2012: The Last Date of the Mayan Calendar

It seems as if people just can’t get enough of the predictions made for 2012.  For those who have not been keeping up, December 21, 2012 is the last date of the Mayan calendar.  The Mayans believed that the earth would be reborn on that date and consequently a few modern day astronomers take this to mean an ending of civilization as we know it.  There is in fact a rare alignment between the galactic equator and the sun on 12/21/2012 (some astronomers believe that the alignment already happened in 1997).  The Mayans did predict a type of spiritual shift in humanity at this time.  This spiritual rebirth somehow got interpreted by modern day net gurus as including geologic changes resulting from a polar shift.  And of course Hollywood, in its insatiable quest for greater and greater box office receipts, jumped on this type of interpretation and produced an apocalyptic movie about 2012. The movie is due for release sometime in November of this year (movie trailer). 

There is some scientific evidence which suggests that the alignment on 12/21/2012 is likely to be an opening for a large amount of magnetic energy to impact the earth and it is this event that has triggered speculation about a polar shift.  The actual effect of this magnetic energy, according to Greg Braden (discussion), is more likely to be an uptick in the amount of ice that is melting at the poles which can cause severe short term coastline damage.  Braden does speculate that we may be on the verge of some dramatic coastline changes.

So there it is…the story of 2012…not so big a deal unless you happen to own coastline property. But is that the end of this tale?  Unfortunately, there is more going on than meets the eye.  It seems that we live in a time that is not only interesting but also very entertaining.  And all of it leading up to some edge of your seat drama.   

There is no beginning point that is obvious or clearly the impetus for “The End Of The World As We Know It” theories  (prophets have been predicting the end of the world for the last two thousand years ). Many of the net gurus like to distinguish between the actual end of the planet (total destruction: no life left) and the end of modern civilization (getting tossed back to the stone age).  Contemporary apocalyptic predictions can be traced to the publication of Worlds in Collision in 1950 by Immanuel Velikovsky. Essentially it is a historical account of a sort of ‘Star Wars’ epic in space involving planet earth, but also a Near Earth Object (in this case the planet Venus) that caused major geologic changes to our planet. The most influential author regarding cyclical NEOs has been Zecharia Sitchin starting with the publication of his book “The 12th Planet” in 1976.  The book is actually a translation of ancient texts written in the Sumerian language, which according to Sitchin, describes a planet called Nibiru having an orbit that eventually takes it close to earth.  The entire orbit takes about 36000 years and its passing close to earth causes major geological changes including polar shift.  Neither of these authors, in their published works, discuss the Mayan prophesy.  Their primary published work is related to the Mayan prophesy by ‘net gurus’ who have sort of jumped on the 2012 bandwagon.