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2012
21st December

End of the world?

Will 21st December 2012 be a defining date in time? Are

three years all we have or are we falling for
another doomsday hoax? In the following pages
Anu Gulmohar brings you the convictions of
the scholars, scientists and seers…

Dr Synthia Andrews gets us up-to-date
with the Mayan Calendar…
You may have heard that the world is going to end on De-
cember 21, 2012. Who decided this and where did the idea
come from? The answer lies 2,000 years ago in the jungles of the
Yucatan where the culture of the Maya flourished. Living in
highly developed communities amongst pyramids and palaces,
the Maya were some of the most advanced astronomers of the
ancient world. Without telescopes or modern equipment they
observed the movement of planets, the Milky Way and other
galaxies, and understood advanced astronomical concepts.
They calculated the true length of the year (365.2425 days), the
precession of the equinox (25,630 years), and the eccentricity
cycle of the earth’s orbit (100,000 years), to name a few of their
accomplishments. They were extraordinary mathematicians, ar-
chitects and timekeepers. According to the Mayan calendar,
time is running out. The calendar of the current period ends on
December 21, 2012.
The debate as to what this means rages. To the Maya, the end
of one calendar marks the end of a particular cycle and the be-
ginning of the next. What makes the end of this calendar cycle
different is that more than one cycle and more than one calen-

the sunday indian 46 27 december 2009

l i f e 2012

T The Story
he Maya inherited their tions of the rising equinox or

O
basic calendrical infor- solstice Sun. The winter sol-
ne of the scariest propositions circulated by end
mation from an earlier stice 2012 termination point

Behind the Hype

of the world theorists is that USA’s Yellowstone

Will the Supervolcano

Caldera, often referred to as the Yellowstone Supervol- civilisation called the Olmecs of the 13-baktun cycle indi-
cano, would blow-up in 2012 and plunge the world into who developed the Long cates a 36-year time window
a frozen winter that could last for thousands of years. Count between the second (1980 to 2016) in which the
But is there any truth to it? Says Michael Rampino, an and first centuries BC. There winter solstice Sun rises on

wake up in 2012?
Earth Scientist and Professor at NYU, “Yes, Yellowstone is only one known inscription the galactic equator. A Rus-
has erupted in the past about once every 600,000
years, but we cannot predict when it will erupt again.
that mentions the end date. It sian biochemist called Simon
If Yellowstone were to go off again it would create a re- is Monument 6 from Tortu- Shnoll has established that
gional disaster in North America and a global volcanic guero, and is damaged and human biochemistry (and
winter with loss of crops for several years.” Though we broken. At the end of the neurochemistry) is affected
bet the chances are incredibly slim of the Yellowstone damaged inscription, three by the Earth’s orientation to
choosing to erupt again in 2012. calendars cross-reference one the stars and by the sunspot
date: “It was 2 days, 9 Uinals, cycle, (that is due to reach so-
3 Tuns, 8 Katuns and 3 Bak- lar maximum in 2012), and
tuns before the 13th Baktun is another scientific paper pub-
We are in that transition to come. The Maya believed of the Maya’s astronomical completed on 4 Ahau 3 lished by James Spotiswoode
now; the old is being the centre of the Milky Way is
the home of Hunab’ ku, or the
data. Their calculations of
alignments, cycles, and celes-
Kankin. Then it will happen –
darkness, and Bolon-Yokte
indicates that psychic ability
in humans increases massive-
destroyed and replaced creator. It’s said the alignment tial events rival today’s com- will descend to the (???)” ly when Galactic Centre is

