The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012

5: The Astronomy Behind the Current Maya Creation

85 In Chapter 2, I noted the number of astronomical and other natural events conjured up by the Y12 prognosticators. To summarize, here is a short list of the most common questions I have been asked about possible natural events that might have something to do with December 21, 2012: • Is there a unique galactic alignment that will take place in 2012? • Could the Maya have known about it? • Special or not, what effect can such an alignment have on the earth? • Will a solar maximum occur in 2012? • Might there be a cataclysmic effect on earth as a result? • Will there be increased solar activity in 2012? T h e A s T r o n o m y b e h i n d T h e C u r r e n T m A y A C r e A T i o n 5 The AsTronomy behind The CurrenT mAyA CreATion 86 • Is there a connection between solar streams and unusual weather patterns on earth and could such a correlation produce cataclysmic effects? • Is the earth’s magnetic field weakening? • Can this, perhaps together with any increased solar activity, wreak adverse effects on the earth? • Is there a precedent for a magnetic pole reversal on earth and are we due for one? • Might this have any cataclysmic terrestrial effects? • Is the earth about to move into a hazardous region of the Milky Way Galaxy—some sort of “energy cloud” where shock waves or cosmic rays could cause disruptive effects on the sun? • Could global warming, which some scientists say is produced by human-induced carbon emissions, actually come from the interaction of the sun, cosmic rays, high-energy particles from supernovae, and terrestrial clouds? • Does the sun wobble and bulge because of the gravitational pull of the planets (or any other celestial bodies) appreciably enough to produce any sort of cataclysmic effect? • Does the reversal of the sun’s magnetic poles have any effect on the earth? • Are the various natural disasters the earth is experiencing becoming more frequent than they were in the recent past as we approach 2012? Is the earth, then, experiencing a climax of sorts leading up to the year 2012? In this chapter I will try, where possible, to offer answers to these questions based on the best available evidence. So far we have established that August 11 (or 13), 3114 BC, the start of the current Maya creation, and December 21 (or 23), 2012, the date that marks its end and the start of a new creation, may have been deliberately set up to coincide with important times of the seasonal year. The beginning date of August 11 (13) is close to one of two annual dates when the sun passes overhead in the area where the Long Count calendar developed, and the end date The AsTronomy behind The CurrenT mAyA CreATion 87 coincides with the winter solstice, when the rising sun reaches its maximum southerly position as it swings like a pendulum annually along the horizon. In effect, the rhythm of the calendar starts out and/or terminates on a seasonal downbeat that may have imparted a sense of cosmic symmetry to the Maya system of timekeeping, much like the way we begin our day with both hands of the clock pointing straight up and once began our year with a solstice. There is supporting evidence for an early solstitial calendar in studies of the alignment of Maya architecture (see page 54). To judge from the batch of questions cited above, the big concern about 2012, at least in popular culture, is whether the early Maya calendar keepers were guided by events that operated on a longer time base than a seasonal one. What do we really know about ancient Maya comprehension of cycles of natural phenomena? Given their unparalleled devotion toskywatchingand mathematical computation, thisquestioniscertainly worth looking into. As we found in Chapter 2, one popular theory suggests that the 5,125-year Long Count creation cycle was geared to an alignment of the sun with the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, an alignment that occurs once every 26,000 years because of the precession of the equinoxes. The galactic alignment hypothesis raises a number of questions about astronomy in general and about how astronomy was practiced in the Maya culture. First there are the astronomy questions: What is knowable about our Galaxy based on...