Since the Mayan Wheel crop circle that appeared in Wiltshire in August, 2004, it is apparent that the civilization of the Maya of Mesoamerica and in particular their calendar, has some relevance to the crop circle phenomenon. Furthermore the serpent has a great significance in Mayan art and culture, and ultimately this significance stems from womb imagery.(1) The serpent is a symbol of the umbilical cord. The connection with the mother that is irreversibly severed at birth, leaving a physical scar as well as undefined sense of loss throughout life. The Aztecs of Mexico were much influenced by the Maya, and they shared this realization of the supreme importance of the umbilical cord as the basis of the their beliefs and religious ceremonies. In fact, to this very day, the Indians bury the umbilical cord of their new born at the great Aztec temple of Teotihuacan in Mexico City.

Much of the religious ceremony of both the Maya and the Aztecs involved a lot of blood-letting. This involved ritual self-mutilation as well as the sacrifice of living creatures, including humans, in order to appease their gods. This concept however of 'appeasing their gods' is merely a euphemism that is universally adopted to explain their behaviour. The fact is that violent sacrifice as well as self-mutilation stems from sadomasochistic tendencies that is at the core of the human psyche, and which stems from the trauma of birth - the trauma of having the umbilical cord severed and being cut off from the mother and being cast out of the womb. These days, the dominant religion in the world, the Christian religion, would decry the religious practices of the Maya and the Aztec as being barbarous and brutal, but the fact remains that this concept of human sacrifice is at the core of the Christian religion as well. The only difference is that the human sacrifice has become symbolic, and blood-letting is not actually practised anymore. The symbol of the Christ suffering on the cross has obvious sadomasochistic overtones, and the sacred ritual of drinking the blood and eating the flesh of the Christ, although these days only practised symbolically through the eating of the bread and the drinking of wine, clearly suggests that sadomasochistic impulses are at work.

With this in mind we now turn to the 'coiled serpent' crop glyph that appeared in East Field, Alton Barnes in 1999. See Figure 1. It just so happens that it appeared on the very day marking the end of the Aztec calendar, and although it has been called the 'coiled serpent' there is a clear suggestion of plumage on the head of it, and it immediately brings to mind Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent. Freddy Silva in his book Secrets in the Fields has this to say about it: "The serpent represents the creative Universal energy, and for this reason the Aztec/Mayan/Toltec god Quetzalcoatl is depicted as such (Coatl represents energy moving in waves or spirals, a precursor to the electromagnetic wave of science); the coiled serpent is also known as kundalini, the life force that rises from the base of the spine, stimulating the chakra system as it spirals toward the crown chakra in the top of the head." (5) Freddy Silva also points out that the 'Coiled Serpent' was preceded in the same field by the 'key' pictogram 9 years before in 1990, and the 'DNA' pictogram 3 years before in 1996. He puts the three together and asks the question "Is someone trying to say something?" See Figure 2. 

Figure 4

"The electrical portion of your body is you, in your purest form as information, energy and light. This is your seed-core essence. This is you with no judgment, ego, fear or preconceived ideas regarding yourself, others or the world around you. The electrical aspect of you is what would historically be termed your soul. This aspect of you is not bound by dimensionality, planet or star. It is your soul that has traveled from a multitude of energetic systems to experience Earth in this cycle of consciousness. It is the soul essence that we eventually leave the Earth experience, at some chosen point in time, carrying the vibrational benefit of your Earth lives on toward a new experience."

It can be seen that Gregg Braden has no specific notion about the networked intelligence, and yet he has come very close to describing it in general terms. In addition the diagram that he presents in Figure 4 bears an uncanny resemblance to the 'Coiled Serpent' crop glyph. The 'Coiled Serpent' crop glyph is in fact a pictorial representation of Quetzalcoatl, The Plumed Serpent, and we can now see that Quetzalcoatl actually represents the networked intelligence. When we talk of the coming again of Quetzalcoatl, we are talking about the new age when all the peoples of the world know about the networked intelligence, and therefore know the truth about the nature of life on Earth. They will all be able to adjust their beliefs and opinions accordingly and live in harmony. 

