Why do they have December 21st as the end of mankind? Quite simply it is said to be the last date of a 5,125-year-long Mayan Long Count calendar. The Mayans or Maya lived in South America from 2000 BC all the way through to the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th Century.

The Maya created the long count calendar by counting the number of days passed since a mythical creation date that corresponds to August 11 3114 BCE (or before the before the Christian era) in the Gregorian calendar . Today it has been noticed that the long count calendar was used on most monuments found in South America, and other places around the World so giving credence to this phenomenon.

Am I worried about the impending apocalypse? I don’t think so, for if any of you can remember the doom reports given to us by most Governments and civilian agencies from around the world, reference the 2000 Millennium bug where we were told that all communications, alarms, computers and control systems were meant to crash, causing total world chaos well, I am still waiting and worst of all I still received my electric bill, phone bill, bank charges and credit card statement ( which I had maxed as I thought the end of the world was coming) and life went on as normal much to my dismay I must add, so I won’t be making the same mistake twice.

But just in-case they are correct I think the 21st of December 2012 should be a National Holiday in all countries on earth and the 20th of December known as End of the World’s Eve. Can you imagine the countdown in Times Square as Father Time descends on the crowds with his scythe singing? Its Now or Never come back to me, Elvis is waiting, come along with me (you have to sing that last part for it to make sense).

Me, on the 21st December I will celebrate as I apparently won’t have to worry about a hangover the following day and if the world doesn’t end I will be retired by then, so I won’t have to worry about going into work the following day.

Anyway here’s to the end of the world may we all prosper and enjoy our new National Holiday and by the way, if we use the calendar we use today this event will not happen until August of next year so we will have to do it all over again.

Here’s to the future

I can’t post all the dates here, so just check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events you’ll laugh.

It was prophesied the world would end before 400 a.c. did it happen? NO. Again in 500, happened? No. Pope Sylvester II predicted it in 995 A.C. I don’t know about you, but, *looks up and down* I’m alive. 1666, Peasants and general population, beware, the number of the Devil was upon us, the world is going to end. WHAT? Puh-lease. I think we already stablished we’re still alive.

There’s even people trying to PROVOKE the end of the world. Don’t believe me? Let me take you back to 1969, where Charles Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders to start a war, which would’ve destroyed the whole planet.

Even Nostradamus failled his predictions in 1999. And the funny part? They error, and try at it again. Hal Lindsay’s prediction of 1980 failed, so what happens about it? Let’s try again.” Christians, get OFF planet before 2000 if you don’t want to see the end of the world.”

Let me laugh.  You wanna know what this looks like to me? People are so scared of the future, so afraid of life, that prefer to murder themselves with an excuse of a damn apocalypse so that, whatever their religions, when they’re asked in nirvana/heaven/Goddess’ Womb/Hade’s Realm, they’re asked why they offed themselves, they can say something “Oh the world is going to end, didn’t want to witness it. Sorry, I know it’s wrong, but I didn’t want to see suffering.” I hold the right to my existence thanks. Even if the world is going to end, what can I, You, or Anyone do about it? We are mear ants compared to the size of this world. There is no technology, no hope of survival if the world really is going to end. I don’t care what people think. Grow some balls, and even if you’re afraid of the world ending, which will not, stick around and see for yourself how wrong you were.

It just makes me angry all this damn business. Here’s the new, controversional one, 2012. What’s so special about the date? No damn comet is going against the earth, nothing is wrong. Oh the Mayan calendar… this… that. Man/Woman, take your facts straight. The mayan ruled themselves by periods of time. The mesoamerican long count calendar has a 5,125-year-long cycle, therefore it ends in 2012. Some nutjob decided this was the end of times, maybe he was dumb, maybe he was purposefully trying to scare y’all, well, he succeded. I lost count how many times friends came to me crying blood and snot complayining they’re to young to die. So again I say, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. Don’t believe something just because someone else said it. People lie, manipulate, some like to cause panic. I shudder to think of what people will do when the nearing date of this damn stupid profecy arrives. Murder, rape, robbery.

