2012:

Mayan Prophecy in a Modern World

 

 

 

According to many interpretations of the Mayan calendar, 2012 marks the end of time as we know it, or even the end of the world. Others believe that the world will not end, but instead will be transformed as we move into an age of enlightenment. In order to understand how Mayan prophesies relate to us now in modern times it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the Mayan concept of galactic time as well as ancient Mayan astrology and mythology.

 

What is known as the Mayan calendar is in fact a system of at least 17 different calendars used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, some of them charting time accurately over a span of more than ten million years. What is commonly referred to as the Mayan calendar today is actually a combination of three of these calendar systems known as the Tzolk’in (the sacred calendar); the Haab (the civil calendar); and the Long Count.

 

The Tzolk'in is based on the 26,000 year cycle of the Pleiades and combines the numbers from 1 through 13 with a sequence of 20 day-names. It works in a similar manner to our named days of the week and their date within each month. After 260 days the same number/name combination will re-occur, and the calendar starts anew. The Haab is an agricultural calendar and consists of 18 months, each with 20 days with the addition of a five-day month for a cycle of 365 days. The Tzolk’in calendar and the Haab calendar are combined to produce a cycle of 18,980 days which is a little less than 52 solar years.

 

The Long Count describes a Great Cycle of 13 b'ak'tuns which is approximately 5,126 solar years. This system is comprised of a 360-day year called a k'in; twenty of these k'ins are known as a uinal; eighteen uinals make one tun; twenty tuns are known as a k'atun; and twenty k'atuns make a b'ak'tun. This is relevant to us today because December 21, 2012 is the end of the current Great Cycle that began on August 11, 3114 BC.

 

In order to better understand why some believe that the Mayan Long Count actually ends in 2012, it is necessary to recognize certain astrological and galactic cycles. At sunrise on December 21, 2012, for the first time in 26,000 years, the sun will rise to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic, which will form a great cross of stars and planets in the sky. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree also known as The Tree of Life.

 

In 2012, there will also be a transit of Venus when Venus passes directly in front of the Sun from our perspective on the Earth. It is a perfect alignment between the Earth, Venus and the Sun. The last transit of Venus occurred in 1882, around the time of the rediscovery of ancient Mayan sacred sites. Transits of Venus are a fairly rare celestial phenomenon and they occur, in pairs separated by 8 years, in alternating cycles every 105 and 120 years.

   

The solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy may signify the start of a new era, and when we take into account the cycles of the Mayan calendar, it truly does seem that we are in the midst of great changes. In the book Popol Vuh: A Sacred Book of the Maya, which chronicles the Mayan civilization’s creation myth known to the Quiché Maya of the colonial-era highlands, the end of the 13th b'ak'tun is of great significance. Although it does not mark the end of the world but instead views Humanity as moving from the World of the Fourth Sun into the World of the Fifth Sun and a time of a rebirth.

 

It is believed by the Maya that we are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but that we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. That this is the time in-between, the time of transition and if we choose to use the Mayan prophesies as guidance we can recognize that that we are simply part of greater, ongoing cycles for Humanity and begin to live our lives accordingly. When we begin taking responsibility for creating our own reality we begin living in a very different world.

 

Since the advent of the Fourth Night, which began at the end of Nov. 2005, we have been integrating and preparing for breakthroughs in the human collective experience. Due to the nature of the laws of synchronicity, when this energy merges with our world as it currently exists we will experience changes in all aspects of reality including earth changes, political upheaval and economic crisis.

 

Learning to understand the world from the Mayan Galactic perspective will be invaluable in the days to come. The Mayan Calendar is not simply a method of marking time but rather a map of human potential that is meant to assist us as we begin to perceive reality from a multidimensional global perspective. The Mayan information provides symbolic keys and markers in time and space to help us navigate through the new reality that is emerging through us.

 

2012 is not a future moment in time but rather an energy that permeates every facet of our lives today and we are encouraged to integrate our vision for the future into who we are in the present by taking responsibility for our choices and our actions on a daily basis. When we begin to take responsibility for the consequences of our choices, we begin living in a very different world.

 

Carl Calleman, an internationally recognized Mayan expert, describes the Mayan Calendar as “an intentional explorative and dynamic process where the dates are offered only as synchronizing signposts. What we do and who we are during these times are the features of our collective awakening that ushers in the energies that the Mayan calendar describes.”

 

Regardless of how relevant ancient Mayan prophesies may seem to our lives today, the fact remains that we are living in a time of unprecedented global changes in weather, natural disasters, politics, economics and education. With the technologies that we currently have at our disposal we truly do have the ability to change the world as we know it, either by discovering how to live together peacefully which would in fact usher in an age of enlightenment; or by destroying ourselves and our world. It is up to us.