21 December 2012

Why is there so much talk about the "end of the Mayan calendar" and what does it mean? What is so important about the Winter Solstice date of December 21 2012? How were the Mayans able to track long periods of time and why would they want to? Why should we care about the Mayans today? Is there anything we can learn from them?

Jose Arguelles' book "The Mayan Factor" talks about the 20 Mayan daysigns and the thirteen Mayan numbers and the wonderfully engaging and mysterious 260 day Mayan ceremonial calendar, called the Tzolkin (pronounced chol-kin).

The Mayans tracked cycles within cycles within cycles of time. Their calendar acted as a harmonic calibrator, linking and coordinating the earthly, lunar, solar and galactic seasons in an aesthetically simple and elegant manner. The provocative simplicity of the daysigns and the sheer harmony of the calendar are inspiring. Then a landmark article by John Major Jenkins appeared in Mountain Astrologer magazine in 1994, revealing for the first time in our era the true meaning of the end-date.

Why is the Winter Solstice of 21 December 2012 so interesting?
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On this day a rare astronomical and Mayan mythical event occurs. In astronomic terms, the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. The Milky Way extends in a general north-south direction in the night sky. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius.

The cosmic cross formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic was called the Sacred Tree by the Maya. The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic. Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun - our Father - rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life..

This rare astronomical event, foretold in the Mayan creation story of the Hero Twins, and calculated empircally by them, will happen for many of us in our lifetime. The Sun has not conjoined the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic since some 25,800 years ago, long before the Mayans arrived on the scene and long before their predecessors the Olmecs arrived. What does this mean?

Due to a phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, caused by the Earth's wobble that lasts almost 26,000 years, the apparent location of the Winter Solstice sunrise has been ever so slowly moving toward the Galactic Center. Precession may be understood by watching a spinning top. Over many revolutions the top will rise and dip on its axis, not unlike how the Earth does over an extremely long period of time. One complete rise and dip constitutes the cycle of precession.

The Mayans noticed the relative slippage of the positions of stars in the night sky over long periods of observation, indicative of precession, and foretold this great coming attraction. By using an invention called the Long Count, the Mayans fast-forwarded to anchor December 21, 2012 as the end of their Great Cycle and then counted backwards to decide where the calendar would begin. Thus the Great Cycle we are currently in began on August 11, 3114 B.C. But there's more.

The Great Cycle, lasting 1,872,000 days and equivalent to 5,125.36 years, is but one fifth of the Great Great Cycle, known scientifically as the Great Year or the Platonic Year - the length of the precession of the equinoxes. To use a metaphor from the modern industrial world, on Winter Solstice A.D. 2012 it is as if the Giant Odometer of Humanity on Earth hits 100,000 miles and all the cycles big and small turn over to begin anew. The present world age will end and a new world age will begin.

Over a year's time the Sun transits through the twelve houses of the zodiac. Many of us know this by what "Sun sign" is associated with our birthday. Upping the scale to the Platonic Year - the 26,000 year long cycle - we are shifting, astrologically, from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. The Mayan calendar does not really "end" in 2012, but rather, all the cycles turn over and start again, vibrating to a new era. It is as if humanity and the Earth will graduate in the eyes of the Father Sun and Grandmother Milky Way.

Why should we care about the Mayans today? Is there anything we can learn from them? The trees give us oxygen to breathe and help create the nourishing rains upon which we depend, sustaining life. We are missing these rains in places where the trees have been cut down or burned. Fires begin that nature can no longer extinguish. For the Mayans, trees were intermediaries between the physical and spiritual worlds, and absolutely essential to life. They believed that without the tree man could not survive and that "with the death of the last tree comes the death of the human race."

The ancient carved stones and the stars themselves tell us we are on the brink of a new world age. There is no reason not to take a leap of faith into imagining what may be in store. We may trust that it is time for humanity to awaken into a true partnership with each other, with the Earth, and the Cosmos. By accepting this partnership we may claim our birthright and become Galactic Citizens who care for and sustain the planet, thus sustaining ourselves. This is clearly the challenge of our times. Yet, arriving just in time and on schedule is the Winter Solstice dawn on the day we may remember that we are truly Children of the World.

Source: www.planetpapp.com/br21december2012/

John Major Jenkins and others claim that an alignment will occur when the sun rises above the horizon on December 21 2012, at which point the sun will rise in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy, thus causing an alignment between the earth, sun, and the galactic center. It is claimed that this event will cause numerous changes on Earth.

However, the event is only a visual phenomenon from the Earth's perspective, which is caused by the precession of the equinoxes or the 26,000 year wobble of the earth, and thus only changes our perspective, not the actual position of the earth in relation to the galaxy. In short, there is no gravitational force or radiation to be expected from this event because other than the tilt of the earth, nothing will be any different from what occurs in any other solstice.

There are also claims such as those of Michael Tsarion that an actual physical alignment of our entire solar system will occur with the horizontal plane of the Milky Way Galaxy on that day. The solar system is moving around the center of the galaxy every 225 million years or so, and while doing so is moving up and down in a cycle crossing the plane every 33 million years. According to the Journal Nature, however, there is evidence of the solar system crossing the galactic plane 3 million years ago. This would mean that we are moving away from the galactic plane, not toward it, and we will not be due to cross it for another 30 million years.

There are also theories that a currently unknown planet, sometimes referred to as planet x or Nibiru, which supposedly has an odd orbit that only enters the local solar system every 3600 years will return in 2012 causing many problems. The idea is traced back to Zecharia Sitchin's translations of Sumerian texts, and specifically to his interpretation of the VA 243 cylinder seal, which he says shows that the Sumerians knew of 12 planets (sun, moon, and ten others). This idea has been challenged by his peers, most notably Michael Heiser.

Among other possible scenarios is that a shift of the Earth's magnetic poles may occur, and that this will leave the earth vulnerable to harmful radiation from the sun. According to NASA magnetic pole reversal does not occur on a particular day or year, but over the course of thousands of years. Furthermore, the magnetic field does not vanish during this natural cycle, but becomes more complex as it makes the transition.

Some proponents of the pole shift scenario claim that this shift would be a physical movement of the poles of the earth, and not simply a magnetic shift. This event is called a true polar wander. Earth has experienced a few degree shift in the past, but nowhere near a reversal, and there is no reason to suggest this is likely or even possible. According to William Sager, a Texas A&M Oceanographer, a slight shift in the physical pole occurs at a rate between 5 and 10 degrees per million years, which means that this event could not happen on a particular day or year but only over a long period of time.

2012 metaphysical speculations
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2012 is claimed by some with New Age beliefs to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or alternatively an apocalypse). There is disagreement among believers whether 2012 will see an end of civilization, or humanity will be elevated to a higher level.

Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012

Jose Arguelles
"The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology"
1987 Bear and Company,, Santa Fe, New Mexico

John Major Jenkins
"Tzolkin:- Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies"
1994 Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, Garberville, California

"The How and Why of the Mayan End-Date in A.D. 2012."
1994 The Mountain Astrologer, Cedar Ridge, California.

"Maya Cosmogenesis 2012"
1999 Bear and Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico