Let Not One Be Left

“Let not one be left behind.”
—Mayan shamans don Serillo and Gerardo Barrios

I first heard these words when I was staying at the hacienda of don Serillo, which was set in the beautiful countryside of Guatemala. He was then considered the head of the Mayan shamans of all the Americas: South, Central and North. On this, my second trip to study with the Maya, I would hear Gerardo say these words to a group of us in Tikal. We came from all over the world: Australia, Europe, the British Isles, as well as from different areas of the USA. The key message: humanity and planet Earth are ascending to a higher level of consciousness. The process, we were told, began on 11/11/1992 and would end on 12/21/2012. In this last month of the year 2012, the ascension will be complete and we will be entering an era of light. Now, on this second trip I just given a mythic image of this process: Earth was a dragon that had curled up and fallen asleep. Now the dragon was waking up and resuming its flight. What did the Maya mean by such terms as ascending and ascension?

With the plane now at its cruising altitude, I found myself recalling the work of Teilhard de Chardin, the French philosopher and Catholic priest. Over two decades ago, he had claimed that humanity was evolving toward love. I began to see where the divine destiny of humanity seemed to be heading.

As I now reflected on this, I noted that the first four letters of the word evolve is love spelled backwards. If we add another o after the l we get evol-o-ve. The letter o is like a circle which symbolizes wholeness. Therefore, when we think of evolving spiritually we are evolving toward love, toward where we can love forwards and backwards, that is, where the energy of love moves forward toward others and back toward us.

This higher, loving consciousness was translated into English as the consciousness of ascension. Joshua Stone, author of The Complete Ascension Manual, defines the consciousness of ascension as “total joy” and “total unconditional love.” It is the “feeling of being at one with God at all times.” And, since God is said to be love, being at one with God is being guided by love in what we think, feel, say, and do.

• Today, as you go through your day, try out the following affirmation. Breathe in, pause, and, as you exhale, relax, and silently say to God, “I AM never separated from the expansive energy and peaceful power of Your pure, everlasting love.” Then, breathe in, pause, and, as you exhale, relax and silently say, “For, in the core of my being, my innermost heart, I AM the expansive energy and peaceful power of Your pure, everlasting love.”