| Mar. 25th, 2006 @ 01:46 pm The Mayan Sacred Tree and 2012 |
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In the last couple of days, I've been researching various eschatological, futures studies, and transhumanist theories and stories for my coming book on the next evolution of human beings. I started looking at such theories as put forth by the noted fraud "psychic" Gordon-Michael Scallion, psychedelic writer and philosopher Terence McKenna, and others who have noted that the Mayan long count calendar (among other things) ends on the winter solstice of 2012.
On the late Terence McKenna's site on levity.com , I found an essay written by John Major Jenkins that, IMHO, perhaps represents one of the best explanations for why the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012.
In a nutshell, Jenkins' explanation deals with the Mayan Sacred Tree and a finding published in a book by famed anthropologist Linda Schele that the Mayan Sacred Tree was actually an astronomical occurrence -- basically where the Earth's ecliptical crosses the Milky Way. Jenkins points out that on the day the Mayan long count calendar ends -- December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 on the long count) -- the winter solstice sun will be in conjunction with the Earth's ecliptical as it crosses the Milky Way. Such an astronomical event would have been very important to the ancient Mayans, and Jenkins believes that this event is what is portrayed in the famous Pacal tree image found on the king's sarcophagus.
While I'm not a Mayanist and I don't necessarily believe that an eschaton or a sociological or technological signuarity will occur on that date, Jenkins' essay does provide food for thought. |
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