End of the world? Or business opportunity?

by **nomo** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:48 pm

Professor challenges Mayan calendar opinion By MARK HARPER Education Writer <a href="http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST04031506.htm">www.news-journalonline.co...031506.htm</a> The end of the world will come on Dec. 21, 2012. Or not. While some New Age authors and teachers are touting that date as an apocalypse, a Stetson University professor is challenging the reasoning behind it. At a public lecture at the Volusia County Library Center on City Island today, Robert Sitler plans to discuss "The 2012 Phenomenon: A New Age Appropriation of an Ancient Mayan Calendar," an article he wrote last month for Nova Religio, the Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Sitler, an associate professor of Spanish language and literature, has been studying and teaching Mayan culture since arriving at Stetson in 1994. He contends the Mayan calendar has long been the subject of "gross misinterpretation" on several hundred Web sites and in a continuous stream of books. Those postings and printings are evidence of a growing public interest in the Mayan Long Count calendar, which had fallen out of use by the Mayans of Guatemala, Mexico and Belize, long before the Spanish conquerors had arrived. The 2012 date is the last day of the current "b'aktun" cycle, or period of 144,000 days, and the final day of an even longer period consisting of 13 such cycles. No one knows why the calendar is arranged with an end date, Sitler said. But the Mayans were known for their accurate knowledge of astronomy. "It's a weird concept to many because the calendar seems to have a preordained ending date," said Jeremy Puma, a Seattle resident and St. Augustine native who writes Fantastic Planet, a "gnostic" blog. He noted in an e-mail interview that the Mayans used the calendar for planting crops and other purposes, but the New Age movement "seems to have glommed onto the calendar's more mythological aspects." First and foremost, Sitler and Puma agree, is New Age author Jose Arguelles, most famed for his declaration of a "Harmonic Convergence" in August 1987. The Harmonic Convergence, Arguelles said, was the "exponential acceleration of the wave harmonic of history as it phases into a moment of unprecedented synchronization," and "a shift point into the last 25 years of the galactic beam." Sitler says Arguelles' approach is Mayan culture with "creative abandon," and when challenged, will note that his version of a 260-day Mayan ritual calendar, which differs significantly from the actual calendar used by some Maya even today, is a version of the "Galactic Maya," rather than the indigenous Maya. "Arguelles is merely the best-known teacher in an ever-expanding international group that includes dozens of highly inventive and often eccentric individuals reaching out to the New Age public with their ideas concerning 2012," Sitler said. He notes the existence of a Web site that features a running clock until Dec. 21, 2012, with links to another selling T-shirts bearing the 2012 date and featuring several pop-up ads. Despite the blatant commercialism, there remains a lot of interest in the subject, said Jeff Dorian, director of the MetaScience Research Forum, a local group that meets monthly at the Edgewater Public Library. Dorian said he has long wanted to land an expert in the Mayan calendar to speak to his group. "There is a percentage of people who believe the end of the Mayan calendar will be the end of everything," Dorian said. "There's about as many interpretations of the Mayan calendar as there are experts." Inside an Ormond Beach New Age shop, the Crystal Connection, a thumping of drums, soft whistle of a flute and screech of an unidentifiable rainforest avian greets visitors. Books line the shelves, carrying titles such as, "The Fourth Dimension," "The Book of Thoth," and "Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma." Also available: pyramids, amethysts from Uruguay, angels and fairies (spelled "faeries", presumably to seem more Gaelic). Roger Hollander, owner of the shop, said he doesn't believe 2012 will bring the end of the world. But, he adds: "There are many people that believe this. Some believe this strongly." Hollander, who also owns similar shops in Indian Rocks Beach and St. Augustine, believes a change could be coming in 2012. "The world will have a better, a deeper sense of consciousness. By then, (people) should be worn out doing it how they're doing it now. We'll either be here or we won't; we'll just have to experience it." Sitler predicts the Mayans' culture could lend 2012 "an attractive power that may eventually even outstrip" Y2K, the hype surrounding the year 2000.

