When I started my independent research on the Mayan calendar late in 1993 not a single inscription from the ancient Maya was actually known which would describe what would happen at its so-called end date. All that was known were the various descriptions of the beginning date of the Long Count, notably in the inscriptions in Palenque, which said that the First Father then “erected the World Tree”. Irrespective of this dearth of information, I started to develop my theory about the nine levels of evolution, the nine underworlds, and the various days and nights that generated their wave movements. I simply assumed that the significant Mayan pyramids had been built in nine steps because they were symbolic of nine levels of creation, each effected by seven days, or seven creation gods. I then found that with such a model an enormous amount of historical facts started to make sense if they were seen as results of cosmic energy shifts. This however could be seen to be true only if the nine levels all ended at the same time, similarly to how some of the Mayan pyramids had a straight back. It thus seemed obvious that the understanding of such energy shifts must have been the basis of the prophetic tradition of the Maya. This was of course not how traditional Mayanism saw it, which essentially treated the calendar and the various deities associated with it as superstitions. Yet, I came from a different scientific tradition, and was primarily interested in if the Mayan time cycles and deities were true reflections of reality. In the beginning of my scientific carreer in the seventies I had thus been mentored by a member of the Nobel committes in Stockholm and had then at least indirectly seen how science operates from what arguably is its highest level. This meant among other things zero tolerance for making up theories from “beliefs” without empirical facts to back them up and constant emphasis on experimental reality checks. At least professionally this has remained my mind set ever since and the fact that some people believe that Jesus was born on December 25 or that the Mayan calendar ends on December 21 does not constitute proof for me that this is actually the case.

The idea that there were as many as nine Underworlds was for a long time criticized by some who said that there was only one cycle of a longer duration in the Mayan calendar system, namely the 5,125 year Long Count. Yet, already then there were some indications that the Maya had recognized nine steps of evolution. It was for instance known that the Long Count was sometimes referred to as ruled by the Six-Sky-Lord, indicating that it was the sixth level, and that there were names for time periods beginning with that of the first of the nine levels, the hablatun. Based on these indications of nine levels I proposed my theory since it could be empirically substantiated from human history even though some thought that it was not orthodox enough. Somewhat later, in 1996, Mayanists however started to decipher Monument 6 in Tortuguero, only some 50 kilometers west of Palenque, which would further strengthen my model of nine levels of evolution. For the first time an inscription was found that seemed to refer to what would happen at the end date at least from the perspective of a Mayan king around AD 670.

The text segment describing the descent of the Bolon Yookte from the Tortuguero monument 6. Drawing by Sven Gronemeyer.

More broadly this inscription only gained attention in 2006 and its final text according to David Stuart, who is an expert on Mayan glyphs, reads essentially like this: Tzuhtz-(a)j-oom u(y)-uxlajuun pik (ta) Chan Ajaw ux(-te’) Uniiw. Uht-oom ? Y-em(al)?? Bolon Yookte’ K’uh ta?

or translated to English: “The Thirteenth ‘Bak’tun” will be finished (on) Four Ajaw, the Third of Uniiw (K’ank’in). ? will occur. (It will be) the descent(??) of the Nine Support? God(s) to the ?. "

As is common with such ancient inscriptions they may be difficult to read partly because the glyphs are effaced (which is the case here) and partly because the meanings of the glyphs are not unambiguous. The critical part from our perspective is the deities (or deity) called Bolon Yookte, who at the end date would “descend.” To understand how to interpret this I think it is important to know two things about ancient Mayan deities. The first is that they were not as personalized as for instance Roman or Nordic deities, who were perceived to act more or less as individuals. A Mayan (or Aztec) deity instead typically symbolized a cosmic force associated with a time period and the mythologies of these peoples really describe fairly high level impersonal cosmic relationships. Hence, we know how the ancient day-signs were carried by daybearers, deities that were associated with particular days. Time periods, gods and day-signs were thus more or less interchangeable and it depended on the context how they would be expressed. The second thing to know is that these deities could easily split into several different deities and vice versa depending on whether the context called for the whole or its parts to be expressed. This is almost certainly the case with Bolon Yookte, which can be seen as a whole deity with nine parts or as nine parts constituting a whole. Bolon Yookte is at the same time a whole and its nine parts because Mayan cosmology is essentially holistic and looks upon everything in creation as connected.

John Major Jenkins in 2006 wrote an important and interesting article about the Bolon Yookte: Comments on the 2012 text on Tortuguero Monument 6 and Bolon Yookte Ku, http://edj.net/mc2012/bolon-yokte.html, where he summarizes epigraphic information about this deity called Bolon Yookte, which according to the abovementioned inscription will descend at the Mayan end date. Among other things he cites an article by Gillespie and Joyce that states that Bolon Yookte was called “the God of the Nine Steps” and also that this was a deity that was present already at the beginning of creation as can be seen from the famous Vase of the Seven Lords. He also cites Eberl and Prager, who said that the Bolon Yookte was associated with the underworld, wars and conflict. Really what this is telling us is that the structure of Nine Steps of evolution, Nine Underworlds, has existed from the very beginning of creation, what we in modern terminology would call the Big Bang. The Tortuguero Monument 6, and Jenkins study of their meaning, thus provides a perfect verification of the theory I proposed fifteen years ago. The Bolon Yookte are the Nine levels of evolution carried out by the nine underworlds. These nine Underworlds are then obviously also associated with the Seven Lords of Creation (the seven DAYS) as can be seen from the famous Mayan vase. Moreover, as we know from history, all of these Underworlds are associated with conflicts and wars, since shifts in cosmic energies generate shifting balances of power and as a result, warfare. To me, the relationships between these Mayan deities provide a model of evolution that has been verified by massive empirical evidence. Because of this connection to reality this is crucial information for humanity at the present time and not mere mythical relationships.

What this inscription means is that on the end date there is not just one cosmic power that will manifest, but Nine and that these were symbolized by a Nine-Step pyramid that was Bolon Yookte – The God of Nine Steps. It is also clear from Jenkins’ article that Bolon Yookte was associated with the World Tree, which especially my forthcoming book The Purposeful Universe will demonstrate as the source of all creation – not as a myth, but as a reality. In light of the Tortuguero monument I feel the model of Nine Underworlds and Thirteen Heavens can only be denied by someone, who completely ignores not only the actual Mayan inscriptions, but also the massive empirical evidence of how the Mayan calendar system is connected to reality. If instead this body of evidence is recognized it is however easy to see how in their mythology the Maya would interchange deities, time periods and cosmic energies in a way that can now help us make sense of evolution and how it has played out in biological and historical reality.