Whose 2012 Is It, Anyway? Part 2

The End of the World?

The most dire predictions of planet Earth’s fate on or around the end (actually completion) of the Mayan Long Count calendar on December 21, 2001, are:

1. The Earth’s magnetic poles will reverse, possibly due to the sunspot cycle and giant solar flares. Key data in Cotterell and Geryl's theory have been refuted by Geoff Stray.
2. The planet’s crust will shift, causing floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. (Graham Hancock and assorted Hancock wanna-bes.)
3. Earth will go through a 60-70 hours of total darkness, which could be caused by ash from one or more major volcanic eruptions or by solar flares that knock out electrical grids and communications around the world. (Contemporary Maya shamans 2012 prediction and spiritual guides)
4. A series of volcanoes and earthquakes will destroy civilization. (Various and sundry sources) These have already begun, by the way. Note that the original print edition of the column was published in Guatemala weeks before the big eruption in Iceland.
5. Everyone on Earth will undergo a transformation in consciousness that will lead to a New Age of universal consciousness. (John Major Jenkins, Barbara Hand Clow, Daniel Pinchbeck, Carl Calleman, too many others to mention)
6. The Feathered Serpent god (Kukulkan to the Maya, Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs) will return. (Daniel Pinchbeck, Jose Arguelles, others)
7. Bolon and the Gods of Nine will return (Monument 6 at Tortugueros, Mexico; Books of Chilam Balam from Yucatan; Carl Calleman, others)
8. Time will come to an end (McKenna, Calleman)

There are many other 2012 theories out there. For the most objective and well-researched survey of 2012 books and theories, pick up a copy of 2012: Castastrophe or Awakening?.

Several of the sources of theories mentioned above are apparent nut cases who "researched" the subject by channeling Quetzalcoatl, interviewing talking mushrooms, or eating handfuls of psychedelics and staring at a pat of melting butter. But even they concur with the others that whatever happens will lead to a new world--the fifth world according to the Maya and other Mesoamerican cultures. And even the flakiest book about 2012 theory contains at least part of the puzzle that other miss.

Galactic Alignment, Too

These predictions got a credibility boost with the recent discovery that about the time the Long Count ends, our Solar System, along with the December solstice sun, will align with a huge black hole in the dark rift at the center of the Milky Way. The sun, in fact, is in that same area of the heavens on the Winter solstice every year. And it aligns with the galactic plane annually.

What happens only every 26,125 years is the simultaneouls alignment of our solar system with the darkrift, which the Maya called the "dark road" to Xibalba, the underworld.

Why the Long Count Was Invented

John Major Jenkins argues that the Maya invented the Long Count to point at this date and so warn people of the future (that would be us) of the end of the calendar and beginning of the new age. Others, Calleman specifically, say there is no evidence that the Maya knew of precession or the Solar System’s alignment with the center of the Milky Way.

Calleman says the Long Count really ends October 28, 2011, more than a year before the date almost universally accepted. It turns out that he is wrong, as can be seen on Why Calleman is Wrong about Long Count End Date.

This page was posted on 3 K'at 2010.