What is the meaning of the Great Cycle of the Mayan calendar & 2012?
José Argüelles
We are living in a most interesting time. From the Mayan perspective and from many other perspectives: These are the End Times. This is the time of prophecy. Just about everybody has heard of the date 2012. Most people hear this date and say, “Hmm, isn’t that when the Mayan calendar ends? This is the stock answer. The Mayan calendar doesn’t end in 2012. The Mayan calendar is based on cycles within cycles within cycles. What happens in 2012 is the ending of a major cycle. For some reason or other the 2012 date, more than any other date of prophecies has stuck in people’s minds and imagination. 2012 is a marker, it’s a wake up call in our DNA. Why is this?
For the Maya, 2012 is the ending of what is usually referred to as the Great Cycle. The Great Cycle is a 5,125 year cycle that began at the date 13.0.0.0.0 on the Mayan calendar. On the Gregorian/Julian calendar that date is August 13 B.C. 3113. What happened at that point? If you go look back in your history books you can find most Western history books say the history of civilization began about 3100 B.C., this is 13 years off from the Mayan Long Count which says, “No to be precise according to your calendar that would be August 13, 3113 B.C.”
The present Kali Yuga cycle of the Hindus began just 11 years later in 3102 B.C., this is supposedly when Lord Krishna disincarnated and then the Kali Yuga began. Kali Yuga is the final and darkest age. For the Maya, history did begin at 3113 B.C. The first dynasty of Egypt was established circa 3100 B.C. The first city in history was founded circa 3100 B.C. That was the city of Uruk, from which the name Iraq is derived. Uruk was founded by seven wise men at the beginning of history in Mesopotamia. If you look at the history books you will see that virtually everything we think of as the history of civilization began at that point and slowly builds up from there—this is the Babylonian/Mesopotamian origin of civilization. Mayans say that this whole cycle of civilization 5,125 years comes to an end on the Winter Solstice December 21, 2012 A.D. This is now a little less that nine years away—that’s not very far away.
Before the first year of the Third Millennium was over there was a big event of which everyone is acutely aware. This event was known as the 9-11. This was the apocalyptic event to set the tone for the fact that we are now all on the Road to 2012. All the signs point to 2012. No one gets to the future without going through December 21, 2012. What does this mean, the end of the cycle? What is actually going on right now in the world that gives us any clue as to why things are happening the way they are happening now. And who were the ancient Maya that they knew these things so well?
On December 21, 2012 a cycle will be complete. A cycle of what the Maya called 13 baktuns. There are 13 baktuns between 3113 B.C. and 2012. A baktun is a cycle of exactly 144,000 days. Thirteen cycles of 144,000 days and you come to the completion of a cycle. This cycle is what we call the cycle of history or the cycle of civilization. This cycle is a very interesting one in the history of the Earth and the evolution of the solar system, and even the history of the galaxy.
Dec. 21, 2012 also marks the ending of a larger cycle, a cycle of 26,000 years. This is a long cycle. There is also a larger cycle than this that closes on Dec. 21, 2012: a cycle of 104,000 years. All of these cycles are coming to a conclusion or a convergent point in 2012.
The climax of this cycle will occur during the seven last moons of the thirteen baktuns (June through December 2012). When the Cycle closes during the Winter Solstice, the Earth should be adorned with a circumpolar bridge which will alter forever human self-perception and elevate it to permanent cosmic consciousness. Then will follow the Seven Mystic Moons to the launching of Timeship Earth 2013, signaling entry of the planet into cosmic civilization and full membership in the Galactic Federation. “Another planet with noosphere,” it will be declared. “It made the grade, after all!”
