2012: Science or Science-Fiction?

On December 21, 2012 an ancient Mayan system of counting days will end and the planets in our solar system will be aligned with our Milky Way Galaxy. A program called 2012: The End of Time? put on by the History Channel has Mayan scholars, like Joseph Joschman and book authors like John Peterson that state that some of the events like global warming, species depletion and rapid climate change might be indicators that we are headed towards a crisis or dark time in our Earth's history. Was the ending of the Mayan long count calendar a preparation for a great sacrifice that the people of the land would have to make in order to bring in the new long count? Or is someone just trying to sell a story?

 

Before getting into the central issue it is important to understand what this Mayan system of counting days really is. The Mayans refer to this system as the long count and is also known as the Aztec Calendar. Embedded in what we know as the Aztec Calendar is the Mayan long count and other pertinent religious factors that combine areas of advanced math and astronomy as way of communicating with the their god, Huitzilopochtli, the sun god of war. Because of this use, the Mayans refer to this mechanism as their sun stone, a template to help them communicate with their most powerful god.

In the book called Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path the three co-authors and archeologists, David Freidel, Linda Schele and Joy Parker elaborate on the structure of the long count calendar. The Mayan believed that time only appeared to be linear, but was really unfolding in a "cyclic structure" (pg. 63). One comparison that the book makes is the way one might look at the surface of the earth. To the naked eye the surface of the earth appears flat, but the surface of the earth is actually round, and in this way so is time. So with this in mind one will understand the two circular structures that make up the Mayan long count.

 

Carl Johan Calleman's book called The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness goes further to explain it in numbers and symbols to make the system as simplistic as possible for the reader. The long count is calculated through the tun (360-day period) and the tzolkin (the 260-day period) . The tzolkin which simply means "count of days" consists of two wheels that run together. The first wheel is the 20-day count, or uinal which is represented by sacred animals that represent a spiritual power for that day. The second wheel is the 13-day count and it is represented by numbers and is known as the trecena. Basic math to remember is 20 times 13 equals 260 days. Calleman goes further to explain this system in his book, "The Long Count is the name given to the chronology used by the Maya in the Classical era to keep track of the long-term passage of time. The Long Count consisted of thirteen baktuns, which are periods of 400 tuns…one baktun is…144,000 days, amounting to 394.3 solar years."

 

In Calleman's book he claims that the beginning date of the thirteen baktuns of the Long Count was August 11, 3114 B.C.E. and the thirteenth baktun ends on December 21, 2012 which ends the long count. This is same time as the alignment of the planets and the sun with the Milky Way Galaxy. EJ Zita, a professor from the astronomy department at The Evergreen State College states this date a little more simplistically, "…the 2012 marker…[is] a reset point at which the Mayan calendar starts over. This is consistent with other elements of Mayan astronomy and cosmology. They were careful observers and had a uniquely accurate record of the repeating cycles of the 5 different patterns that Venus exhibits…" So what about this alignment with the Milky Way? Well, professor Zita elaborates on this point for us as well, "The solar system is embedded in the Milky Way. Consider marking a dot on a CD. The dot is our solar system, and the CD is the Milky Way. The CD spins, and the dot spins. Alignment of the dot with the CD is meaningless, unless there is a third object to define the "line" with respect to. Otherwise they are simply part of the same rotating system."

 

To the Mayan this "third object" or important factor that would complete the three points to the equation might have been the return of Quetzalcoatl. In An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya the co-authors, Mary Miller and Karl Taube elaborate on the creation story. They state here the myth of the five suns, the destruction of the previous four and the creation of the fifth. "Following the flood ending the fourth sun, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl raise the heavens by transforming themselves into two great trees."(pg. 70) Tezcatlipoca is elaborated in this book as the "smoking mirror" and Quetzalcoatl is known as the "feathered serpent." Calleman also signifies Quetzalcoatl at the very beginning of his book, "…the Mesoamerican deity called Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs…symbolized light as well as duality and is the carrier of the energy 9 Ik in the Sacred Calendar…it has been suggested that his earthly incarnations were manifestations of the same energy as that of Christ."

