization.”
In short, all power but solar will be gone. There will be no more fossil fuels—no automobiles or airplanes. Life will indeed be quite simple. In fact, it will be so basic as to represent a gigantic quantum leap backwards. That’s not all. The Harmonic Convergence is just planting the seed. With it is the Campaign for the Earth: The 25 Year Crystal Earth Design Program. …[T]he Crystal Design is [supposed to be] heaven on earth or the beginning of the Tribulation as prophesied in the Holy Scriptures.
Also supporting HC is the cast from the World Instant of Cooperation. They are Barbara Marx Hubbard, John Randolph Price, Peter Russell, Pat & Marnie Weeks of the Human Unity Institute, the United Nations, and, yes, Mikhail Gorbachev. Of the event, Hubbard says, “We have the choice of misusing our powers and destroying civilization as we know it, or applying our capabilities creatively to build ‘a new order of the ages’ as envisioned by the founders of the United States of America.”
HC promoters are calling for an all out two-day celebration involving (in addition to the 144,000 and the participants of WIC) citizens everywhere. They want parades, fairs, festivals, plays, dances going on to honor Mother Earth for two days. They also want children. “We especially want lots of children and teenagers participating however they want to,” says Colorado coordinator Marian Culhane.
Though Arguelles says, “Through such an event [HC], the Armageddon script is short-circuited, yet the possibility of a New Heaven and a New Earth is fully present.”
Sorcery and pagan ritual may appease Mother Earth, but God takes an entirely different view. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18)
144,000 High Priests, Priestesses to be Used
Arguelles research into the Mayan calendar reveals a period starting around 843 A.C. Decoding the “sacred” geometry, he finds Mayan blocks of time as being twenty-two periods of fifty-two years each—thirteen periods of heaven followed by nine periods of hell. The first period of hell just happens to coincide with the arrival of Cortez, the Spanish conquistador in Mexico in 1519 A.D….
Now the Mayan prophecy tells of the time at the end of the last period of hell; interestingly, it corresponds to August 15, 1987 of our Gregorian calendar, when Tezcatlipoca, the god of death and destruction, will remove his mask to reveal his true identity—that of Quetzalcoatl, the god of love and peace. Then the very next day, August 16, a giant El Tule Tree near Oanaca, Mexico, where Quetzalcoatle’s heart was believed to be buried, will bring forth billions of energy rays in the form of spirits to enter every living being “as a crystalline seed of peace and love,” thereby fulfilling the prophecy of Quetzalcoatl’s return. It also represents an in-filling of demonic spirits to willing participants.
If all that sounds like something out of Disney studios of maybe the Twilight Zone, the story gets even more bizarre. Unlike the World Instant of Cooperation which required 50-million meditating while another 550 million consented the healing of the planet, the producers of HC have drastically lowered their required number of participants to bring in the new paradigm of Third World poverty.
Oh, they’re still dragging out the Hundredth Monkey, but HC is requiring a “critical mass” within 550-million. This mini-mass nucleus calls for a minimum of 144,000 individuals to act as “a resonating core” or a “human battery” to charge the other 550-million. Without these human batteries, Harmonic Convergence will fail. By their estimate 550-million represents 11% of the world’s population and more than enough for the critical mass.
However, these 144,000 aren’t just a core of any kind of volunteers. These spiritual high priests and priestesses must involve themselves in 12 rigorous days of purification prior to dawn August 16. These spiritual catalysts known as “rainbow humans” will agree to surrender themselves and the planet Earth to the god Pan, his demons and even to the higher galactic intelligences—more gifted and talented demons. Because these “rainbow humans” are key to the entire two-day affair, they will perform their rites at sacred, historical and public “sacred” sites throughout the world.[3]
The so-called “sacred” sites add another occultic/pagan element—that of divination. It is called geomancy. It involves the use of ritual magic to locate power points in the earth—or planetary energy lines. The first strategy to attain Harmonic Convergence is geomantic. It’s the effort to coordinate a critical mass of spiritualists at the planet’s power points (acupuncture points). It will be at these sacred sites or power points that the rainbow humans will do their magic rituals. These sites include: sacred natural sites, temples, and key historic memorials of human suffering and transfiguration. Some examples would be Mt. Sinai, Hiroshima, the Grand Canyon, Sedona,… Machu Picchu,… and many others.
