2012: The Mayan Prophecy

"... Something wonderful is coming on, no matter how dark the present is."

Rabindranath Tagore

By JtvLion:

The End of the World. The Chaos. The Biblical Revelation. Lately, the Mayan prophecy, has reached such levels of popularity and urgency that some prestigious writers raised that humanity would experience, on the one hand, a positive physical or spiritual transformation, which marked the beginning of a new era. While, at the other hand, others have suggested that the 2012 date would mark the end of the whole things we know, -including the Earth and every living creature that inhabits her- by a product of a global cataclysm without precedent or something similar. The prophesy is mainly based on the completion of their calendar, whose 5,125-year cycle of life would just end on December 21, 2012, the day of the winter solstice.

Another view many more apocalyptic and frightening of the 2012 year has also spread in various media, by describing the end of the world or the extermination of human civilization on that date. This view has been promoted, in one way or another, from a run media (television, newspapers, film, internet) equally found followers and detractors whom suggest that massive solar storms, magnetic pole shifts, cataclysmic natural phenomena, earthquakes , volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tsunamis, climate change major product of global cooling and other drastic natural disasters "might" happen in 2012.

Is it true or not? It might ask, and it would not deny it, though, neither would give it all credits to a debate between those who support this theory and others whom contest it. You would have too much fabric where to cut. However, let us look at it, plain and simple, without many scientific details or religious mazes that are true or false in this all. Then, you can make your own conclusions.

According to the Popol Vuh, a book that brings together details of creation accounts known as the Quiche Maya, an ethnic group of the colonial era’s highlands, now living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh states the first gods created three failed worlds. The fourth world succeeded and prospered; the "zero date" long count approximated around August 11, 3114, BC and became the home of modern man. In the long count, every previous world ended after the thirteenth Baktun’s era (a period calculated to next 5125 years).

In 1957, American astronomer Maud W. Makemson wrote: "the full phase of a great period of 13 baktun could have been a paramount importance to the Mayas." Meanwhile, in 1966, the American writer Michael D. Coe said in his book The Maya: "on the final day of the thirteenth baktun, Armageddon could surprise people, this wicked world and all creation."

Coe's apocalyptic interpretation renewed other researches to early 1990. In opposition, later came to the assumption that the final date of baktun could, perhaps, be cause for celebration and not necessarily mark the end of the calendar. According to Mayan culture expert Mark Van Stone: "... There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec prophecy or ancient Mesoamericans to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or great for any type in 2012. The notion of an end to come is a thoroughly modern invention. “In 1990, scholars Linda Schele and David Freidel argued that the Maya "did not conceive ... this to be the end of creation, as many have suggested." Susan Milbrath, keeper of the Natural History Museum in Florida stated, "... the archaeological community has no record or knowledge that Mayas believed the world would end in 2012. For the ancient Maya, it was a grand celebration that marks the end of a great cycle, "said Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies. Submit to December 21, 2012 as a doomsday event or moment of cosmic shifting, "are a total fabrication and a great opportunity for many people to get money."

Science vs. Prophecy

In the mid 90’s, it stated that the ancient Maya people had the intention to enter their calendar to the winter solstice in 2012, which falls on December 21. This date lined up with an idea called "galactic alignment". According to this theory, the solar system planets and the Sun share roughly the same plane of orbit, known as the ecliptic plane. From our perspective on Earth, the ecliptic is the path by which the sun travels across the sky our year. The constellations that line the ecliptic known as the zodiac and, throughout the year, the Sun passes through each constellation in turn. Furthermore, over time the Sun's annual passage appears back in the opposite direction to clockwise by one degree every 72 years. This movement, called precession attributed to a slight wobble of Earth's axis as it spins. As a result, approximately every 2160 years, the constellation visible on the first morning of the spring equinox changes. In Western astrological traditions, this signals the end of one astrological age (Pisces) and the beginning of another (Aquarius). For 26,000 years, the precession made a complete circuit around the ecliptic.

Just as the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere is currently in the constellation of Pisces, so the winter solstice is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, which is the zodiacal constellation crusade for galactic Ecuador. Every year for the last 1,000 years, the winter solstice, from the surface of the Earth, the Sun and the galactic Ecuador appears to into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun's position a little more through the Milky Way.

John M. Jenkins suggests, "The Mayas based their calendar on observations of the Great Rift, a band of dark dust clouds in the Milky Way, which they call the Xibalba be or Black Road." According to the hypothesis, the Sun precisely aligns with their point of intersection on the winter solstice of 2012, whose combination would be the harbinger of a profound spiritual transition for humankind. Proponents of the New Era’s hypothesis of "galactic alignment" discussed this, just as astrology uses the positions of stars and planets to make claims of future events, the Mayans argue their calendars in order to prepare for significant world events.

What will be true about of these assumptions?

While astronomers argue that the galactic Ecuador is an entirely arbitrary line, and can never be precisely determined, (it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to determine exactly where to begin or end the Milky Way) some Mayan scholars have proposed some Mayan holy dates were controlled for precession cycles. Yet, despite the historical evidence, placing important events on the solstices or equinoxes, opinions about it have remained divided.

So, seeing so, we might bring the arrival of December 21, 2012 and we could expect to happen? Remembering the way the world at large was awaiting the arrival of the new millennium with good and bad news forecasts. A many ingredients’ salad. It is true, with the beginning of a new era, and staged large advances from the technological point of view. For example, there have been at supersonic speed, consequently resulting in radical changes in communications, which has led us to a world increasingly globalized, though paradoxically, less shared by analogy, when it should be the opposite but definitely a different world in many ways, whose features would be too long to enumerate. Similarly, it is also true that the world has also experienced and still experience natural phenomena and not so "natural" which have large submerged in misfortune and tribulation to many countries and their people. The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the global economic crisis and upheavals occurred in the Middle East and other parts of the world have greatly revolutionized the way probably we heads towards a new world order. Moreover, optimism encourages thinking if something happen on that date somehow could mitigate the wildness and quickness as we are living on these days. Perhaps, December 21, 2012, intended to be a relevant date, which will inevitably change the course of history. I am leaning to think, to emerge as a gradual transformation to makes us better human beings, lovers of our fellows and being mindful to the future would be much better if this contributes to the good sense and sanity of all those who populate Earth. If so, God bless Mayas to forecast earlier to us as the end of one cycle to beginning of a better one.