Solstice 2011 - One Year to Go

Here we go...if you thought there was a lot of actions (hype) surrounding 2012 before, you will be mowed down by it now. EVERYONE is getting on the bandwagon.

The most recent buzz is about the so-called 'second reference' to the 2012 end date found on the Comalcalco brick.

The complete Long Count date for the last day is 13.0.0.0.0. 4 Ahau 3 Kankin.

The last part, 4 Ahau 3 Kankin, is called the Calendar Round (CR). It consists of a tzolkin date (Ahau) from the 260 day calendar and a haab date (Kankin) from the 360+5 day calender. These two cycles run continuously and repeat a particular combination every 52 years.

This was one of the repeating cycles connected to the Mayan prophetic tradition. It was thought that events would recur each time a particular combination came up. Another cycle for prophecy was the katun cycle used in the Chilam Balam.

This second reference consists of a CR and some difficult to interpret glyphs which might mean 'he/she/it arrives'. In the prophetic tradition, each time period has an 'event' ie verb associated with it which is performed by god(s) or natural phenomena. By analogy, we can say something like: "on Dec 21st, the Sun stops in the sky" (the solstice). If someone read that a thousand years from now, they might think that the Sun actually stops in the sky...wow! what would that mean? they might speculate...the end of the world?

With no other calendar glyphs besides a Calendar Round date on the brick there is no way to know which 52 year cycle it refers to. And even if the 'event glyph' (verb) is the same as that on Tortuguero Monument 6, it still means nothing as it would be expected. Just like if we see July 4th something written in the U.S., we assume the text has something to do with Independence Day.

I have read a number of posts about this...which, by the way, are only 'cuts and pastes' of each other. That is, the same article copied over and over, by people who know nothing about the Mayan calendar, ancient Mayan tradition or much else for that matter.

If you want to learn how this all works, I will be teaching my hieroglyph class again at Santa Rosa Junior College starting March 1. This is a 6 week class, where you will learn the basics of decipherment, the calendar, the mathematical system and much more. You will be able to read Mayan texts that refer to the last Creation Day.

In case you might think I am nothing but the facts...here is something that is fun. Your Mayan/Aztec horoscope. No such thing really, but fun to look at. Click here. WARNING you will get on their email list and will receive copious quantities of stuff you might not want.

A good website to figure out Mayan dates using different correlations etc. is this one. Click here. This is a legitimate resource and you won't receive anything from them.