Again quoting Braden: "There has always been another range of frequency, or band of information, that has always lived within the range of our fields. This body of information has appeared as a zone of higher frequency that has remained available, though possibly appearing less accessible, to each individual. It is into this new range of highly evolved information that both Earth and humankind are moving into exclusive resonance. It is to these frequencies that each cell within our bodies is attempting to 'map' itself. Our migration into complete resonance with this new body of information, Resurrection followed by Ascension, is the goal of The Shift."

The serpent is the sign that the new era is upon us. This is the Truth, the Knowledge, that has alluded us for so long, and has resulted in the perpetual re-play of 'man's inhumanity to man.' We were doomed to this scenario of perpetual conflict precisely because we were ignorant of our true motivations. All the time we have been fighting in the name of the 'good' we have actually been driven by our sadomasochistic will to power. Our whole notion of 'good' is in fact upside down and erroneous. It is only when we know about our sadomasochism and the networked intelligence that is at the very core of our psyche can we begin to appreciate that there is a whole new and completely different perspective as to the nature of life. This serpent is the symbol for both these aspects. This is the coming again of Quetzalcoatl. The Shift is to occur in 2012.

In an article, Quetzalcoatl, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ,(4) Diane E. Wirth of Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, Utah, presents all the indications that the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, is a composite of the god Kukulcan of the Yucatec Maya as well as the Maya Maize god. The name Quetzalcoatl means 'Feathered Serpent' as does the Mayan name Kukulcan. Wirth seeks to confirm Mormon beliefs that this god Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan is in fact Jesus Christ in his pre-mortal state, who participated with the Father in the creation of the world and who visited the Americas prior to being born at Nazareth in his mortal form. The Mormons claim many similarities between Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan and Jesus Christ in his mortal state. "Among those mentioned in post-Spanish conquest manuscripts were that Quetzalcoatl was the Creator, that he was born of a virgin, that he was a god of the air and earth (in his manifestation as the Feathered Serpent), that he was white and bearded, that he came from heaven and was associated with the planet Venus, that he raised the dead, and that he promised to return."(4) In short Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan is an earlier manifestation of Christ.

Wirth goes on to argue that Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan also incorporates the so-called Maya Maize God. Here we see an obvious connection between Mayan beliefs and the current crop circle phenomenon - the Maya Maize God is The Circlemaker. The Mayan Wheel crop circle that appeared in Wiltshire in August 2004, and the 'Coiled Serpent' crop glyph must now be seen as direct references to Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan. Legend has it that this god was sacrificed and promised to rise again, and so it would seem that the due date for the reappearance of Quetzalcoatl is the end of the Mayan calendar on 21 December 2012. These crop circles are the sign that this is to occur.

A brief overview of how Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan incorporates the Maya Maize God follows (4): 

<Without going into a detailed explanation, we simply note that the Maize God is intrinsically involved with the later creation mythologies of central Mexico and the Mixtec people of Oaxaca, where Quetzalcoatl stories abound. While the Popol Vuh does not mention Hun Hunahpu as being one and the same with the Maize God, a codex-style polychrome bowl from the Late Classic period clarifies his identity. In the scene portrayed on the bowl, Hun Nal Ye, the Maya Maize God, resurrects from a split tortoise shell representing the earth. His sons, the Hero Twins, are depicted at his left and right and are identified as Hun Hunahpu's sons: Hunahpu, written as Hun Ahau, and Xbalanque, written as Yax Balam.

To understand Hun Hunahpu's identification as the Maize God in Guatemala, we need to retell some of the story surrounding him. In the Popol Vuh, Hunahpu and Xbalanque defeat the evil lords of the Underworld who have killed their father, Hun Hunahpu. After avenging their father's death, the Twins are responsible for this subsequent rebirth. Hun Hunahpu is then resurrected from the earth, which is often portrayed as a turtle carapace. Therefore, this vessel, which visually demonstrates the same story told in the Popol Vuh hundreds of years later, clearly establishes Hun Nal Ye and Hun Hunahpu as the same person.

