End of the world prophecies on or about 2012-DEC-21
Original basis of the prophecy: the ancient
Mayan calendar. Various interpretations.
Original basis of the 2012-DEC-21 prophecies:
The prophecy is based on the "precession of the equinoxes:" The Earth resembles a wobbling top. The earth's axis very slowly draws a circle across the sky.
It takes about 25,765 years years for
the Earth to
complete each circle. This is called a "Great Year" or "Platonic Year."
result of this extremely slow wobbling of the earth's axis, the pole star (a.k.a. north star) changes over time: the star Thuban in
the constellation Draco was the northern pole star circa 3000 BCE. Polaris is
the current pole star, being only about a half degree offset from the Earth's actual north
celestial pole. 1,2 If we wait for about 21,000
years, Thuban will again be the pole star.
For millennia, most astrologers have divided
this circle into twelve parts, each called an "Astrological Age," "Precessional
Age," or a "Great Month." Associated with each age
is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. Each sign takes about 2,150 years for the precession to
to pass through each sign. 3 We are currently somewhere near the end
of Pisces -- the fish -- and near the start of Aquarius -- the water bearer.
Astrologers are an independent lot. The
transition from the Age of Pisces to "... the dawning of the age of Aquarius"
has been variously estimated as happening on a date between 1447 and 3621 CE. 5
However, many astrologers believe that it has recently happened or will occur in our near future -- perhaps
Incredibly, the Babylonians, Cherokees, Egyptians, Hopi, Mayans, Sumerians, and Tibetans all
were aware of this
26 millennia-long cycle. Each developed
calendars based on this Great Year. 3
The calendar developed by the ancient Mayan civilization is receiving a great
deal of attention today.
Rather than divide the Great Year into twelve sections, they used only five.
These were called "World Ages," "Creation cycles," "b'ak'tun
cycle," or "Great Cycle of the Long Count." Each lasts
of our years. Each of the cycles is in turn subdivided into 13 "Baktun;" Each Baktun lasts about 394 years.
Their calendar expressed dates as a series of five numbers.
For example, the date: "22.214.171.124.5" means:
- 6 Baktun,
- 19 Katun,
- 18 Tun,
- 1 Uinal, and
- 5 Kin into the Platonic year.
|Number in the series
||Name of the time
||Length of the time
||Similar to an interval
in our calendar lasting
144,000 days or 20 Katun
7,200 days or 20 Tin
1 generation (19.7 yr)
360 days or 18 Uinal
This date represents 1,007,305 days from the start of their calendar.
J. Eric Thompson determined that the first day of their
calendar (0.0.0.0.0) occurred on 3114-AUG-11 BCE according to
our Gregorian calendar. 6
Ancient Mayans believed that Venus was born on that day. Another source says that
this happened on AUG-13 of that
year. The example given above, (126.96.36.199.5), occurred in the fourth century BCE.
The Platonic year ends at 188.8.131.52.0 which is on or close to 2012-DEC-21.
It is an interesting apparent coincidence that when one adds the date of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers (9/11/01) to the date of the Japanese earthquake (3/10/11) you get the date 12/21/12.
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- Robert E. Bradley, "The Nodding Sphere and the Bird's Beak: D'Alembert's
Dispute with Euler," MAA Mathematical Science Digital Library, 2008, at:
- Ellie Crystal, "Precession of the Equinoxes," Crystalinks, at:
- "The living prophecy," 13-moon Natural Time Calendar, at:
- From the opening song of the 1960s stage play "Hair"
- "Astrological Age," Wikipedia, at:
- Bill Joy, "Why the future doesn't need us," Wired
Magazine, 2000-APR. Online at: http://www.wired.com/
- Asteroid 1997 XF11 has its own web page at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/
- Carl Johan Calleman, "The Mayaonics: Where science and spirituality
- "End of Mayan Calendar,"
Copyright © 1997 to 2012 by Ontario Consultants on
Latest update: 2012-MAY-11
Author: B.A. Robinson