Posted on 10/10/2009 7:07:54 PM PDT by TaraP
MEXICO CITY — Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.
Or is it?
Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."
It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.
At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.
"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."
Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes “predictions” from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: “Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?”
It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or “Planet X.” But this one has some grains of archaeological basis.
One of them is Monument Six.
Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn’t survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.
It’s unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.
However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.
Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico’s National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, “He will descend from the sky.”
Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.
And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.
“If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn’t have any idea,” said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. “That the world is going to end? They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.”
The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy
Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.
“It’s a special anniversary of creation,” said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin. “The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they’re just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six.”
Bernal suggests that apocalypse is “a very Western, Christian” concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are “exhausted.”
If it were all mythology, perhaps it could be written off.
But some say the Maya knew another secret: the Earth’s axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun’s lowest point in the horizon.
That will happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the sun appears to rise in the same spot where the bright center of galaxy sets.
Another spooky coincidence?
“The question I would ask these guys is, so what?” says Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the “Bad Astronomy” blog. He says the alignment doesn’t fall precisely in 2012, and distant stars exert no force that could harm Earth.
“They’re really super-duper trying to find anything astronomical they can to fit that date of 2012,” Plait said.
But author John Major Jenkins says his two-decade study of Mayan ruins indicate the Maya were aware of the alignment and attached great importance to it.
“If we want to honor and respect how the Maya think about this, then we would say that the Maya viewed 2012, as all cycle endings, as a time of transformation and renewal,” said Jenkins.
As the Internet gained popularity in the 1990s, so did word of the “fateful” date, and some began worrying about 2012 disasters the Mayas never dreamed of.
Author Lawrence Joseph says a peak in explosive storms on the surface of the sun could knock out North America’s power grid for years, triggering food shortages, water scarcity — a collapse of civilization. Solar peaks occur about every 11 years, but Joseph says there’s evidence the 2012 peak could be “a lulu.”
While pressing governments to install protection for power grids, Joseph counsels readers not to “use 2012 as an excuse to not live in a healthy, responsible fashion. I mean, don’t let the credit cards go up.”
Another History Channel program titled “Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days” says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a “pole shift.”
“The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster,” a narrator proclaims. “Earthquakes would rock every continent, massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe.”
The idea apparently originates with a 19th century Frenchman, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a priest-turned-archaeologist who got it from his study of ancient Mayan and Aztec texts.
Scientists say that, at best, the poles might change location by one degree over a million years, with no sign that it would start in 2012.
While long discredited, Brasseur de Bourbourg proves one thing: Westerners have been trying for more than a century to pin doomsday scenarios on the Maya. And while fascinated by ancient lore, advocates seldom examine more recent experiences with apocalypse predictions.
“No one who’s writing in now seems to remember that the last time we thought the world was going to end, it didn’t,” says Martin, the astronomy webmaster. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of memory that things were fine the last time around.”
When we reach the end of our calendars (Dec 31), we start a new one.
I presume the Mayans would do the same, at the end of their calendar.
Completely unBiblical to be influenced by this pagan calendar.
Scripture is the basis for prophecy; not a calendar of an extinct group of people.
I’m surprised at how many are fooled into looking at this thing.
In a world where Al Gore is considered a “scientist”, any stupid idea is worthy of consideration.
According to the calendar on my wall, the Earth will not exist after Dec. 31, 2009.
Some cable channel (history?) ran hours of dooms day scenarios a couple of weeks ago. I felt I died a thousand deaths and that was just surfing by the channel!
Yes even John Haggee and Jack Van Impe...:(
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
My personal theory is that the guys doing the Mayan calendar all those years ago stopped at 2012 just ‘cause they got tired of planning out all those decades in advance... That is, they had to stop somewhere.
That ought to shut them up!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
JVI has always been all over the map. He mixes known and obvious error in with his stuff. While he has basically good news clippings, he covers for stuff that he should know better.
I’ll have to see what John has said. I met him a couple of years ago, briefly.
Perhaps the Mayans couldn’t count past 2012.
2010, 2011, 2012, er, uh, umm, duh . . .
Gives me the shivers!
::: YAWN :::
Consider this. With O in the White house and the Marxist’s in control of congress then it just maybe about time for the end.
