As December 21, 2012, the day which marks the end of the 5,126 year Mayan Long Count Calendar cycle approaches, the voice of responsible scientists and psychics continue to speak out against doomsday soothsayers who predict that the day will be a time of chaos and cataclysm in the world. But even as this conflict of idea appears to be moving into the court of reason, an additional, and more insidious magical concept continues to holds great sway among writers on and readers about the new age to come after December 21, 2012. This bastion of imprecise thinking promulgates the belief that the change in configuration of the stars, and the mere end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar cycle, will usher in a new age, and a new “Sun World” full of new ideas and approaches to living. Now granted, just by definition, December 21, 2012 will usher in a new Sun World, because the Mayans so decree that a new Sun World is ushered in every 13 Baktuns. Baktuns are a calendar cycle composed of 144,000 days, and every 13 Baktuns, a new Sun world is created, according to Mayan belief. But as people read about December 21,2012, and are exposed to voluminous writings on the web and in other media about the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, many begin to unthinkingly believe that the mere end of this period of time, and mere configuration of the stars on that day, will do something magical that will usher in a new age bringing with it a new paradigm of living.
And it’s not at all surprising that such an idea should catch hold of the masses, because the belief that the position of the stars affects our lives is ingrained in us by frequent exposure to prevalent beliefs about astrology. The truth or fallacy of this central tenant of astrology hinges upon whether one sector of the heavens differs from another so much so that our lives are severely influenced by where the Earth-Sun axis points, i.e. to Sagittarius or to Scorpio. The other possibility is that astrological belief is more of a projection, possibly related to the seasons constellations appeared in when they were first named, or the imagery suggested by their shape. Forgetting the astrology argument for a minute, there’s evidence that the whole mythology about December 21, 2012, is projective in nature.
On December 21, 2012, people viewing the sky from South America, will see the Sun crossing the sector of the sky where the Great Rift, a cloud of dark gaseous material sitting between or solar system and the center of the Milky Way, is seen crossing the constellation belt between Scorpio and Sagittarius. Of course this can only be actually seen at night, at times when the Sun is in a constellation far from away Scorpio and Sagittarius so that Scorpio and Sagittarius appear in the dark night sky. According to the Mayans, as the Sun crosses this rift, it will pick up primal energies from the underworld, which emanates from the dark rift, and so be rejuvenated. The mythology is very meaningful and worth studying, and I don’t in any way mean to put it down, but I must point out that according to sky charts, 5125 years ago, at the precise time when this current Mayan “Sun World,’ was being born, the Sun was not crossing the Great Rift, but was in Virgo.
In truth, Mayan’s frequently use fudge factors to make their calendar cycles fit events in the heavens. (Note how Mayans add 5 days to their 360 day cycle to make a complete year). So they may have changed the date of the start of the last Sun World to a date on which the Sun was crossing the Dark Rift, But even if they did use such a fudge factor, and made this Sun World start on a day when the Sun crossed the Great Rift, we know from our astronomers that the Great Rift is only a cloud of interstellar junk that stands between us and the center of the Milky Way. The real dark hole at the center of the Milky Way is in the star cluster Sagittarius A, which sits behind the dark rift. So what primal energy could be coming from a vast cloud of spacial dust? What is more reasonable is to assume that the Mayans attributed powers to the Great Rift because in appearance it does resemble the opening to the human womb.
But if the cosmology surrounding the Mayan Calendar Cycle is a story made to fit appearances in the sky, what could be responsible for so many people coming up with similar paradigms about the “New Age,” and how to live in it. Each psychic and New Age expert is talking about a future in which there will be increased individual connection to the Universe, increase psychic ability, increased reliance on natural foods, increase use of natural healing, and a decrease in top-down leadership.
The explanation of this phenomenon is that the call for new paradigms of living is a natural response to a world that has become more and more technical, and more and more into controlling and dominating nature. This trend has created a dialectical process with nature, which not unlike the economic dialectical process is doomed to collapse. The most obvious example of why this has to happen is the growing problem of Global Warming, which has resulted from industrial pollution of the atmosphere. Man has to become more connected and sensitive to the environment, nature, and the Universe, because if he doesn’t the destructive process of Global Warming will continue to increase until it forces men on the planet to do so. Writers that talk about how to survive in the futuristic world are people with foresight. If their answers seem similar, it’s because there are all talking about the same problem, they are all trying to provide real solutions, and they are all basing their suggestions on similar conclusions about the way in which modern life is trending.