Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness by Frank Waters (review)

Reviews Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness, by Frank Waters. (Chicago: The Swallow Press Inc., 1975. 326 pp. $10.00) Mexico Mystique may, at first glance, seem an unlikely capstone for Frank Waters’ extensive and often distinguished work, which includes fic­ tion, ethnology, history, and biography of the American Southwest, particu­ larly of its Indian inhabitants. Though unorthodox in its methods, in fact almost cranky in its dismissal of traditional scholarship and embracing of esoteric lore, this latest book has an air of inevitability about it. For nearly forty years, Waters has been developing a conceptual scheme capable of describing Native American consciousness and relating it to its EuroAmerican counterpart and to the overall pattern of mankind’s psychological evolution. In the novel The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942) and in the study of Pueblo and Navaho ceremonialism Masked Gods (1950), Waters has given us a superb dramatization and a solid ethnological treatment, respectively, of such dualities as mystical-technological, intuitive-rational, unconscious-conscious, eternal-transient, which appear to differentiate the inner worlds of Indians and whites. His continuing quest for a grand philosophic principle capable of synthesizing the psychic gap between vastly disparate cultures has tempted him, in his latest project which is to render back an intelligible picture of ancient Mexican culture, to depart from the landscape of anthropology and mythology for the no-man’s land of esoteric theology. Waters’ basic contention is that the flood of archaeological, anthro­ pological, and linguistic reports, documented histories, and popular interpre­ tations of Nahuatl and Mayan civilizations is riddled with contradictions and reveals little of their great spiritual and intellectual accomplishment. The present work is intended to redress what Waters regards as overly specialized and materialistic scholarship, which have obscured the essential mystique of old Mexico. However, Waters’ choice of an organizational scheme immediately portends another sort of difficulty. Part One, “The History,” attempts to integrate the most significant of the vast pragmatic 242 Western American Literature evidence gathered by academically certified authorities. Part Two, “The Myths,” is a frankly subjective interpretation of the artifacts, myths, images, and symbols of ancient Mesoamerica. Here the authorities cited range from Jung, Velikovsky, the psychic Edgar Gayce to astrologers of various-persua­ sions. To their speculations, Waters adds his own original interpretation of the Mayan Great Cycle. Both parts are united by a central concept, if not by a common mode of interpreting historical data. The hermetic Nahuan myth of Quetzalcoatl, concerned with the meaning of space, and the Mayan concept of time are taken as opposing poles of native consciousness, which, according to myth and esoteric lore, began the fifth world of consciousness now coming to a close. Waters adduces from both factual and mythological evidence that the great theme running through the myths, symbols, and religious philosophy of Pre-Columbian America was the conflict between these bipolar opposites and the necessity for superseding it, the latter the precondition for emergence into the sixth world of consciousness due about 2011 a .d ., according to Mayan calculations. In present Mexican culture, the author asserts, but unfortunately does not demonstrate, the mestizo race is now observably reconciling the two poles of his nature, represented by his European and native heritage. A philosophic mestizo, the author ironic­ ally finds himself forced to harmonize two polar forms of knowledge. The basic problem he faces in integrating objective evidence and subjective speculation is that the rule of independent verification does not apply to the latter. We are not told by what criteria Waters chose to accept certain astrological or nonorthodox scientific views. Yet it must be conceded that his extraordinary and intimate knowledge of Indian ceremonialism and mythology often justifies the conclusions he draws subjectively, for the book is scarcely ill-informed or sensationalistic like Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods, which tempts an entirely inappropriate comparison. That Waters penetrates to the core of these cultures of antiquity is undeniable, but his success appears more a testimony to the soundness of his intuition and the closeness of his acquaintance with Southwestern Indians than to the reliability of his sources or his skill in resolving the methodological impasse he has invoked. Thus Mexico Mystique...