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| Guillermo Pruneda, Catherwood Travels. Copyright |
By Mark Van Stone
What is this all about?
We’re hearing a lot about what the ancient Maya prophesied for us, far in their future…
…our year 2012.
The din is rising.
What did they actually tell us?
The short answer from the Maya is, It’s not the end of the world!
Indeed, current debate about 21 December 2012 results from contemporary confusion from projections, assumptions, and misunderstanding about the science and beliefs of several ancient cultures of the Americas.
The Maya were one of many cultures of the Americas who employed a solar calendar of 365 days. However, while the Maya esteemed cycles of about 20 years, 400 years and 5125 years, other cultures focused on shorter cycles. For example, the Aztecs considered the most important long cycles to be 52 years and 676 years.
Although the Aztec adopted many aspects of the Maya calendar, the milestone of 21
December 2012 is significant only in terms of the long cycles of Maya time.1
The Maya Long Count notation for 21 December 2012 is 13.0.0.0.0, which completes a cycle of 13 Pik (also known as 13 Bak’tun), which equals 5125.366 years (3114 BCE/BC – 2012 CE/AD).
More later about the Maya. Let’s first examine current prophecies for 21 December 2012.
Some of the events proposed to come together on the winter solstice, 21 December 2012:
• On that morning, the Earth and Sun will align with the “Dark Rift” near the Galactic Center. This event last happened about 25,800 years ago.
• The magnetic poles of the Earth may reverse, leaving us unprotected from cosmic radiation for a time. The effect of magnetic fields on human creativity, initiative, mood, etc., is still unknown.
• There will be a Venus Transit, an eclipse-type alignment when Venus crosses between
Earth and the Sun. We witness a pair of these about once a century: the last few were 1518 &
1526; 1631 & 1639; 1761 & 1769; 1874 & 1882; 2004 & then on 6 June 2012.
• NASA predicts an unusually powerful “Solar Maximum” (sunspot season) for 2012
(though it may peak as early as late 2011). This happens every 11 years, and disrupts satellite and other electromagnetic communications.
• The usual disasters loom: food shortages, cataclysmic storms due to global warming,
gasoline prices going through the roof, looming chaos in the Middle East —site of Biblical
Armageddon and Eden— which will disrupt oil production and bring civilization to a grinding halt (some like to call it Mess-o’-potamia).
• According to ancient records, the Maya Long Count Calendar will reach 13.0.0.0.0. Due to the cyclic nature of Maya calendars, this date replicates the date at the beginning of this Creation in August 3114 BC/BCE (which the Maya also wrote as 13.0.0.0.0). The interval is 5125 years & 133 days, or 5125.366 years.
• There have been five Creations according to Aztec records. Five times 5125.366 years is 25,626.8 years. Coincidence?
• The return of Quetzalcoatl (one of the great gods of ancient Mesoamerica), according to Aztec and Maya prophecies.
• The “13” in the Maya date 13.0.0.0.0 indicates “13 Bak’tuns.” A Maya Bak’tun or Pik is
144,000 days, the same number as the number of devotees taken up in the Rapture, according to the Book of Revelation. Coincidence?
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| Guillermo Pruneda, Catherwood Travels. Copyright |
What is supposed to happen in 2012?
Four typical predictions
1. “An imminent polar reversal that will wipe our hard drives clean.”
Daniel Pinchbeck
2. “The rare celestial alignment of our solar system, our sun, and our planet with the center of our galaxy—an event that will not happen again for another 26,000 years.”
Gregg Braden
3. The “dawning of a Wisdom Age … standing on the shoulders of the Information Age.”
Peter Russell
4.“The December 21, 2012, date will likely be a “nonevent” similar to … the widely anticipated Y2K phenomenon.”
Robert K. Sitler
Nine Reasons why the “Maya Prophecies”
should be read very critically:
1. Very fragmentary. What we have is only a handful of passages from a lost, and much
longer, story.
2. Contradictory. Though Aztec, Mixtec, and Maya sources provide us a number of narratives, different versions disagree. The calendar dates associated with Maya “end date”, Aztec “end date”, and “return of Quetzalcoatl” all vary.
For example: the Aztec predict that this Creation will end on a 4-Movement day in a 2-Reed year, if it ends at all. The next possible Aztec end-date will come in 2027. On the other hand, Maya literature does not explicitly predict any end at all, and its so-called “end date” in 2012 is a 4-Ajaw (4-Flower in the Aztec cycle), not 4-Movement. Mixtec Creation stories mention the day 2-Deer in year 13-Rabbit.
There are many other dates.
3. Manipulated. Tlacaélel, Machiavellian minister to three Aztec emperors, had no illusions about the power of historical propaganda, and saw to it that history was rewritten completely to exalt the Mexica and denigrate rivals. He was neither the first nor the last to do this. At his behest, the Aztecs burned their own libraries as well as their enemies’, in order to start with a clean slate. They even changed Quetzalcoatl’s birthday. Likewise, Maya historical dates and intervals of time were manipulated for their numerological and augural significance.
4. Misunderstood. 21st-century Western world-view is very different from that of ancient
Mesoamericans. We tend to project our own ideas and beliefs on others.
For example: Ancient Maya distinctions between truth and myth, and between various individual gods, were nowhere near our categorical boundaries. Their gods did not have as distinct personalities, joining, blending into each other, or splitting into gangs of 4 or 5. The days, and even the numerals in their calendars were living, powerful entities. Some Maya texts appear to have indicated “myth time” with “unworkable” calendar days. (See pp. 74ff below.)
5. Errors. Many, many Maya monuments contain errors, both of transcription and of
calculation, most noticeably in dates and distance numbers. A quick survey counts over 50
numerical mistakes carved in stone. Apparently the Maya, believed that “a card laid is a card played” and never, ever, erased or corrected a mistake. (For an example, see pp. 51-52.)
6. No mention of destruction, nor of renewal, nor improvement, connected to the coming
13.0.0.0.0 Maya “end date”. The so-called “end-time prophecies” are all modern conjecture.
7. Maya monumental texts contain many implications that they expected Life and the
calendar to continue without interruption, far beyond 2012.
8. The Mesoamerican concept of “cyclic time” is not that cyclic. To both the Maya and the Aztec each Creation was an improvement on the previous era.
9. The Classic Maya considered Solstices to be of very minor importance. Though they record hundreds of ceremonies, anniversaries, jubilees, dedications, offerings, astronomical events, etc., Maya inscriptions almost never mention events on solstices or equinoxes. However, especially very early, during the Middle Formative, the Maya did build “E-Groups”,architectural alignments to the Solstices and Equinoxes.
This information was quoted from the book “The Year 2012” by Mark Van Stone Ph.D. if you are interested in this book please contact "Mark Van Stone" mvanstone@swccd.edu or please visit http://markvanstone.com/
