Saturday, July 25, 2009
Some New Age pundits argue that the Maya did not necessarily believe the world would end violently on 2012? Do they have a point?
The Mayan religion does not support that belief. The previous four “Sun Ages” did not go gentle according to their prophetic books, the Popul Vuh and the Chilam Balam. Contrary to today’s New Age Transformationalists, none of the previous ages ended in a spiritual renaissance. There is no reason to assume the Long Count Calendar #5 and the fifth age, which it encompasses, will be the exception and will not remain true to form and will not end catastrophically. The last day of Calendar #5 ends on 11:11 Universal Time at 12/21/2012, and the Maya have no additional days to follow it. The famous pre-Aztec Sun Stone depicts all the ages, and its last Sun Age is the fifth nor did the Maya have a sixth Long Count Calendar. The New Age Transformationalists notwithstanding, the Maya of old did not view that date as the dawn of a new age
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Do any other religions predict the world will end on 2012?
--
The BAGAVAD GITA’s author, Lord Krishna, died on 2/18/3102 which is close to the year our Fifth Sun Age commenced. The Hindus believe that with Krishna’s death the world began a new earthly cycle, “the Kali Yuga,” which they think of as “the Degenerate Age.” The Hindu mystic, scholar and religious leader, Sri Kalki Bhagavan, has told his million-plus followers that he is the Kalki Messiah, the 10th and final avatar of Vishna and that our “Degenerate Age” will end on 2012. He ties his calculations to the next Transit of Venus, which occurs on 2012.
Quetzalcoatl’s followers coincidentally associated Quetzalcoatl with Venus, viewing him as its earthly avatar.
Michael Drosnin—author of the bestselling THE BIBLE CODE—says that “equidistant letter sequences in [the Hebrew version of] Genesis” reveal that the earth will be destroyed in 2012, conceivably by comets. His predictions are based on the calculations of three eminent Israeli mathematicians.
Rabbi Vitzhak Kaduri, a renown Israeli Kabbalistic elder and scholar, claims that the Hebrew messiah has incarnated himself in Israel and will emerge shortly. If so, the Hebrew Apocalypse could well occur on 2012 . . . according to Rabbi Kaduri.
Iran’s firebrand political leader, President Ahmadinejad, says the arrival of the Shiite’s Mahdi-Messiah is also imminent. He could well arrive in time to disrupt the 2012 presidential elections.
The belief in a returning messiah is not only central to the Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Hebrew religions apocalypse, many Maya have held that Quetzalcoatl will return for their 2012 apocalypse. His ability to counter that catastrophe however is problematic.
The BAGAVAD GITA’s author, Lord Krishna, died on 2/18/3102 which is close to the year our Fifth Sun Age commenced. The Hindus believe that with Krishna’s death the world began a new earthly cycle, “the Kali Yuga,” which they think of as “the Degenerate Age.” The Hindu mystic, scholar and religious leader, Sri Kalki Bhagavan, has told his million-plus followers that he is the Kalki Messiah, the 10th and final avatar of Vishna and that our “Degenerate Age” will end on 2012. He ties his calculations to the next Transit of Venus, which occurs on 2012.
Quetzalcoatl’s followers coincidentally associated Quetzalcoatl with Venus, viewing him as its earthly avatar.
Michael Drosnin—author of the bestselling THE BIBLE CODE—says that “equidistant letter sequences in [the Hebrew version of] Genesis” reveal that the earth will be destroyed in 2012, conceivably by comets. His predictions are based on the calculations of three eminent Israeli mathematicians.
Rabbi Vitzhak Kaduri, a renown Israeli Kabbalistic elder and scholar, claims that the Hebrew messiah has incarnated himself in Israel and will emerge shortly. If so, the Hebrew Apocalypse could well occur on 2012 . . . according to Rabbi Kaduri.
Iran’s firebrand political leader, President Ahmadinejad, says the arrival of the Shiite’s Mahdi-Messiah is also imminent. He could well arrive in time to disrupt the 2012 presidential elections.
The belief in a returning messiah is not only central to the Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Hebrew religions apocalypse, many Maya have held that Quetzalcoatl will return for their 2012 apocalypse. His ability to counter that catastrophe however is problematic.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Did the Maya have a serious scientific reason for their belief in a 2012 apocalypse?
-- Did the Maya have a serious scientific reason for their belief in a 2012 apocalypse?
The date they picked for their apocalypse is December 21, 2012. At that time our planet, moon and solar system will align with the heart of the galactic plane, in which scientists now know a supermassive black hole resides. The Maya viewed that black abyss—which they called “the Dark Rift”—as a kind of hell world, out of which the Black Tezcatlipoca would unleash the dark demons of everlasting night, which would then descend on the earth and annihilate humankind. This alignment only occurs once every 26,000 years, which closely approximates the combined duration of the five Mayan “Sun Ages.” I say “approximates” because the precise length of each of those “Sun Ages” is not known. They come to around 5200 years each, which would equal 26,000 years. In other words, the first “Sun Age” would have roughly coincided with the earth’s last alignment with the galaxy’s core. On 12/21/2012 at 11:11 PM Universal Time earth will experience its first galactic alignment in that 26,000 period. The Maya believed that date marks the end of the Fifth Sun Age.
They Maya also seemed to know—for reasons that are still unclear—that the Milky Way galaxy was a spiraling disk and that we orbited along its edge. We know this because the Mayan glyph for our Milky Way—which they sometimes called “The Tree of Life”—is a spinning disk.