Let’s suppose it really will be the end of times then. What the fuck will you do? Spend your last days killing and robbing? FOR WHAT? What do you gain with it? Besides being against the religion I assume you have, it is also moraly wrong.

Don’t worry with what you can’t change and it will be fine. Trust me. I AM a witch after all. Ahahahahah, and what I see from the future, it doesn’t include the end of days.

I see myself old. How the hell can I see myself old if the world would have ended?

People, whatever your religion, faith, belief, do me a favour and THINK. Like Eddie Griffin says, It Ain’t Ilegal Yet.

Worry with what you CAN change. Something so big, collosall and with huge magnitude as the end of everything is to big to control.

YOU CAN’T LIVE IN FEAR.

Be happy, Be safe, Be smart.

And LIVE

I’m outta here.

Isn’t that something to think about? =)

I did some research on the National Geographic web site, where they debunk some of the most common doomsday myths. Their reason for addressing this problem seriously is because they kept getting questions and submissions from people who were considering killing themselves and their children to avoid having to live through the apocalypse.

An interesting side note: The word “apocalypse” doesn’t mean the end. It means a “lifting of the veil” or “revelation” in Greek. Essentially, it means that something that was hidden from the majority of mankind will be revealed at last. No one knows what this might be or if it will even happen, but the definition takes a little bit of the ominous nature out of the word for me. How about you?

There have been a massive amount of failed doomsday prophecies, many of which were greatly feared and dreaded by people of their respective times.

Pictured above: a survivalist family prepared for the famous Y2K disaster that never happened.

So why all the hype and insanity? It’s the marketing machine, of course! Even I’m working on a project about the end of the world, but that’s simply because I love apocalyptic horror stories. Why not make the timing right, right?

Another popular theory is the one about all of the planets aligning in 2012. This might be true… but there’s no proof that the world will end on December 21st.

What does this mean for us? It means relax! Do what you do, enjoy your life, and quit being so paranoid! Think of it this way: if you really want to know the truth and do your research, go get some FBI training and learn how to investigate matters even further… though I honestly don’t think it’s necessary to find your peace of mind.

The 21st century is like none other. If a person from just a hundred years ago suddenly found himself in downtown Phoenix, AZ today it would be quite shocking and awe inspiring to say the least. A hundred years ago an automobile sighting was something to write home about and the skies showed no sign of jet wash. If a person from 50 years ago suddenly found himself in modern downtown Phoenix, AZ he would be less amazed, but would still be stricken by the intensity of the traffic and the bombardment of advertising in all venues. 

                        Take a look at the changes that Generation X has seen. When they were babies, the hippie movement was in full swing and Vietnam was being fought with helicopters and machine guns. Just a decade later the hippies were yuppies and the space shuttle was making headlines. By the time these Xers were entering the job market it was quite normal to see a woman in charge. The gulf war had been fought with ground troops and missiles that shot down other missiles. Computers were becoming part of our everyday life and some people had phones in their cars. At the turn of the century Xers found themselves wondering if the terrorists were the Muslims or the government. They hadn’t been to a library since they got the internet and their children were typing a hundred and sixty words a minute at the age of ten. The list goes on as the years pass by. The twenty first century makes us feel uncertain about the future and that makes us look to the past for answers.

                        It has been said that negative information is more widely accepted than positive information. People tend to believe things are bad and getting worse. Many of us have heard somebody read a quote that states how children are out of control, wars are being fought and everything just can’t get much worse and then we find out the quote is from two hundred years ago and here we are still alive and well. This doesn’t mean nothing is going to happen, it just means we need to be careful about what we believe. This preference for negative information may explain the popularity of doomsday. It might also be suggested that if we all think enough about the same thing at the same time it may cause that thing to become reality. At least that’s what some folks are saying.

