Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Why 2012?

2012 & The Consciousness Singularity

Mayan CalendarIf you have not yet encountered any of the information related to this particular year amongst counterculture web pages, books and radio shows, it is worth taking a quick look at the background data. This introduction to the subject will have to be necessarily brief in scope, as there is simply far too much for any one person to convey or for that matter absorb, in a single sitting. The basis of the interest in the year 2012 is in the closing of a great cycle within the Mayan calendar system. The ancient Mayan people of Central America kept the most complex calendar system in the known world. In all they had some 17 different calendars running in unison. The best way to visualize this is as a number of interlocking cogs of various sizes grinding against each other, thus days had a number of component parts. Of course we have an element of these process ourselves within our simpler Gregorian calendar, seven named days, up to 31 numbered days meshing with 12 named months as years pass.

Each calendar related information on schedules for tasks or events such as seed planting, religious rites, eclipse’s, mystical predictions and other happenings seen as cyclical in nature. The calendar that most concerns us here is the 13-Baktun or ‘Long Count' system which runs for just over 5125 years, its start and end set by the originators long, long ago. Who exactly set this calendar turning is not known, however it started on 11-08-3114 BCE and is set to complete on the winter solstice of 2012. The most glaring anomaly here is that the calendar does not start from anywhere near the time of its apparent introduction to the Mayan people, they are very clear on the fact that that thousands of years of the great cycle passed before their particular description of its mechanics. Available evidence tends to suggest they inherited the Long Count from more ancient peoples of Central America , likely the Toltec’s and Olmec. Even so, this still does not take us back to anywhere near five thousand years ago.

There are a number of reasons why modern scholars are fascinated by the Mayan people and their amazing calendar systems. It’s important to note that mainstream researchers and those in the counterculture often do not agree on what is most important about this time measuring system. Some aspects however, are considered important by both camps. To better introduce the Mayan people themselves I have used the information of an academic authority on the Maya civilisation, Professor Michael D. Coe. His description of the 'historical Maya' peoples is only summarized here, however his books can be found in your local library or online for the full story.

The ancient Maya people were residents of the Yucatan peninsula, Guatemala , Belize and some parts of Mexico , El Salvador and Honduras. Their civilization rose to prominence in approx. 250AD and receded/collapsed in around 900AD. Before that was the pre-classic period going back to around 2000BC in which they developed a farming culture. The classic period saw the building of some of the most astounding structures in South America including those at sites such as Copan, Palenque, Chich'en Itza and the palace of Xpuhil .

They adopted, and radically advanced, the calendar systems already existing from earlier cultures in the South America 's and took astronomical understanding to a very high level. They were aware of both the solar and tropical year, though seemed happy to go with a 365 day 'vague' year, which slowly shifted due to the extra time ignored. They were however extremely concerned with keeping the lunar month accurate, calculating it to be 29.53020 days long, we now know it is actually 29.53059. For Venus they used a 584 day calendar system, we now know it is 583.92. They also seem to have arrived close to both the years of Mars and Mercury, with their figures of 780 and 116 days respectively.

Maya technology and wisdom was also applied to the arts, they managed to create some of the most amazing works of carving that we know of. The working of hard volcanic stone and gems was nothing less than incredible. Their artists often bored holes in tiny jade beads that were so precise and slim; we today would have to use our most advanced facilities to match them.

The Maya people had a complex spiritual hierarchy of Gods and metaphysical beings. Their rich cosmology, mythology and religious doctrines are absorbing and fascinating. Most notable is the God-Man known as Quetzalcoatl, whom is often discussed in relation to 2012 lore. They perceived time to be cyclical, rather than linear like us. Cosmic order was viewed from a cause and effect perspective, but included causes originating in unseen higher realms, this related to their view that all things are interconnected whether physical or metaphysical.

When a people clearly obsessed with cyclical events, known for pinpoint accuracy, adopt a calendar as enormous in scope as the 13-Baktun most scholars conclude they would only do so if it tracked something particularly important to their civilization. The Mayans themselves have said that the 5125-year period encompasses a single world age and that such world ages are prone to ending with environmental disasters. They have also said that in their spiritual belief system the end of a world age is a time of great opportunity. Each time this occurs humanity will choose to either move into a new more harmonious age, or face an apocalyptic catastrophe. Thus far mankind has experienced four catastrophic events that they recall in their mythology and was largely obliterated by floods, fire, wind and earthquakes.