I’m not suggesting the Maya viewed the universe exactly as we do or that they had our mathematical and the scientific sophistication—only that their vision of the 2012 apocalypse was based on closely studied astronomical observations and mathematical calculations as well as mystical divination.
I’ve done a lot of national radio and some TV for this book, and many people ask if extraterrestrial beings gave the Maya these unique insights. My answer is somewhat oblique. In the end the Maya could not have inferred these insights into our galaxy from their mathematics, science or from direct observation, and these insights imbued their hieroglyphic language, their religion and their life. They weren’t irrelevant, ephemeral observations. It seems to me they gained them either through a kind of preternatural revelation unimaginable to us or someone told them. I do not see a third alternative. I wish someone would come up with one.
I also do not see how we can dismiss out of hand their End-Time prophecy, if we cannot explain how they arrived their other uncanny perceptions about the nature of our galaxy.
The date they picked for their apocalypse is December 21, 2012. At that time our planet, moon and solar system will align with the heart of the galactic plane, in which scientists now know a supermassive black hole resides. The Maya viewed that black abyss—which they called “the Dark Rift”—as a kind of hell world, out of which the Black Tezcatlipoca would unleash the dark demons of everlasting night, which would then descend on the earth and annihilate humankind. This alignment only occurs once every 26,000 years, which closely approximates the combined duration of the five Mayan “Sun Ages.” I say “approximates” because the precise length of each of those “Sun Ages” is not known. They come to around 5200 years each, which would equal 26,000 years. In other words, the first “Sun Age” would have roughly coincided with the earth’s last alignment with the galaxy’s core. On 12/21/2012 at 11:11 PM Universal Time earth will experience its first galactic alignment in that 26,000 period. The Maya believed that date marks the end of the Fifth Sun Age.
They Maya also seemed to know—for reasons that are still unclear—that the Milky Way galaxy was a spiraling disk and that we orbited along its edge. We know this because the Mayan glyph for our Milky Way—which they sometimes called “The Tree of Life”—is a spinning disk.
I’m not suggesting the Maya viewed the universe exactly as we do or that they had our mathematical and the scientific sophistication—only that their vision of the 2012 apocalypse was based on closely studied astronomical observations and mathematical calculations as well as mystical divination.
I’ve done a lot of national radio and some TV for this book, and many people ask if extraterrestrial beings gave the Maya these unique insights. My answer is somewhat oblique. In the end the Maya could not have inferred these insights into our galaxy from their mathematics, science or from direct observation, and these insights imbued their hieroglyphic language, their religion and their life. They weren’t irrelevant, ephemeral observations. It seems to me they gained them either through a kind of preternatural revelation unimaginable to us or someone told them. I do not see a third alternative. I wish someone would come up with one.
I also do not see how we can dismiss out of hand their End-Time prophecy, if we cannot explain how they arrived their other uncanny perceptions about the nature of our galaxy.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Are there any similarities between Christianity and the Mayan religion?
-- Are there any other similarities between Christianity and the Mayan religion?
Alejandro Murgula in “Why Not Teach Maya Creation Story, Too?” argues: “Some of the Popul Vuh will resonate deeply with those familiar with the Bible. A tremendous flood washes away an early race of humans; there is an overarching trinity of life, death and resurrection; good and evil are powerful forces, and man is central to creation.”
In some respects the creation myth in the Popul Vuh—one of the most important Mayan religious texts—resembles that of Genesis. The earth is engulfed by silence and the dark. Only God and his subordinate deities possess light. They decide they need a world of trees, plants, animals—all lead by humanity. They struggle to find the right building material for the first man and woman. They settle on white and yellow corn, and the first man and woman emerge out of the first dawn.
In Genesis too God brings Light and creates the world, molding Adam out of dust, clay and God’s divine breath. Eve, God forms out of Adam’s rib. Humanity is to be the master of that newly invented world.
Then, of course, many Christian and Jewish sects that believe the Maya and other native Americans are in fact a Lost Tribe of Israel.
Some scholars argue that one reason Mexico’s native population adopted Christianity with so much passion and commitment was that the native religion and Christianity had much in common. Among other things, the Maya practiced human sacrifice, and many of them viewed Christ’s death in that light, honoring his immolation in their Fiesta of the Dead.
Alejandro Murgula in “Why Not Teach Maya Creation Story, Too?” argues: “Some of the Popul Vuh will resonate deeply with those familiar with the Bible. A tremendous flood washes away an early race of humans; there is an overarching trinity of life, death and resurrection; good and evil are powerful forces, and man is central to creation.”
In some respects the creation myth in the Popul Vuh—one of the most important Mayan religious texts—resembles that of Genesis. The earth is engulfed by silence and the dark. Only God and his subordinate deities possess light. They decide they need a world of trees, plants, animals—all lead by humanity. They struggle to find the right building material for the first man and woman. They settle on white and yellow corn, and the first man and woman emerge out of the first dawn.
In Genesis too God brings Light and creates the world, molding Adam out of dust, clay and God’s divine breath. Eve, God forms out of Adam’s rib. Humanity is to be the master of that newly invented world.
Then, of course, many Christian and Jewish sects that believe the Maya and other native Americans are in fact a Lost Tribe of Israel.
Some scholars argue that one reason Mexico’s native population adopted Christianity with so much passion and commitment was that the native religion and Christianity had much in common. Among other things, the Maya practiced human sacrifice, and many of them viewed Christ’s death in that light, honoring his immolation in their Fiesta of the Dead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)