Right then, for all that have a spare 15 min.
The Mayan Calendar. There is a common belief that the calendar holds a
prophecy that the world will end in 2012. I knew very little about the
whole topic when I began doing the
research. I like to think I had an open
mind. My investigation began with mainstream archaeology and expert
interpretations of the calendar. But it soon took a turn that made my
hair literally stand on end. I am now convinced that these prophecies
are true.
To understand what is likely to happen to Earth and its people, you will
need to remain calm and try to follow the facts. It's not as simple as
some people describe. It requires an understanding of some fairly
complicated science, but I think I can explain this in a way that you
will easily understand.
The Calendar -- A DescrptionFirst, the Mayan calendar is also sometimes called the Aztec Calendar.
This calendar is recorded as a carving on the Aztec "sun stone,"
currently on exhibit in the National Museum of Anthropology and History
located within Chapultepec Park, Mexico City. There's a lot we could say
about this carved stone but most of those details are irrelevant to the
"end times."
Our modern calendar, called the Gregorian Calendar, has
days,
weeks,
months and
years. In the Mayan Calendar it's more
complex. In fact, it's really three calendars at the same time. First there's a
religious calendar that takes 260 days to
complete a full religious cycle. There are 20 "weeks" made up of 13
days. Each week has a special name, a graphic logo and unique meaning
associated with it. This reminds me of the Chinese years which cycle
through "the year of the rat" and "the year of the monkey," etc., each
with it's special image and meaning.
Graphic
logos for each of the 20 religious weeks.
Next there is the
solar calendar. This has 365 days, like our
modern calendar. It's divided in 18 months of 20 days each. At the end
of the cycle there's five special days considered to be unlucky because
they don't belong to any month. Each of the months has a special name,
graphic logo and some special significance, similar to the icons
for the weeks in the religious calendar.
So it is possible, for any specific date, the calculate the religious
week and the solar month and to predict the influences that might be
guiding fate. But that's not really what's involved with the prophecy of
2012. To understand that we must look at the third calendar, called the
long count.
While the first two cycles could be thought of as cogs or gears (see
below) revolving through time, the long count is a linear number of
days, starting from the first day, "1," and counting through each day to
the present. Any day in history can be recorded using the long count
and, with some simple mathematics, the corresponding religious week and
solar month can also be found.
In writing this article, I thought about creating a javascript
program that would do this calculation. My friend, Gene Matlock, then
told me that when he was in Mexico, he found a place that sold wooden,
mechanical calculators with gears that did just that. He said that
Mexicans sometimes used these mechanical calendars to foretell the
future or to find auspicious times for special events like marriage or
births. Anyway, although it might be nice to know the religious and
solar significance, it's the long count that foretells Doomsday.
Cog
or "gears" can be used to compute the religious and solar cycles for
any date.
The days of the long count are numbered with an unusual system.
Instead of writing numbers as we do, from right to left with each place
being a multiple of 10 (i.e. 10000, 1000, 100, 10, 1), the Mayans had
only 5 places.
The first place recorded a number from 0 to 20. To the left, the second
place could have a range from 0 to 17; the third from 0 to 19; the
fourth from 0 to 19 and the last from 0 to 12. The numbers were written
from right to left, like our system, separated by a dot. Instead of
multiples of 10, the first place had a multiple of 1 (like our system);
the second place a multiple of 20; the third a multiple of 360; the
fourth a multiple of 7200 and the fifth a multiple of 144000.
So a long count number, for example, could be written as
4.12.5.9.0 and would be calculated as follows:
(
4 x 144000) + (
12 x 7200) + (
5 x 360) + (
9 x
20) + (
0 x 1) or a long count of
664,380.
It's not too difficult to realize that the maximum number which can be
recorded this way would be
12.19.19.17.20, although some
researchers like to write it as
13.0.0.0.0. This amounts to a
long count number of
1,872,000 days or
5125.36 years of
our modern calculations. Obviously, the calendar is very old!
Over the years, archaeologists have found carved monuments that recorded
the long count for known dates in Mayan history. Once a date was fixed
in time, it was easy to determine "day 1" as
August 11th, 3114 BC.
And it was also easy to calculate the date at which the calendar would
end --
December 21st, 2012.
Trust me, just because
the calendar ends doesn't prove that time, or the world, or life will
end. We need to look carefully at December 21, 2012 and try to
understand why the Mayans never calculated a date beyond this point in
time. To do this we must move from Archaeology to the science of astronomy
and Astrophysics.
It's all about the Sun
It's ironic (or maybe not) that the Mayan Calendar is often called the
"sun stone." While the calendar does have "solar" days, acknowledging
the 365 days it takes for Earth to rotate around the Sun, it is also
true that the Sun plays a key role in the final day of the "long count."
To understand what will happen to the Sun on December 21, 2012, we need
to review some scientific.
terms like "ecliptic," "barycenter," and "sunspots." These are
important in the discussion that follows. We'll start with the most
difficult one first.
Terms we will encounter...What
is the Barycenter?You've no doubt heard that Earth revolves
around the sun. Well, actually, that's not quite true!
