On the winter solstice of 2012, the noonday Sun exactly conjuncts
the crossing point of the sun's ecliptic with the galactic plane,
while also closely conjuncting the exact the center of the galaxy.
The place where the December solstice sun crosses the Milky Way
is precisely the location of the "dark-rift in the Milky Way
...'xibalba be' - the road to the underworld."
I have heard these and similar stories since I was a child, and have a particular interest due to some purported/imagined Mayan ancestry. So.., I was wondering if any of you historians could shed some light on the origins of the ancient Mayan prophesies of Dec 21, 2012. My interest is in knowing whether these beliefs are rooted in astrology, mysticism, or religion. Of course, astrology as a religion does exist, but I am looking more for a separatism or narrowing to a historical period, if possible. With thousands of places to research and read, I am hoping that someone has an actual historical account of the beginnings of this belief that is widely attributed to the Mayans, although I have learned that this belief existed within many different cultures as well; to wit:
As avid stargazers, the ancient Maya were keen to an astrological cycle we call the Precession of the Equinoxes. This is close to a 26,000 year cycle in which Earth transits through each of the 12 signs of the zodiac for about 2152 years each. Each of these astrological ages represents one month of the grand, Cosmic Year.
Sumerians, Tibetans, Egyptians, Cherokees, Hopi, and Mayans refer to this same 26,000 year cycle in their mystical belief systems and each have developed calendars based on this great cycle.
http://www.13moon.com/prophecy%20page.htm
The date December 21st, 2012 A.D. (13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count), represents an extremely close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (Equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun), what that ancient Maya recognized as the Sacred Tree. This is an event that has been coming to
resonance very slowly over thousands and thousands of years. It will come to resolution at exactly 11:11 am GMT.
Mayan scholars have been attempting to correlate the Long Count with our Western Gregorian calendar, since the beginning of this century. There has been massive variation in the suggested correlations, but as early as 1905, Goodman suggested a correlation only 3 days from the most popular one today. Known as the GMT correlation, or "correlation # 584283", this was finalized in 1950, and puts the start of the Great Cycle ( day 0.0.0.0.0) on 11th August 3114 BC, and the end-date (known as 13.0.0.0.0.) as 21st December 2012.
In the mythology of the Aztecs, the first age of mankind ended with the animals devouring humans. The second age was finished by wind, the third by fire, and the fourth by water. The present fifth epoch is called Nahui-Olin (Sun of Earthquake), which began in 3113 BC and will end on December 24, 2011. It will be the last destruction of human existence on Earth. The date coincides closely with that determined by the brothers McKenna in The Invisible Landscape as the end of history indicated by their computer analysis of the ancient Chinese oracle-calendar, the I Ching. We also have some researchers such as Terence Mc Kenna who claim that Earth comes into alignment with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at this date, and that linear time breaks down at that point. world.http://www.greatdreams.com/end-world.htm
The Maya believed that time was cyclical instead of the western conception of linear time. This means that they thought that time repeated itself, so therefore, if they knew the past they could predict the future. By understanding time, they Maya could gain power over their world. Another important calendar for the Maya was the Venus cycle. The Maya were excellent astronomers, and could calculate the Venus cycle with only a two-hour margin of error.
http://www.armageddononline.org/mayan_calendar.php
On Sunspots:
Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterell, in their book the Mayan Prophecies, say that the end of the Great Cycle is the culmination of a series of long-term sunspot cycles which will flip the sun’s magnetic field, causing earthquakes and flooding on earth. Moreover, the changing magnetic field will alter the endocrine production of the pineal gland.
Note: Real science is predicting the next/current sun cycle to be the worst in 50 years. The first two sunspot's of 2006 are moving in reverse direction.
Generally speaking, scientifically accepted records of sunspot activity do seem to be heading for a climax in the near future. From: http://www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/
August 15, 2006: On July 31st, a tiny sunspot was born. It popped up from the sun's interior, floated around a bit, and vanished again in a few hours. On the sun this sort of thing happens all the time and, ordinarily, it wouldn't be worth mentioning. But this sunspot was special: It was backward.
The Milky Way connection:
"The Milky Way is observed as a bright, wide band of stars arching through the sky. In the clear skies of ancient Mesoamerica, many dark, blotchy areas could be observed along the Milky Way's length. These are "dark cloud" formations caused by interstellar dust. The most prominent of these is called the "dark-rift" or the "Great Cleft" of the Milky Way. It looks like a dark road running along the Milky Way, and it points right at the cosmic crossing point, the center of the Maya Sacred Tree, right where the sun will be in 2012! The Maya called this dark-rift the Black Road, or the Road to the Underworld. They seem to have imagined it as a portal to another world, and the December solstice sun can enter it only in A.D. 2012. http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm
recent picture of the milky way:
This photo was taken in Southern France by Laurent Laveder on 7-28-08
