The 2012 Mayan Prophecy.

It's been 2 weeks since my last post. I've been busy and lazy... and a lot of things have happened in those 2 weeks. I'm getting sentimental here, but I saw how a great love turned into a complete lie, I realized how one single instance can change your future plans forever, and how some people believe that death is closely inevitable.. (plus my best friend gets engaged and another friend suddenly decides to close down his blog). I apologize for greeting you with such a gloomy post... but no, I did not break up with anyone. Lol.

First I hear and see about the Inconvenient Truth, how our world is dying at a faster rate because of all the carbon dioxide we're putting out there. Then I hear about the Obama prophecy of Nostradamus, that the first black pope or president is the sign of the beginning of World War 3. Then someone tells me about the 2012 Mayan Prophecy, that the world will reach its natural end on December 21, 2012. Wow, that's like 4 years from now.

As bothersome as it may be, I decided to blog about it - amidst all my fashion-kikay entries (which were all basically due to my current job). There are certain points that I want to stress out and that I want to share to those who are interested to know about it. I apologize for using excerpts, because I think Brett Kopen would say it better than I would. ;)

On Christmas Eve 2012, the sky is divided by the sun and all dry land begins to rise. The oceans respond to the tectonic shifts and the great flooding of the Earth begins. New York is washed away by a tsunami ten times greater than the Indian Ocean wave of 2004. Chicago returns to its swamp roots as the melting ice from the North Pole quickly fills the basins of the Great Lakes, causing Lake Michigan to burst at the seams. Gravity from the North speeds up the process of course, as the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans collide in Nebraska. The new era of humanity turns from dominance to survival. Rather then the plot for a blockbuster Hollywood summer movie, this is the way the world could end according to Western interpretation of the Long Count calendar, one of several created by the Mayan Indians who populated the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico hundreds of years ago. While many Mayans still exist today, the classical period of their culture ended around 900 A.D. They studied the stars and the movements of the moon and sun, developing several calendars including the Long Count, which measures huge periods of time, along with a calendar to mark the passing of a year.

No one knows why the Maya marked the beginning of creation on that particular date. Every year the Sun, Earth and the Milky Way galaxy align in a particular manner in the days leading up to the winter solstice. What is special about 2012 is for the first time in 26,000 years this alignment will occur on December 21, the actual date of the winter solstice. This has led to rampant speculation that the Maya believed something catastrophic will happen. The problem is that none of these predictions were made by actual Mayans, only individuals from the West who have interpreted the calendar themselves, according to Dr. Robert Sitler, the Latin American Studies director at Stetson University in Florida.

While Sitler says the dire predictions of apocalypse in 2012 are off-base, he does believe that the current state of society is in a downturn. “Will all that crazy stuff happen? No,” he said. “I think there is cause for concern when you look at the environmental situation we are in. The current lifestyle on planet Earth is unsustainable.”

In fact, Sitler said the Maya people currently living in places like Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize are learning about the 2012 prediction like other people: through the media. This has led some Maya to interpret the calendar to mean their people will return to autonomous rule. Other Maya resent what they consider to be another example of the white man taking over their culture by interpreting their own documents for them. Sitler believes nothing extraordinary will occur specifically in 2012. However, he does warn that unless changes are made regarding toxic dumping, pollution and the way we treat the environment, the end is not far off.

“The trajectory is in place and we are already in this disaster,” he said. “It will collapse, it has to. It has no choice. We desperately are trying not to see the writing on the wall. I think we’re kind of in a collective delusional state.”

“The Maya were amazing, there’s no doubt about that. We have to be careful how far we take their beliefs.” As for what will happen on December 21, 2012, we know the planets will align and for sure, there will a lot of individuals proclaiming the end of days. But as Michael Coe, professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale University, puts it: “No one really knows what is going to happen.”

However, if we continue to turn a blind eye to such issues as pollution and global warming, we will not need a calendar to tell us the world is ending. All we will need to do is look out our window.