Are you wondering how to survive in this changing world?

Are you asking yourself how the changes in our world are going to effect your life?

Are you asking:  what is going on with our political changes, economic changes and planetary changes?

And wondering how to navigate these tumultuous times?

At least I was, when I started my own awakening process.  I began searching for guidance for what I was going through, I wanted to know how these changes were going to affect my life, let alone the rest of humanity.  And it was through searching for this guidance, that I was lead to two separate but interrelated sources that can help us navigate these changing times, Ascension and the Mayan Calendar.

Now, for centuries the mysteries of Ascension have been shrouded in secrecy by religious orders, secret organizations or hidden text, and only recently, the awareness is entering the collective consciousness.  This awareness, commonly referred to as the awakening, is an opening to the Divine potential that is found inside each and everyone of us.

As for the Mayan Calendar, much of the talk these days centers around predictions of what is going to happen in the year 2012, to the earth, to humanity, to governments and economies.  These predictions are interesting and all, but it is not the predictions that are going to help get us through these times of change.  I discovered that it is within the Mayan Calendar that we find the guidance to help us through not only this time, but through the Ascension Process that is now occurring.  According to Carl Johan Calleman in his book ‘The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness,’ the Mayan Calendar gives us “a true spiritual calendar charting the future of humanity.”

This spiritual calendar describes the times of healing for ourselves and humanity and a time of blossoming into oneness.  The Calendar, also gives reference to why some individuals may seem to have awakened  at different times in our history and why we are noticing what we call Indigo and Crystaline Children.  In order to understand the application of the Mayan Calendar in our lives, it is important to understand that this awakening is one of the first steps of the Ascension Process.

First, Ascension literally means to move upward.  The simplest reference is an upward movement in energy level, thus literally meaning to vibrate faster.

When we apply this to the physical body, Ascension refers to the physical body returning to it’s light-body form, or where the physical vibrates at the frequency of light.  When applied to consciousness, we look at mental consciousness vibrating with fear, lack and limitation moving upward or vibration at the higher frequency of love, joy, and abundance.

This is why many of you, especially if you are reading this, are already experiencing the current Ascension process, for there is no way out of it, and that is where the Mayan Calendar comes into play.  It ‘predicts’ or describes this time of awakening and the shifting of energy to a higher vibration.

When one looks at the Mayan Calendar, there are many components, two of which are the tzolkin, or Sacred Calendar, and the Long Count Calendar.  In reference to the Ascension Process we are going to reference the long count calendar, and then later we will use the Sacred Calendar to provide the guidance for these changing times.

Within the long count, we discover reference to Nine Underwolds and it’s map of conscious evolution.  In his book, Calleman gives a detailed breakdown of the Nine Underworlds, which traces time, or conscious evolution back 16.4 billion years ago, or approximately the time of the ‘Big Bang.’

Now, the interesting component of the Nine Underworlds, or Great Cycle, is that each Underworld, or Creation Cycle, not only builds upon the previous cycle as far as evolutionary development goes, each cycle is 20 times shorter than the one before.  Or, put another way each Underworld is 20 times faster than the one before.  We experience relatively the same level of evolution, only 20 times faster than before.  This is commonly referred to as time acceleration.  Now, humanity did not have much conscious experience of this acceleration when the Underworlds were 256 years, 5,125 years or 102,000 years long.  But the current Underworld, the Galactic Underworld, is only 12.8 years long, or 20 times faster than the previous Planetary Underworld at 256 years long.  Thus, we are now experiencing an acceleration of time and conscious evolution within a single lifetime versus over several generations.

Having entered the Galactic Underworld in 1999, many of you may be able to recall experiencing significant changes in your own life since that time.  I know, personally, I began my spiritual journey in 1998, when I read the Celestine Prophecy and wondered why no one else believed that the Nine Insights were real?

With this time acceleration, we recognize that we are moving to a higher vibration, or Ascending.  As we continue to look at the remaining time on the Mayan Calendar we will gather guidance for how we can get to 2012.  We will begin to explore the details of the Sacred Calendar, specifically the current cycle of Day 6, and the preparation we are undergoing for entering the Universal Underworld.  Further, giving us the opportunity to formulate our own guide through the Ascension Process.

In understanding the guidance provided by the Mayan Calendar, there are a few specifics to note, from which we are able to gain insight about the energies that are influencing the time we are in.  First, we entered Day 6, or the 11^th Heaven of the Galactic Underworld, on November 13, 2008.  This time runs from November 13, 2008 thru November 8, 2009, and is referenced as Flowering, ruled by Yohualticitl, or Goddess of Birth.  Many of you may have noticed, that this Day started shortly after the election here in the US, and that the transition of power to President-Elect truly began in November, literally as dictated by this change in energy.

Ultimately, what does all of this mean for you and me, it’s one thing to know we’ve entered a new day, it’s another to understand it’s influences in our lives.  To start, the Mayan Calendar and the Ascension Process, are all guides of our return path to Oneness.  This process takes time, for it is a process of releasing the old and embracing the new.  Now, wouldn’t it be easier if everything just changed over night?  Not Exactly.  We are being given time to adapt and learn how to operate in the new and release our attachments to old beliefs, patterns, and identities that no longer serve us.  And that is what 2009, or Day 6, is all about, it is a time for people to blossom into fulfilling their Soul Purpose, or hearts desire, it is a time for healing and releasing all that has been getting in our way, and a shift away from the dominance of materialistic values and move towards a more spiritual, community orientation where we not only value people, but we value the environment.  The energy of this year is of transition, that means we will see a shifting from old ways of operating in this world, playing out in our personal lives, in politics and economies locally, nationally, and globally.

Due to the energies of the Galactic Underworld, we are starting to see the emergence of a more world culture or world view, than before.  This will offer us all an opportunity for further healing to accept this shift into Oneness or struggle with maintaining our old individual view.  The energy influencing this time, is supporting the Spiritual, Community oriented, larger picture world view.  We will notice companies that are more community oriented, that value their employees and the environment prospering, in essence being supported by the prevailing energies, and those companies that continue to be materialistically based, ‘focused on the bottom line,’ are going to struggle.

Thus, individually, there is a return to what some might call a ‘simpler life,’ a time when families and communities were important, a time when we respected the planet for all it provides for us and a time when we respected each other for the gifts they have to offer.  This does not mean that we have to give up our technology and high paying jobs, and return to horse and buggies, it means we learn to use technology more efficiently and for the benefit of all people and finding careers that are personally and spiritually fulfilling.

Now, this may seem like an Utopian Society, or the Heaven on Earth, as predicted by the Mayan Calendar and the Ascension Process.  Only, in reaching this new level of existence, we proceed through this time of healing and release.  Understand, this time is not always going to be easy, this will be a time of struggle, a time where we witness the struggles between old personality based ways of being and new more spiritually based ways of being, both within ourselves and others.

Ultimately, this is a time when we start to follow our hearts instead of our minds.

We move into this time of healing, time of transition, knowing our paths are fully supported, knowing that as we heal ourselves we help heal others, and make the pathway more visible for others to follow.

I share this with you now, knowing that we each have our own paths to follow, but ultimately we will reach the same destination.  Thanks for sharing in this journey, I look forward to sharing more of the Mayan Calendar with you in the future.

Steven Hartung is a Personal Transformation Coach who specializes in guiding people through their personal ascension process and the founder of Ancient Wisdom Healing.  www.ancientwisdomhealing.org