December 12-12-2012 End of Days

December 12-12-2012

End of Days

By Rohit Sharma

Over 200 predictions and counting!

Yes the end is coming, but all human predictions are wrong!

Mathew 24:35-36 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Jesus Christ.

An untold number of people have tried to predict the Lord’s return by using elaborate time tables. Most date setters do not realize mankind has not kept an unwavering record of time. Anyone wanting to chart for example 100 BC to 2000 AD would have contend with the fact 46 BC was 445 days long, there was no year 0 BC, and in 1582 we switched from Julian Years (360 days) to Gregorian (365 days). Because most prognosticators are not aware of all these errors, from the get go their math is already off by several years.

Will the world end in Dec 12-12-2012? No, it won’t.
Will there be a major cataclysm in 2012? Quite possibly.

This page examines some of the significances behind the date of December 12, 2012.

We are currently in a period of eleven years all of which have a day with the last two digits of the year repeated three times in mm/dd/yy form (or dd/mm/yy or yy/mm/dd). So May 5, 2005 was 05/05/05; June 6, 2006 will be 06/06/06; July 7, 2007 will be 07/07/07, etc. So what’s going to happen on December 12, 2012?

December 12, 2012 is 6 years, 6 months, 6 days from June 6, 2006, or 6/6/6 (or 2381 days)

December 12, 2012 is 7 years from December 12, 2005 (or 2557 days). Are we now in the Seven Year Tribulation Period?

December 12, 2012 is 11 years, 3 months, 1 day from September 11, 2001 (or 4110 days)

Why 2012?

THE HOW AND WHY OF THE MAYAN END DATE IN DEC 12-12-2012 A.D

Midnight ¾ April 5 , 2008.

Monday, April 07, 2008 The Logic behind.

Why did the ancient Mayan or pre-Maya choose December 21st, 2012 A.D., as the end of their Long Count calendar? This article will cover some recent research. Scholars have known for decades that the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan “Long Count” system of timekeeping was set to end precisely on a winter solstice, and that this system was put in place some 2300 years ago. This amazing fact – that ancient Mesoamerica- can sky watchers were able to pinpoint a winter solstice far off into the future – has not been dealt with by Mayanists. And why did they choose the year 2012? One immediately gets the impression that there is a very strange mystery to be confronted here. I will be building upon a clue to this mystery reported by epigrapher Linda Schele in Maya Cosmos (1994). Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderlands Science and Research Foundation, 1994).

The Mayan Long Count

Just some basics to get us started. The Maya were adept sky watchers. Their Classic Period is thought to have lasted from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D., but recent archeological findings are pushing back the dawn of Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica. Large ruin sites indicating high culture with distinctly Mayan antecedents are being found in the jungles of Guatemala dating back to before the Common Era. And even before this, the Olmec civilization flourished and developed the sacred count of 260 days known as the tzolkin. The early Maya adopted two different time keeping systems, the “Short Count” and the Long Count. The Short Count derives from combining the tzolkin cycle with the solar year and the Venus cycle of 584 days. In this way, “short” periods of 13, 52 and 104 years are generated. Unfortunately, we won’t have occasion to dwell on the properties of the so-called Short Count system here. The Long Count system is somewhat more abstract, yet is also related to certain astronomical cycles. It is based upon nested cycles of days multiplied at each level by that key Mayan number, twenty:

Number of Days / Term

1 / Kin (day)

20 / Uinal

360 / Tun

7200 / Katun

144000 / Baktun Long count names: The last initial series was recorded at Tonina, on 10.4.0.0.0 (20 Jan 909 AD). Since it was no longer in use when the Spanish arrived, we are uncertain about some LC terminology. Only the period names katun, winal, and kin are known with assurance. Tun is a Yucatec word for “year,” but both LC and calendar round “years” seem to have sometimes been called haab. Baktun is only a plausible Yucatec name. Linda Schele noted that the phonetic value of the symbol form of the baktun glyph is pi. The ISIG glyph has recently been read tzik haab’, “the count of years.”

Long Count

glyphs represent periods of time.

k’in= day winal = 20 day month tun = 360 day long count year (18 winal) katun = 7200 days (20 tun) baktun = 144000 days (20 katun)

The periods are listed from largest to smallest in the inscriptions. Each period glyph is preceded by a number, usually written in “dot and bar” form: Bar = 5, and dot = 1. Zero is indicated by a “shell” glyph. The first numbered glyph here reads 9 baktun. It counts 9 x 144000 = 1296000 days since creation. The long count is the sum of the multiples of each of the five periods.

