Tom Knapp

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Ledge of quetzal, beyond 2012

On December 21, 2012, there will be an opportunity for the meek to prevail. So speaks one of the Mexican sages in Jock Whitehouse’s 2012 anti-apocalypse book The Ledge of Quetzal. “There was a growing momentum of darkness in the world. As climate change spawned wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods; as earthquakes and mudslides turned entire villages into rubble; as political, social and religious differences gave rise to terrorism, genocide, and war; as the world teetered on the edge of economic chaos, it was not hard to imagine apocalypse in the making. The Maya, however, along with numerous other cultures and disciplines, had somehow discerned the largest cosmic cycles of man’s destiny and the forces that surrounded it. And in those cycles they found, like the pause of a pendulum at its apogee, an opportunity for total change. It was like a second chance for all mankind.” Yes, the weather is changing, world economies are shaky, terrorism and nationalism and fanatical leaders threaten global security. Some say civilization is ending. Can it be saved? Yes. Who can do that? We can. That’s the message that comes through in this wild adventure story - in the tradition of Castaneda and Coelho, deep into the heart of southern Mexico and its rich traditions of plant-based hallucinogens and the spiritual clarity they awaken.