21 December, 2012
THE MAYA CALENDAR "The Beginning or the End?"

 

Throughout the jungles of Guatemala, Yucatán Mexico, Belize and some of Honduras, are the remains of the Maya Civilization. Their mysterious temples, calendars, stone carvings, hieroglyphs, etc. are scattered almost everywhere.

Reading what the anthropologists, astrologers or astronomers say about The Maya and the approaching Winter Solstice on the 12^th of December 2012 is interesting. This is the so-called End Date that comes from the most accepted Maya Calendar.  The vast majority of writing found on this subject is written in words aimed at specialists and or written in language that is hard to read.

A great deal of scientific and visionary research work has been done about the Maya. The Maya tracked cycles within cycles and also within cycles of time. Their calendar seems to link and coordinate the lunar, earth, solar and galactic seasons in a simple but elegant manner.  

So why is there so much talk about the "end of the Maya calendar" and what does it mean? Is there something especially significant we should know about the Winter Solstice on 21^st day of December 2012?  Why should anyone care about the Maya today? Is there anything that can be learned from them? How did the Maya track such long periods of time with such accuracy?

Some answers are found in the book “The Mayan Factor” by Jose Arguelles. His book explains the 20 Maya day signs and the thirteen Maya numbers in the mysterious 260 day Maya ceremonial calendar, called the Tzolkin. Other books also offer numerous and varied explanations of the Maya calendars.   

On the Winter Solstice of 21 December 2012 there is something we should all know about. On this day a rare astronomical and Maya mythical event occurs.

Using astronomer’s terms on that date, the Sun conjuncts at a point in the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic East to West track on which the Sun, Moon, the planets and stars appear to travel in the sky. The Milky Way extends in a general North to South direction.  The East to West plane of the ecliptic track intersects the Milky Way at an approximate 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius.

A cosmic cross is formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic. The Maya called this cross the Sacred Tree (Today known as the Ceiba Tree). The trunk of the tree is the Milky Way or the axis, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic track. Mythically, at sunrise on 21^st December 2012, the Sun (The Maya Father) rises to conjoin with the center of the Sacred Tree, sometimes called The World Tree, or the Tree of Life.  The Maya believed that the tree meant survival of humanity and that "if the last tree dies, soon after the human race will also die. Today the giant Ceiba tree is believed to be the Sacred Tree of The Maya. The Ceiba is also Guatemala’s National Tree.

This rare astronomical event that was foreseen in the Maya story of the Hero Twins, and calculated by them, will happen for many of us in our lifetime. The Sun has not conjoined the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic since some 25,800 years ago, long before the Maya arrived on the scene and long before their predecessors arrived.   

Meaning that due to a phenomenon of the equinoxes, caused by the Earth's wobble that lasts almost 26,000 years, the apparent location of the Winter Solstice sunrise has been ever so slowly moving toward the galactic center. The Maya noticed the change of the positions of stars in the night sky over long periods of observation, they noticed the earth rise and dip on its axis and foresaw this coming event. Using Long Count, the Maya forwarded the count to 21 December 2012, the end of their Great Cycle, and then they likely counted backwards to decide where the calendar would begin. Meaning the Great Cycle (we are currently in) began on August 11, 3114 BCE (Before the Christian Era).    

Many believe The Maya calendar does not actually end in 2012, but more likely, all the cycles turn over and start again, going into to a new era. It is believed The Maya writings describe the large and fast growing Ceiba trees as intermediaries between the physical and spiritual worlds, and believed them to be absolutely essential to life. They also seemed to believe that without the trees man could not survive and that with the death of the last tree, the human race will also perish.

The many ancient carved stone and wood figures in addition to the stars themselves possibly just tell us we are on the brink of a new world age. Man can only imagine what may be in store in the year 2012.  

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Maya Calendar