There is a Dutch scientist who got bored and made a website about all the end of the world scenarios:
http://http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm (It's English, and written quite nice)
He also wrote a book about it all.
It's pretty cool.
And his idea of the Maya Calendar:
Will
it
be the end of everything? Or will it be the dawning of the age of
Aquarius? No
one really knows. One thing's for sure, though. December 21st of the
year 2012
is the day time as we know it will end.
So at least claim the
Maya's, that
ancient civilization that lived in the Mesoamerica's since 2,600 BC.
The
Maya's had an extremely complicated method of keeping track of time,
based on
three separate calendars. The most important, most encompassing of
these calendars
holds the `Long Count': the period from the beginning until the end of
time.
And on December 21st 2012, the Long Count expires. It will be point
zero. Time
will be up for the Universe. It will be, literally, the end of days.
Big
deal, you
might say. Still, there's a couple of very interesting (and
disturbing)
facts about the Maya calendar's end. Most intriguing, 21-12-2012 is
not a day
like any other. Up in the sky, an extraordinary and incredibly rare
event will
take place. The Sun will move to a unique spot in the sky -- and hold
still
for a while, since it is solstice day. The Sun will sit precisely on
the
heavenly crossroads between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox,
forming a
perfect alignment with the center of the galaxy.
Er... what?
Well: the night time sky is
crossed
by several mathematical lines. One is the axis of the Milky Way -- the
Milky
Way, as you may know, being that bright band of stars you can see
running across
the heavens on a clear night. Another important line is the
cosmological
ecliptic: the axis along which the constellations travel, the line
that
defines coordinates in space.
You
can say a lot about the Maya, but you've got to hand it to
them: they
knew a hell of a lot about stars. For instance, they calculated the
exact
duration of a year to a thousandth of a decimal point, much more
precise than
any Greek or enlightened philosopher ever did. Also, they were able to
predict
every solar and lunar eclipse until this day. And obviously, they knew
where
the galactic equinox and the exact middle of the Milky Way lay: they
called
this crossing `the Sacred Tree'.
More disturbing, the Maya's
were
awfully good at astrology, too. Mysteriously, they predicted in what
year
their civilization would be overrun by foreigners coming from over the
seas.
Legend has it they even predicted the world wars. So if a Maya tells
you the
world will end in 2012, you'd better take it seriously.
But
actually,
the Maya's never predicted anything concrete about 2012. That may have
something to do with our ill knowledge about Maya culture: when the
Spanish
ransacked the land, they burnt literally every Maya book they could
find. Only
a handful of scriptures survived. And in them, there's not a clue
about what
happens when the Maya calendar ends.
So what awaits us in 2012
basically
is an open question. And as with so many open questions, countless
doom
preachers, semi-prophets and other crackpots pop up to provide an
answer. The
interpretation you hear most: 2012 will mark the coming of a new,
glorious age
of wisdom and peace. It will be Age Of Aquarius at last, with a world
full of
peace, love and understanding.
The reasoning behind this
is
actually not
that stupid. The Maya's didn't really believed in endings: their
conception of time was circular, with every end being the beginning of
something new. So, 2012 shouldn't be an exception.
Also,
the
Maya's had a highly developed philosophy of the cosmos. They saw the
cosmos as
the true mother of things. Consequently, the Maya's thought the cosmos
is all
around us, and within us. Every plant, every animal, every man is
sheer
Cosmos.
So,
New Age philosophers say, December 21st 2012 will be the day on
which
this inner cosmos is reconnected to the divine outer cosmos. The Sun
will
mount its unique position to form
a `gateway' between the Universe and the souls of every living
creature on
Earth. Our linear conception of time will crumble, and with it, fear
and
hatred will vanish. It will be purification at it's very best, when
everyone
is soaked in cosmic understanding and divine love.
So
there it is: on December 20th, you'll kick your dog, yell at your
spouse and
cheat on cards. But a day later, you'll be calmed down into a peaceful
dude
with nothing but love and understanding to guide you in life. Even
though it's
mid-winter, it'll be summer of love for all humanity.
Other
doomsayers foresee doom and destruction. December 21st will be
the
day the Earth will be destroyed. Some think it will be because of some
nuclear
war, some say it will be because it's biblical judgment
day. Even others take
the ending of the Maya calendar more literally, and claim the Universe
will
just cease to exist. Zzzzp!,
gone.
There's
something to be said in favor of such sinister scenario's, too. The
Maya
divided their Long Count into five lumps of time, called Great Cycles.
And
every cycle had a well defined end. For example, after period number
one, a
Jaguar came by and ate everyone on Earth. Well, it's the Maya saying
this, not
me!
The
second cycle ended in air, the third in fire, the fourth in flood. And
what
about the last period, the stretch of time we're in? The Earth will be
destroyed by earthquakes, is the interpretation some scholars give to
the
etchy-sketchy remains of the Maya culture. That needs emphasizing,
because the
last word on Maya timekeeping isn't said yet: almost every year new
books on
the issue are published.
So,
what are we to make of it all? Will it be time's up in 2012?
Well: we
at Exit Mundi wouldn't bet on it.
Don't
forget: there are many, many religions predicting some kind of end to
the
world. And the Maya prediction attracts a lot of attention now, merely
because
their end date is so well-defined, and because the Maya Deadline is
only a
couple of time-ticks away.
And
what about that awesome phenomenon of the Sun sitting in the heart of
the Tree
of Life? Well, that happened before. The Sun passes the Tree every
25,800 years.
That's a lot of years, but since the Earth exists for an astonishing
4,5
billion years, the Earth survived the `divine event' more than 150,000
times
already!
What's
more, the last six times the phenomenon occurred, modern humans
already walked the planet.
Obviously, it
didn't have much effect on our spiritual lives. It certainly didn't
stop the Spanish from butchering some 800,000 Maya's in the sixteenth
century.