In the Popol Vuh we see readily the Twins' association with maize. Hunahpu and Xbalanque instruct their grandmother that if the corn planted in her house dies, they die; but if it lives, they will remain alive. According to the story, after they defeat the Lords of Death in the Underworld, the Hero Twins are reborn; that is, the maize remained alive in their grandmother's house. We conclude that both the father, Hun Hunahpu, and his sons, particularly his namesake Hunahpu, are related to maize and may be designated as maize gods. Importantly, David H. Kelley presents additional evidence from Popol Vuh that Hun Hunahpu and the Maize God are one and the same.

The importance of including the Maize God with his differing appellations in this study is significant. We will see that the Maize God functions as a sacrificial god who dies and resurrects and who also plays an important role in the creation and therefore is reminiscent of the roles of Christ as Saviour and Creator.

The Creation

The available Mesoamerican sources dealing with the creation follow in chronological order. Pre-Columbian Mayan hieroglyphic texts found in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, and Quirigua, Guatemala, disclose a role for the Maya Maize God in the creation. Polychrome vessels and plates also testify to the Maize God's participation at this pristine time. In addition, pictorial codices drawn before the conquest deal with Quetzalcoatl's role in the creation. Concerning other documents, most scholars agree that the Quiché Maya's Popol Vuh is the least corrupted text written after the conquest. It also repeats stories of the Maize God that coincide with Quetzalcoatl creation myths from Mexico. The Maya accounts corroborate the acts of creation in a somewhat different manner because they were recorded by another culture, but they still present a pan-Mesoamerican mythological paradigm. Finally, we possess legends in 16th-century manuscripts declaring Quetzalcoatl as the Creator.

On the whole, scholars view stories concerned with the god Quetzalcoatl and his involvement in creation as exhibiting the least amount of Christian influence. Referring to the colonial period manuscripts, Michael Graulich found that 'careful reconstruction and analysis of the myths dealing with the first phase of the creation of the world… all show variations on a single theme. Comparative analysis also suggests that the oftensuspected Christian influence is minor and points to the unity of Mesoamerican thought' on Quetzalcoatl as Creator.

At Palenque, inscriptions inform us that Hun Nal Ye, the Maize God, raised the sky in one phase of creation from the primordial sea. This happened when he positioned the World Tree (or Tree of Life) at the center axis of the cosmos. Speaking on this theme, Kent Reilly explained that Mayanists now believe the creation involved bloodletting by First Father, another name for Hun Nal Ye, which blood fertilized sacred space, causing maize to spring forth. The sprouting maize served as an axis mundi, or World Tree, lifting the sky off the earth and allowing light to enter creation.

One further connection exists between the Maize God and creation. The god Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl was born on the day of 9 Ik (9 Wind), and the Maya Maize God is associated with this day in 3409 BC, a point in mythological history. Some scholars associate these two deities as near equivalents not only because they were associated with the same day but because they participated in similar creation events. In the pre-Columbian Mixtec Vienna Code, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl is shown raising up the sky. A variation of this theme appears in a post-conquest text wherein Quetzalcoatl is described as metamorphosing into an enormous tree. Then he and another deity push up the sky with their tree forms.

An identifying feature of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl is a projecting, red avian snout. Through this beaklike device he blew wind, air, and the breath of life, which was his primary role. This strange-looking anthropomorphic deity can be traced from the time of the conquest back to the pre-Classical era. A terracotta pot sculpted with the face of Ehecatl was found at Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico, and dates to the first or second century BC. However, we do not know whether this particular image bears the same creative connotation that Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl possessed 1,700 years later. Because wind precedes rain, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl is associated with life-giving rains. In other words, the title of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl designated his as a god of life, even the Creator.

The Bread of Life 

Both Quetzalcoatl and the Maya Maize God are responsible for bringing maize to humankind, maize being the most important staple in Mesoamerica. According to legend, Quetzalcoatl transformed himself into an ant in order to retrieve seeds from the Mountain of Sustenance, where maize is kept. Ceramics portray the resurrected Maize God bringing maize to the surface of the earth from the Mountain of Sustenance. These kernels served as food and were believed to be the substance from which humans were created.