The example can written (in the short-hand used by Mayanists) from baktun to k’in as 9.16.0.2.0. This is a total count of (9 x 144,000) + (16 x 7200) + (0 x 360) + (2 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 1411240 days.

Origin of the long count: During the Classical period (200-900 AD), only the Maya kept the long count, but it appears to have been invented by late pre-Classical peoples on the western border of the Maya area. The oldest known example is Chiapa de Corzo Stela 2, dated to 32 BC. Maya civilization emerged during the pre-Classical, perhaps as early as 400 BC, but the earliest long count that is unequivocally Maya is early Classical, found on Tikal stelae 29. It is inscribed with the long count 8.12.14.8.15 = 292 AD.Long count names: The last initial series was recorded at Tonina, on 10.4.0.0.0 (20 Jan 909 AD). Since it was no longer in use when the Spanish arrived, we are uncertain about some LC terminology. Only the period names katun, winal, and kin are known with assurance. Tun is a Yucatec word for “year,” but both LC and calendar round “years” seem to have sometimes been called haab. Baktun is only a plausible Yucatec name. Linda Schele noted that the phonetic value of the symbol form of the baktun glyph is pi. The ISIG glyph has recently been read tzik haab’, “the count of years.”

Notice that the only exception to multiplying by twenty is at the tun level, where the uinal period is instead multiplied by 18 to make the 360-day tun. The Maya employed this counting system to track an unbroken sequence of days from the time it was inaugurated. The Mayan scholar Munro Edmonson believes that the Long Count was put in place around 355 B.C. This may be so, but the oldest Long Count date as yet found corresponds to 32 B.C. We find Long Count dates in the archeological record beginning with the baktun place value and separated by dots. For example: 6.19.19.0.0 equals 6 baktuns, 19 katuns, 19 tuns, 0 uinals and 0 days. Each baktun has 144000 days, each katun has 7200 days, and so on. If we add up all the values we find that 6.19.19.0.0 indicates a total of 1007640 days have elapsed since the Zero Date of 0.0.0.0.0. The much discussed 13-baktun cycle is completed 1872000 days (13 baktuns) after 0.0.0.0.0. This period of time is the so called Mayan “Great Cycle” of the Long Count and equals 5125.36 years.

But how are we to relate this to a time frame we can understand? How does this Long Count relate to our Gregorian calendar? This problem of correlating Mayan time with “western” time has occupied Mayan scholars since the beginning. The standard question to answer became: what does 0.0.0.0.0 (the Long Count “beginning” point) equal in the Gregorian calendar? When this question is answered, archeological inscriptions can be put into their proper historical context and the end date of the 13-baktun cycle can be calculated. After years of considering data from varied fields such as astronomy, ethnography, archeology and iconography, J. Eric S. Thompson determined that 0.0.0.0.0 corresponded to the Julian date 584283, which equals August 11th, 3114 B.C. in our Gregorian calendar. This means that the end date of 13.0.0.0.0, some 5125 years later, is December 21st, 2012 A.D.1

The relationship between the Long Count and Short Count has always been internally consistent (both were tracked alongside each other in an unbroken sequence since their conception). Now it is very interesting to note that an aspect of the “Short Count”, namely, the sacred tzolkin count of 260 days, is still being followed in the highlands of Guatemala. As the Mayan scholar Munro Edmonson shows in The Book of the Year, this last surviving flicker of a calendar tradition some 3000 years old supports the Thompson correlation of 584283. Edmonson also states that the Long Count was begun by the Maya or pre-Maya around 355 B.C., but there is reason to believe that the Long Count system was being perfected for at least 200 years prior to that date.

The point of interest for these early astronomers seems to have been the projected end date in 2012 A.D., rather than the beginning date in 3114 B.C. Having determined the end date in 2012 (for reasons we will come to shortly), and calling it 13.0.0.0.0, they thus proclaimed themselves to be living in the 6th baktun of the Great Cycle. The later Maya certainly attributed much mythological significance to the beginning date, relating it to the birth of their deities, but it now seems certain that the placement of the Long Count hinges upon its calculated end point. Why did early Mesoamerican sky watchers pick a date some 2300 years into the future and, in fact, how did they pinpoint an accurate winter solstice? With all these considerations one begins to suspect that, for some reason, the ancient New World astronomers were tracking precession.

The Precession

The precession of the equinoxes, also known as the Platonic Year, is caused by the slow wobbling of the earth’s polar axis. Right now this axis roughly points to Polaris, the “Pole Star,” but these changes slowly over long periods of time. The earth’s wobble causes the position of the seasonal quarters to slowly process against the background of stars. For example, right now, the winter solstice position is in the constellation of Sagittarius. But 2000 years ago it was in Capricorn. Since then, it has processed backward almost one full sign. It is generally thought that the Greek astronomer Hipparchus was the first to discover precession around 128 B.C. Yet scholarship indicates that more ancient Old World cultures such as the Egyptians and Babylonians also knew about the precession.

