Earthpulse Blog

I am assuming most of you have at least some idea about the Mayan prophecies and the suggestion that Dec 21st 2012 could be an important date for humanity. My entry today is an attempt to provide a brief overview of why the date is so interesting. I have set this topic up as a category in its own right as I intend to add more detail in future posts.

Votan’s Warning

Pacal Votan, a 7th Century Mayan prophet, known as ‘Time’s Special Witness’ warned that humanity must return to ‘living in natural time’. According to him, and others from the Classic Mayan period, the age in which we now live would be characterised by gross materialism, it’s root lying in a distortion of our proper relationship with time, a so-called ‘error in time’.

But how did we become so alienated from natural time and why do we credit the Classic Maya with authority on these matters? Before looking at that we need to understand the importance of time and its relationship to the cosmology of the Mayans.

The 26,000 year cycle – A widespread concept

The overarching cycle which informs the Mayan calendrical system lasts 26,000 years and is said to preside over a period of evolution. The importance of this cycle is not confined to the Mayans; the Sumerians, Chaldeans, Hopi, Tibetans and Egyptions also used it and it coincides with the period of our sun’s orbit around Alcyone, the central star of the Pleiades. In addition the precession of the equinoxes (whereby the sun appears to move backwards through each astrological sign, giving rise to the astrological ages) also lasts 26,000 years (2,152 years per sign).

There is disagreement between various Mayan and Hopi sources over whether this great cycle comes to an end on Dec 12 2012 or not. The Living Maya Timekeepers of Guatemala and the Hopi believe not but the Classic Maya believed this was indeed the case and the once in 26,000 year alignment between our sun and the galactic centre seems to support their calculations. Nevertheless there is consensus that this precise date does mark the end of one world age, or creation cycle, and the beginning of another.

13 Aug 3113 bc – Beginning of a New World Age

The 26,000 year cycle was divided by the Mayans into five lesser cycles of 5,125 years each. One of the great reasons for the excitement of 21 Dec 2012 is that it marks the culmination of such an age. The 13 Aug 3113 bc may seem an arbitrary date on the Gregorian calendar but in Mayan notation it looks much more interesting, 13.0.0.0.0, exactly the same as the 21 Dec 2012.

But what is the evidence for 3113 bc as the beginning of a major creation cycle? Well, the following events, all dated around 3000 bc have been cited:

The Long Count

You may have wondered of the significance of the number 13. Well, the world ages were further divided into thirteen Baktun cycles, each lasting 394 years. In 1618 we entered the last Baktun cycle of the present world age at 12.0.0.0.0. and, according to Votan and the Classic Maya of the ninth Baktun cycle (435-830 ad), a cycle of great transformation.

The Aztec Calendar and the Age of Earth

The Classic Maya disappeared after the ninth Baktun, retreating from the war and sacrifice brought by the Tultec and some believe that their prophecies were their special destiny for humankind. They left us the Aztec Calendar (or MesoAmerican Sun Stone) which told of the elements which presided over each world age and brought about their destruction. The previous age was associated with water and it is tempting to see its destruction in term of the universal flood myths. According to this source, the present age is that of Earth (caban in Mayan, Ollin in Aztec) and and is associated with movement, shift, evolution, earhquake and synchronicity among other concepts.

Will the world end?

On a personal note, I hope not because my birthday is on the 22nd December. However, while some people have naturally looked on the date with trepidation, perhaps fearing nuclear holocaust, massive geological cataclysms and the like, many people see the transition to come as more profound than that. In fact, the syllable ‘Ol’ in the Aztec ‘Ollin’ means consciousness.

In addition the Living Maya Timekeepers of Guatemala and the Hopi see us as moving into the fifth world age of the 26,000 year period, characterised by peace.

However, the Classic Maya and Votan cannot be ignored, especially when our ‘error in time’ seems to coincide so accurately with the commencement of this last Baktun cycle. This includes the worldwide adoption of the 12 month Gregorian calendar and, in 1600, the invention of the modern mechanical 12 hour clock, both having become our absolute points of temporal reference. Perhaps, as 2012 gets ever nearer, we should all begin to pay more attention to our internal cycles and the rhythms of nature and overcome the ‘time of great forgetting’ that, according to the master timekeepers of the Maya, have led us so deep into materialism.

For a good article, featuring some of the leading voices and perspectives on the Mayans and 2012, click here