In the autumn of 1972, Tony Shearer was invited by Jose to give a speech at Evergreen College. At that time, Tony was a guest lecturer at a school outside Tacoma. With great enthusiasm and meticulousness, he explained to Jose and his students the prophecy of Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican feathered serpent god. Everyone was captivated by Tony's stories of ancient magic and the mysterious Mayan calendar. Tony said that the dates in the prophecy, August 16th and 17th, 1987, were revealed to him by a mysterious witch in Oaxaca, Mexico. This system of recording years in units of 52 is recorded in his book "The Lord of Dawn" published in 1971. During several visits, Tony explained in detail to Jose the mysterious Tzolkin calendar (a part of the Mayan calendar) with its 260-day cycle. Jose remembered reading in Morley's "The Ancient Maya" that the Mayans based their timekeeping on cycles of 260 days.
The Tzolkin calendar, also known as the sacred calendar, consists of 260 days each year. It is formed by a continuous combination of 20 divine images and numbers from 1 to 13, resulting in 260 unique icon combinations representing 260 days. The solar calendar is based on astronomical calculations, dividing a year into 18 months, each month having 20 days, plus 5 taboo days, making up a total of 365 days per year. Through long-term observation and careful calculation, the Mayans adjusted the length of a year to 365.242129 days, which differs by less than one-thousandth from today's scientifically measured absolute year length of 365.242198 days! Amazingly, when the Tzolkin calendar completes 73 cycles, it coincides perfectly with the 52 cycles of the solar calendar, forming a grand cycle of 52 years. This made the Mayans firmly believe that history would repeat itself, and that day became the most grand festival for the Mayans.
It was the first time Tony mentioned to Jose about the tomb of Pakal Votan discovered in the Mayan city of Palenque in 1952. Hearing this topic, Jose seemed suddenly reminded of something forgotten for a long time. Tony told him that the great mentor Votan lived in the "black house under the tower of wind." Tony believed that Votan could be compared to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. He thought that the 22 gold plates mentioned in Smith's prophecy were actually entrusted by Pakal Votan to his son Chenabulum, whom Mormons called the angel Moroni.
According to Tony, Pakal Votan was the holy spirit controlling the angel Moroni, who guided Joseph Smith to discover these 22 gold plates. Tony believed that the number 22 was derived from adding 9 and 13, and that Pakal Votan was fully aware of the origin of Quetzalcoatl's prophecy regarding the 13 levels of heaven and the 9 levels of hell. Votan's knowledge came from a ruler and architect of Teotihuacan in the 2nd century BC. (Teotihuacan, an ancient city built at the end of the 1st century AD, is located 40 kilometers from present-day Mexico City and is an important site of indigenous civilization.) After listening to Tony's words, Jose felt enlightened and deeply inspired. Jose began to seriously study the Tzolkin calendar, exploring all its magical numerical forms.
The estrangement between Jose and Miriam gradually disappeared, and in May 1972, they conceived their second child after attending a mandala seminar in Honolulu, Hawaii. After learning meditation techniques, Jose often meditated whenever he had time, especially in the early morning when others were still asleep. Meditation gave him inner comfort and freedom of thought, and solitary contemplation made him feel extremely comfortable. He recognized many habitual patterns, especially his tendency to create intricate and complex thinking patterns about the essence of history. What pleased him equally was his persistent work in digesting, understanding, and absorbing these thoughts, entering a state of pure spiritual self-awareness. Through initial meditation experiences, he found that his mind was very active and involuntarily associated with many things.
At the end of 1972, Thomas Banyacya, a Hopi Indian, accepted Jose's invitation and came to Evergreen College to speak about the Hopi prophecies to his students. Banyacya arrived with several attendants, carrying a large white banner inscribed with Hopi prophecies in hieroglyphs, just like those written on the prophecy stone on the Hopi mesas. These hieroglyphs indicated two paths open to humanity: a straight and sacred path (the red road) and a winding path (the high road). Banyacya said that the human race had come to a crossroads and had already chosen the winding high road, also known as the painful road. On the broken high road, the hieroglyphs showed a gourd-shaped gray trace, representing World War III or the final calamity. He explained that the gourd-shaped gray trace had been shaken twice by the atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The prophecy stated that the gourd's gray trace would be shaken a third and final time, causing the ultimate collapse of the high road. This coincided with the prophecy of the Blue Star Kachina (a deity worshipped by the Hopi Indians) predicting that the disaster would occur in 2012. While Banyacya was telling this prophecy, a sudden snowstorm occurred, and all the lights went out. "The earth will soon change; only spiritually strong nations can survive!" Banyacya warned everyone.
Banyacya said that after the final calamity, only the straight red road depicted at the bottom of the hieroglyphs would remain. And the Hopi people, holding their planting sticks, continued to sow corn in the fields for the next season. Afterwards, Jose always carried a small booklet given to him by Dan Katswalewa, an elder of the Hopi tribe, which told the story from the creation of life to the arrival of the day of cleansing. Katswalewa had revealed the Hopi prophecy as early as 1949 and expressed his views, which were recorded in this little book that Jose regarded as divine guidance. In 1995, Jose would meet Banyacya again and tell him about Pakal Votan's prophecy.