I have concluded that even cultures with simple horizon astronomy and oral records passed down for a hundred years or so, would notice the slow shifting of the heavens. For example, imagine that you lived in an environment suited for accurately demarcated horizon astronomy. Even if this wasn’t the case, you might erect monoliths to sight the horizon position of, most likely, the dawning winter solstice sun. This position in relation to background stars could be accurately preserved in oral verse or wisdom teachings, to be passed down for centuries. Since precession will change this position at the rate of 1 degree every 72 years, within the relatively short time of 100 years or so, a noticeable change will have occurred. The point of this is simple. To early cultures attuned to the subtle movements of the sky, precession would not have been hard to notice.

The Details of the Calanders

The numbers before the day and month names in the Java calendar designate the date in each of the two Mayan calendars. The Mayans used two calendars running simultaneously.

The first is the religious calendar year of 260 days (numbers 1-13 X 20 day names).

The second is the solar calendar year of 365 days (20 days per month X18 months + 5 days in Uayeb). Uayeb is an unlucky period of the year used to synchronize the calendar with the sun. It was a period of many rituals and great sacrifices.

Together, the two calendars name the unique date in a 52 year cycle called the “Calendar Round.”

The second set of numbers, #.#.#.#.#, is called the Long Count date. It is a day by day count of days since the beginning of time for the Mayans.

The procession of numbers though the long count is much like an odometer, the numbers increasing in value from right to left, and the rollers counting through the following numbers: (0-12).(0-19).(0-19).(0-17).(0-20)

For example, 7/28/98 which has a long count value of 12.19.05.07.00 would be calculated
(12*144000) + (19*7200) + (5*360) + (7*20) + (0*1) to find out the number of days since this calendar has been running. This happens to be 1866740 days or about 5000 years. This is a very ancient calendar.

Solar Sun Calander (Below)

The Maya are not generally credited with knowing about the precession of the equinoxes. But considering everything else we know about the amazing sophistication of Mesoamerican astronomy, can we realistically continue to deny them this? Many of the as yet undeciphered hieroglyphs may ultimately describe processional myths. Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies, the Long Count is perfectly suited for predicting future seasonal quarters, indefinitely, and precession is automatically accounted for. Some of the most incredible aspects of Mayan cosmo-conception are just now being discovered. As was the case with the state of Egyptology in the 1870’s, we still have a lot to learn. In addition, Mayanists like Gordon Brothers ton (The Book of the Fourth World) considers processional knowledge among Mesoamerican cultures to be more than likely.

The Sacred Tree

We are still trying to answer these questions: What is so important about the winter solstice of 2012 and, exactly how were calculations made so accurately, considering that precession should make them exceedingly difficult?

If we make a standard horoscope chart for December 21st, 2012 A.D., nothing very unusual appears. In this way I was led astray in my search until Linda Schele provided a clue. Probably the most exciting breakthrough is her identification of the astronomical meaning of the Mayan Sacred Tree. Drawing from an impressive amount of iconographic evidence, and generously sharing the process by which she arrived at her discovery, the Sacred Tree is found to be none other than the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way. Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an important role in Mayan imagery. For example, an incised bone from 8th century Tikal depicts a long sinking canoe containing various deities. This is a picture of the night sky and the canoe is the Milky Way, sinking below the horizon as the night progresses, and carrying with it deities representing the nearby constellations. The incredible Mayan site of Palanquin is filled with Sacred Tree motifs and references to astronomical events suggested that the Sacred Tree referred to the ecliptic. Apparently that was only part of the picture, for the Sacred Tree that Pacal ascends in death is more than just the ecliptic, it is the sacred doorway to the underworld. The crossing point of Milky Way and ecliptic is this doorway and represents the sacred source and origin. In the following diagram of the well known sarcophagus carving, notice that the Milky Way tree serves as an extension of Pacal’s umbilicus. The umbilicus is a human being’s entrance into life, and entrance into death as well:

Chart 1.

Here is a full view of the sky at noon on December 21st, 2012 A.D. The band of the Milky Way can be seen stretching from the lower right to the upper left. The more or less vertical dotted line indicates the Galactic Equator. The planets can be seen tracing a roughly horizontal path through the chart, indicating the ecliptic. The sun, quite strikingly, is dead center in the Sacred Tree. Let’s look closer.

Chart 3.

