The Seven Signs of the Apocalypse ~ World Ends 2012 ~ Do You Agree?

Apocalypse (Greek: Apokálypsis; "lifting of the veil" or "revelation") is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to refer to Armageddon, also referred to as the end of the world, which may be a shortening of the phrase apokalupsis eschaton which literally means "revelation at the end of the æon, or age". In the Christian tradition, 'The Apocalypse' refers in particular to the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible.

Armageddon (Arabic ???????, Late Latin: ,Collins English Dictionary, HarperCollins, 3rd ed., p. 81 Harmaged?n,http://bibletranslation.ws/trans/revwgrk.pdfhttp://scripturetext.com/revelation/16-16.htm har m?giddô) is the site of an epic battle associated with the end time prophecies of the Abrahamic religions.

According to traditional Christian interpretations, the Messiah, the "Lamb", will return to earth and defeat the Antichrist, the "Beast", in the battle of Armageddon. Then Satan will be put into the bottomless pit or abyss for 1,000 years, known as the Millennial age. After being released from the abyss, Satan will gather Gog and Magog from the four corners of the earth. They will encamp surrounding the holy ones and the "beloved city". Fire will come down from God, out of heaven and devour Gog and Magog at Armageddon, and the Devil who deceived them is thrown into Gehenna (the lake of fire and brimstone) where the Beast and the False Prophet have been since just before the 1,000 years.Book of Revelation in the New Testament, Rev. 19: 11-20, Rev. 20: 1-3, 7-10.

The word Armageddon appears only once in the Greek New Testament. The word comes from Hebrew har m?giddô (), meaning "Mountain of Megiddo". Megiddo was the location of many decisive battles in ancient times (see Battle of Megiddo). The town Megiddo is approximately west of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Tiberias to the Romans) in the Kishon River area.

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD), many Maya cities reached their highest state development during the Classic period (c. 250 AD to 900 AD), and continued throughout the Postclassic period until the arrival of the Spanish. At its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world.

The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya; however, their civilization fully developed them. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and to as far as central Mexico, more than 1000 km (625 miles) from the Maya area. Many outside influences are found in Maya art and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest.

The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Many Mayan languages continue to be spoken as primary languages today; the Rabinal Achí, a play written in the Achi' language, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.

The Maya calendar is a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala.

The essentials of the Maya calendric system are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 6th century BC. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Zapotec and Olmec, and contemporary or later ones such as the Mixtec and Aztec calendars. Although the Mesoamerican calendar did not originate with the Maya, their subsequent extensions and refinements of it were the most sophisticated. Along with those of the Aztecs, the Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood.

By the Maya mythological tradition, as documented in Colonial Yucatec accounts and reconstructed from Late Classic and Postclassic inscriptions, the deity Itzamna is frequently credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendar system to the ancestral Maya, along with writing in general and other foundational aspects of Maya culture.See entry on Itzamna, in Miller and Taube (1993), pp.99-100.

Michel de Nostredame (14 December or 21 December 1503Guinard, Dr Patrice, CURA Forum - 2 July 1566), usually Latinised to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties ("The Prophecies"), the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with the popular press, credits him with predicting many major world events. The prophecies have in some cases been assimilated to the results of applying the alleged Bible code, as well as to other purported prophetic works.

Most academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power. Moreover, none of the sources listed offers any evidence that anyone has ever interpreted any of Nostradamus's quatrains specifically enough to allow a clear identification of any event in advance.Lemesurier, Peter, The Unknown Nostradamus, 2003

Category: File - :La Mojarra Inscription and Long Count date.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A date inscription for the Mayan Long Count

The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs and proposals, which posit that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21 or December 23, 2012,Sitler 2006, Defesche 2007 which is said to be the end-date of a 5,125-year-long Mayan Long Count calendar. These beliefs may derive in part from archaeoastronomical speculation, alternative interpretations of mythology, numerological constructions, or alleged prophecies from extraterrestrial beings.

