While many researchers dismiss the idea that an impending calamitous event will occur on the Earth on December 21st 2012, possibly ending life as we know it, there are a small number who point to various astronomical and prophetic signs that show this date may in fact be a turning point for our planet.
The Maya, a culture dating back thousands of years, are synonymous with advanced mathematics and astronomy. In fact, the Long Count Calendar, which they are credited as having perfected, is seen as a more advanced calendar even than the one we use today. It can also accurately predict the movement of celestial bodies, and therefore solar and lunar eclipses, hundreds of years in the future.
With that in mind, it makes sense to listen when Mayan history talks of a life-altering change which is now just a couple of years away for us. This is the assertion of John Major Jenkins, a researcher and author who in his works on the Maya, suggests that they predicted the coming precessional alignment, an event where the Earth, Sun, and black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius-A*, will align. This alignment, he says, could cause any number of catastrophic life-ending events on the planet.
Strongest of these claims is the possibility that such an alignment could in some way strengthen the Sun’s output, causing super-heating of the Earth or a shifting of the planet’s poles. Whichever is the case, it’s bad news for us!
If Jenkins’ ideas are dismissed as hype, the question still remains: did the Maya in fact predict that something would happen around December 21st 2012? Well there is certainly much to suggest that the end of the 13th b’ak’tun, or era, of their Long Count Calendar, an event which occurs once every 5 millenia or so, could herald a significant change for humanity.
However, the Mayan prophecy for 2012 should not be considered as only one that could be negative. In some quarters, it has been shown that the Maya as a culture continued to mark events that were expected to happen beyond the end of the 13th b’ak’tun. Surely if they believed that the human race would end on this date, that would be wasteful effort? Rather, it has been speculated that the Maya, as a spiritual people, saw 2012 as a gateway to transition in terms of human thought and consciousness.
Whether this change will be a positive one, of enlightenment or spiritual growth, or a deeply negative one, similar to a doomsday scenario, is yet to be seen.