The field is now reduced to a 5-degree span, what astrology considers to be within conjunction. The dot to the lower right of the sun is the star 4 Sgr. Amazingly, the Sun is right on target. We couldn’t have hoped for a closer conjunction. 1 day before or after will remove the sun a noticeable distance from the crossing point. December 21st, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count) therefore represents an extremely close conjunction of the winter solstice sun with the crossing point of Galactic Equator and the ecliptic, what the ancient Maya recognized as the Sacred Tree. It is critical to understand that the winter solstice sun rarely conjuncts the Sacred Tree. In fact, this is an event that has been coming to resonance very slowly over thousands and thousands of years. What this might mean astrologically, how this might effect the “energy weather” on earth, must be treated as a separate topic.

But I should at least mention in passing that this celestial convergence appears to parallel the accelerating pace of human civilization. It should be noted that because precession is a very slow process, similar astronomical alignments will be evident on the winter solstice dates within perhaps 5 years on either side of 2012. However, the accuracy of the conjunction of 2012 is quite astounding, beyond anything deemed calculable by the ancient Maya, and serves well to represent the perfect mid-point of the process.

Let’s go back to the dawn of the Long Count and try to reconstruct what may have been happening.

Why

: Winter Solstice Sun Conjuncts the Sacred Tree in 2012 A.D.

First, the tzolkin count originated among the Olmec at least as early as 679 B.C. (see Edmondson’s Book of the Year). We may suspect that astronomical observations were being made from at least that point. The tzolkin count has been followed unbroken since at least that time, up to the present day, demonstrating the high premium placed by the Maya upon continuity of tradition. In this way, star records, horizon positions of the winter solstice sun, and other pertinent observations could also have been accurately preserved. As suggested above, precession can be noticed by way of even simple horizon astronomy in as little time as 100 to 150 years. (Hipparchus, the alleged “discoverer” of precession among the Greeks, compared his own observations with data collected only 170 years before his time.) Following Edmonson, the Long Count system may have appeared as early as 355 B.C. Part of the reason for implementing the Long Count system, as I will show, was probably to calculate future winter solstice dates.

We must assume that even at this early point in Mesoamerican history, the crossing point of ecliptic and Milky Way was understood as the “Sacred Tree”. Since the Sacred Tree concept is intrinsically tied into the oldest Mayan Creation Myths, this is not improbable. At the very least, the “dark rift” was already a recognized feature. Early sky watchers of this era (355 B.C.) would then observe the sun to conjunct the dark ridge in the Milky Way on or around November 18th.5 this would be easily observed in the pre-dawn sky as described above: the Milky Way points to the rising sun on this date.

Over a relatively short period of time, as an awareness of precession was emerging, this date was seen to slowly approach winter solstice, a critical date in its own right in early Mayan cosmo-conception. At this point, precession and the rate of precession was calculated, the Long Count was perfected and inaugurated, and the appropriate winter solstice date in 2012 A.D. was found via the Long Count in the following way.

How:

Long Count and Seasonal Quarters

Long Count Katun beginnings will conjunct sequential seasonal quarters every 1.7.0.0.0 days (194400 days). This is an easily tracked Long Count interval. Starting with the katun beginning of 650 B.C.:

Long Count Which Quarter? Year

6.5.0.0.0 Fall 650 B.C.

7.12.0.0.0 Winter 118 B.C.

8.19.0.0.0 Spring 416 A.D.

10.6.0.0.0 Summer 948 A.D.

11.13.0.0.0 Fall 1480 A.D.

13.0.0.0.0 Winter 2012 A.D.

Note

that the last date is not only a katun beginning, but a baktun beginning as well. It is, indeed, the end date of 2012.6

The Long Count may have been officially inaugurated on a specific date in 355 B.C., as Edmonson suggests, but it must have been formulated, tried, tested, and proven before this date. This may well have taken centuries, and the process no doubt paralleled (and was perhaps instigated by) the discovery of precession. The Long Count system automatically accounts for precession in its ability to calculate future seasonal quarters – a property which shouldn’t be underestimated.

Mayan Zodiac Signs

Mayans Zodic Singns (Above) Original Mayan Calander( below)

glyphic tex Above Picture]

“The Maya knew the exact length of the true solar year as 365.2420 days, that is, with a minus error of 0.0002, while our present Gregorian calendar has it at 365.2425, or a plus error of 0.0003.”

Maya astronomers determined astronomical constants with remarkable accuracy. In our technological age, their feats seems incredible, if not impossible, without telescopes, clocks and measuring devices. But we have forgotten what can be achieved by careful naked eye observation using simple instruments, or even no instruments at all.