                        If you spend a little time on the internet you will find the topic of a 2012 awakening is abundant. If you want to know exactly what this awakening is you might have a little trouble. Some say we will all realize that we have the power to shape our future with our thoughts. That is to say we can think something and it will materialize. That sounds rather simple, but it’s not quite as simple as that. I could write an entire book on all the different methods, but that’s not my goal in this article. It seems that the approaches are similar. You have to control your thoughts and concentrate your feelings into your desire. Some say you need to also pick a date when you want your desire to materialize. Others say it will happen when the time is right and the proper amount of energy has been focused. Many say that the theories about being awakened are based on science. In fact many scientists have written about this very subject and agree. It seems that Quantum Mechanics is the science that sheds the most light on this subject because it shows us that the world is not as absolute as we have always thought. Crazy things happen in the quantum world like a particular particle of an atom can be in many places at the same time. Just observing things in the quantum world changes the quantum world. 

The many different awakening theories look to the hundred monkeys phenomenon to explain that thought can travel from one mind to another kinetically. In brief this experiment was performed in 1952 on a group on primates on an island. One monkey learned to wash it’s food before consuming it. Other monkeys observed this behavior and copied it. Soon many monkeys on the island were washing their food, but the strange thing was when the one hundredth monkey started washing its food, all of the monkeys began watching the food, even monkeys on a nearby island that had no contact with those in the experiment. After hearing this story I had to continue my research. I found that the original writing showed that a monkey named Imo learned on her own to wash her food and showed it to other monkeys. Soon all of the young monkeys were washing their food but the older ones mostly did not. By the end of the experiment the young monkeys were parents themselves and the trait was taught to the new generation. To explain the monkeys on other islands picking up the behavior one could say if there was an Imo on one island is it possible that there were monkeys as creative as her on other islands. That does not explain why they all learned the behavior at nearly the same time, but it does keep us thinking objectively. 

                        That being said one has to think that maybe the awakening is just the right amount of people thinking the same way or doing the same thing might cause a global shift in awareness. So, what happens when we all wake up? Do we notice that we are destroying the delicate ecosystems all over the planet? I think we’ve already noticed that, but maybe we will agree on an approach to resolve that and the many other impacts modern humans exercise on the world around us. Maybe we will adopt a more peaceful attitude towards one another. I even read a few articles that said we would construct a new type of civilization that has no money or need for wealth. That may seem crazy, but it is very well thought out and organizations like the Zeitgeist movement are making plans. It is hard to envision something so profound taking place in the near future, but it’s not impossible if we all agree that it is the best route for our future.

In closing, there are many theories about 2012 and the argument will go on until the day arrives and passes. Will it be like Y2K and just be a goofy memory or will this one somehow live on? I have a feeling many will say the shift of awareness did happen, but it will take many years to materialize. They may even choose a date when we will all realize that something did in fact happen on December 21st 2012. I know there will be a lot of skeptics laughing on December 22nd 2012 if we are still alive and nothing has changed. What will the next doomsday prediction bring? I hear there is an asteroid that might hit the Earth in 2040?

Many of these religious groups aren’t afraid to define who will make the cut and who will be left behind.  Those doomed to face the apocalypse seem to be out of luck.  However, they are now free to initiate plan B and start a business to capitalize on these apocalyptic predictions.  After all, it wouldn’t be America if we didn’t take advantage of fear in some way or another.  My favorite online business offered to take care of pets for those who were projected to make it to the promise land.  It’s a good thing they didn’t make the cut so they were available to take care of pets for those chosen few while they are on vacation…permanently.  Too bad the fee was nonrefundable.     

The most popular of these doomsday predictions is linked to the end of the Mayan calendar that will allegedly occur on December 21, 2012.  This may cause you to frantically recall your bucket list in your head-adding a few things as you go along or you’re still a little skeptical.  Either way it’s a pretty serious issue-it being the end of the world and everything.  I’m sure the individuals who informed us of this rumor researched it extensively or were even part of the Maya culture themselves.  I decided to look into it a little further and was shocked by what I found. 

I imagined that as popular as this prediction has become, the evidence would be littered across Mayan literature or at least be a buzz in that part of the world.  However, according to an episode of the Madeleine Brand Show on Southern California Public Radio (KPCC), “Guatemalan thinkers insist 2012 is mentioned only once in ancient Mayan texts.  They say the writings actually describe it as a time when the gods will return to earth and there will be a big event or party.” 

Does that mean this day on the Mayan calendar could bring about a new beginning instead of the end of the world?  Why would someone turn something so positive into something so fearful?  It sounds like a great party-I wonder if there will be a cash bar.  How did this ugly rumor got started in the first place? 

