ASTRONOMIC MAYAN KNOWLEDGE AND JOHN MAJOR JENKINS

The work of John Major Jenkins has expanded the meaning of the precession cycle of the equinoxes.  Like Walter Cruttenden (see previous chapter), he explains that the precession cycle of the equinoxes, the 26,000 years it takes the sun to move through the galaxy, was well known by the Mayans.     

Here we can see that 1 kin is equivalent to one of our days, 1 uinal equals 20 kins, and one tun equals 360 kins.  If we join 13 baktuns, we will have a large cycle of 5,125 tuns (years), and if we join five of these large cycles we end up with a precession cycle of 25,625 tuns, or years, an estimate astronomers arrived at a relatively short time ago.  How did the Mayans know about such a vast temporal cycle without access to the instruments available to us today?  

We don’t know.  Yet clearly the Mayans, great cosmologists that they were, were in tune with this cycle.  According to their knowledge, the 25,625-year cycle will terminate on the winter solstice of 2012.  They believed that at this time there would be a union of the cosmic mother and father.  After synchronizing Mayan cosmology with astronomical software called “easy cosmos,” Jenkins realized that in the years leading up to 2012, a strange cosmic alignment has been taking place, a phenomena for which, moreover, there is empirical proof.     

Our sun, which the Mayans considered the first solar patriarch or cosmic father, has been moving through the constellations.  As we get closer to the year 2012, the sun aligns itself with the bright strip of the Milky Way.  The Milky Way contains the center of the galaxy and was known as the great mother, the heart and source of everything.  It has also been demonstrated that, because of precession, on December 21, 2012 (i.e., the winter solstice) the earth’s axis will be pointed directly at the center of the galaxy.

Interestingly, the Long Count Mayan calendar ended on the date of the 2012 winter solstice.  This was because Mayan tradition believed that from this date on it would no longer be necessary to measure time as we had in the past.  According to the Mayan creation myth, human beings would undergo a transformation that would result in a reconnection with the source of everything.

While John believes an evolutionary event will take place in 2012, he does not believe it is related to the long evolutionary processes of which the Darwinian model speaks.  Since it is awareness that evolves, the reaction is instantaneous.  As we approach this point, a very powerful polarity appears, easily observed in the world today.  There are two large groups of people.  One opts for the world of matter and a life dominated by the ego, while the other seeks energy and light in an attempt, literally, to illuminate itself.  While this might sound like mysticism, illumination is really nothing more than knowledge put into practice.  This involves balancing the two polarities in what is known as the middle way, or Tao.  In other words, another union.   

The Mayans were not the only ones who were aware of these vast periods of time.  In Hindu culture, for example, Yugas were used.  The same as on Mayan calendars, Yugas indicated extensive stretches of time.  Golden ages preceded by periods of decadence later remerged in all of their magnificence in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth. 

Image from Walter Crutenden
In chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13 we will examine in depth four of these great ancient cultures: Chinese, Egyptian, Mayan and Hindu.

For more information:
www.mc2012/index.html
www.tortuga.com