Is 2012 The End of the World?
We're hearing a lot about the year 2012 lately. Actually, new age and esoteric researchers have been talking about it for some time, as being the year the Mayan Calendar allegedly ends. It is only as 2012 suddenly looms close -less than five years from now!- that there's a sense of urgency surrounding it. As 2012 approaches, skeptics will no doubt remind everyone about the Y2K fiasco -the large scale disruptions that were supposed to occur at the start of the new millennium -January 1, 2000. Of course, nothing happened. But there really isn't much of a comparison. At most, Y2K was going to be a computer glitch, based on the supposed inability for all these machines to adjust to a new millennium. They turned out to be a lot smarter than many gave them credit for. 2012 -more specifically, December 21, 2012 (Winter Solstice), is not significant for its meaning in our calendar, but in the ancient Mayan calendar. Scholars, astrologers, astronomers and anthropologists have many differing opinions on this, and I will not even attempt to give an ill-informed opinion on the technical aspects of this date, the Mayan calendar or astronomical/astrological events in general. However, quite a few minds have centered on this date and have attributed significance to it. Jose Arguelles is the first well known modern researcher to have studied the Mayan calendar. In the 1980s, he was famous for talking about the Harmonic Convergence of 1987. Whether anything really happened at that time is another matter of debate. He is presently focused on getting the world to change its calendar to a lunar-based one (though not one actually used by the Mayans). The real question about 2012 is whether it is going to be the end of the world (or the world as we know it) or the beginning of a new age. Some have put this date together with Christian prophecy and Vedic astrology, and have come up with something akin to the apocalypse or Armageddon. Yet this view is not held, as far as I know, by any well known authors or researchers. I believe it is mainly a popular simplification, the kind often engaged in by journalists, of a far more complex subject. The "end of the world" view will only be aggravated by a new Hollywood disaster movie, titled 2012, coming out soon. Mayan Cosmogenesis 2012, by John Major Jenkins and the late Terrence McKenna gives a good technical overview of the Mayan calendar, the significance of 2012 and the possibilities this might mean for our world. In Daniel Pinchbeck's thoughtful book, 2012 -The Return of Quetzlcoatl he looks at the subject from many points of view -mythic, scientific, political and psychological, and concludes that it's an open-ended scenario. Our free will is the key, so no prophecy can be precise. To move further out in the new age direction, Barbara Marciniak has channeled the Pleiadians in three books that also describe 2012 as a major event. The most recent is Path of Empowerment These books also stop short of predicting specific events, but focus on the time -as well as the years leading up to it- as a time of great potential for humanity to expand its consciousness. According to the Pleiadians (and others as well, including David Wilcock, who I'll talk about shortly), our entire galaxy is presently receiving accelerated energy, which is effecting not only our planet, but all the planets in our solar system, as well as the Sun. The key is to harness this energy and not be afraid of drastic changes, whether to the climate or our political and economic systems. After all, few could dispute the need for radical changes on many fronts. Another Barbara who also channels Pleiadians (one of those new age synchonicities I suppose) is Barbara Hand Clow, who along with her husband Gerry Clow, recently wrote Alchemy of Nine Dimensions. I haven't read this one yet, but it appears to be quite technical, encompassing many cultures and traditions. David Wilcock is someone I've only recently discovered through his web site and videos. In some ways, his material is the furthest "out there" that I've encountered. I'd recommend checking out at least one of his videos to find out where he's coming from. Topics he discusses include UFOs, time travel, conspiracies, as well as "ascension" -the belief that we can quickly expand our awareness. Wilcock and many others believe that this will be increasingly possible as 2012 approaches. The "dark" side to 2012 beliefs -aside from the underlying fears about the end of the world, that is- is that there is a certain pressure to be included in the massive positive changes. Wilcock reluctantly admits that his take is somewhat compatible with certain Christian views on the Rapture, where some will be saved and others "left behind." This kind of outlook is likely to alienate many people, but I don't think it should be discredited simply because you don't agree with certain religious dogmas. I have only mentioned a few of the sources of information about 2012, ones I'm most familiar with. There are lots more, and no doubt this will only increase as the time grows closer. Right now I don't have any firm conclusions about it, but I do believe that there's something to it all. It's probably a good idea to avoid the extreme apocalyptic images, such as Hollywood is likely to be pushing. At the other extreme will be hardcore skeptics who will refuse to believe anything is going to happen. Perhaps, if we really do "create our own reality" we have a choice about what 2012 will bring.
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