In the article “My Psychic Powers at Work: Behold the boldest, most Maya-endorsed predictions you will read for 2012″ in Time magazine Joel Stein sheds some light on the subject.  He contacted David Stuart a Mayan scholar who received the “genius” grant at age 18 to find out the truth.  According to Stuart, ”The end of the calendar is completely made up by people who don’t know anything about the ancient Maya.”      

Jill Replogle of KPBS Public Broadcasting asked Ernesto Arredondo Leiva, a Guatemalan archaelogist, about the doomsday prediction associated with the Maya.  According to Leiva, “This is an Anglo perspective of the world.”  According to Replogle, “He (Leiva) says a couple of misinterpretations and careless predictions have morphed into a 2012 doomsday tale.  That’s mostly thanks to some pseudo-scientific types looking for spiritual support.”  

Was this doomsday prediction just a big misunderstanding or clear ploy to boost ticket sales for the next big blockbuster?  After all, these end of the world predictions do tend to attract quite a following and it gives people of all ages and backgrounds something to look forward to OR complain about.  I’ll be waiting for t-shirts with the date 12-21-12 to hit street venders this fall. 

So there you have it-myth debunked.  Based on the evidence, December 21, 2012 sounds more like a party than an apocalypse.  So how does one go about separating the rumors from the correct predictions about the end of the world?  If you have to ask, you probably already have a post apocalyptic plan in place-no need to fret. 

Like a bad reality show or high school gossip-the drama associated with these predictions can be addicting.  It’s important to retain even an ounce of skepticism as you tune in to the news and remember that in the end these predictions will amount to nothing more than a pop-culture trivia question or the next big movie blockbuster.  In our society, fear still remains the best way to make a buck, manipulating those who are still susceptible to even the craziest of rumors. 

The title song to a pivotal album of the 70’s, and one of the strangest and most unusual of all musical recordings. The song takes on everything from medieval knights in armour to UFO’s saving a lucky chosen group of humans from the apocalypse.

The song is best seen in covering three different periods of time and perception that start to overlap in the mind of the singer. The opening verse is clearly set in a hazily remembered past, with an almost intentionally clichéd view of a chivalrous pageant, and a sense of a children’s story, barely remembered. The knights are in some way associated with a queen, (Genevieve?) and an archer damages a tree (possibly a reference to Robin Hood taking part in an archery contest). There is a sense of someone ageing, reflecting on images from his youthful reading, or random thoughts in the mind of someone getting himself rather high.

The verse adds a fanfare with the image of the trumpets pointing upwards, as though the Sun itself was being worshipped, rather than the fanfare just taking place on a bright sunny day. The closing lines depict nature being destroyed by man in the 1970’s – a prophetic vision given that the song was issued just as the decade was commencing. Young has changed this to the 80’s, 90’s and Noughties in later releases and performances, keeping the line as contemporary as possible.

The second verse moves to a more realistic depiction of soldiering and violence. The narrator is in the wreckage of a bombed out building. It seems to be the position he has been given orders to maintain, and he is hoping that his replacement will arrive soon to relieve him, but there seems to be some kind of delay. It is night. He can see the Moon, but then he can suddenly see the Sun instead. It seems to be the fire-flash of a large explosion, most likely a nuclear one. The band he imagines himself hearing might be a rock band or a religious one playing a requiem to dying humanity. The singer reflects on a friend’s words that he had refused to believe but now fears might be coming true. This might well be a prediction someone gave him of the imminent end of the World, which he had dismissed as unrealistic or just rumour mongering. Now he is seeing it come true.

The final chapter depicts an unusual Judgement Day, in which the spaceships land, arriving as fantastically as the medieval knights of the earlier vision. There are many distressed children, and a select group of humans are given a new start with the aliens. The ships fly off sunwards. We are told that all of this is a dream.

The Sun is a recurring theme, the narrator sees all this as though not a part of it. He has no connection to the stories of his childhood. He sees no romance or chivalry in his burnt out basement, and he seems to be a witness to the extra-terrestrial gods aiding an evacuation rather than anyone invited to go.