by **albion** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:51 pm

The Jeremy Puma mentioned in that article is the guy who writes the blog Fantastic Planet, and whose blog-circle overlaps a bit with us here at times. He had a post the other day on that article: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>The Mayan Calendar? <a href="http://www.snant.com/fp/archives/the-mayan-calendar/[/">www.snant.com/fp/archives...alendar/[/</a> A minor bit of horn-tooting. I’m no expert on the Mayan Calendar, but looks like I make a brief appearance in this article from the Daytona Beach News-Journal. That one little quote came from the following e-mail to the author of the article: Well, generally speaking, I think I’d agree with the professor, that there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and I’m personally not in the “New Age” camp. There is a lot of buzz out there, and has been for some time. Of course, as we get closer to the 2012 date, the buzz is increasing. The most extreme example of a New Age interpretation of the Mayan Calendar would most likely be Jose Arguelles: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Arguelles">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Arguelles</a> Arguelles has made thousands of dollars as the sort of New Age “prophet” of the Mayan Calendar, and most of the misconceptions in New Age circles tend to come from Arguelles and his camp. And there are lots of misconceptions. What most people don’t realize is that the European conquerors of Mesoamerica systematically destroyed almost every single source of information about the Mayans. Becuase of this, most of our scholarly knowledge about the Mayans comes from only a few places: their architectural inscriptions, a post-conquest collection of prophecies specific to one area, a post-conquest transcription of their creation myth, and a collection of observations about the planet Venus. As a comparison, imagine trying to understand the history of France from 200 CE to 2000 CE (approximately the same period as Mayan civilization) using only the following resources: twenty Cathedrals in various states of decay, a collection of the prophecies of Nostradamus, the Biblical books of Genesis and Exodus, and a collection of observations of Venus from a Paris Observatory. The Mayan calendar that ends in 2012 is actually one out of a few different calendars that the Mayan culture used. This one in particular is referred to as the “Long Count.” Depending on the translation/line of study you’re referencing, the calendar began in 3114 BCE and ends in December, 2012. It’s a weird concept to many, because the calendar seems to have a preordained ending date. The Mayans used the calendar for a number of different purposes: when to plant crops, when best to sacrifice, etc., but the “New Age” movement seems to have glommed onto the calendar’s more mythological aspect. Essentially, in most Mayan mythology (for instance, in the Popul Vuh, one of the few surviving Mayan texts), humanity lives through a number of progressive “worlds,” or stages. Each stage features a different level of advancement in human culture, and, according to these myths, we’re currently in the Fourth such age since the creation of the world. Now, this particular interpretation of the myth coupled with the Long Count appeals to many in the New Age movement because there seems to be an implication that when the Long Count ends in December of 2012, we’ll enter a literal “New Age” of universal enlightenment. Ufortunately, according to the myths, before we can enter a new stage, the previous stage has to be destroyed. There are also a number of spurious concepts floating about in New Age circles that contribute to this misunderstanding. For instance, when the Spaniards first explored Mesoamerica, the Mayan civilization was already in decline. Many of the cities had been abandoned, and most of the Mayan people had returned to a more subsistence-based existence. Although this most likely resulted from overfarming and disease, there’s been an idea floating around that the Mayans actually mysteriously “disappeared” whole cloth. Arguelles, for instance, predicates his ideas about 2012 with a wild theory about Mayan supermen essentially getting sucked up into the center of the galaxy via a cosmic umbilical cord, conveniently right before the Europeans arrived. This sense of mystery no doubt appeals to our still milennial culture, and said New Agers looking for that Great Escape turn to the Mayan Calendar just like fundamentalist Christians turn to the Rapture. Calling the calendar “complex” would be an incredible understatement. The calendar was based on very accurate astronomical data and measurements that were almost as specific as our own. Trying to understand the Long Count based simply on the surviving knowledge we have about the Mayans would be like trying to understand astrophysics with a book of horoscopes. That said, there are some more scientific and sociological theories about the calendar that, though also mostly conjecture, would at least make a bit more sense given the Mayans profound astronomical knowledge. Personally, if anything, I tend to think that the Mayans were simply excellent observers of the cycles of nature and society. I think they perceived a relationship between astronomical observation and agriculture that had sociological implications which, unfortunately, we may never be able to understand. This is, of course, complete conjecture on my part. If you’re interested in specifics about the calendar, here’s a good, objective overview: <a href="http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html">webexhibits.org/calendars...mayan.html</a> For a more complex look, the Wikipedia entry’s pretty good: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar</a> Heh, I’m glad to have been included at all. I appreciate that the author contacted lil’ ol’ me! <hr></blockquote> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=albion@rigorousintuition>albion</A> at: 3/16/06 4:54 pm

by **marykmusic** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:21 am

People who declare a specific date to be the End of the World have always been proven wron so far. At the end of the First Millennium, many devout Christians stood on the tops of mountains, all in white robes. They'd sold or given away all their worldly goods... imagine them going back down the mountain and asking for their house back... Jim Jones, whatever else was going on, declared the End of the World for his people, then made sure it really was. And where were YOU on New Year's Eve, 1999? I had a gig with the band, but was within walking distance of home (where my kids were) just in case the lights went out. And lots of the remote real estate that was sold at high-dollar, is still on the market today 'cause none of those folks REALLY wanted to live 'way out in the sticks. And they think it was actually worth what they paid, so of course it's not selling. I think the Mayans just ran out of room on the rock. --MaryK

End of the world? Or business opportunity?

End of the world? Or business opportunity?

Re: End of the world? Or business opportunity?

Re: End of the world? Or business opportunity?

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