Is The End Nigh? Maya Prophecy Gains A
Following
By Joanne Kimberlin
Might want to rethink your long-term plans.
In case you haven't heard, a surprising
number of people believe that the end - make
that, The End - is only three years away.
On Dec. 21, 2012 - or the 23rd, depending on
the math - the 5,125-year-old Maya calendar
runs out of days. Add in an assortment of
prophesies and some unusual celestial
forecasts, and you've got the ultimate
doomsday scenario, a script that includes
everything from ecological collapse to
cosmic cataclysm to a reversal of the
Earth's polarity.
Hollywood cashes in on it all next month
with the opening of the mother of all
disaster movies: "2012." Its catchphrase is:
"We were warned."
Which begs the question: Were we really? No,
says Mark Van Stone, at least not by the
Maya, a people who flourished in Central
America from around A.D. 250 to A.D. 900.
Van Stone, a professor at California's
Southwestern College, is a Maya scholar and
hieroglyphic expert. He says 2012 merely
marks the end of a cycle on the ancient
calendar, a point at which it resets.
"The Maya were noteworthy and interesting
and all that stuff," Van Stone said, "but
they probably weren't anybody who'd be able
to pinpoint the end of time."
The 2012 phenomenon doesn't seem to care. A
cottage industry of books, seminars and
T-shirts has been spawned. The History
Channel and Syfy have produced "what-if"
specials. In Virginia Beach, a company that
designs 2012 shelters says it can't keep up
with demand.
"We're slammed," said Brian Camden of
Hardened Structures Hardened Shelters, a
division of Powell Management Associates on
Lynnhaven Parkway.
Doomsday calls for the most expensive type
of shelter - a "standalone fortress," as
Camden calls it, able to withstand
earthquakes, tsunamis, solar flare-ups,
explosions, impacts and armed assaults.
Costs run between $350 and $600 per square
foot, depending on location. So far, all of
the company's clients have been out of
state. Confidentiality is part of the deal,
Camden says. Most of his clients are
millionaires building bunkers beneath remote
retreats.
Camden figures that companies like his have
built more than 1,000 doomsday shelters
across the country, with another 100 under
construction.
"I really don't buy into any specific part
of 2012," he said, "but we have a simple
philosophy here: Our clients' priorities are
our priorities. I'm not going to argue with
them about what might or might not happen."
John Hoopes at the University of Kansas
specializes in ancient cultures and myths of
the past. He says people have been eyeing
2012 since the early 1900s, when Maya dates
were first translated. Over the decades,
their ranks grew, swelled by followers of
Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce and others whose
predictions seemed to point to the year as
well.
In time, they were joined by other
subcultures - a psychedelic circle that
based its 2012 fears on a handful of
drug-induced visions; UFO believers
convinced of alien influence on the Maya;
star gazers concerned about celestial
alignments destined to push the sun across
the galactic equator; the religious right,
long poised for Armageddon.
"It's made for some really strange
bedfellows," Hoopes said, "groups that don't
typically think on the same page."
Mark Wilson, a visiting professor of early
Christianity at Regent University, doesn't
think most Christians are buying into 2012.
"It's not linked to the Bible, so there's
not much interest," Wilson said. "Besides,
the Christian community is experiencing a
bit of apocalyptic burn out."
Too many doomsday dates have come and gone.
The granddaddy was Y2K.
"It all fizzled," Wilson said. "The Bible
says that only the Father knows the day or
the hour."
As for the Maya, they were indeed deep
thinkers for their time - equipped with a
written language, adept at astronomy and
math. But they also favored elongated heads,
crossed eyes and human sacrifice.
Van Stone, the Maya scholar, says their
calendar, while impressive, is just another
calendar, flawed by inaccuracies and
historical agendas: "All calendars are like
that - even the one we're using today."
He finds the 2012 phenomenon "fascinating.
As a professional, I've been looking at this
as a chance to draw the spotlight off the
crazies and onto the actual Maya."
So far, he's had limited success. The movie
won't help. Starring John Cusack, Woody
Harrelson and Danny Glover, it's directed by
Roland Emmerich, the man behind
"Independence Day" (alien attack) and "The
Day After Tomorrow" (global warming).
Van Stone plans to see "2012" with some of
his anthropologist pals. What the heck, they
like to see famous landmarks blow up as much
as the next guy.
Hoopes, the ancient cultures specialist,
says 2012 hype is self-perpetuating. It'll
keep going as long as it sells, and it'll
keep selling as long as the hype fans the
flames.
"So it spirals out and keeps people's juices
going and makes them spend money," he said.
"Looks like a good time to invest in bottled
water and duct tape again."
For the past three years, the Edgar Cayce
Association for Research and Enlightenment
in Virginia Beach has held an annual 2012
conference. Hundreds of people have come,
mostly out-of-towners.
"It's one of our best conferences," said
Alison Ray, ARE's marketing manager.
Speakers touch on 2012's many ties and
theories, with an emphasis on the ARE's own
take. Cayce followers are among those who
believe 2012 won't bring global catastrophe,
but just the opposite.
They think 2012 will herald the dawning of a
new age - a phase of enlightenment and
evolution for mankind.
But that won't make nearly as cool of a
movie. |
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The origins
The 2012 phenomenon is fed from many corners. Certain prophesies, celestial events and numerology are all said to point to the date. The biggie, though, is the 5,125-year-old Maya calendar. Formally known as the Mesoamerican Long-Count calendar, it’s sometimes referred to as the Odometer of Time. It starts on what the Maya thought to be Creation Day: Aug. 11 (or 13), 3114 B.C. Different translations and computations vary the exact date by a few days. The calendar runs out on Dec. 21 (or 23), 2012.
How it works: Maya dates read from left to right and are based on units of roughly 20.
* 20 days = 1 uinal
* 18 uinals (360 days) = 1 tun (roughly 1 year)
* 20 tuns = 1 katun
* 20 katuns = 1 baktun (144,000 days, or 394.25 years)
* Last date on the Maya calendar is 13.0.0.0.0 – or 13 baktuns, 0 katuns, 0 tuns, 0 uinals, 0 days.
* 13 baktun = 5,125.26 years – or Dec. 21 (or 23), 2012. |
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