Have you heard the term "center of gravity"? It's a
technical-sounding term for something pretty simple. It's the exact
center of all the material (that is, mass) that makes up the object. For
example, if you have a straight stick, like a ruler or yardstick,
there's a place at the middle where you can balance it on your finger.
That's its center of gravity.
But the center of gravity may or may not be the point that is
exactly in the middle, distance-wise, of the object. Some parts of the
object may be heavier (denser) than others. If you have something like a
sledge hammer that is heavier on one end than the other, the center of
gravity will be much closer to the heavy end than the lighter end.
To get an idea of where the center of gravity is, rest the ends
of any object like the ruler or a pencil on one finger from each hand.
Slowly move your fingers together without dropping the object. Your
fingers will meet underneath the object's center of gravity. You can
balance the object on one finger at that special place.
The actual center of gravity could be close to the surface
or deep inside, depending on whether the object is flat like a ruler or a
dinner plate, or "three-dimensional," like a box or a ball. And if you
let the object spin (like when you throw it), it will try to spin about
that point.
In the case of the Earth and the sun, both bodies actually
revolve, or spin, around the very center of the mass (similar to center
of gravity) between them. This point is called the "barycenter." Earth
and the sun are "connected" by the gravity pulling them together. It's
just like the light end and heavy end of the sledge hammer. Compared to
the size of the sun, Earth is about like a flea on a cat! So the center
of mass between the Earth and the sun is almost--but not quite--the very
center of the sun.
In the case of a planet the size of Jupiter, which is 318
times as massive as Earth, the barycenter of Jupiter and the sun is a
bit further from the sun's center. So, as Jupiter revolves around the
sun, the sun itself is actually revolving around this slightly
off-center point, located just outside its center. Thus, a planet the
size of Jupiter will make the sun (or any star) appear to wobble a tiny
bit. This picture shows you that the center of mass and barycenter can
be slightly different points. It isn't meant to be very accurate!
We can take advantage of this bit of knowledge and look for
large planets in other solar systems by learning
to detect this type of tiny wobble in the star's position.
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For now, let's forget all the small planets and focus on Jupiter. It
makes one complete trip around the Sun every 11.861773 years. There's a
new theory put forth by Dr. Rollin Gillespie which shows that Jupiter,
and to a smaller degree the other less massive planets, may trigger the
11 year cycle of sunspots and solar flares.
For now, let's forget all the small planets
and focus on Jupiter. It makes one
complete trip around the Sun every 11.861773 years. There's a new theory
put forth by Dr. Rollin Gillespie which shows that Jupiter, and to a
smaller degree the other less massive planets, may trigger the 11 year
cycle of sunspots and solar flares.
Here's how it works.
The barycenter is not a single point in the
Sun. Because the Sun is a rotating gaseous sphere, the barycenter forms a
vertical, cylindrical "sleeve" that is partially inside and outside the
main solar body. All of the planets have such a
"sleeve," one inside the other, depending on their relative mass and the
location of their barycenters. The particular sleeve representing the
mass of Jupiter intersects the solar surface at 35.9 degrees North and
South. This is precisely where sunspot and flare activity begin and end
during each 11 year cycle.
The new cycle has already begun with the recent observation of a solar
spot with reverse polarity. But some surprising activity on March 27,
2008, showed some huge eruptions with M-class radiation at about the
equatorial region of the Sun. These surprising eruptions suggests a barycenter of
disturbance from an object even more massive than Jupiter, placing the
"sleeve" outside the Sun. Could this be the beginning of the Galaxy's
effects (keep reading to learn more about this) on our Sun?
Scientists have noted that when Jupiter and Saturn are aligned on the
same side of the Sun, the solar maximum (the period when we have the
most sunspots and flares) is at its weakest; when they are on opposite
sides of the Sun the solar maximum is at its strongest. The positions of
these two planets on December 21, 2012 are ideal for extreme solar
activity.
Above: Position of Jupiter and Saturn on 12/21/2012.
These cylinders are usually quite orderly because the planets adhere to a
narrow plane, called the
ecliptic which resembles a thin plate
extending from the equator of the Sun. The planets hang out here because
(in simple terms) this is the zone where the gravitation of the system
is the strongest. (see below)
The planets orbit the Sun in a narrow plane called
the
ecliptic.
But nature is never
perfect. The Sun rotates at a slight angle (7.25 degrees), much as our
Earth does. As it wobbles, it tilts the sleeves, causing them to clash
with eachother and eventually disrupt the surface. Having the
barycenters of the to most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, in
maximum misalignment is especially disruptive. This disturbance, to put
it simply, works its way to the surface and erupts in sun spots and
solar flares or CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections).
The last solar cycle was at its maximum in 2001. Each active solar cycle
has a period when the flares are strongest, usually happening near the
solar equator, called the "solar maximum." This is significant because
the next "solar maximum" event will coincide with
December 21, 2012.
But wait -- there's much more!
Solar flares are pieces of the sun which leap into space, discharging
radiation and strong electrical currents that travel outward into space.
