The Mayan tradition is the ancient tradition of Central America (600 BC). Its origins are even more ancient and are derived from the Aztec Culture. The remains of the Mayan culture can be seen today in the great temples shaped as terraced pyramids and the beautiful cities that have been partially preserved in Central America, in a very progressive script, mathematical and astrological system, and in the prophecies that has been preserved until today.
The Mayan people are not easy to find, not because of the passing of time but because the white man when arriving to America has exterminated almost all the Mayan people and destroyed all of its glorious culture. Despite that, the descendants of the Maya live until today preserving their tradition in the on-going progressing world, in various places across Central America, places such as Mexico and Guatemala.
Today when we try to research the Mayan tradition the legend mix up with the truth and the tradition with new-age style updates and apocalyptic theories. Nevertheless there is something there… considering the fact that the Mayan people had extremely precise astrological forecasts and an ability to predict astronomical events forward and backwards it time, in an accurate way that doesn’t consist with logic or with the fact that it was done without the technological means of today.
For the Mayans, astrology and astronomy ware inseparable of their religion and ways of life.
Their temples symbolize the ages in time- from the lowest terrace that symbolize the earliest age into the future – the top terrace.
According to the Mayans the world consists of 9 ages. The earliest most ancient age was the longest and most extended one, and as time moved forward the ages become shorter and faster. According to the Mayans the ages rely on each other, each age has a purpose and a meaning. In each age men has to arrive at an insight or accomplish something. The ages are stepping stones and building blocks on the way to reach the keystone – the last age, which is, as the Mayans has foreseen ages ago – our age.
The Mayans used a complex set of calendars and Almanacs by which they predicted the movement of the planets. They put more emphasis on a few stars – Venus was very significant to them, especially since it was observed at times as the night star in the west, and in different times as the dawn star in the east. Another important star in the Mayan astrology (which is not a planet) is Sirius (Dog Star), the most distant brightest start in the sky, part of Orion’s Belt. The first day in the Mayan year was determined according to Sirius’s relative position to the sun. The position and cycle of the moon and of course the sun had great significance.
There are more elements in the Mayan astrology that are unknown to conventional astrology such as sacred animals and different beings.
The terraced temples were built in such way that they constitute a star-clock, and its angles marked the movement of the important starts in the sky. Different stars, Venus between them, could be seen from east and west, and in the first day of the year it was possible to see Sirius from one specific location.
According to the stars the Mayans could accurately predict events forwards and backwards in time until our days.
The Mayan believed that there are 3 sources of energy in the world: the sun, the moon and the center of the galaxy. Their calendar consisted of a number of tablets that signified the cycles of the different stars, the moon, the sun and the ages. The two main cycles of the Maya – the year of Venus (260 days) and the year of the sun (365 days), unit every 52 years.
The astrological predictions of the Maya, continues until a specific point in the future and then they stopped. This point is closer than ever before. This point is the 21.12.2012 (notice the interesting number! Although the Mayans didn’t use the same counting system as we do, it is still a special coincidence…). This date is the winterequinox, and in this specific date, according to the Mayan’s predictions, an interesting phenomenon will occur, in which earth’s position is aligned with that of the sun (this happens every equinox), but this time this alignment will continue a straight line (imagine a line of billiard balls) all the way to the center of the galaxy. This phenomenon occurs only once every 26,000 years, meaning at the end of 500 cycles of 52 years.
So should we prepare for the end of the world?
Not quite! Although there are many “end of the world” theories, running on YouTube and the cinema. A special interview with one of the Mayan’s elders, and other interviews and more sane interpretations are talking about this time that the earth’s alignment with the sun and with the center of the galaxy as a time in which a new energy is entering the world and there is a process of an Octave leap. The Mayan man talks about a very positive spiritual process followed by a real change in the world. A change that has been needed for a long time now, but definitely not “the end of time”. Men have great fear of changes. Sometimes the fear is so great that a person would prefer to repeat the same mistake over and over again, and to suffer from it, just so that he would have to admit that the situation requires change. The fact that our future will be significantly different from what we know today can be frightening to whoever is afraid, and can be wonderful to everyone who understood long time ago that things should change here. And change can be a positive change. Very positive.
Anyone who ignored the “end of the world” predictions did right. It is a strange and negative way to interpret something so subtle and sublime. It’s an interpretation that is based on fear.
So if we believe the Mayan predictions for one moment (and why not believe it?), we can cherish and appreciate the time that we are living in. instead of taking everything for granted, instead of letting the days go by, we can remember that the intention of the Mayan people was towards this time in which we live in, a time they’ve been expecting for thousands of years. We might notice that ancient people with very impressive prediction abilities thought of this time as time of great significant change, and that the whole creation was directed towards this time so that we could arrive at it.
The number 2012 is in the air for quite a while now, we can hear about it in prophecies, in movies. This year has been marked by astrologers since long ago and some say that Nostradamus also mentioned it. When we trace the source of these rumors (the rumor says that the world will end in the year 2012…, but not to worry – more details later on) we reach the ancient prophecies of the Mayan’s elders.