Saturday, December 8, 2012

THE MAYAN CALENDAR END-DATE -- 21 December, 2012 -- Information Made Easy for the Everyday Earthling to Understand. . .


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THE MAYAN CALENDAR END-DATE -- 21 December, 2012 -- Information Made Easy for the Everyday Earthling to Understand. . .
Posted By: Bob [Send E-Mail]
Date: Saturday, 8-Dec-2012 16:44:26

21 December 2012
THE MAYAN CALENDAR END-DATE
Information Made Easy for the Everyday Earthling to Understand
by Jim Papp
Visit our new site http://inquirewithin.com for Jim's updated 2012 & Beyond article.
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Most of us are not archaeologists or astronomers, anthropologists or astrologers.
Yet the majority of what is written about one of the most exciting and relevant subjects of our day -
The approaching Winter Solstice 2012 end-date of the Mayan Calendar - appears in words aimed at specialists and couched in language that can be hard to read.
This article is written for the Everyday Earthling who may be hearing a lot about the Mayans, their calendars, hieroglyphs and mysterious temples scattered throughout the jungles of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
Let us begin with some questions.
Why is there so much talk about the "end of the Mayan calendar" and what does it mean?
Is there something significant we should know about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012?
How were the Mayans able to track long periods of time and why would they want to? Why should we care about the Mayans today?
Is there anything we can learn from them? I'll begin by sharing how my own interest in the subject developed and go on from there.
I first learned about the Mayans in 1987 from Jose Arguelles' book The Mayan Factor.
It was during the months leading up to the event known as Harmonic Convergence that Arguelles, artist and visionary, introduced me to the 20 Mayan daysigns and the thirteen Mayan numbers - and
To the wonderfully engaging and mysterious 260 day Mayan ceremonial calendar, called the Tzolkin (pronounced chol-kin).
My pursuit of knowledge about pre-Columbian culture had begun.
A great deal of scientific and visionary research work has been done about the Mayans, so I started reading.
I learned that the Mayans tracked cycles within cycles within cycles of time.
Their calendar acted as a harmonic calibrator, linking and coordinating the earthly, lunar, solar and galactic seasons in an aesthetically simple and elegant manner.
The provocative simplicity of the daysigns and the sheer harmony of the calendar drew me in.
Then a landmark article by John Major Jenkins appeared in Mountain Astrologer magazine in 1994, revealing for the first time in our era the true meaning of the end-date.
Is there something significant we should know about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012?
Yes.
On this day a rare astronomical and Mayan mythical event occurs.
In astronomic terms, the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic.
The Milky Way, as most of us know, extends in a general north-south direction in the night sky.
The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west.
It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius.
The 'cosmic cross' formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic, was called the 'Sacred Tree' by the Maya.
The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree, is the plane of the ecliptic.
Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun - our Father - rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life..
This rare astronomical event, foretold in the Mayan creation story of the Hero Twins, and calculated empircally 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 for 25,800 or 25,920 or so, years ago,
Long before the Mayans arrived on the scene and long before their predecessors the Olmecs arrived. What does this mean?
Due to a phenomenon called the "precession 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.
Precession may be understood by watching a spinning top.
Over many revolutions the top will rise and dip on its axis, not unlike how the Earth does, over an extremely long period (26000 years) of time.
One complete rise and dip, constitutes this 'cycle of precession'.
The Mayans noticed the relative slippage of the positions of stars in the night sky, over long periods of observation, indicative of precession, and foretold this great coming attraction.
By using an invention called the Long Count, the Mayans fast-forwarded to anchor December 21, 2012, as the end of their Great Cycle, and then counted backwards to decide where the calendar would begin.
Thus the Great Cycle we are currently in began on August 11, 3114 B.C. But there's more.
The Great Cycle, lasting 1,872,000 days and equivalent to 5,125.36 years, is but one fifth of the Great Great Cycle,
Known scientifically as the 'Great Year' or the 'Platonic Year' - the length of the precession of the equinoxes (approx. every 26000 years).
To use a metaphor from the modern industrial world, on Winter Solstice A.D. 2012, it is as if the Giant Odometer of Humanity on Earth hits 100,000 miles and all the cycles big and small turn over to begin anew.
The 'present world age will end' and a 'new world age' will begin.
Over a year's time the Sun transits through the twelve houses of the zodiac.
Many of us know this by what "Sun sign" is associated with our birthday.
Upping the scale to the Platonic Year - the 26,000 year long cycle - we are shifting, astrologically, from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.
The Mayan calendar does not really "end" in 2012, but rather, all the cycles turn over and start again, vibrating to a new era.
It is as if humanity and the Earth will graduate in the eyes of the Father Sun and Grandmother Milky Way.
Why should we care about the Mayans today? Is there anything we can learn from them?
The trees give us oxygen to breathe and help create the nourishing rains upon which we depend, sustaining life.
We are missing these rains in places where the trees have been cut down or burned. Fires begin that nature can no longer extinguish.
For the Mayans, trees were intermediaries between the physical and spiritual worlds, and absolutely essential to life.
They believed that without the tree man could not survive and that "with the death of the last tree comes the death of the human race."
The ancient carved stones and the stars themselves tell us we are on the brink of a new world age.
There is no reason not to take a 'leap of faith' into imagining what may be in store.
We may trust that it is time for humanity to awaken into a true partnership with each other, with the Earth, and the Cosmos.
By accepting this partnership we may claim our birthright and become Galactic Citizens who care for and sustain the planet, thus sustaining ourselves.
This is clearly the challenge of our times.
Yet, arriving just in time and on schedule is the Winter Solstice dawn on the day we may remember that we are truly Children of the World.
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THE TREES WHO TALKED
We speak to you now
As ones, who like you,
Are much younger than
The Mountains
Sustained by the same Water
And the same Sun
And both blessed to be
In this place of wonder,
We have been asked to tell you
To share and celebrate
This Garden with your kind
The Bear brings you power,
The Deer, protection
We, the Trees, standing silently
In witness, give you trust
The Water comes and goes
The Animals are busy
On their own paths
The Mountains, well,
They have other things to do,
Communing with the very forces
That created the face
Of this Earth
We speak to you now as ones
Whose lives come and go,
Much like yours.
You, however, are affecting
How this Garden grows
And that is why we seek
Your attention
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arguelles, Jose
1987 The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology. Bear and Company,
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Freidel, David, Linda Schele and Joy Parker
1993 Maya Cosmos:- 3000 Years on the Shaman's Path. William Morrow
and Co., New York
Jenkins, John Major
1994 Tzolkin:- Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies.
Borderland Sciences Research Foundation,
Garberville, California
1994 The How and Why of the Mayan End-Date in A.D. 2012.
The Mountain Astrologer, Cedar Ridge, California.
1998 Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. Bear and Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico
MacAdams, Cynthia, Hunbatz Men and Charles Bensinger
1991 Mayan Vision Quest. HarperCollins Publishers, New York
Men, Hunbatz
1990 Secrets of Mayan Science and Religion.
Bear and Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico
This article is copyright 1998 by Jim Papp, Bellingham, Washington 98228-1017 USA. <http://inquirewithin.com/2012-beyond
Questions: Email Jim or Lisa Papp at inquirewithinbook@gmail.com
Over the past decade, many people and websites have copied, plagarized, and re-posted this article without giving proper credit and a link back. We appreciate your honesty in giving Jim credit and linking back to our new site. Thank you!!

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