55 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Visionary of the New Time, January 15, 2003
This review is from: Time and the Technosphere: The Law of Time in Human Affairs (Paperback)
The Mayan calendar has become increasingly popular outside of Mesoamerica over the past twenty years. One of the driving forces behind the movement is Dr. José Argüelles and his many books including The Mayan Factor, Dreamspell, and Earth Ascending.
Jose and his wife, Lloydine, regularly travel the world, spreading their vision of a new approach to how we consider and exist alongside Time. They believe that as a society, we can solve our collective problems by changing to a new calendar based on the natural time of the cosmos. Argüelles works full time on behalf of the World Thirteen Moon Calendar Change Peace Movement and is president of the Foundation for the Law of Time.
In the long awaited sequel to the authors bestselling book The Mayan Factor, Argüelles explains the Great Calendar Change of 2004 and its enormous potential for the future of humanity. Time and the Technosphere presents a unique study that distinguishes the concept of Natural Time from the artificial mechanistic time known as the Technosphere, under which we currently live.
The premise for the study is simple: the time structure that governs human civilisation is not the same as the time structure governing the rest of the biosphere. The term biosphere refers to what is commonly and inadequately called the environment. As such the biosphere is a whole system, composite of the sum of life and its organic and inorganic support systems spread out over the surface of the Earth, hence bio = life and sphere = having the form of a globe. (Arguelles, p. 2)
This form of Artificial Time establishes a frequency that governs humanity apart from the rest of life. Argüelles defines the actual nature of time as the frequency of synchronisation of all things, and by applying this concept or Law of Time to the entire system of life on Earth, he illustrates a way humanity can assist Earths ability to sustain life.
Until the creation of the Gregorian calendar and the 60-minute hour, most of humanity lived by the 28-day cycle of natural time. The adoption of artificial time has subjected us to a 12:60 time frequency that governs the entire global industrialised civilisation, which Arguelles defines as the Technosphere.
Our perception of time is intrinsically linked to our perception of everything around us. Time is also very central to our experience of mind, and the primary effect on our perception of time is the calendar. Theoretically, the Gregorian calendar is imposed over natural cycles, which minimises our ability to see natural cycles. It is designed for material functionality, following the seasons and the working week, but it implicitly keeps us from seeing the full cyclical nature of time.
By using a calendar based on materialism, we are locked into a material way of seeing time and hence a material level of consciousness. We cannot escape this pattern until we switch to a calendar thats designed to promote sustainability and a revised and natural experience of mind. By changing our definition of time and adopting a natural harmonic calendar based on the 13-moon 28-day cycle, humanitys existence operates in tandem with the Universe rather than in opposition.
To be realised and then applied, the science of time is dependent on two factors: a sudden and radical disruption of the historical continuum, and a genuine globalisation or planetisation of consciousness. According to Argüelles, the break in historical continuum is necessary to jolt the human consciousness from its stagnant and entropic state, while the globalised consciousness is necessary for the application of this law at a planetary whole systems level.
Argüelles suggests that the radical jolt to the human consciousness occurred on September 11 with the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. As the signal of the end of artificial time, this act created doubt in the mind of modern humanity in regard to the artificial technosphere. It provided an opportunity to consider the nature of life and consciousness in a different perspective. This was an opening of humanitys mental envelope or noosphere. The remainder of Argüelles work elaborates on this matter, and the possible, and somewhat inevitable, circumstances it will initiate.
Humanity now has an opportunity to leave the errors of the past and enter a time of peace by adopting a harmonious natural calendar that will repair the damages caused by the irregular tempo of technospheric time.
Through careful research, Argüelles claims to have discovered that the best (and last) chance to adopt this natural time structure is the Great Calendar Change of 2004. This theory is based on the authors mathematical research into the Mayan calendar first begun in his work The Mayan Factor.
In Time and the Technosphere, Argüelles reveals the clear distinction between third-dimensional astronomical time and the fourth-dimensional synchronic order of the Law of Time, which he believes, holds enormous potential for the future of humanity.
Argüelles is interesting reading for those who are prepared to think outside the square of established pattern. Argüelles research may not find converts everywhere, but it certainly presents extremely relevant and thought provoking concepts. Time and Technosphere is a good start for those who want to understand the paradigm shift that may be already underway.
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33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Art of Timing, October 17, 2002
This review is from: Time and the Technosphere: The Law of Time in Human Affairs (Paperback)
If you've always loved calendars as works of art in themselves, Time and the Technosphere by Jose Arguelles will upgrade your view of them as such. If you've always viewed calendars and timing as merely formalities Arguelles' book succeeds most admirably in upgrading your view of what's really going on when you locate yourself within a time grid. He's most convincing when
showing that we are how we time ourselves. The sins of the Gregorian Calendar are well known and Arguelles suggests a new timing device that's so sensible its like comparing inches to meters. Dividing a year into 13 months of 28 days with one day off to grow on, seems reasonable. Where to begin the New Year will probably always be controversial. The point of the Spring Equinox seems the most logical but Arguelles proposes an ancient point, July 26 when the Sun is conjunct the constellation Sirius,
giving this calendar a distinctly New World/Mayan/Native American flavor that's appealing. The Old World has held the clock over us too long. The other connections to the Mayans base 20 counting system are harder to fathom but most intriguing. What's most disappointing is that this calendar is solar based and does not literally link up with the ebb and flow of the real lunar calendar. You need We'Moon (at another location at Amazon) for that. So you're still stuck with at least two different calendar systems. If you love calendars like me, maybe that's no problem. Arguelles book is a door opening to a new way of thinking about our world, sometimes difficult and challenging...
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The most convoluted book I have ever read., March 2, 2007
This review is from: Time and the Technosphere: The Law of Time in Human Affairs (Paperback)
While I find the idea of "technosphere vs. noosphere" intriguing, and I support the idea of returning to a lunar-based calendar, this found this book maddening! I won't discount that Arguelles might have received a download from some higher consciousness, but I think that higher consciousness should have chosen a better translator.
Here's a typical passage:
"The thirteen-unit form constant of fourth-dimensional time is the wavespell. It is important to see the thirteen moon calendar I this modular format, Planetary Service Wavespell, for then it makes more sense to speak of the calendar as a synchronometer. The wavespell's form describes the motion of time as a fractal fourth-dimensional cosmology. The numbers 1-13 in the dot bar notation that code the thirteen positions are known as tones. . . . The two gates and the two towers, tones 1, 5, 9 and14, articulate the structure of the wavespell. Between the places of articulation are three sets of chambers. The first set, tones 2-3-4, helps establish the wavespell; the second set, tones 6-7-8, helps extend the wavespell . . . . "
You get the idea. I should have listened to the other reviews of this book.
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