2012--What the Mayan Elders Are Saying

[John Kettler]

Given that we're being bombarded with dire 2012 predictions at every turn, I thought this http://earthboppin.net/talkshop/theend/messages/16747.html might both shed some light and provide reassurance in these troubled times. Nothing like going direct to the primary sources! How troubled? Consider this list and older posts (just a blog, BFC, so I hope that's cool) http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/

Regards,

John Kettler

[Pešadija]

I had fiddled around the prophecies, and I say, reading the things instead of accepting blindly catastrophic predictions would have done the trick.

End of the world is a gross, heavy handed, far fetched interpretation of what is written about the end of the current cycle.

[Affentitten]

AS a Mayan elder, I say

"Stop it! Or you'll all go blind!!"

[Wicky]

Odd I thought the world ended last year... I blame the Mayans licking psychoactive toads

In 1957, Mayanist and astronomer Maud Worcester Makemson wrote that "the completion of a Great Period of 13 b'ak'tuns would have been of the utmost significance to the Maya". In 1966, Michael D. Coe more ambitiously asserted in The Maya that "there is a suggestion ... that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the thirteenth [b'ak'tun]. Thus ... our present universe [would] be annihilated [in December 2012 when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion."

Coe's apocalyptic interpretation was repeated by other scholars through the early 1990s. In contrast, later researchers said that, while the end of the 13th b'ak'tun would perhaps be a cause for celebration, it did not mark the end of the calendar."There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012," says Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone. "The notion of a "Great Cycle" coming to an end is completely a modern invention."In 1990, Mayanist scholars Linda Schele and David Freidel argued that the Maya "did not conceive this to be the end of creation, as many have suggested." Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, stated that "We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end" in 2012. "For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Florida. To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday event or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.

Jenkins attributes the insights of ancient Maya shamans about the galactic center to their use of psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive toads, and other psychedelics. An apocalyptic reading of Jenkins's hypothesis has that, when the galactic alignment occurs, it will somehow create a combined gravitational effect between the Sun and the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy (known as Sagittarius A*), creating havoc on Earth. Apart from the fact noted above that the "galactic alignment" predicted by Jenkins already happened in 1998, the Sun's apparent path through the zodiac as seen from Earth does not take it near the true galactic center, but rather several degrees above it. Even if this were not the case, Sagittarius A* is 30,000 light years from Earth, and would have to be more than 6 million times closer to cause any gravitational disruption to Earth's Solar System. This reading of Jenkins's theories was included on the History Channel documentary, Decoding the Past. However, Jenkins has complained of the fact that a science fiction writer co-authored the documentary, and went on to characterize it as "45 minutes of unabashed doomsday hype and the worst kind of inane sensationalism.

[Michael Emrys]

You can trust the History Channel to manage to always get it wrong somehow, mainly by erring on the side of sensationalism.

Michael

[-E]

One old, really lost, indian with obsessive compulsive disorder runs out of ink a long time ago, and we get stuck with this thread. *grin*

[abneo3sierra]

All I can say is I have high plans for 2013..so I will be really pi$$ed off if the world ends before then.

[toxic.zen]

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/10mar_stormwarning/

or 2011 anyway... close enough!

even if we just get some widespread power failures due to emp's the effects could be significant!

i need a campfire powered water distiller already...

[Michael Emrys]

If you have a still, why run water through it? Sour mash sounds like a better option.

Michael