The misinterpreted Mayan Prophecy:
Please comfort anyone who fears December 21, 2012, because of the hype about major inundations, conflagrations, or even the end of the world! It is utter nonsense! The Mayans had a strange culture, with a superstitious dark side that is quite well depicted in Mel Gibson's horror movie, and a "spirituality" that is far beyond our understanding. Whatever their insights into the spirit world had been, we must consider that their civilization is even more obscure than the metaphysical traditions of the Western World, from Hesiod to Berossus, Plato, Plutarch, etc., or even the Judeo-Christian religions. The Mayans were primitive and far removed from our "western path" that features planetary line-ups in cycles of 854 years, the Zodiac with new beginnings in Aries, and many other ancient traditions and superstitions. Phenomena that the Mayans failed to notice, or didn't care about, which makes it difficult to believe that they had greater insights.
On the other hand, their ancient “wise men” shared with ours an interest in observing the skies and noticed that everything is cyclical. It starts daily with sunrise, followed by sunset and a starry night. Children are born, and animals, and grow older until they die. Plants follow the same cycle, and the Mayans began to keep time to predict the rainy and dry seasons to plant at the right time, and they learned from the position of the Sun when the cycles changed, which we call the vernal equinox in the spring, and the winter solstice. As their “wisemen” became more knowledgeable over the centuries, and shared their findings with their successors, the Mayan Calendar was created, and eventually completed. Any calendar needs a beginning and an end, and the Mayan doesn’t end on some meaningless date, but quite logically with a winter solstice, in this case in 2012 CE, according to our calendar. This is a normal date that makes total sense, and is not a prediction of any kind.
If you compare 2012 with our researches, it is no match for the phoenix cycle and its higher meaning: On Friday, December 21, Saturn is at 218 degrees in Scorpio, Jupiter at 68 in Gemini, Mars at 296 in Capricorn, and the Sun at 269 in Sagittarius, about to enter Capricorn at 270. For the Mayans, this allegedly marks the end of a 5126-year cycle, because the Sun stands in the direction of a "Dark Rift" in the Milky Way, as seen from our planet Earth. An absurd idea, because the Sun never moves and is only seen in this direction from our orbiting planet. It has been said that the "Dark Rift" is located between Scorpio (210-240) and Sagittarius (240-270), therefore at about 240 degrees, where the Sun is seen yearly, and always has without incident!
If we use the "phoenix test" and look at the positions of 854 years earlier, we see (below) that Saturn is in January at 212 degrees, also in Scorpio, Jupiter is at 55 in Taurus (13 degrees from its earlier position in Gemini), Mars matches at 298 in Capricorn, but the Sun is at 295, almost 30 degrees past its 2012 position. The event is similar enough that the world should have ended 854 years ago, if the "Mayan Prophecy" had any merits at all -- or there should have been at least some catastrophe in 1159 other than the First Crusade.
This is quite a dilemma for those pseudo-scholars who make a living by hyping doomsday predictions, not unlike some evangelists to solicit donations, and they came up with a “galactic line-up hypothesis” because "line-up" implies something meaningful. Because none of the planets in our Solar system line up, they propose that it is a line-up when our Sun is seen in the direction of the center of our galaxy. This is nonsense, because stars that are countless light-years away do not affect our solar system like the planets that orbit the Sun. The only logical hypothesis would have to address our planets, which is what our "wisemen" (and astrologers) are doing since Antiquity. Yet even their prophecies remain highly controversial until, perhaps, the effect of our planets on Solar tides can be explained some day.
If we go back another 854 years, the planetary positions are quite similar in early 305 CE, including Venus and Mercury, in relation to the Sun. Saturn is at 204 in Scorpio, Jupiter at 46 in Taurus, Mars is at 303 and the Sun at 320 in Aquarius. You can see below that our "cosmic clock" has been working fine, with nothing unusual to report!
Conclusion
The date of December 21, 2012, is nothing but the end of a yearly cycle, which is a good date to end a calendar. There is nothing unusual about it that can be compared to the precise "cosmic time clock" of the phoenix cycle, or to any other superstitious prophecy from Antiquity, which makes it meaningless. On that specific day, the planets are far apart, never quite match in each period, and there is no line-up whatsoever, not even with the Sun. In other words, the celebrated Mayan Calendar is useless to make any kind of predictions, except for being an important archeological discovery to date events of the past.