Maya sky watchers used methods similar to those of other ancient astronomers. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy would have understood and appreciated the star craft of a Maya scribe from Copan. What was required, above all else, was careful observation over long periods of time.

Only four Maya glyph books, called codices, survive. They are painted on lime-whitened bark paper, folded accordion-style. The codices were likely produced in the late post-Classical period (1200-1519 AD). Some material in the codices , including astronomical tables, appears to have been copied or adapted from manuscripts of the Classical period (200 – 900 AD). The long count entry date of the Dresden Codex eclipse table, for example, correlates to 755 AD. This may date the original version of the table.

Admiring statements about the accuracy of Maya astronomy (like Gates’ quoted above) may distort what the Maya were trying to achieve. They were not interested in accuracy for its own sake, and had nothing like the modern notion of standard deviation to serve as a benchmark of accuracy. Like many peoples, they wanted to be able to predict future astronomical events to time rituals and make auguries. They needed reasonably good measures of such things as the lunar month and the period of Venus to do so, but the accuracy of a modern ephemeris would not have been required for this purpose.

But there is another aspect of Maya sacred astronomy that was almost unique among civilizations at a similar level of technology. The Maya were intensely interested in making astronomical cycles commensurate with their calendar. They carried out observations over long periods of time to fit astronomical and calendrical cycles together. The eclipse table in the Dresden Codex is not carried out 11,960 days to achieve extreme accuracy, but because nothing less than 405 lunations can be fitted into a whole number of 260 day.

tzolk’in

cycles. The Venus table is carried out even further, but only to ensure that it runs from a tzolk’in date of 1 Ahaw to another occurrence of 1 Ahaw on a day when Venus again rises with the sun.

Maya measurements of the Venus and Mars cycles come, like the measurement of the lunar month, from the Dresden Codex. The Venus table in the Codex records heliacal rise (when Venus rises with the Sun) at 594 day intervals. However, the table has a built-in mechanism for correcting this approximation that leads to the figure of 593. 93 days listed above. The Mars table records the period of the planet as 780 days, and appears to contain no method of correction

So while the values of the lunar month, Venus period, and tropical year implied by Maya records are more accurate than those calculated by Ptolemy using Greek and Babylonian records, the difference was dictated by the Maya calendar, not a scientific desire for high accuracy. The Maya measurement of the synodic period of Mars is quite good, but not as accurate as the Greeks’. Mars’ period is almost exactly three tzolk’in cycles, which required only a bit more than two years of observation to fit into the calendar. The short period of observation required to make a good match with the calendar produced a measure of Mars’ period less accurate than the estimates of lunar and Venus periods.In fact, there are cases in which the scribes sacrificed accuracy to the demands of ritual. For example, while the length of the Venus period from heliacal rise to heliacal rise is very accurate, the Codex is not nearly as accurate in recording the time between other “stations” of the planet. But since the accuracy with which the scribes determined the mean synodic period proves they were skilled Venusian observers, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that they deliberately altered the length of apparitions.

It is likely that the Venus table was adjusted so that the auguries for the beginning of each apparition would be consistent with established auguries for days in the tzol’kin. The table is contrived to bring the apparition dates as close to observation as possible while retaining the required links with the tzolk’in.This should not diminish respect for Maya astronomers, but it does put their achievement in proper context. The Maya regarded time as a meshing of sacred cycles. Their astronomy was a monumental effort to encompass the motions of the heavens in a mathematically perfect system. Its purpose was ritual and augury, not scientific description in the modern sense

The fullest surviving account of Creation is found in the post-Conquest Popol Vuh of the Quiche people of Guatemala. The oldest evidence is from monuments at Izapa and other pre-Classical sites (400 BC- 200 AD). Many of the incidents recounted in the Popol Vuh parallel scenes on painted ceramics of the Classical period (200-900 AD). The Temple of the Cross at Palenque and other Classical inscriptions report the events of Creation, though in a condensed, sometimes cryptic manner.

These sources do not always agree in detail. Nevertheless, they show a remarkable continuity in the Maya conception of the cosmos over two millennia of history.

Right: Izapa World Tree (Stela 25). The crocodile represents the Earth, its hills symbolized by the rough skin of the reptile, a characteristic shared with the bark of the ceiba tree.

