A Hopeful View of the 2012 Prophecy. Why The World Will Not End.

The topic "2012" has fired a collective shot-heard around the world-into the consciousness of humanity. And just like humanity's evolution, this shot is traveling in a zig-zag manner! Enter 2012 into a search engine and you will be overwhelmed with choices ranging from the Apocalypse, telepathy, UFO's, and secret government conspiracies, to the anti-Christ and the return of Jesus.

Some fundamentalists (certain militias come to mind) have been preparing for 2012 in much the same way as they did for Y2K, which, thankfully, turned out to be a non-event. Will December 21, 2012, be similar to Y2K? How can we tell what's "real" and what's hype? We all must surrender to the three hardest words for our egos to accept: We don't know.

To this author, the fundamental theme that runs through all of the discussion about 2012 is this: We are souls who incarnated in a very important time in history to clean up the messes of the past and make better decisions this time around so that we can make the leap into a higher realm of consciousness. This belief is explored deeply and fully in my book, Navigating 2012: Thriving in Earth's New Age.

Unlike many other authors on 2012 subjects, I am not an archaeologist, anthropologist, theologian, or philosopher. I am a Ph.D. trained counselor and former tenure-track professor of Counseling at the University of Wyoming who has been given the gift of psychic empathy. Wanting to learn more about my own spiritual gifts has taken me on a decades-long quest to find the answer to the great spiritual mysteries in life, including answers to the unanswered questions regarding the 2012 shift. Along the way I have met interesting and charismatic individuals, experienced the rigors of shamanic training, and refined my abilities enough to where I can offer spiritual assistance to others. I do this through books, workshops, and a private phone coaching practice.

A Brief History of The 2012 "Prophecy"

Much of our awareness about the important date of 2012 originates with the Mayan culture's precise, advanced system of recording time. The Mayan calendar is roughly 5,000 years old. It is made up of a series of measurements within measurements, so to speak, and includes several repeating cycles of time. The Mayan calendar can be differentiated into two basic calendars: the short calendar and the long calendar. The short calendar equates to a 260-day year, called the "Tzolkin," or "Sacred Calendar." According to John Major Jenkins, author of Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, a groundbreaking book on the Mayan calendar, the long count calendar is thought to have originated at one Mayan site, Izapa, in southern Mexico. This long count calendar ends on December 21, 2012, when a rare galactic alignment between the sun, the Earth, and the center of the Milky Way Galaxy will occur. This alignment happens once every 26,000 years.

This is where the so-called "2012 Prophecy" enters the picture. Jenkins distilled all the Mayan monuments into one brilliant passage which he believes is the authentic "2012 Prophecy": "Self-serving egoism will be ruling and running the world, tricking people into forgetting their eternal natures. The second part of the prophecy is that ego can humble itself, surrender its illusory belief that it is the true center, and reconnect with the eternal divine self." Jenkins came to this conclusion through deciphering the messages in pictorial form through glyphs on the monuments in Izapa.

Other Systems of Thought

Although the major focus of the 2012 phenomenon is the Mayan calendar and its precise ending date of December 21, 2012, it is important to note that most major theologies and cultures refer to some prophesied end time. Egyptians, Islamic astrology, and cultures all over the world, from Asia to Africa, refer to periods of great transformation. From the Hindu Prophecy (Kali Yuga, the end time of man) to the Aztec prophecy (Time of the Sixth Sun) to the Cherokee Prophecy (their ancient calender ends in 2012), down to the Egyptian Prophecy (the stone calendar at the Great Pyramid ends in 2012). Jenkins says that the apolacyptic stories referring to the end times are "deeply encoded" in humanity.

The prophecies of the Hopi tribe, who reside in the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, have had a profound effect on the current worldview surrounding 2012. Hopi chief Frank Waters' excellent Book of the Hopi explores these prophecies. The basic message is that the history of humanity consists of Seven Worlds (periods of time). We are currently in the Fourth World and are moving into The Fifth World. This time will coincide with a time of prophesied "great purification."