There is also evidence that the 21-12-2012 date was considered important to various other ancient peoples from the Americas and further a field in places such as Sumer , China and Egypt . Certainly many modern indigenous American peoples agree with the Mayans, most notably the Hopi Indians, but tribes from the furthest regions of the Amazon jungles in the South to the frozen wastes of the Canadian North also concur. In Egypt we find that the pyramids of the Giza plateau seem to have been set in such a way as to provide both a time marker and an optimum viewing platform for the astronomical phenomena associated with the winter solstice of 2012. On that day the milky way will seem to rise horizontal to the Nile on the ground, whilst Orion’s belt will align with the three major pyramids, revealing the old axiom, ’as above so below’. Additionally the sun will rise up into the position of alignment with the centre of our milk way galaxy, whilst Venus will switch to its morning star phase in its cycle. Some Egyptian mythology states that this event marks the birth of a new age via the 'channel of the ages' from the centre of our cosmos, a location linked with their concept of Ma’at, or that which brings order from chaos in the universe.

During the 1970’s the McKenna brothers investigated the possibility that the ancient Chinese divinatory system, the I-Ching, had originated as an ancient Chinese calendar. They used a Mandelbrot fractal set system to investigate this possibility, and surprisingly the overlay revealed a pattern within the ever diminishing numeric flow. The pattern discovered seemed to mesh well with the 13-month lunar calendar, precession of the equinox, sun spot cycles and recorded major events in human evolution. Although perhaps not conclusive, their findings are suggestive of a calendar system not wholly unlike that of the Mayans being present. It is important to note that their work was done prior to any talk of the Mayan calendar.



What are the physical & meta-physical happenings associated with the year 2012?


Alice FallingThe year 2012 has come to serve as a hub, nexus and strange attractor for myriad types of information, predictions, phenomena and events over the last decade or so. The entire period between the early 1990’s and onward to the early 2020’s is almost as important to look at. Unlike the talk surrounding Y2K this is not a one day event subject; most people are not expecting much of note other than certain astronomical occurrences to happen on the 21st of December in 2012, no sudden end of the world. Rather the date is regarded as a spectral portal through which human consciousness itself will pass, and be weighed in its worth, much like the ancient Egyptian belief that men’s souls were weighed on the scales of the Gods, so as to assign them to their correct afterlife.

This period of some two decades or more has been categorized by some of the indigenous elders of tribes such as the Mayans, as the 'speeding up', or 'quickening'. This is so labelled because our perception of events will change, things will seem to happen exponentially faster as time itself spirals into smaller and smaller loops before entering the 2012 singularity. It is also held that in this temporal bottleneck past and future will be constantly in flux, ancient phenomena and future phenomena manifesting alongside those of the modern day. Alogside this timeslip, will be a polarizing of forces with a swelling of interest in compassionate spiritual living, met by a diametrically opposed rise in aggression and greed.

Some of the more often discussed esoteric subjects in relation to this period are the birth on the planet of a generation of highly advanced spiritual beings, currently commonly labelled as Indigo Children, and a massive increase in the occurrence of both psychic abilities and supernatural phenomena. Other subjects being expounded within the 2012 counterculture are the possible arrival of aliens, or some kind of biblical ascension in which 'spiritually pure' persons will pass into higher realms of existence, or indeed walk into the Christian heaven.

The plethora of 2012 information souces also deal with the manifold physical happenings associated with the predicted changes. This includes a great number of disaster level Earth events, as well as radical changes in how human society functions globally both in political and social terms. Most of the related books, web-sites, and radio shows seemingly agree that the period in which 2012 serves as a hub will include many painful happenings. The phrase that perhaps best sums up this mode of thinking would be, “you can’t make an omelette without breaking any eggs”.

Seemingly when new ages of existence are being born it is much akin to a human birth, plenty of pain and suffering pre-empt the moment of joy and relief when the act is complete and all is found to be well. There are a number of both earthly and cosmic disaster scenarios discussed in relation to this time. These include, but are certainly not limited to; mega-tsunami, super-volcanoes, mega-quakes, massive solar flares, super-storms, biosphere collapse, colossal meteor impacts, magnetic & geological pole reversals, earth crust displacement, encounters with an ‘X’ planet or large-scale terrestrial and extra-terrestrial warfare. Each scenario has a wealth of evidence behind it, though it quickly becomes clear that some are far more unlikely than others.



Important points to emphasize:

1. Despite much of what is being said on the internet currently 21-12-2012 is not a doomsday.


2. If nothing other than certain astronomical events happen on the date this does not quash the subject as the date is merely a hub.


3. Much of what is being discussed in relation to the subject is in no way sanctioned by the actual indigenous Mayan people.


4. Practically every form of supernatural, spiritual, and esoteric phenomena is in some way now linked to the 2012 subject.


5. Nobody is 100% sure about the true meaning of the 2012 data and about what we should do, where we should be or what will happen!

Total Eclipse of the Moon: 2008 February 21

Global Circumstances

Global Visibility of the Total Eclipse of the Moon on 2008 February 21

The global visibility of this lunar eclipse is shown in the diagram to the left. A higher quality version of this global plot can be downloaded in pdf format by clicking on this image.

An explanation of this diagram can be found here.



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