At the centre of every traditional Maya dwelling is household hearth, a triangle of three stones. The hearthstones have a sacred as well as utilitarian function. Maya rituals often begin with the centring of the four quarters of the world about the ritual precints. Household rituals are centred on the hearthstones. The Earth-Sky, the dwelling place of humans, is centred on a cosmic hearth, from which the World Tree first rose. The Popol Vuh hints at the importance of the hearth: When the wooden people were destroyed by flood, “their hearthstones were shooting out, coming right out of the fire . . . Such was the scattering of the human work, the human design.” An essential step in the reordering of the world after the deluge was the setting of the hearth stones of the new world. Toward dawn on the night of Aug 13, the constellation Orion moves toward the zenith. The Quiche people still refer to a triad of three bright stars in Orion as “the hearth stones”, and the hazy nebula below Orion’s belt is called “the smoke from the hearth”. Orion is also called the turtle stars (ak’ ek), depicted in the Madrid Codex as a turtle with three tun (”stone”) glyphs on its back. Because the sky has not yet been raised, the hearth is a location in both earth and sky. The turtle shell is an earth symbol, like the back of the crocodile at the foot of the World Tree. Here is the place of Creation, where the sky will rise again.

542 days after the lying down sky was manifested, Hun-Nal-Ye [Maize God], the First Father, entered the sky at the First Three Stone- Place. On 13 Ik, the last day of Mol, he made proper the Wakah Chan [Raised up-Sky] place (Temple of the Cross) [

At dawn on the night of August 13, the Milky Way is almost erect. The scribes who designed Quirigua Stela C appear to have been content to end their account of Creation here. The text ends with a brief reference to the “action” or “work” of Wak-Chan-Ahaw, the “Raised- up-Sky Lord”. The Temple of the Cross at Palenque tells more about the final act of Creation, the raising of the World Tree. To set the scene, the Palenque scribes counted forward 542 days, to Febuary 5 a year and a half later. At sunset on Febuary 5, the sky has the same configuration as at dawn on the night of August 13.

About 2 hours after sunset on Febuary 5, the hearth in Orion is very near the zenith. For the Palenque scribes, this may mark the setting of the three hearth stones at the foot of the World Tree. Just after midnight, Orion sets, and two hours later, the Milky Way lies prone along the south eastern horizon. At the zenith lies a particularly dark region of the sky that Schele identifies as the Ek’-Way, the “black dream place”, a portal to the Underworld. This is literally the darkness before the dawn.

As the night progresses, the Milky Way slowly turns erect once more. At dawn, the World Tree has been raised over the world inhabited by the true humans. It now occupies the same place in the sky as it did at sun set on Aug 13, before the destruction of the old world.

This is likely the image of the sky the Palenque scribes had in mind when they carved the glyphs that tell us that Hun- Nal-Ye “entered the sky” and “made proper the Raised-up-Sky Place” on Feb 5 in 3112 BC. The god who raises the sky in the Palenque Creation story is the Maize God, Hun- Nal-Ye, “one sprout revealed”. In the Popol Vuh, the gods created true humans out of corn meal. It is the stuff of life. In one of its guises the World Tree is a corn plant. At Palenque, the cosmic World Tree is paired with another, the “Foliated Cross”, with images of the Maize God’s head in its branches, like cobs of corn.

Summary

This has been my attempt to fill a vacuum in Mayan Studies, an answer to the why and how of the end date of the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count. The solution requires a shift in how we think about the astronomy of the Long Count end date. The strange fact that it occurs on a winter solstice immediately points us to possible astronomical reasons, but they are not obvious. We also shouldn’t forget the often mentioned fact that the 13-baktun cycle of some 5125 years is roughly 1/5th of a processional cycle. This in itself should have been suggestive of a deeper mystery very early on. Only with the recent identification of the astronomical nature of the Sacred Tree has the puzzle revealed its fullness. And once again we are amazed at the sophistication and vision of the ancient New World astronomers, the descendants of whom still count the days and watch the skies in the remote outback’s of Guatemala.

This essay is not contrived upon sketchy evidence. It basically rests upon two facts:

1) The well known end date of the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count, which is December 21st, 2012 A.D. and

2) The astronomical situation on that day. Based upon these two facts alone, the creators of the Long Count knew about and calculated the rate of precession over 2300 years ago. I can conceive of no other conclusion. To explain this away as “coincidence” would only obscure the issue.

For early Mesoamerican sky watchers, the slow approach of the winter solstice sun to the Sacred Tree was seen as a critical process, the culmination of which was surely worthy of being called 13.0.0.0.0, the end of a World Age. The channel would then be open through the winter solstice doorway, up the Sacred Tree, the Xibalba be , to the center of the churning heavens, the Heart of Sky.

2004 and 2012 Transits of

Venus

Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments. Indeed, only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882). The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2004 June 08 and 2012 June 06.

