Will The Mayans Be Proven Correct? Apocalypse December 21, 2012?
Posted: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
There are many distortions to the story of the ancient Mayans' calendar. Many have twisted the "prophecy" into meaning that December 21, 2012 will be the end of time. But students of Mayan history, customs and ways tell it differently.
Ronald Emmerich, movie director who brought us "Independence Day" and "Day After Tomorrow", has just released his latest, "2012" based upon the fact that the Mayan calendar ends at that date, thus the title of his movie. Yet he insists that the story itself has no basis in their prophecy. It actually is more of a modern day rewrite of the universal flood as described in the Bible book of Genesis. I have not watched the movie nor do I intend to.
Most of the Western world and also those influenced by the Islam religion consider "time" as having a beginning and an ending, while those Easterners who have been most influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism have been taught that time is circular and repeats itself over and over again.
The Holy Bible teaches that there is, indeed, limited time as we know it and a date is set by God for the termination of all things physical. This end of time is often referred to as the "apocalypse". However, although it appears that this thought of beginning and ending of time comes from the Bible and it plainly tells it's readers that no man knows the day or the hour in which it will end except God, Himself.. (Matthew 24:36). And it also adds that it will come as a "thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2) (2 Peter 2:10). And exhorts everyone to be ready at all times.
Actually, the ancient Mayans were quite good astronomers even without modern day technology or information from studies made over the years since. They did mix in their myths and superstitions but created a long range calendar which ends on the 21 day of December, 2012. However, there is no indication in the writings and evidence left behind, that they ever predicted the end of time. Here is an interesting paragraph:
Over 2,000 years ago the early Maya formulated a profound galactic cosmology. They saw that the sun, on the winter solstice, was slowly moving toward the heart of the galaxy. Naturally enough, with their uncorrupted intelligence intact, they suspected that the world would go through a transformation when the solar and the galactic planes aligned. They devised their Long Count calendar to target when the cosmic alignment would maximize, and that time is AD 2012. We are lucky that the brilliant sky watchers who devised the 2012 calendar left carved monuments for us to decode, and that they have survived the decay of centuries, so that we can know exactly what they prophesied and believed about 2012. (Alignment 2012.org: What The Mayan Left Behind)
The current day scholars of Maya propose that the ancients do predict that this particular galactic alignment will bring about a new world cycle of which the nature is not known or fixed. They claim that it will be determined by the action of all men. Mayan, Ajq'ij Carlos Barrios, who is also a recognized scholar of their history, gives us this assurance(?);
"The world will not end. It will be transformed... Everything will change...Change is accelerating now, and it will continue to accelerate...If the people of the earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape, without having destroyed too much of the Earth, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way...Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human..."(Ajq'ij Carlos Barrios: Eden Sky-The Mayan Prophecy of 2012)
To this author's thinking, the above statement may be more nerve racking than the prediction of the apocalypse. Perhaps it is fitting to use the term "apocalypse", since the original meaning is "a revelation of the future"
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Interesting article, Joel. For further research, check out the wikipedia page on the Mayan calender. About two thirds of the way down, after a long technical explanation of the workings of the Mayan date system, there is this statement:"Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is the basis for a New Age belief that a cataclysm will take place on December 21, 2012. December 20, 2012 is simply the last day of the 13th b'ak'tun. But that is not the end of the Long Count because the 14th through 20th b'ak'tuns are still to come."Seems like this whole thing is just another scare tactic and I'm sure someone somewhere is making a lot of money on it somehow... :)Hi Jean, thanks for reading and commenting. And, yes I did read the Wikipedia account, in fact it is one reason I wrote the article. I was actually of the opinion before that their calendar did predict the end of time, though I did not accept it as true. But after reading up on that writing plus two or three others, it becomes very obvious that they did not predict any such thing. I guess I didn't bring that out very well. No, the guy who has made the movie is probably the biggest reason for the rumor getting so big.
