The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012

Glossary

179 apocalypse. From the Book of Revelation, a collection of divine prophecies related to the end of time preceding the Second Coming of Christ; also a general term applied to the disclosing, to certain privileged persons, of secret information affecting humanity. autumnal equinox. See equinox. Big Bang. The cosmological model, best supported by current evidence, that theorizes that the universe was created in a singular flash some 13.7 billion years ago. black hole. A region of space in which the gravitational pull is so powerful that nothing, including electromagnetic radiation, can escape it. celestial equator. The prolongation of the earth’s equator, or plane of rotation, onto the sky. This great circle is 90 degrees distant from the celestial poles. celestial poles. The points marking the extension of the poles of rotation of the earth onto the sky. G l o s s a r y Glossary 180 commensuration. The property whereby a quantity can be related to another quantity by a ratio of two small whole numbers; for example, because five Venus years of 584 days are equivalent to eight seasonal years, counted as 365 days, we say that the two periods are commensurable in the ratio of 5 to 8. conjunction. Any lineup of celestial bodies, such as the sun and the moon in its new phase. ecliptic.Theextensionontotheskyoftheearth’splaneofrevolutionabout the sun, a great circle making an angle of 23.5 degrees with the celestial equator. As far as terrestrial observers are concerned, this circle traces the annual motion of the sun on the sky relative to the background of distant stars (the zodiac). equinox. One of two points on the celestial sphere at which the sun, in its annual course along the ecliptic, crosses the celestial equator. The vernal equinox is the point of intersection of the ecliptic and the celestial equator where the sun passes from the southern to the northern hemisphere . The autumnal equinox is the opposing intersection point where the sun passes from north to south. The equinox dates are approximately March 21 and September 22, respectively. galactic center. The center of rotation of the Milky Way Galaxy. About 25,000 light-years distant, it is located in the constellation of Sagittarius. galactic equator. A great circle in the sky that marks the central line of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is defined by the peak concentration of neutral hydrogen observed at a radio wavelength of twenty-one centimeters. Also termed the “plane of the galaxy.” galaxy. A large star system, generally of flattened form, held together by gravity. Gnosticism. A form of religious internationalism in which knowledge of God is thought to be revealed experientially and personally via a series of hierarchically ordered emanations that lead to the highest “One.” Great Rift. A group of dark interstellar clouds along the Milky Way stretching from Cygnus to Sagittarius. haab. The Maya seasonal year cycle of 365 days, reckoned without leap years, and organized by eighteen months each of twenty days, to which an end month of five days is added. Glossary 181 heliacal rising. The first appearance of a star (or planet) after its invisibility because of conjunction with the sun. heliacal setting. The last appearance of a star (or planet) before its invisibility because of conjunction with the sun. Long Count. The largest base-20 calendrical cycle once used by several Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya. The cycle comprises the following units: k’ins (days), uinals (“months” of twenty days), tuns (years of eighteen uinals), katuns (scores of tuns), and baktuns (thirteen katuns). Mayanism. A collection of New Age beliefs centered around the notion that ancient Maya wisdom contains higher knowledge ranging from the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century belief that they possessed secrets of lost Atlantis to the widely held contemporary view involving extraterrestrials. Metonic cycle.Devisedbythefifth-centuryBCGreekastronomerMeton, the time it takes to return a given phase of the moon to the same date in the seasonal year; 235 months, or nineteen years. Milky Way. The galaxy in which the solar system, along with 200 billion other stars, is situated. Seen from the eccentric position of the earth, which is situated close to its plane and about two-thirds of the way between the galactic center and the outer edge of the disk, it appears as a faint luminous band of light about 15 degrees (thirty moon diameters) in average width that stretches all the way around the...