A New Age interpretation of this transition posits that, during this time, the planet and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era.For a sample of views see discussion and interviews in New York Times Magazine article (Anastas 2007). Conversely, some believe that the 2012 date marks the beginning of an apocalypse. Both ideas have been disseminated in numerous books and TV documentaries, and have spread around the world through websites and discussion groups.

Scholars of various stripes have disputed the idea that a catastrophe will happen in 2012, suggesting that predictions of impending doom are found neither in classic Maya accounts nor in contemporary science. Mainstream Mayanist scholars argue that the idea that the Long Count calendar "ends" in 2012 misrepresents Maya history. To the modern Maya, 2012 is largely irrelevant, and classic Maya sources on the subject are scarce and contradictory, suggesting that there was little if any universal agreement among them about what, if anything, the date might mean.

Meanwhile, astronomers and other natural scientists have rejected the apocalyptic forecasts, on the grounds that the anticipated events are precluded by astronomical observations, or are unsubstantiated by the predictions that have been generated from these findings.[http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html "2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?"]. NASA. NASA likens fears about 2012 to those about the Y2K bug in the late 1990s, suggesting that an adequate analysis should stem fears of disaster.

Fulcanelli (1839 - last seen in 1953) is almost certainly a pseudonym assumed, in the late 19th century, by a French alchemist and esoteric author, whose identity is still debated.Patrick Riviere Fulcanelli, p. 29, Red Pill Press Ltd, 2006 ISBN 978-1897244210 The name Fulcanelli seems to be a play on words: Vulcan the ancient Roman god of fire plus El, a Canaanite name for God and so the Sacred Fire.Mark Stavish The Path of Alchemy, p. 171, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2006 ISBN 978-0738709031 He is also called the Master Alchemist. The appeal of Fulcanelli as a cultural phenomenon is partly due to the mystery that surrounds most aspects of his life and works; one of the anecdotes pertaining to his life retells, in particular, how his most devoted pupil Eugène Canseliet performed a successful transmutation of 100 grams of lead into gold in a laboratory of the gas works of Sarcelles at the Georgi company with the use of a small quantity of the "Projection Powder" given to him by his teacher, in the presence of Julien Champagne and Gaston Sauvage.

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around 5 million, including just under two million in the United States and around 480,000 in England, Scotland and Ireland.Hodapp, Christopher. Freemasons for Dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley, 2005. p. 52.

The various forms all share moral and metaphysical ideals, which include, in most cases, a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being.

The fraternity is administratively organised into Grand Lodges (or sometimes Orients), each of which governs its own jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. Grand Lodges recognise each other through a process of landmarks and regularity. There are also appendant bodies, which are organisations related to the main branch of Freemasonry, but with their own independent administration.

Freemasonry uses the metaphors of operative stonemasons' tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon's Temple, to convey what has been described by both Masons and critics as "a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."Masonic Service Association - Short Talk Bulletin as reprinted on the website of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana.

The Hopi are a Native American people who primarily live on the 12,635 km² (2,531.773 sq mi) Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi Reservation is entirely surrounded by the much larger Navajo Reservation. The two nations used to share the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area. The partition of this area, commonly known as Big Mountain, by Acts of Congress in 1974 and 1996, has resulted in seemingly endless controversy.aisc.orgkstrom.netnau.edu

The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people.

Category: File - :All Gizah Pyramids.jpg|thumb|400px|A view of the pyramids at Giza from the plateau to the south of the complex. From right to left are the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure. The three smaller pyramids in the foreground are subsidiary structures associated with Menkaure's pyramid.

Category: File - :EgyptianPyramidsandSphinx2006.jpg|thumb|400px|A view of the Pyramid of Khafre from the Sphinx.

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt.

There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt as of 2008. Most were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods.

Michael Ritter (2003) [http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/connections/connections_dating_pyramids.html] Dating the Pyramids. Retrieved 13 April 2005

The earliest known Egyptian pyramid is the Pyramid of Djoser which was built during the third dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Imhotep, and are generally considered to be the world's oldest monumental structures constructed of dressed masonry.

The best known Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built."The Great Pyramid...is still one of the largest structures ever raised by man, its plan twice the size of St. Peters in Rome"''

The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence.