posted March 15, 2004 10:27 PM
I see you mentioned Mayans quite a few time alrady. The end of Mayan calendar doesnt necessarily mean the end of our world. I`ve been reading about the Mayan calendar for 2 years now and it doesnt look that doomed now.
so why December 21, 2012? From what I`ve read on this day occurs a rare astronomical event - the Sun conjuncts the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. The Milky Way, as you know, extends in a north-south direction in the night sky. The plane of the ecliptic is the track the Sun, Moon, planets and stars appear to travel in the sky, from east to west. It intersects the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius. (imagine that somewhat as a cross).
This cosmic cross formed by the intersecting Milky Way and plane of the ecliptic was called the Sacred Tree by the Maya. The trunk of the tree is the Milky Way, and the main branch intersecting the tree is the plane of the ecliptic(Sun, Moon, ect). Mythically, at sunrise on December 21, 2012, the Sun rises to conjoin the center of the Sacred Tree, the Tree of Life..
The Sun has not conjoined the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic since some 25,000 years ago, long before the Mayans arrived on the scene. What does this mean?
Due to the precession of the equinoxes, (caused by the Earth's wobble that lasts almost 26,000 years) the apparent location of the Winter Solstice sunrise has been ever so slowly moving toward the Galactic Center. (imagine a spinning top. Over many revolutions the top will rise and dip on its axis. One complete rise and dip constitutes the cycle of precession.)
The amazing Mayans noticed that slippage of the positions of stars in the night sky over long periods of observation and foretold this great coming attraction. By using an invention called the Long Count, the Mayans fast-forwarded to anchor December 21, 2012 as the end of that Great Cycle and then counted backwards to decide where the calendar would begin.
Some people believe that a new era would beging around 2012, a new life cycle..one just never know of course.