“All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions, are converging now. There is no time for games…High magic is at work on both sides, the light and the dark.” – Carlos Barrios

At precisely 1:00 a.m. on December 5, 2022, America initiated an act of nuclear fusion. That act within the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California signaled a historic breakthrough for science. It may also have signaled, both metaphorically and experientially, the ongoing process of a breakthrough for human spiritual development.

In that dark December hour after midnight, in less time than it takes to blink an eye, the scientists in charge of the fusion experiment applied 2.05 megajoules of laser energy to hydrogen atoms, thereby fusing and transforming them into the element of helium (Atomic number 2, abbreviated He – from the Greek word for the Sun, Helios).

At that same instant, as part of the fusion process, the atoms released 3.15 megajoules of energy and heat—a net gain.

Fusion is the process of liquefying a material substance by applying heat. Fusion also denotes the merging of different elements into a union—the fusing of diverse, distinct, or separate parts into a unified whole

Scientists, policy makers, and corporations have high hopes that the scientific fusion breakthrough will open pathways for advances in “clean energy,” and thereby help ease the rate of climate change, while strengthening national defense.

The Time In-between
The headline news of the scientific breakthrough in fusion put me immediately in mind of an interview I conducted in Santa Fe, New Mexico some 20 years ago, the autumn of 2002. I spoke at length with Carlos Barrios of Guatemala. As he explained, he was born into a Spanish family, and over the course of his life he became a historian, an anthropologist, and ultimately a Mayan Ajq’ij (spiritual guide).

Barrios talked with me that day about fusion, and about spiritual developments in the Americas as he saw them. The story I published was soon widely plagiarized. Still, years later when writing chapter 8 of my nonfiction soul*sparks book, Tales of the Whirling Rainbow, it felt important to include segments of the interview.

Carlos Barrios died July 5, 2020. His words from 2002, however, carry resonance into the present moment, especially in context of the fusion breakthrough.

As we talked two decades ago, Barrios said that from the time of a 1987 date noted in the Mayan calendars, we’ve all been living in an era when the right arm of the materialistic world is disappearing, slowly but inexorably.

“We’re no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun,” he said, “but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. We are in a time in-between, a time of transition.”

As we pass through transition, Barrios observed, there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth changes.

Emergence
Meanwhile in the midst of this transition, Barrios asserted, the emerging era will steadily bringing attention to a much-overlooked element. Whereas the four classical elements of earth, air, fire and water have dominated various epochs in the past, there will be a fifth element to reckon with in the time of the Fifth Sun: ether.

The dictionary defines ether as a rarefied element, a medium that permeates all space and transmits waves of energy in a wide range of frequencies: from cell phones and Wi Fi signals to the subtle patterns and colors of human auras, and waves far finer than that. What is “ethereal” is related to the regions beyond earth: the heavens. Ether — the element of the Fifth Sun according to Barrios — is celestial, and lacking in material substance, but is no less real than wood, wind, flame, stone or flesh.

“Within the context of ether there can be a fusion of the polarities,” Barrios told me. “No more darkness or light in the people, but an uplifted fusion. But right now the realm of darkness is not interested in this. They are organized to block it. They seek to unbalance the Earth and its environment…”

We are at the cusp of a new era, he said, when peace begins, and people actually do live in harmony with Mother Earth

“…We live in a world of polarity: day and night, man and woman, positive and negative. Light and darkness need each other. They are a balance. Just now the dark side is very strong, and very clear about what they want. They have their vision and their priorities clearly held, and also their hierarchy. They are working in many ways so that we will be unable to connect with the whirling spiral Fifth World.”

“On the light side everyone thinks they are the most important, that their own understandings, or their group’s understandings, are the key. There’s a diversity of cultures and opinions, so there is competition, diffusion, and no single focus…

“The dark side works to block fusion through denial and materialism. It also works to destroy those who are working with the light to get the Earth to a higher level. They like the energy of the old, declining Fourth World, the materialism. They do not want it to change. They do not want fusion. They want to stay at this level, and are afraid of the next level.

“The dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed or overpowered,” Barrios said. “It’s too strong and clear for that, and that is the wrong strategy. The dark can only be transformed when confronted with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to fusion, a key concept for the emerging World.”

“We need to work together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and fusion now, to preserve life.”

As we concluded our conversation, Barrios offered a final observation on our era of transition: “The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It’s not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It’s encoded in the whirling spiral of your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.”

N.B. Astrologers will note that the scientific fusion breakthrough occurred in 2022, the year when the USA is experiencing the return of Pluto (nuclear power, etc.) to the exact degree of the zodiac (27+ Capricorn) where it was transiting at the nation’s birth, July 4, 1776.