with the new

dar are coming to an end. The
Maya maintained a series of
calendars tracking different
astronomical cycles and on
December 21, 2012, several
events coincide. First, the
5,126 year Long Count calen-
dar ends, marking the com-
pletion of a Great Cycle. Five
Great Cycles equals a Grand
Cycle of 25,630 years, mark-
ing a full progression through
the precession of the equinox.
A Grand Cycle was known to
the Maya as an “Age” or
“World.” In 2012, both a Great
Cycle and a Grand Cycle
come to close marking the
end of a Mayan “World.”
Hence, the mistaken belief
that the world is ending. Sec-
ond, approximately every
26,000 years the solar system
crosses the equatorial plane of
the galaxy, aligning us with
the centre of the Milky Way.
According to John Major
Jenkins our solar system is
currently crossing the plane of
the Milky Way, a process that
takes about 36 years. On Dec
21, 2012, as the Great Cycle
ends, we will be in alignment
with the centre of the galaxy.
Third, an amazing alignment
occurs in the sky on this date
between Mars, the Sun, Mer-
cury, Venus, and Saturn under
the constellation of the
Winged Horse. One has to
wonder how the Maya knew
of these events when they cre-
ated their calendar.
While this isn’t true that the
world is ending, it is an ex-
tremely significant time where
the world as we know may
change beyond recognition.
The end of one Age marks the
beginning of a new Age. We
are in that transition now; the
old is being destroyed and re-
placed with the new. The Ka-
tun prophecy in the Mayan
holy book, the Chilam Balam,
describes the old leaving
through upheavals in social
structures and environmental
stress. Socially, the Katun pre-
dicts economic collapse, loss
of faith in governments, star-
vation, riots and loss of faith
in religion. Environmentally,
it predicts pestilence, plague,
and an increase in the intensi-
ty of volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, and hurricanes.
Not all, however, is cata-
clysmic. There is light in the
predictions of the new world
of the solar system with the
Hunab’ku will bring an influx
of spiritual energy to the plan-
et. The new Age will be the
“Golden Age,” a time of shift-
ing paradigms where science
and religion both become
more focused on advancing
human consciousness. It’s a
time when people have better
access to innate human spirit-
ual ability and are awaken to
self-realisation. It is claimed
that there will be transparency
in governments and institu-
tions and the advent of lead-
ers we can trust.
Not all the researchers
agree that the Mayan Long
Count calendar ends in 2012,
a date that was determined by
archaeologists deciphering
glyphs on stele and monu-
ments. Some researchers,
like Carl Johan Calleman, be-
lieve the actual end of the
Long Count will happen in
October of 2011. The only
people who really know are
the Mayan day keepers who
are still alive today. Today’s
Mayan elders are soon to re-
veal five additional calendars
that may shed light on the
change underway.
The Mayan prophecies are
fascinating, but should we be-
lieve them? One reason you
might want to is the accuracy
puter calculations. As the
Hubble Space Telescope is
sending more pictures of gal-
axies back to earth, NASA is
only now able to confirm as-
tronomical observations of
the ancient Maya. If they
could see this far out into
space and this far into the fu-
ture, couldn’t they be correct
in their predictions?
However, the main reason
people are taking the 2012
predictions seriously is be-
cause they are proving ex-
tremely accurate. Today’s
headlines reveal a world in
chaos as the world economy
collapses, social structures are
stressed and in some places
people are fighting for food.
Climate change may provide
the mechanism for intensify-
ing storms, tsunamis and
earthquakes as well as pesti-
lence and plagues.
The message of the Mayan
calendar may well be to let go
of all that is not working in
our current paradigm and
to create the world we want
to live in; one based on truth,
justice and peace between
all the people.
Dr Synthia Andrews is the
co-author of The Complete Idiots
Guide to 2012
In the most popular corre-
lation to our calendar, this
equates to the 21st December
2012.
Baktun 13 (which is also
Baktun zero) starts when the
calendar reaches 13.0.0.0.0 in
December 2012… (The Book
of Chilam Balam of) Tizimin
adds a prediction of UFOs,
poor harvests and extreme
weather, along with a mass
near-death experience. How-
ever, the Maya were not the
only ones to see this coming.
There are several other inde-
pendent sources that also
mark 2012 as a conspicuous
time. In the 1970s, the Chi-
nese oracle, the I Ching was
found by Terence McKenna,
(who knew nothing of the
Maya calendar at that time),
to encode a fractal time wave
that terminates late in 2012.
In the 1980s, the Paqos,
who are priests of the Q’ero
tribe living in the Andes,
Peru, announced that their
Pachakuti formula – the over-
turning of spacetime – would
start in 1990 and last 22 years.
Thus 2012 would bring the
start of a Golden Age called
Taripay Pacha, when the up-
per world, lower world and
everyday world will unite.
All these other sources knew
the 13-baktun cycle of the Long Count
calendar of the Maya terminates on Winter
Solstice 2012… so what? Another
pseudo-apocalypse? wonders geoff stray
nothing of the Maya Long
Count, so what can it all
mean?
A clue may lie in human
neurochemistry, since Ter-
ence McKenna accessed the
information about 2012 when
using an entheogenic mush-
room, and the Maya used the
same mushroom, which con-
tains psilocybin – a com-
pound closely related to
dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
Dr. Rick Strassman has re-
cently confirmed that at birth,
death, and during mystical
experiences, the pineal gland
in the centre of the human
brain secretes DMT into the
blood. Perhaps the Maya sha-
mans, and the medicine men
and priests of North & South
America, were able to activate
the secretion of DMT, and ac-
cess some sort of global
mega-mind – the developing
consciousness of the Earth
mother.
The 5,125-year 13-baktun
cycle is exactly one eighth of
the 41,000-year period of the
“variation of obliquity” cycle
(change in the angle of axis
tilt) that is used to calculate
ice-melt cycles. The baktun it-
self is 400 years long, which is
the period of rotation of the
Earth’s core, and thus invites
the speculation that a geo-
magnetic reversal is on the
cards for 2012.
John Major Jenkins has
made a strong case that the
Maya were tracking the cycle
of precession with their Long
Count calendar. This is the
26,000-year cycle in which
the Earth’s axis, which is 23.5
degrees off “vertical”, rotates
in a circle, and is measured by
the movement of constella-
tions against the fixed posi-
rising on the horizon.
So this Galactic Alignment
process could indicate a time-
window that will see the first
examples of an altered hu-
manity – some think that we
can expect an increased tele-
pathic ability. If a geomagnet-
ic reversal is involved, or an
electro-magnetic pulse wave,
there is a possibility that the
functioning of electronic de-
vices would be compromised,
and pineal magnetite may be
affected, causing an internal
secretion of DMT. Others
think that it could trigger
mass out-of-body experiences
or the rising of Kundalini –
the fire serpent of Hindu lore
that lies dormant at the base
of the spine. This interpreta-
tion is reinforced by the re-
cently published lost Aztec
codex, The Pyramid of Fire,
in which the feathered ser-
pent god, Quetzalcoatl-Kuku-
lcan is revealed to be the
same as Kundalini, and is di-
rectly connected with 2012…
hang onto your hats!
GEOFF STRAY is the author of
Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awaken-
ing – A Complete Guide to End-of-
Time Predictions; The Mayan and
Other Ancient Calendars, and 2012
In Your Pocket – A Mini-Guide to the
End of the World as You Know it.

the sunday indian 48 27 december 2009 the sunday indian 49 27 december 2009