The song has become something of an anthem for the Space aliens as God cults that still abound. Erich Von Daniken’s claims that ancient monuments such as the pyramids of Egypt were built by aliens and a diet of UFO related science fiction has led some to believe that aliens will arrive like angels to save them from the nuclear holocaust the rest of us will be left to suffer. The song captures some of that mood, with the singer not being one of the fortunate (?) chosen few.

An odd but beguiling song, with even its title unexplained or even referenced in the lyrics. The Klondike gold rushes left many people poor and bereft, and bitterly disillusioned. Humanity’s race will ultimately end in death for most, with few people feeling satisfied with what they gained in life. For many, the rush for capital is akin to the hysteria of the gold rush, with all its greed and madness and violence, but few of its rewards.

A haunting song that creeps up on you and stays in your head for a long time after a hearing. Cover versions abound, with cover artists including Prelude, Linda Rondstadt, Radiohead and Dolly Parton. 

The Song on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwjsYWGvaJo

Arthur Chappell

2012 appears set to be a portentous year, if nothing else because of the famous, much-hyped and long-awaited end of the long-count Mayan calendar on 21 December, 2012. Those who can remember the Y2K hype of 2000 can rest assured that the hype will likely be repeated, possibly on a grander scale this time around. Google ‘December 21, 2012’ and you will find a plethora of sites dedicated to communicating information about the end of the world as we know it – including phrases such as “The world as we know it is in for some dramatic and devastating changes” and also sites debunking the ‘myth’.

Of course this is not the first time that the end of the world has been prophesized – many people have predicted the end of the world many times before, most recently the American Harold Camping, who surely if he was the boy who cried wolf would have been devoured many times over http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2097462_2097456_2097489,00.html and http://www.ranker.com/list/the-12-greatest-end-of-the-world-prophecy-fails/ivana-wynn. It must be very disappointing to all those who have prophesized and will continue to be into the future that the one time someone gets it right – they and nobody else will be around to appreciate the fact and celebrate their success!

The most interesting aspect of the discussion about December 21, 2012 (the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere) is how it relates to history and the history of ancient people – specifically in this case, the Maya. The astonishing feats of ancient peoples from throughout history and well-documented and I can’t pretend that I have any expertise in this field. I can say however, that I’ve spent some time travelling in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Mexico and Guatemala and there are many interesting things about the way these civilizations constructed their landmarks, statues and way of life in synergy with astronomy, the sun and other natural principles including the Fibonacci sequence that are quite astounding for the assumed level of knowledge of their peoples at the time. John Major Jenkins published a book in 1998 called ‘Maya Cosmogenesis 2012’ in which he claims the meaning of the Mayan long count calendar end date as follows: the December solstice sun will be at the intersection of the Milky Way (where the Galactic Centre, the origin of the galaxy is located) and the ecliptic (the path travelled by the sun, moon and planets through the sky) on December 21, 2012. According to Jenkins, this alignment occurs only once every 25,800 years! This is considered to be one quarter of the precessional cycle (with the last alignment of the autumn solstice sun with the Milky Way being around 4400 BC). The precession of the equinoxes is caused by Earth ‘wobbling’ on its axis, like a spinning top does http://www.unisa.edu.au/planetarium/Info/eclip.asp and apparently several ancient civilizations, particularly the Maya, were familiar with this phenomenon and documented it. The Maya particularly used the precessional point occurring on 21 December, 2012 as an anchor for the end of their long-count calendar, which is why the culmination of this point is Zero Time in the Mayan Calendar. Jenkins hypothesises that the precessional point that will occur on December 21, 2012 will result in the solstice meridian crossing the Galatic Equator (I assume possibly a similar process to the top proceeding past the vertical line (Galactic Equator) in the centre of the diagram below and beginning to tip to the right). Jenkins suggests that given we experience differences in ‘field-effect’ properties on either side of the Earth’s Equator (e.g. hurricanes (Northern Hemisphere) and cyclones (Southern Hemisphere) spin in different directions as per their location on different sides of the Equator), we may well experience differences in ‘field-effects’ once the Earth passes the Galactic Equator.