The principal events occurring during a transit are characterized by contacts. The event begins with contact I which is the instant when the planet’s disk is externally tangent with the Sun. The entire disk of the Venus is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. During the next several hours, Venus gradually traverses the solar disk at a relative angular rate of approximately 4 arc-min/hr. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and is once again internally tangent with the Sun. The transit ends at contact IV when the planet’s limb is externally tangent to the Sun. Contacts I and II define the phase called ingress while contacts III and IV are known as egress. Greatest transit is the instant of minimum angular separation between Venus and the Sun as seen from Earth’s geocenter.(Low Res or High Res) illustrates the geocentric observing geometry of each transit across the Sun (celestial north is up). The 2004 transit crosses the Sun’s southern hemisphere while the 2012 event crosses the northern hemisphere. The position of Venus at each contact is shown along with its path as a function of Universal Time. Each transit lasts over six hours. The apparent semi-diameters of Venus and the Sun are 29 arc-seconds and 945 arc-seconds respectively. This 1:32.6 diameter ratio results in an effective 0.001 magnitude drop in the Sun’s integrated magnitude due to the transit. Geocentric contact times and instant of greatest transit appear to the left corners of (Low Res or High Res).

Geographic Visibility of 2004 June 08

The global visibility of the 2004 transit is illustrated with the world map in Figure 2 (Low Res or High Res). The entire transit (all four contacts) is visible from Europe, Africa (except western parts), Middle East, and most of Asia (except eastern parts). The Sun sets while the transit is still in progress from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, easternmost China and Southeast Asia. Similarly, the Sun rises with the transit already in progress for observers in western Africa, eastern North America, the Caribbean and most of South America. None of the transit will be visible from southern Chile or Argentina, western North America, Hawaii or New Zealand.

The horizontal parallax of Venus (~ 30 arc-secs) introduces a topocentric correction of up to ±7 minutes with respect to the geocentric contact times for observers at different geographic locations. Topocentric contact times (Universal Time) and corresponding altitudes of the Sun are presented for over one hundred cities in Geographic Visibility of 2012 June 06

The global visibility of the 2012 transit is (Low Res or High Res). The entire transit (all four contacts) is visible from northwestern North America, Hawaii, the western Pacific, northern Asia, Japan, Korea, eastern China, Philippines, eastern Australia, and New Zealand. The Sun sets while the transit is still in progress from most of North America, the Caribbean, and northwest South America. Similarly, the transit is already in progress at sunrise for observers in central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and eastern Africa,. No portion of the transit will be visible from Portugal or southern Spain, western Africa, and the southeastern 2/3 of South America.

The horizontal parallax of Venus (~ 30 arc-secs) introduces a topocentric correction of up to ±7 minutes with respect to the geocentric contact times for observers at different geographic locations. Topocentric contact times (Universal Time) and corresponding altitudes of the Sun are presented for over one hundred cities.

Frequency of Transits

Transits of Venus are only possible during early December and early June when Venus’s orbital nodes pass across the Sun. If Venus reaches inferior conjunction at this time, a transit will occur. Transits show a clear pattern of recurrence at intervals of 8, 121.5, 8 and 105.5 years. The next pair of Venus transits occur over a century from now on 2117 Dec 11 and 2125 Dec 08.

Edmund Halley first realized that transits of Venus could be used to measure the Sun’s distance, thereby establishing the absolute scale of the solar system from Kepler’s third law. Unfortunately, his method proved impractical since contact timings of the desired accuracy are impossible due to the effects of atmospheric seeing and diffraction. Nevertheless, the 1761 and 1769 expeditions to observe the transits of Venus gave astronomers their first good value for the Sun’s distance.

The planet Mercury can also transit the Sun. Since Mercury orbits the Sun more quickly than does Venus, it undergoes transits much more frequently. There are about 13 or 14 transits of Mercury each century. All Mercury transits fall within several days of 8 May and 10 November. During November transits, Mercury is near perihelion and exhibits a disk only 10 arc-seconds in diameter. By comparison, the planet is near aphelion during May transits and appears 12 arc-seconds across. However, the probability of a May transit is smaller by a factor of almost two. Mercury’s slower orbital motion at aphelion makes it less likely to cross the node during the critical period. November transits recur at intervals of 7, 13, or 33 years while May transits recur only over the latter two intervals. The next two transits of Mercury are on 2003 May 07 , 2006 and Nov 2008.

The sky on December 21st, 2012 A.D. showing a rare astronomical alignment – The winter solstice sun is right in the “dark rift” in the Milky Way.The Milky Way Galaxy is the inspiration for the symbol of the Ouroboros. Myth refers to a serpent of light residing in the heavens. The Milky Way is this serpent, and viewed at galactic central point near sagittarius, this serpent eats its own tail

the Solar Eclipse on May 20 2012 shows the planatery positions see below

In 2012 the centre of the Galaxy is at 0 degree of the Western zodiacal sign Capricorn. 0 degree Capricorn is the point of the zodiac where the Sun is during the December solstice.