Joel, your knowledge of multiple cultures amazes me. Thank you for diving into this topic.Thank you Deana, for reading and commenting. I really am not all that knowledgeable of other cultures. I am old and I read almost incessantly, so I've read about a number of other cultures. But I have a special interest and admiration for the Mayans. I really can't tell you why, but I find their history and quaint living, capabilities, etc amazing and admirable.I wrote an article which is posted on Webgazine entitled "The beautiful Maya people" it is Post460464 on Webgazine if you'd like to read it. I've been fascinated by their beauty (and I'm not referring just to women). They have a healthy beautiful skin, beautiful black hair and just look great. I've never met one that I know of, but I'd like to. Have a great day.Thanks, Joel. I will read your article. I believe the Mayans cultivated many of our staple vegetables. That might be part of their beauty secret.
Honestly, I find this prophecy to be the most believable so far, but not as an end of days type thing. I don't think we're so important as to have our end planned by anyone. I do think that our solar system may be going through some interesting changes that would've completely screwed up the Mayan's prophesizing, hence their being so unusually vague compared to their other statements.Basically, I think what the Mayans were saying was, "We're not sure what that is, but we know it's going to change enough that anything we say about time beyond that will probably be wrong."Sounds exciting to me.
Good article.Thanks for the comment Anthony. I see so much happening right now that I would not doubt one bit that something of note will be happening about that time. I foresee something bad rather than good though. Not trying to be a pessimist but the world is getting to hate everyone but themselves. Not good.In a strange way, there are a number of events of interest scheduled for 2012. Something about a complete emancipation of Iraq, and I know the Vernon Yankee Atomic Electric plant in Vermont will be relicensed, if its owners Entergy Nuclear has its way. The plant is 40 years old, and instead of reducing output, they are trying to exceed its rated output. There are other various deadlines set to happen then.I also think there is something to the ~2,000 year Zodiacal precession, which means right about this time we should be exiting the age of Pisces (the age of the fish, and its obvious Christian symbolism), and entering the age of Aquarius (sadly, without the great song by the 5th Dimension). It is unfortunate that most who hear about the "Age of Aquarius" make the popular association with the play Hair, without understanding the concept of the Aion, and why we change aeons every 2,000 years or so.I don't think it harkens the end of the world, but I do think there might be a subtle, gradual and categorical change of collective consciousness that we probably won't recognize right away, just as occurred over the past 2,000 years with the advent of Christ consciousness.- GI guess. For generations humans have thought things were "getting worse" when they were actually getting better. We're really no worse off than we've ever been and, in some ways, we're doing better.
Where do you find all of these ideas to focus on? I love reading your pieces. Obviously I am not the only one - so glad I joined your fan club so I get daily updates on where you have been and are going next! MarijoHi Marijo, I am swiftly building my eightieth year, and I have been there, done that so many times, I have lots of memories. I have been an avid reader since I first learned I could. It is not that I am intelligent, it is only that I have covered a lot of ground. The old deutch saying I guess applies to me: "We grow too soon, oldt, and too late, schmart."My maiden name was Schacht - so have heard that one many, many times! I am so glad that your "thinker" is sharp and that your fingers are typing up a storm to share with us all. MarijoGreat, I was afraid that no one remembered that saying except me. I don't recall if I spelled "oldt" correctly but it had some type of added letter(s). You still haven't explained to me how your name is pronounced. Is j pronounced as an "h" "y" or 'j"?Oh, sorry, Mary Jo - dad got cute with the spelling and it certainly is not German - used to hate the first day of school - if the first name didn't trip up the teacher, even in Minnesota, the last name did.... Then I moved to California and the fun really began - Marijo - my sister is Colette - that is a bit better but you'd be surprised how many messed that up too - once they learned our names they never forgot though. She was named after a little 6 year old dad met in Africa during WW2.Why I think both names are unusually beautiful. I sort of thought you might be a Mary Jo, we have a Linda Jo of our own. All 3 of ours were girls, so I decided to get a part of my name on one of them. Thanks for the clarification.
Very good and 'wise,' Joel.I haven't been interested in the uproar, have heard as well that the movie is about 'the flood' and believe that people worry too much about what might happen instead of focusing on that which is happening.Incidentally, the German word for old is 'alt.' Thanks for an enlightening and enjoyable read.Hi Nancy, thanks for commenting and for the correct spelling of "old" in Dutch language.
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