Right.
I'm much more worried about Zero getting re-elected that year.
Say, aren’t these the same people who though Cortez was Quetzlcoatl or something like that?
-SNORE-
No, that was me.
The stone tablet that this doomsday theory is written on is round. So I think that it’s just announcing the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.
The Mayans knew that there were 365 and 1/4 days in the year.
There is something called precession or “the great cycle” where our planet goes through a sign of the zodiac every 13,000 years. I believe that cycle ends and begins 2012.
It is interesting that Guillermo Bernal’s “He will descend from the sky.” sounds a lot like the second coming.
Not arguing with anybody. New here. I got my information from a bunch of books over the years.
I’m taking bets that 2012 comes and goes without the world coming to an end.
Although I agree with you that the Scriptures are our only source of prophetic insight, the Maya are by no means an extinct people. They are found in the Yucatan and other parts of southern Mexico and in several Central American countries. In Guatemala they are a signifcant minority group.
Look what happened in 1999. These useless predictions keep copywriters employed.
Of course, this is one of those “I told you so” moments that won’t be as funny if it comes true.
Bump for reference.
Watch for the division of the land of Israel. And “peace”.
Daniel 8:24-25
Daniel 11:36-39
You mean Aztecs. The Mayans disappeared back into their spaceships centuries before, Mel Gibson’s fictional version of events notwithstanding.
Yeah I figured there might be some sort of descendants. I should have phrased that more in the context of a separate civilization / empire.
wrong books....too few years. Read the bible, about a week or so should do it.....not much further research necessary
Shhhh...that's a secret.
The Harmonica Virgins? I remember them!
This is not only in the Maya culture. But also the Hopi Native Americans, India(country). Plus the Webbot. If memory serves me there are at Least 5 different sources that date the world changing events on the very same day. Dec 21,2012.
The only thing is no one seems to know WHAT is going to happen.
With all the new descoveies in space, plus the ring of fire quite active. I suppose it could come from aboe us or from below. I just think the safe thing to do is get straight with GOD.
I kind of preferred the aliens' green ray in Independence Day.
Not all that's green is bad.
bttt
The Hopi Indians have the very same timeline.
Webbot has calculated the same time line.
None of them claim the end of the World. Just some sort of cataclysmic event that changes the world.
One thing I heard, didn’t take notes. Suggested that you had to be above 6000 feet to survive what ever IT is.
Also, some group has a seed depository in Greenland. To replant the earth if such a catastrope happens and there are ANY survivors. I guess that makes as much sense as bombing the moon.
A misreading of the text, probably due to the damage. It's actually closer to Brok Yobame, the god associated with the ending of all war and the creation of what we call YouTopia, where we will all kneel before his videotaped speeches forever, whether collectively in public or on our government-supplied iPods.
Google Nibiru, ifn ya want to git skeered.
This is no different than watching your odometer go from 89999 miles and wonder if your car will blow up when it hits 90000. The Mayans used both base 20 and base 18 math to represent their dates. December 20, 2012 is the equivalent of 12.19.19.17.19. December 21 is is the equivalent of: 13.0.0.0.0.0
The numeric positions are:
ONCE WE HIT 13.0.0.0.0 -- THE WORLD DOES NOT END --- THE NUMBER SYSTEM CAN STILL GO TO 19.19.19.17.19 and beyond. There are positions AFTER the Baktun position.
This Mayan calendar idiocy is just hysterical nonsense. Article
Why to accomplish something of that magnitude you'd have to win a Nobel. Looks like they got their order out of whack a little. Hard to get millenniums old plans to always sync up 100%
You first link actually goes to Daniel 8:10 which is also an excellent verse on the Little Horn.
According to the article, it is likely they stopped at 2012 because it is the end of a 'cycle'. A cycle of death and rebirth.
We haven't had any sunspots lately. The whole place is getting chilly. Chilly is bad.
Food doesn't grow.
The Earth may be going through a cold minimum, which will be death.
Rebirth depends on how long the planet gets colder.
It will not be the end of life, but it will be a serious pruning.
It won't come to an end, however the idyllic hothouse environment may.
Not really, but your definition fits my 'label' just as well.
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