Many people currently believe that on Friday December 21, 2012, 11 AM, the Winter solstice, we will see the end of the world. That the earth will be destroyed in an end times apocalypse. They may be more right than they realize about an apocalypse but not at all how you think of it. The word apocalypse has a very different meaning than many have come to understand. An apocalypse is defined as "lifting of the veil" or "revelation". It is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception. Biblically speaking it refers to the visions revealed by St. John in the book of Revelation. There are some who feel 2012 might represent the final battle of Armageddon and Jesus' second coming, but according to Scripture it is still far off. Specifically we must first witness the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, the appearance and activities of the antichrist, as well as a seven year tribulation. So you can see biblically the end of days could really only happen in 2016 at the earliest possible. There are other cultures who had a belief about the end of the world or time but in none of them we are given a specific time.
There is a misconception out there that the Mayans predicted that 2012 would see the end of the world because their calendar ends then. Except the Mayan calendar does not really "end" in 2012, but rather, all the cycles turn over and start again, vibrating to a new era. It is as if humanity and the Earth will graduate in the eyes of the Father Sun and Grandmother Milky Way. On Winter Solstice 2012 it is as if the Giant Odometer of Humanity on Earth hits 100,000 miles and all the cycles big and small turn over to begin anew. The present world age will end and a new world age will begin. We are shifting, astrologically, from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.
The Maya had a mysterious 260 day Mayan ceremonial calendar, called the Tzolkin (pronounced chol-kin), made up of 20 Mayan daysigns and the thirteen Mayan numbers. The Mayans tracked cycles within cycles within cycles of time. Their calendar acted as a calibrator, linking and coordinating the earthly, lunar, solar and galactic seasons in an simple and elegant manner. a landmark article by John Major Jenkins in Mountain Astrologer magazine in 1994, revealed for the true meaning of the end-date.
On December 21, 2012 a rare astronomical and Mayan mythical event occurs. In astronomic terms, the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near. This forms a sort of cosmic cross. The intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic was called the Sacred Tree by the Maya. The trunk of the tree, the Axis Mundi, is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic. Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the World Tree, the Tree of Life..
This rare astronomical event was foretold in the Mayan creation story of the Hero Twins. The Sun has not conjoined the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic since some 25,800 years ago, long before the Mayans and their predecessors the Olmecs arrived on the scene. What does this mean?
Due to a phenomenon called the precession of the equinox that lasts almost 26,000 years, the apparent location of the Winter Solstice sunrise has been slowly moving toward the center of the galaxy or the Galactic Center. Precession may be understood by watching a spinning top. Over many revolutions it will rise and dip on its axis, not unlike the Earth over an extremely long period of time. One complete rise and dip constitutes the cycle of precession. The Mayans noticed the relative change of the positions of stars in the night sky over long periods of observation. The Maya called the length of the precession of the equinoxes the Great Great Cycle, known as the Great Year on the Photonic Year.
The Great Cycle, lasting 5,125.36 years, is but one fifth of their Great Great Cycle. By using an invention called the Long Count, the Mayans fast-forwarded to anchor December 21, 2012 as the end of their Great Cycle and then counted backwards to decide where the calendar would begin. They calculated that the Great Cycle we are currently in began on August 11, 3114 B.C.
What might this disclosure, revelation or apocalypse be. Since it will be the beginning of the age of Aquarius it will be a dawning of a new golden age. Many say it will see the revelation of truth and the expansion of consciousness. Ages are believed to effect mankind and correlate to the rise and fall of mighty civilizations and cultural tendencies. Some astrologers believe that the influence of a new age is experienced before it arrives. Aquarius traditionally has to do with electricity, computers, flight, democracy, freedom, humanitarianism, idealists, modernization, astrology, nervous disorders, rebels and rebellion. This seems to indicate we have been under the influence of Aquarius since the mid to late 1700s. It is believed that the transition between the ages lasts approximately 280 years. We are close to completely be under Aquarius. A new era predicted to be arriving by the Mayans, Native Americans, and Masters of India and the East.