They often fall back to the surface of the Sun. Sometimes, a very
strong flare, called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), actually leaves the
Sun and this deadly mass shoots out from the Sun towards the planets
like a bullet. Usually these CME's don't hit anything but occasionally
they hit a planet like Earth. Some believe a powerful CME once hit Mars
. Most solar flares are small. But even a small flare can be dangerous. In
1989 a flare hit the North American continent and fried electric lines,
zapped power grids in the US and Canada, and created large power
backouts. Flares can also effect our moods and physical health. In
theory, a large flare impacting the Earth could zap the ionosphere
(there goes all the satellites, cellphones, GPS...) and irradiate the
surface, killing every living organism that it touched.
Solar flares and sun spots have an average cycle of 11.120412 years
(estimated from one "solar maximum" to the next). Right now, 2009, we
are just entering the active period of cycle number 24, after an
unusually long period of quiet solar activity. This quiet period led
some people at NASA
to conclude that cycle 24 would be a
very quiet cycle -- contradicting the earlier predictions they made for
an extremely violent cycle. Now they have redacted their call for a
quiet cycle since the activity has again commenced. The scientists who
study the Sun have also recently announced that they have measured the
solar currents, deep inside the Sun, which correspond the Dr.
Gillespie's barycenter currents. But to date they have not been able to
agree what causes these deep currents of solar material. The
small discrepancy between the average 11.120412 year solar cycle and the
11.861773 year period of Jupiter is close enough to be significant but
suggests that something else is also influencing solar disturbances.
Sure, it could be attributed to the various positions of the other less
massive planets, but it could also be something even more significant --
the Milky Way.
The Galactic Alignment of December 21, 2012
The Perfect StormOur solar system is part of a huge disc shaped collection of stars and
planets called the Milky Way. We're located somewhere on the edge of the
disc, slightly on top of the narrow disc. But very soon we'll be moving
to the bottom of the disc. This change, from top to bottom, begins on
December 21, 2012.Yes, that's right. On the same day when our Sun is at it's solar
maximum, something will happen that's never happened for thousands of
eons of time -- the ecliptic of our solar system will intersect with the
Galactic plane, called the "Galactic Equator" of the Milky Way!
If you imagine our solar system as a bunch of peas on a plate, with a
huge meatball in the center, imagine the Milky Way as a city-size pizza
with the "Guiness World Book Record Meatball" in its center!
Prior to December 2012 we have been drifting on the top of the pizza,
never really able to see the bottom. The plate and pizza are not
parallel. They are moving at different angles. We've been drifting down,
down, down... and on December 21st, 2012, we will be exactly level with
the crust -- forming an "x" at the Galactic Equator where galactic
gravity is the strongest. After 2012, if we are still here, we will be
passing through the bottom zone, viewing the Milky Way pizza from the
South.
Yes, there's even more!
By some amazing coincidence, not only will we be intersecting with the
Galactic Equator, but we will be doing this precisely aligned with the
center of the Galaxy where there is maximum mass! More mass means more
gravity. More gravity means more influence from those barycenters in our
Sun. That means exponential increases in solar disruptions -- all
coinciding on the same day! Whew!
[
Above: The Hercules Cluster of galaxies. This group of galaxies is held
together by the gravitational attraction or "pull" of each individual
galaxy on the others in the group. This demonstrates the enormous
gravity contained in a galaxy, such as our own Milky Way.]
IMPORTANT NOTE: Many people do not understand the alignment of
the solar system's ecliptic with the Galaxy's equator. This is because
the phenomenon called "the precession" is described as the shifting of
background stars due to the "wobble" of planet Earth. In fact, it is not
only the planet that wobbles but the entire solar system that wobbles.
Many web sites try to debunk the alignment by claiming that it is just
the Earth that will be aligned with the Galactic center and equator.
They fail to recognize recent discoveries that show that all of the
planets move with Earth and the Sun against the background stars --
including one star: Sirius. Some astronomers suggest that Sirius may,
therefore, be part of our solar system.
An apology and acknowledgement
OK. This has been a "light weight" description of what's going to
happen. It has been simplified to the point where some scholars and
scientists could argue about my presentation. But the main facts are
true. The date, December 21, 2012, is a special day. It represents the
maximum possible influences for solar flares that the universe can
provide. Undoubtedly the Mayans, or the civilization that influenced
them, somehow knew about these things.
Over the last decade, I have written a variety
of stories about such things as underground cities and government
actions that could only make sense if there were no future. I cannot
help but think that maybe they, like the Mayans, know about these
things. I'd specifically like to suggest that readers take another look
at
the underground
complex at Yamantau that the Russians are building. Could this be a
haven for surviving a solar blast? And the "
doomsday
seed bank" that's being filled deep inside an Arctic island. And
what about past events? Did the Hopi go underground to survive a similar
event thousands of years earlier? Should we be going underground also? It's also important to stress that December 21, 2012 is only the "solar
maximum" but that the gravitational effects of the Galaxy have already
started to assert their influence on the Sun. The drift towards
alignment with the galactic equator is relatively slow and, in truth,
has already started. But the precise culmination of this, plus the
alignment of Jupiter and Saturn all make 12/21/12 an onimous date.
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