The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
From ‘Time Means Money’
to ‘Time Means Art’:
A Mayan Perspective on Time By Matthew Fox 3/18/2026 |
In yesterday’s DM, we invoked Mayan scientist José Argüelles, who points us to the power of creativity, art and synchronicity that follows on surrendering the Western Gregorian Time Calendar. |
The Mayan sense of Time includes the cycles of the different life forms, the rotation of the seasons, the oceanic times, and the waxing and waning of the moon, the sun with its binary sunspot cycles, the various planets in their orbits, the stars, constellations, and galaxies all form one universal synchronization of innumerable celestial bodies bound together |
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by a common order in time, the synchronic order. The Mayan Law of Time maintains everything in synchronous relation to everything….This moment-to moment synchronicity is like a focalized telepathic thought beam radiating instantly in every direction faster than the speed of
light. Thought “is of the same instantaneous nature as time—faster than the speed of light.”* As a spiritual theologian, I find José Argüelles’ thinking on a new (and more ancient) understanding of time significant. First, it reminds us that pre-modern mystics like Hildegard, Francis, Aquinas, Eckhart, Mechtild of
Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich and Nicolas of Cusa all lived before mechanistic time dominated. |
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| Their view of time was not rigidly mechanistic as Pope Gregory rendered it in 1582. “Two devices establish the artificial time: the Gregorian
calendar and the mechanical clock.” Both were “firmly in place as the bedrock of the European worldview” by 1618. This perception of time keeps the noosphere in the unconscious, subjected to a value system that emphasizes |
monetary power (time is money), individual self-interest, competitive struggle, war, nationalism, and the pursuit of novelty and capricious whims (video games, better iPhones, etc). And one might add, billionaires who provide such gadgets and then buy politicians with their earnings. |
Secondly, by naming synchronization as central to the time of noosphere, Argüelles is emphasizing the important role of mysticism. Our deep, unitive and mystical experiences occur in a synchronistic sense of time. If it’s true that we are all mystics, then with synchronism arriving more fully, a mystical or unitive view of the universe is at hand on a large scale. Thirdly, as Argüelles makes explicit, to move beyond mechanistic time is to challenge capitalism. For in modern, capitalistic times we are taught very early that “time means money.” But for Argüelles, the new shift is this: “Time means art.” Implications are profound for education, religion, politics, economics, art, community building and an increase of joy and happiness. And for the art of arts—ritual. “Without ritual there is no community” teaches indigenous African ritualist, Malidoma Somé. Argüelles is pointing to an explosion
of ritual or ceremony in the coming era of the Noosphere. The Cosmic Mass is primed and ready to go for that moment. Let us make more art and less money. |
Years ago, when I was teaching in Australia, an aboriginal woman said to me: “In our culture, we work four hours a day and the rest of the day we make things.” “What things do you make?” I asked. “Ritual,” she said. “We decorate our bodies to be as beautiful as the snakes and |
“Traditional Didgeridoo Rhythms by Lewis Burns, Aboriginal Australian Artist.” Didge Project |
birds we live with. We practice music, instruct the children and prepare the feast that follows.” Is this not the new work for the future? In ritual we celebrate our common joy and gratitude; our silence and common grief; our creativity, communion and eating together; our bringing in the
ancestors to assist us in becoming spiritual warriors ready for the hard work of justice and transformation. bell hooks wrote that the next revolution will be a revolution in aesthetics. Moving from “time means money” to “time means art” seems to be integral to that non-violent
revolution. |
Queries for Contemplation What does moving from “Time means money” to “Time means art” mean to you? And what
would it mean to our culture and our survival as a species? And to other species as well? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
Matthew Fox offers a keynote at the Unity Earth Symposium V on The Future of
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Matthew Fox joins David Abram, Lynn Twist, and Randy Woodley as Cameron Trimble of Convergence CoLab hosts “Vision for the Common Good,” a four-session Conversation Series. Tuesdays, March 17, 24, 31, and April 7, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT. Register HERE. |
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