Arguelles believes that the ancient Mayans were originally highly evolved intelligent aliens who were taken back home to a galactic federation after progress supplanted and destroyed their natural coexistence with all life. But Arguelles believes … “Their return is imminent, for the moment soon arrives when the wave engendered by the Christian figurehead, Cortez, in A.D. 1519 will be turned around [emphasis ours]; that moment is August 16-17, 1987. Obviously Arguelles equates Christianity with materialism, destructive technology, wars, hostile competitiveness to the modern arms race and pollution. Promoters of Harmonic Convergence aren’t ruling out the3 strong possibility of the appearance of many UFOs, guided by returning Mayans, during these two days.
Arguelles Aug. 16-17 [1987] Vision Channeled by Spirits[4]
Most New Age prophets admit that they receive their “visions” from spirits, and Jose Arguelles, chief-coordinator for the Harmonic Convergence, is no exception. His vision for August 16-17 was channeled to him from the spirit world.
Arguelles is known for several things. In the 1960s he was an outspoken advocate of psychedelic drugs as a tool for mind expansion to provide visionary glimpses of the future. Some might remember him as the man who, in 1970, inspired a national interest in ecology, as organizer of Earth Day.
Born in 1939 in Rochester, Minnesota, he spend the first five years of his life in Mexico. When he returned there later as a teenager, the experience was to have a profound influence on him. He became interested in Mexico’s art and culture. Later, that interest led him to receive a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Chicago. He has taught at Princeton, the University of California at Davis and the Buddhist Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. His interest in Buddhism was no doubt sparked in 1972 when he became a student of Tibetan meditation and mentee of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.
When Arguelles speaks of art, he is not limiting it to the creative works of man. He also sees art “as a dynamic agent of planetary transformation.” With that as a goal, he founded the Planet Art Network in 1983. PAN is a global organization of artists working for planetary transformation. To Arguelles an artist is an awakened warrior who works to create a new heaven on earth.
Having studied Mayan history for many years, he wrote: The Mandala, Earth Ascending, and The Mayan Factor. However, it is The Crystal Earth Papers, the guidebook for the Harmonic Convergence, that gives detailed insight into this occultist and his plans for the earth. In it he admits that the vision for surrendering the planet was channeled to him from spirits. He says he merely acted as a conduit to receive the plan for Earth. “Sometime during the course of writing these papers I had shifted to the position of being a channel or more precisely a conduit. As fashionable as channeling has become, I nonetheless hold to this position by virtue of my own surrender to the Earth Force.”
The vision that came to him in 1983 was one in which he claims to have seen planetary emissaries at key planetary positions surrender control, thus allowing the terrestrial hierarchy to assert harmonic command… “the New World dawned.”
Of his vision, Arguelles says, “Whether I be deemed mad, a fanatic or a prophet without a pulpit, it is obviously my conviction, that the earth is now speaking, that it is the earth’s turn, for humans have had their turn. Only by allowing the earth her voice, either through us or without us, will a new order based on sanity and respect for everything come about.”
Suffice it to say that Biblical prophecy says a New World Order will indeed come to pass, but it will most definitely not be based on sanity but rather on evil. It instigator will be the Son of Perdition.
“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)
Editor’s Explanations:
1. Kathleen Hayes wrote a separate report titled “”Solar God, Quetzalcoatl, Object of Pagan Worship,” published on page 3 of the same issue which explained his occult significance as a Baal-type Sun God. She also wrote “The Horned God Pan is Patron of Witches,” which explains that Arguelles’ Planetary Art Network (PAN) was purposefully picked as an acronym because it “heralds the return of its namesake, the Great God Pan.”
2. Ibid.
3. A list of supposed “Sacred Sites” accompanied this article.
4. This article was authored by D. L. Carney.
Reprinted with permission from The Trumpet, July 1987