At December 21, 11.12 GMT during the December solstice the Sun is at the exact centre of the Galaxy. According to the Mayas the center of the Galaxy is the cosmic womb: the place of dead, transformation, regeneration and rebirth. This moment shows the end of their calendar.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ASTROLOGICAL CHART
The Sun is at 0 degrees Capricorn, the point of the December solstice. It makes a sextile to Neptune, right at the beginning of Pisces. This is an almost exact sextile. The orb is less then half a degree. This aspect can point towards a spiritual experience, a loss or both.

The most important configuration is a yod which we find in the chart. This is also called the Finger of God. It looks like an arrow in the chart and it indicates change and transformations. .

The yod consists of:
1. A quincunx (150 degree aspect) between Jupiter and Pluto.

2. A quincunx between Jupiter and Saturn.

3. A central opposition (180 degree aspect) made between Jupiter and the Mercury/Venus conjunction.

The two quincunxes are almost exact, they have an orb of less then half a degree. In fact the quincunx between Jupiter and Pluto is exact at December 21 2012.

THE MEANING OF THE ASTROLOGICAL CHART

Pluto is the planet of radical transformation, death and rebirth.

Saturn is the planet of the earthly realm and of learning experiences, especially those of a more painful nature.

Jupiter is the planet of expansion. It is the focus of the yod, the planet which receives the strong energy of the other planets involved. It also expands the energy of the other planets involved (especially Saturn and Pluto).
This yod indicates transformational processes which can be painful for many.

Jupiter has a central place in this because it is the focal point of the energy. This indicates changes in our religious systems, beliefs, philosophical systems. These fall under Jupiter.


Another notable configuration is the T-square with Neptune as focal point:
Jupiter makes a square (90 degree aspect) to Neptune.
Neptune makes a square to Venus.
Venus opposes Jupiter, this is the central opposition that activates the yod.
Therefore Neptune, the planet of spirituality, ascension, confusion and floods is a cruxial planet in this chart.

Keep Reading as My Research is Going on to find the truth behind december 21-12-2012 Mayans Calander.

By Rohit Sharma

The tzolk’in is a cycle of 260 days. Each day in the cycle is identified by both a day number and a day name glyph. The tzolk’in date in this example is a day 3 Ahaw. Thirteen day numbers and 20 day names were used. The sequence of day names is Imix, Ik, Ak’bal, K’an, Chikchan, Kimi, Manik’, Lamat, Muluk’, Ok, Chuwan, Eb, Ben, Ix, Men, Kib, Kaban, Etz’nab, Kawak, Ahaw. The day before 3 Ahaw is 2 Kawak. On the day after 3 Ahaw, the sequence of 20 day names begins again, with 4 Imix. The day numbers continue to increase to 13, then revert to 1. Thus counting ten days from 3 Ahaw, the day 13 Ok is reached. It is followed by 1 Chuwan.

Because 13 x 20 = 260, each day in the tzolk’in cycle has a unique name-number combination. The day 3 Ahaw repeats only after 260 days. This system may seem rather complicated, but it is really little different than combining week day names with the day of the month in our system. Thus, for example “Tuesday the 31st” might be followed by “Wednesday the lst.”

The haab is a 365 day year. Since the Maya often aligned buildings to sunrise on the solstices, it is clear that they were aware that the solar year is not exactly 365 days long. The haab was likely set to 365 days to make it more easily commensurate with other calendrical cycles. The haab was divided into 18 named months (winals), each 20 days long, with a 5 day period at year end, the Wayeb, during which New Year rituals were performed. A haab date combines the day of the month with the month name. In this example, the date is 13 Yaxk’in. The Yucatec names of the months are: Pop, Wo, Sip, Sotz’, Sek, Xul, Yaxk’in, Mol, Ch’en, Yax, Sak, Seh, K’ank’in, Muan, Pax, K’ayeb, Kumk’u. The name glyphs, ending with the Wayeb glyph, are illustrated in order at the right.

The post-Classical Maya numbered the days of the month from 1 to 20, but in Classical inscriptions, the last day of the month was written as the day on which the new month was “seated” (chum). Thus the last day of Yaxk’in was usually written as chum Mol, rather than as 20 Yaxk’in. This amounts to taking chum Mol as the first day of Mol, and numbering the days of the month from 0 (chum) to 19.