The 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.

In this exhilarating sequel to his acclaimed Ledge of Quetzal, Whitehouse takes us to the sacred ballgame at Chichen Itza (Kukulkan) that will determine the fate of human life on earth. In the tradition of Carlos Castaneda and Paolo Coelho, Jock Whitehouse’s Dawn on Kukulkan returns us to the magical landscape of Southern Mexico and the further spiritual adventures of Daniel Bancroft, the protagonist hero of The Ledge of Quetzal. After witnessing the Great Economic Meltdown of September 2008, and the shattering of a collective confidence in the future, Daniel once again finds himself flying to Mexico on a sacred journey – this time to the great playing field that lies at the entrance to Kukulkan, the Mayan temple at Chichen Itza, where a ballgame to determine the fate of life on earth is to be played out before sunrise on 12/21/2012. An intimate journey of personal transformation and spiritual awakening, this book is also a wake-up call in fable form: we can reverse the destructive course of humanity but only if we are courageous enough to dismantle the illusion of our differences and embrace our connection as one human family.

The myths of the Aztec and Maya derive from a shared Mesoamerican cultural tradition. This is very much a living tradition, and many of the motifs and gods mentioned in early sources are still evoked in the lore of contemporary Mexico and Guatemala. Professor Taube discusses the different sources for Aztec and Maya myths. The Aztec empire began less than 200 years before the Spanish conquest, and our knowledge of their mythology derives primarily from native colonial documents and manuscripts commissioned by the Spanish. The Maya mythology is far older, and our knowledge of it comes mainly from native manuscripts of the Classic period, over 600 years before the Spanish conquest. Drawing on these sources as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century excavations and research, including the interpretation of the codices and the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing, the author discusses, among other things, the Popol Vuh myths of the Maya, the flood myth of Northern Yucatan, and the Aztec creation myths.

A comprehensive, timely and entertaining account of the political, cultural and economic dynamics of more than 30 discrete countries of the Western Hemisphere, this book is updated each year, providing students with the most recent information possible. The information is presented in an objective, balanced, non-ideological context, allowing the readers to formulate their own opinions. In addition to examining individual countries, the book views Latin America as a mosaic region as a whole and emphasizes its growing influence on the world stage. Besides providing accurate and timely information on the historical and political forces that have shaped each nation, it also examines the leading cultural figures and forces, from 18th century writers to 20th century composers and singing stars to 21st century filmmakers and actors. Finally, it describes the social and economic challenges that continue to afflict this exciting and emerging region.

The Rough Guide to Central America on a Budget is the definitive guide to making the most of this exotic region without breaking the bank. Backpackers, career-breakers, gap year travellers and those who want more bang for their buck, will find in depth budget information for all seven Central American countries and every aspect of travel. From accommodation and restaurants to special events, festivals and adrenalin-pumping outdoor activities, this guide is packed with the best budget information for night-life, shopping, markets and entertainment, as well as "Treat Yourself" boxes that highlight great places and things worth splashing out on. There is a full-colour introduction with highlights for every country. You'll also find useful words and phrases in every language and detailed maps for hundreds of locations. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to Central America on a Budget.

Covert Plants contributes to newly emerging discourses on the implications of vegetal life for the arts and culture. This stretches to changes in our perception of 'nature' and to the adapting roles of botany, evolutionary ecology, and environmental aesthetics in the humanities. Its editors and contributors seek various expressions of vegetal life rather than the mere representation of such, and they proceed from the conviction that a rigorous approach to thinking with and through vegetal life must be interdisciplinary. At a time when urgent calls for restorative care and reparative action have been sounded for the environment, this essay volume presents a range of academic and creative perspectives, from evolutionary biology to literary theory, philosophy to poetry, which respond to the perplexing problems and paradoxes of vegetal thinking. Representations of vegetal life often include plant analogies and plant imagery. These representations have at times obscured the diversity of plant behavior and experience. Covert Plants probes the implications of vegetal life for thought and how new plant science is changing our perception of the vegetal - around us and in us. How can we think, speak, and write about plant life without falling into human-nature dyads, or without tumbling into reductive theoretical notions about the always complex relations between cognition and action, identity and value, subject and object? A full view of this shifting perspective requires a 'stereoscopic' lens through which to view plants, but also simultaneously to alter our human-centered viewpoint. Plants are no longer the passive object of contemplation, but are increasingly resembling 'subjects, ' 'stakeholders, ' or 'actors.' As such, the plant now makes unprecedented demands upon the nature of contemplation itself. Moreover, the aesthetic, political, and legal implications of new knowledge regarding plants' ability to communicate, sense, and learn require intensive, cross-disciplinary investigation. By doing this, we can intervene into current attitudes to climate change and sustainability, and hopefully revise, for the better, human philosophies, ethics, and aesthetics that touch upon plant life. TABLE OF CONTENTS// Baylee Brits and Prudence Gibson, "Introduction: Covert Plants" - Prudence Gibson and Michael Marder, "Art Expresses Its Own Appearance: A Conversation with Michael Marder" - Prudence Gibson, "The Colour Green" - Baylee Brits, "Brain Trees: Neuroscientific Metaphor and Botanical Thought" - Dalia Nassar, "Metaphoric Plants: Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants and the Metaphors of Reason" - Stephen Muecke, "Mixed up with Trees: The Gadgur and the Dreaming" - Monica Gagliano, "Eco-psychology and the Return to the Dream of Nature" - Suzanne Anker, "The Blue Rose" - Susie Pratt, "Trees as Landlords and Other Public Experiments: An Interview with Natalie Jeremijenko" - Tessa Laird, "Spores from Space: Becoming the Alien" - Jennifer Mae Hamilton, "Gardening After the Anthropocene: Creating Different Relations between Humans and Edible Plants in Sydney" - Lucas Ihlein, "Agricultural Inventiveness: Beyond Environmental Management?" - Andrew Belletty, "An Ear to the Ground" - Ben Woodard, "Continuous Green Abstraction: Embodied Knowledge, Intuition, and Metaphor" - Lisa Dowdall, "Figures" - Poems by Luke Fischer, Justin Clemens, Paul Dawson, and Tamryn Bennett.

"Twelve-year-old Jaime makes the treacherous journey from his home in Guatemala to his older brother in New Mexico after his cousin is murdered by a drug cartel"--

This book offers views of Aztec lives and their interactions in rituals, markets, courts, and on the battlefield.