A number of people come into Ananda asking me what I think is happening with energy: they sense there is an intensity to life that is speeding up, and propose a bunch of theories to account for it--the most popular are 2012, an increasing number of eclipses, Nature is punishing us for what we've done to the Earth.   Other people simply say that life has become more scary, the foundations they counted on have slipped away—for some, this is reflected in the economic times. For others there may be health issues, or old emotional stuff coming up with increasing frequency and painful urgency.

                If this is not happening to you, consider yourself blessed, stop reading and keep having fun. For the rest of us, I have some thoughts.

                First, a word on 2012.   December 21, 2012 is the end of a 5000+ cycle of time and planetary movement as measured by the ancient Mayan culture, with remarkable accuracy.   A number of meanings have been attached to 2012, the two most popular being that on or around this date there will be some kind of an apocalypse and the world that we know it will end, the other being that this date signals a profound shift in spiritual and transformative energies available to humans and we will begin a new era in our development as a species.

                I do not believe in the apocalypse theory.  Doomsday scenarios have been around literally as long as people have sought to understand life through a religious/mythological framework and while humans have historically experienced and created  huge amounts of devastation, life goes on and not everyone living at any given time is affected.  More personally,  I'm  opposed to any theory of human life that presupposes   two groups of people, the chosen and the damned.  That's not the world I choose to live in or the Divine I choose to believe in.

                The second theory,  of increased energies of spiritual  growth, intrigues me—with the caveat that I believe people always have an urge towards transformation.  Almost everyone wants their life to be better, and we don't need ancient prophecies and astrological confluxes to create that longing in us—our own human nature pushes us forwards. If there is anything special about this time I see it, it is the focus of the transformational urge, a force compelling many of us towards healing, understanding, community.

                What's intriguing to me about our current time is the conflation of numerous  catastrophes—economic, environmental, political, individual—with the deep longing I see in people to make sense of things, to seek out a Higher Knowing, to heal and find a spiritual center that resonates.   To use whatever current crisis is happening with them to create a more meaningful life for themselves and their community.                This healing is where I focus my attention through the work we do at Ananda—and return my own personal attention to, again and again, as my world this past year has been repeatedly, dramatically cracked open and exposed.  I've definitely been living what I'm writing about here—when I say it hasn't been an easy cosmic time, I know what I'm talking about. But I also know the value of pushing through the crack-ups, sitting with the pain, loving the catastrophe and the fear as best as we possibly can. Presence does, actually, help—not as fast as a xanax and a glass of red wine perhaps, but with more true, long lasting results.

                Still, in my job I hear things—the latest rumors, predictions, prophecies. Some things are told to me by people I consider blatant cranks or misguided individuals and I won't repeat here. But others have been said by people and beings that I do trust, and I'll share with you.

                I've been told that astrologically, a group of planets have lined up whose effect is to shake our foundations and return us to our basic truths—and each of us will experience this shake up differently, depending on where, in particular,   Saturn and Neptune fall in our individual astrological charts. For some it will be money, for others love, health, relationships, career.  A series of eclipses over the next few years are adding to this effect. I've been told that yes, new spiritual energies have been and continue to be activated on earth, although they aren't necessarily coming the way the Mayans interpreted. These energies are  propelling people to face their deepest issues and thus transform them into higher consciousness.   Life lessons are speeding up to reflect this energetic push.  We are on the path towards profound spiritual change—and that to activate much of this change we must each experience our deep personal fears, to show us how and why we must release them and consciously choose another way.  

                I'm intrigued by this information, simply because this mirrors the energies in my life, including the overwhelming   pressure I felt to open Ananda. On the other hand, I've been around the "New Age" movement for twenty years and have   lived through similar prophecies before. I recognize the eagerness with which some people follow them, particularly the willingness to believe that it is 'insider' information that is going to save you, rather than the much more difficult work of day-day, thought-thought personal change. *

                Earth changes, ancient prophecy, astrological alignments, intuitive predictions—there is a level at which this is all sexy stuff, and as such   a total distraction to the work and joy involved in committing yourself to personal transformation and spiritual growth. So my answer to those who ask me what I think I is going on, ultimately, I really don't care. Putting the focus on grand cosmological events is actually irrelevant to the healing we all need.

                Instead of focusing on what others have said, I say commit to yourself and your life in the deepest possible way. Act as if happiness and your conception of God are available to you at every possible moment, no matter what your outer circumstances, and then make the best choices you can from that awareness, as much as you possibly can. Sit with your fear and pain, listen to it, acknowledge what it has to tell you--and notice that there's another part of you that is doing the watching.  Put your attention there, and see what happens. Focus your though on what you want, not what you don't want. Be kind to others. Love yourself.  That's how change happens, no matter what outer forces may also be pushing on us to get there.

*for a fun run-down on just a few of the apocalyptic theories that Westerners have believed in during the past 500 years, check out this article on Salon.com