Mayan Mythology and Astronomy The Mayans had a unified view of the world. To them, mythology, time, religion and the stars were all interconnected and influenced each other. Their priests, who were also astronomers, followed and recorded the movement of the stars very carefully, devising an extraordinary calendar based on their observations. Mayan mythology is best reflected in their sacred text Popol Vuh, which originally deals with the creation of the world and mankind, and has precise references to the Mayan calendar. |
According to Mayan mythology and the Mayan calendar we are living the last years of a 5,125 year period called the Fifth Sun. The very last day of the Fifth Sun occurs on the winter solstice of December 21, 2012. After this date, the Mayan calendar, which would normally reset to begin a new five thousand year period, abruptly ends. Mayan mythology does not provide for more "Suns." |
Myth and Reality about the Mayan End Date of Time: December 21, 2012 |
A significant astronomical event, predicted thousand of years ago by the Maya indians of Central America is fast approaching. Information about the event, manipulated by "New Age", apocaliptic and messianic individuals has not been portrayed in a balanced way on the Internet. This website attempts to counter that. J. Benjamin Robelo |
According to Mayan mythology and the Mayan calendar we are living the last years of a 5,125 year period called the Fifth Sun. The very last day of the Fifth Sun occurs on the winter solstice of December 21, 2012. After this date, the Mayan calendar, which would normally reset to begin a new five thousand year period, abruptly ends. Mayan mythology does not provide for more "Suns." |
Mayan Mythology and Astronomy The Mayans had a unified view of the world. To them, mythology, time, religion and the stars were all interconnected and influenced each other. Their priests, who were also astronomers, followed and recorded the movement of the stars very carefully, devising an extraordinary calendar based on their observations. Mayan mythology is best reflected in their sacred text Popol Vuh, which originally deals with the creation of the world and mankind, and has precise references to the Mayan calendar. |
Modern Interpretations It is at this point that many interpreters of the Mayan end date of December 21, 2012 forge ahead with their arguments, misleading readers along paths that end in fantastic theories. These theories range from horrific end of the world scenarios to romantic views of a new, untroubled age for mankind. The main flaw of their positions lies in the fact that they do not differentiate mythology from astronomical forecast. No specific explanation was given by the Mayans about the meaning of their end date of time, and if there was, these records were destroyed by Spanish priests during colonization, along with numerous other Maya writings or codex, which were considered satanic by the Catholic Church at the time. History recalls that Mayan priests cried and begged to the Spanish not to destroy their writings when these were being burnt in bonfires. |
The culmination of this time period coincides with a series of astronomical alignments that will take place on the particular date of December 21, 2012. The most significant alignment involves the Earth, the Sun and the center of the Milky Way. In fact, we will be able to observe the Sun enter a dark region of the Milky Way called "the dark rift", which actually lies at the center of the galaxy and that the Mayans used to call the sacred tree. The sacred tree represents a unifiying map of the Heavens, Earth and Xibalba, or the dark road, a place full of mystery, dread and trials. According to mesoamerican lore, it is the place where the Sun travels during the night, and, if victorious, reappears at the dawn of a new day. The passage of night into day became a serious preoccupation of mesoamerican indians, who feared dissapearance of the sun, particularly during the winter solstice. |
(This is not a picture of the Milky Way, it is a picture of the NGC2997 galaxy, shown here for illustration purposes only) |
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The Event On December 21, 2012 there will be a spectacular alignment of celestial bodies, ranging from the relatively small and near to the very large and far away. This alignment has to do with a surreptitious movement of Earth called the precession of the equinoxes. The precession of the equinoxes relates to a slow wobble of the Earth axis that takes 26,000 years in all to complete one revolution. Astrologers have recognized this movement as the cause for astrological "ages" and therefore state that we are now exiting the Age of Piscis into the Age of Aquarius (each "age" lasts approximately 2,000 years or 26,000 years divided by 12 astrological signs). The second factor related to the event deals with the intersection of the ecliptic and the galactic equator. The ecliptic is the observable path of the Sun and planets as seen from Earth. The galactic equator is the imaginary equatorial line that runs through the whole span of the Milky Way, our home galaxy pictured on your left ("side" view). The third factor is the winter solstice or one of the two times during the year when the celestial equator (the projection of Earth's equator onto the sky) is farthest from the ecliptic. |
The phenomena that will occur during the winter solstice of December 21, 2012 arises from the fact that the Sun will be located exactly at the intersection of the ecliptic and the galactic equator, and, thanks to the wobble of the Earth axis, this intersection will be positioned right smack in the the center of the Milky Way, in a manner creating a eclipse of the galactic center by the Sun at its maximum point of declination during the northern winter. This is an extraordinary alignment that uncovers the magnificent set of combinations in our universe and our fortune of being alive at this particular time. The interposition of the Sun between the Earth and the galactic center is subject to full metaphorical interpretation since what lies at the center at the galaxy is a relatively small black hole, as recently confirmed by scientists towards the end of the year 2001. |
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The Meaning Only you can find meaning to whatever happens in your life or around your life, whether the events are big or small, near or distant, true or imagined. Leading scientific theories state that we may be only one of billions of other civilizations that may exist somewhere else in the universe, in other dimensions, or that have existed through innumerable series of "big bangs" and "big crunches". But then again, alignments more formidable than the one that will happen on December 21, 2012 may be happening in some corner of the universe right now, and there may be no one to appreciate it or derive any meaning from it whatsoever. Nevertheless, here we remain for now, with our single Sun and our single Moon, and our single Earth and our single self, trying to find meaning, and order, and fate, just a the great Maya civilization did in a time not so far away, in a planet that is even closer. Thank you for visiting my website and God bless you. |