Sacrificed for Humankind

A story of how Quetzalcoatl saved humankind appears in the post-conquest Leyenda de los Soles (Legends of the Suns). This deity descended to the Underworld to shed his blood onto the bones of the deceased so that they would live again. The entire legend, with all its strange details, sounds pagan to the Christian world, but Latter-day Saints hear echoes of the saving work of Jesus Christ among the departed spirits. To summarize, Quetzalcoatl goes to the Underworld to retrieve human bones after a great flood destroyed his world and its people, people who were subsequently transformed into fish but were considered 'the ancestors.' An old goddess grinds the bones of these ancestors like maize and places the flourlike meal in a container. Quetzalcoatl performs a bloodletting ritual in which he drips the sacrificial blood onto the ground bones, giving them the potential for life. The present race of human beings is believed to be descended from those who were reborn from their deceased state. In an illustration in the Borgia Codex, Quetzalcoatl appears as the god of breath and air, Ehecatl, and sits back-to-back with the God of Death. It has been suggested by some Latter-day Saints scholars that this illustration represents the above story. The skeleton lives because it contains a living heart hanging from its rib cage.

As noted previously, the Maize God, or First Father, gave his blood and thereby caused maize to be reborn from seed. Maize is intrinsically involved with man because the Maya believed man to be made of maize. As with the above story of Quetzalcoatl, fish were also associated with maize. For example, in the Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins' bones were ground like maize, thrown into a river, turned into fish, and eventually resurrected.

The Tree and Resurrection 

A World Tree (Tree of Life) is also significant to this scenario. To the Maya, the World Tree is a motif of resurrection and life and has been for over 2,000 years. In Maya myth the Lords of Death hang the decapitated head of Hun Hunahpu on a nonbearing tree, after which it bears fruit. When his sons defeat those denizens of the Underworld, the Maize God Hun Hunahpu is resurrected.

In the human realm, Pakal, the great Maya king of Palenque, is buried in a magnificent sarcophagus deep within the Temple of Inscriptions. The carving on the lid of the sarcophagus depicts Pakal as the young Maize God, with the Tree of Life springing from his body in resurrection. This is Mesoamerica's most famous and remarkable story in stone, carved approximately 800 years before the Popol Vuh was set in cursive writing after the arrival of the Spanish. Much of this ideology had already existed for many centuries in Mesoamerica.>

This excerpt from Diane E. Wirth's article demonstrates that it is being seriously argued, even by Christians, that Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan, the god of the Aztec and the Maya, is going to resurrect. In the light of the Mayan Wheel crop circle, and the 'Coiled Serpent' crop glyph, it would also seem clear that Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan is The Circlemaker, and the signs appearing in the fields of England in recent times appear to be pointing to the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 as the appointed time for this Resurrection.

D.H. Lawrence in his novel The Plumed Serpent also saw clearly that the day was coming when Quetzalcoatl would rise again. "The name Quetzalcoatl, too fascinated her. She had read bits about the god. Quetzal is the name of a bird that lives high up in the mists of tropical mountains, and has very beautiful tail-feathers, precious to the Aztecs. Coatl is a serpent. Quetzalcoatl is the Plumed Serpent, so hideous in the fanged, feathered, writhing stone of the National Museum. But Quetzalcoatl was, she vaguely remembered, a sort of fair-faced bearded god; the wind, the breath of life, the eyes that see and are unseen, like the stars by day. The eyes that watch behind the wind, as the stars beyond the blue of day. And Quetzalcoatl must depart from Mexico to merge again into the deep bath of life. He was old. He had gone eastwards, perhaps into the sea, perhaps he had sailed into heaven, like a meteor returning, from the top of the volcano of Orizaba: gone back as a peacock streaming into the night, or as a bird of Paradise, its tail gleaming like the wake of a meteor. Quetzalcoatl! Who knows what he meant to the dead Aztecs, and to the older Indians, who knew him before the Aztecs raised their deity to heights of horror and vindictiveness?"

"All a confusion of contradictory gleams of meaning, Quetzalcoatl. But why not? Her Irish spirit was weary to death of definite meanings, and a God of one fixed purport. Gods should be iridescent, like the rainbow in the storm. Man creates a God in his own image, and the gods grow old along with the men that made them. But storms sway in heaven, and the god-stuff sways high and angry over our heads. Gods die with men who have conceived them. But the god-stuff roars eternally, like the sea, with too vast a sound to be heard. Like the sea in storm, that beats against the rocks of living, stiffened men, slowly to destroy them. Or like the sea of the glimmering, ethereal plasm of the world, that bathes the feet and the knees of men as earth-sap bathes the roots of trees. Ye must be born again. Even the gods must be born again. We must be born again."
"Who sleeps - shall wake! Who sleeps - shall wake! Who treads down the path of the snake shall arrive at the place; in the path of the dust shall arrive at the place and be dressed in the skin of the snake -----"
They sang for a time, in the peculiar unison like a flock of birds that fly in one consciousness. And when the drum shuddered for an end, they all let their voices fade out, with the same broad, clapping sound in the throat.
There was silence. The men turned, speaking to one another, laughing in a quiet way. But the daytime voices, and their daytime eyes had gone.
Then Ramón's voice was heard, and the men were suddenly silent, listening with bent heads. Ramón sat with his face lifted, looking far away, in the pride of prayer.
"There is no Before and After, there is only Now," he said, speaking in a proud, but inward voice.
"The great Snake coils and uncoils the plasm of his folds, and stars appear, and words fade out. It is no more than the changing and easing of the plasm.
"I always am, says his sleep.
"As a man in a deep sleep knows not, but is, so is the Snake of the coiled cosmos, wearing his plasm.
"As a man in a deep sleep has no to-morrow, no yesterday, nor to-day, but only is, so is the limpid, far-reaching Snake of the eternal Cosmos, Now and for ever Now.
"Now, and only Now, and for ever Now.
"But dreams arise and fade in the sleep of the Snake.
"And worlds arise as dreams, and are gone as dreams.
"And man is a dream in the sleep of the Snake.
"And only the sleep that is dreamless breathes I Am!
"In the dreamless Now, I Am.
"Dreams arise as they must arise, and man is a dream arisen.
"But the dreamless plasm of the Snake is the plasm of a man, of his body, his soul, and his spirit at one.
"And the perfect sleep of the Snake I Am is the plasm of a man, who is whole.
"When the plasm of the body, and the plasm of the soul, and the plasm of the spirit are at one, in the Snake I Am.
"I am Now.
"Was-not is a dream, and shall-be is a dream, like two separate heavy feet.
"But Now, I am.
"The trees put forth their leaves in their sleep, and flowering emerge out of dreams, in pure I Am!
"For dreams have wings and feet, and journeys to take, and efforts to make.
"But the glimmering Snake of the Now is wingless and footless, and undivided, and perfectly coiled.
"It is thus the cat lies down, in the coil of the Now, and the cow curves round her nose to her belly, lying down.
"In the feet of a dream the hare runs uphill. But when he pauses, the dream has passed, he has entered the timeless Now, and his eyes are the wide I Am.
"Only man dreams, and dreams, and dreams, and changes from dream to dream, like a man who tosses on his bed.
"With his eyes and his mouth he dreams, with his hands and his feet, with phallus and heart and belly, with body and spirit and soul, in a tempest of dreams.
"And rushes from dream to dream, in the hope of the perfect dream.
"But I, I say to you, there is no dream that is perfect, for every dream has an ache and an urge, an urge and an ache.
"And nothing is perfect, save the dream pass out into the sleep, I Am.
"When the dream of the eyes is darkened, and encompassed with Now.
"And the dream of the mouth resounds in the last I Am.
"And the dream of the hands is a sleep like a bird on the sea, that sleeps and is lifted and shifted, and knows not.
"And the dreams of the feet and the toes touch the core of the world, where the Serpent sleeps.

"The emotion of love, and the greater emotion of liberty for mankind seemed to go hard and congeal upon him, like the shell on a chrysalis. It was the old caterpillar stage of Christianity evolving into something else."

Another serpent crop glyph contains an even more significant message from The Circlemaker. This was the 'Broken Serpent' pictogram that appeared in a field near Froxfield, England in August 1991. See Figure 5. The first thing to notice is that it represents the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth. The catastrophic event that is recorded in our psyche forever as a result of our dreams prior and after birth. This is the sense of loss that motivates us, and drives us on to try to find compensation for the loss of the first object through sadomasochistic pursuits of infinite variety.