 

In an on-line article that I found (http://members.shaw.ca/mjfinley/creation.html) it points out a significant event in the creation myth of the Five Suns in the Codex Chimalpopoca:

"the world will pass through five "suns" ruled by different solar deities. The 4th sun ended when "it rained so hard the sky fell down." Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca changed themselves into trees. As the trees grew, "the sky was pushed up." Then these gods traveled the "White Road," the Milky Way, to meet in the heavens."

It might be wise to mention that a Codex (singular form of Codices) is an ancient Mayan book that recorded history, poetry, religious rituals, the art of healers and medicine men, creations stories, and scientific and mathematical advancements of the Mayan people. Most were destroyed during the colonization period and only four remain. The idea behind this was that in order to create the fifth sun there needed to be a great sacrifice, so Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca sacrificed themselves. Some might connect the alignment with the Milky Way as the return of Quetzalcoatl, also known as Kukulcan, the plumed serpent.

 

This return requires an equal amount of sacrifice, which was demonstrated by the Mayans and Aztecs through their famous ball games. In this game played, which was considered a ritual and not a recreational activity, the players object was to get the rubber ball into the hole (or hoop) three times. The ball itself was made of the sap of a sacred tree, and the hole was very similar to the structure of the sun. On the History Channel's program they pointed out that the Mayans predicted three solar eclipses that year, and the ball entering the hole might be an indication to those three eclipses. Once a team has accomplished getting the ball through the hole three times, the group's leader is sacrificed to the gods. The History Channel connected this as a symbolic representation of the sacrifice we will have to endure as a people with the coming of 2012.

 

Professor Zita had some controversial remarks regarding some of these speculations, "I have found that when I watch their shows that are outside my field of expertise, they seem pretty compelling, but when I watch something that I know about, I find significant errors and misleading information. Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson in particular has made a career of exaggerating "end of the world" scenarios in order to seize public attention."

 

This return of Quetzalcoatl brings to light another prophecy that Christians are all too familiar with, judgment day and the return of Jesus Christ. This arouses the curiosity that the creation story might have been established to prepare the people for a great religious event or it just might have been a way to explain the alignment and a day of honor to this event in the "heavens."

 

Stating the fact that the sun stone and all its scientific and mathematical calculations was a way of communicating with the Mayan god Huitzilopochtli one might understand the need to have an exact science of math and astronomy in order to accurately connect with their god. Mayan society was highly advanced in their mathematics and astronomy, so much that all of their temples were built with exact calculations and correlations with the cycles of the sun. While visiting the Yucatan peninsula in the summer of 2004 my tour guide of the Mayan ruins in the region explained how some of these calculations manifested like it the example of the legendary temple Chich'en Itza. The temple was built with such precision that the architects were able to recreate a serpent alongside the pyramid during the spring equinox, which has consistently created large amounts of spectators during the event. Another scholar interviewed in the History Channel's 2012: The End of Time? Gregg Braden, author of The Divine Matrix, states that this advanced mathematical system that the Mayan developed calculated all solar eclipses, equinoxes and solaces with incredible accuracy that one might wonder what significant event they were preparing for by ending the calendar on the exact date of the alignment with the Milky Way.

 

Professor Zita ended our interactions by stating, "…big fads among modern American for creating new philosophies/spiritualities/pseudosciences loosely based on Mayan (or Hopi, or Taoist…) ideas that they poorly understand. Some of these enthusiast add their own elements to the philosophy and then market it to groups of western peers…The most "successful" cultural appropriators become very popular and make a lot of money, not necessarily with much real respect for or understanding of the founding culture."

 

This leaves the question are we being hoaxed by manipulators or are we being prepared by fragmented past information?