Other Native American traditions refer to the times in which we live as vitally important. There's a story in some plains tribal circles that goes like this: When the time of the White Buffalo comes, the elders know that a great healing of the Earth will begin. According to Jamie Sams, a well-known Native American author who has shared many sacred teachings, "After the time when the buffalo returned, the generation following the flower children would see the dawning of the Fifth World of Peace." That happened in 1994 when a White Buffalo calf was born, fulfilling a 2,000-year-old prophecy among the Sioux tribes. Its birth sparked a firestorm of media coverage. The return of the White Buffalo was meant to signal a return to spiritual harmony and balance.

Christianity has its own stories about the Apocalypse and the resurrection of Jesus, which many evangelical Christians believe is happening now. Adding fuel to the paranoia about 2012, The Bible Code has become a global phenomenon. The book, authored by journalist Michael Drosnin in collaboration with Israeli mathematician Eliyahu Rips, claims to offer evidence that the Earth will be annihilated around 2012. Whether you agree with or can even fathom these interpretations, the stories show humanity's search for meaning concerning times of great transformation.

Scientific Evidence of Change

Magnetic Shifts: Every few million years, the Earth experiences magnetic pole reversals. Author Gregg Braden presents evidence which suggests that we are in the early stages of this happening again. He states that before a pole reversal two things happen: first, there are abrupt changes in weather patterns, and second, there is a weakening of the planet's magnetic field. Both events are occurring right now, according to Braden. He presents a model, "magnetic glue," to explain what is happening. In the "magnetic glue"model, consciousness itself is influenced by the magnetic fields. The Earth has lost 7 percent of her magnetism over the last 100 years, and it doesn't appear to be stopping. Braden demonstrates that with less and less magnetism holding our rigid thought patterns and behaviors in place, we are headed into new territories of human experience. The effect of magnetic fields on our consciousness is something we each experience every month, as the moon's magnetism interacts with the Earth's. Physicians and law enforcement officials know that violence, psychotic episodes, and rates of hospital admissions spike on full moons. These magnetic polarities help us shift into new awareness. As we navigate through this New Age, we must honor the cycles of magnetism, as indigenous societies do. These rituals are explored more fully in my previous book, The Complete Empath Toolkit.

Clinical hypnotherapist Dr. John Jay Harper, author of Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century, has written extensively about magnetism. "This shift of the electromagnetic field of the planet will bring about a 'telepathic society' capable of creative solutions to problems almost spontaneously as they arise; indeed we will be manifesting miracles beyond our wildest imagination."

Sunspots: According to a prediction from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the next period of sunspot (intense storms) activity will be one of the most intense ever recorded and will be 30 to 50 percent higher than the last major sunspot period. This may lead to disruption of daily life around the globe. The last major sunspot activity was in 1958. At that time, however, lives didn't depend on satellites and advanced communications technology, which are at the mercy of sunspots.

Summary

Awhile back, I posted a blog about Mayan elder Carlos Barrios, a historian, anthropologist, and ceremonial Mayan priest and spiritual guide. He is the author of The Book of Destiny: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Mayans and the Prophecy of 2012. "People write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012," says Barrios. "The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed." He says that Mayan Daykeepers view December 21, 2012, as a rebirth, the start of the World of the Fifth Sun. "Things will change, but it is up to the people how difficult or easy it is for the changes to come about."

I include Barrios' remarks because his affirming view is in line with what is explored in my book, Navigating 2012. The basic message? Things will be "up for grabs." We find ourselves asking a series of questions, to which we do not yet know the answers: What will our social structures look like? What will our families look like? Will we still have electricity? Will there be currency? Will we have adequate water?

The answers can be found a simple term: TBA. To Be Announced.

The announcement is humanity's future.

The announcer? God. Or ourselves. The two are absolutely indistinguishable.

Get ready, this journey will take your breath away!

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