Millennium Mania

by Dr. Richard Jelusich

We, in our passions to fulfill the conclusion of this millennium, have placed much emphasis on its pivotal role in our lives. There has been speculation as to the exact date of the event, with discussions in disagreement over the exact year of Christ’s birth, to the true millennium ending in 2001, and to our own adoption of December 31 as the end of a year’s cycle.

In fact, only a third of the world’s population has embraced the time keeping we, in the western world, use for the millennium. For instance, to the Chinese, it will be the year 4698.

But don’t expect the passage of this millennium to go without celebrations. Dawn ceremonies planet-wide will be taking place with celebrations held by Druids, Hunas, Native Americans and many diverse cultures.

Some 500 miles east of ChristChurch, New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, lie 155 miles from the international dateline (drawn up at the International Conference in Washington, DC, in 1884) and there are television companies fighting for the rights to film the first rising sun, the millennium dawn, over the first landmass on Earth to receive it. The sun is to rise over the 231m summit of Mount Hapeka on Pitt Island, the most easterly inhabited island in the group, at 3:59am (15:59 GMT) on the morning of January 1, 2000.

The Concord jet is booked to fly along the international dateline at the time of the dawning of the new millennium. Individuals have even sought to find the exact North and South Pole geographic center of Earth’s axis of rotation, and are said to wish to be the first to lay down upon the Earth, rotating into the new millennium. Major cruise lines, tours, even the New Age movement, are involved in ushering the new millennium in the rush to meet this momentous event.

It is within our very nature to sense an urgency and obtain some certainty about the unfolding of our future. There are the compelling forces within the very nature of our earthly mortality that tend to focus our gaze upon what is coming, not what we have.

Is it any wonder that there are so many caught up in the hype, including the Y2K phenomenon, that constitutes the center stage of our thoughts and actions? Y2K bugs, millennium teddy bears, 01-2000 coffee mugs, all serve to celebrate something that, at its root, is very artificial.

Yes, in these times there are incredible movements of human thought and action in the world. The Aztec calendar ended August 13, 1999, and the Mayan calendar ends on December 31, 2012. We certainly have some cause, through the collected writings of the sages and oracles of the past, to embrace this epoch with some trepidation or anticipation of the future. Several religions, some apocalyptic in nature, are touting these as the "end times."

There is so much emphasis on what we do not know. It is in our being to focus on the unknown and unseen and often to supplicate our power to a future that does not exist. There are many forces plying upon us that cause us to think in terms of external solutions.

But the real solutions are from within, not without. The focus is not to be on the millennium, but what is happening right now. The power within us is most often misunderstood, and given to so many exterior forces and events that we say "is beyond our control." And worse, we tend to give our power away to the future events, seen and unseen, that we would allow to shape our lives. It is more important that you focus on your inner strength and ability to sense the right of things; that within you are all the answers to all the questions that could be framed.

You must, through these times, serve with a level head and a calm heart, and prove to be a steady, guiding influence upon the paths of others who are caught up in the millennium mania. It is only through the retention and cultivation of inner power that you can truly see through the illusion that the future holds for you. It is you that holds the future. Those who get caught up in the mania of the times will seek serene souls like youself, to help them balance what they do not yet know within themselves, but must yet bloom as the flower in its own time. You must represent poise, balance and eloquence in your heart, and not be taken off focus by a future that does not yet exist, or supplicate your power to a promise that is not borne in your own heart. ¤