Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.
The world’s end has been predicted more times than we can count. Personally we feel that civilisation as we know it will meet its end at the hands (ironically) of a giant ostrich sometime in September. That’s what our dream journal strongly seems to indicate.
Others – like the ancient Mayans – had a different opinion. They think we’re all going up in flames come 2012.
What are you reading this for when you should be in telling your mom just how much you love her? Seriously – get to it. Because as of Dec 22, 2012 you won’t be able to because you’ll both be dead. As will everybody else for that matter – at least according to some.
You see there are an awful lot of people who think 2012 will be the year wherein Mother Earth and Father Time both suffer unavoidable heart attacks. A big chunk of why people believe this lies firmly in Mayan alleged prophecy. The Mayans, a civilisation that lived in the America’s starting around 1800 BC, were geniuses – they had the only completely developed written American language before Columbus landed on their salty shores, and they were so in tune with the stars that they somehow used them to decipher the future or something.
And they made crazy complex calendars with interlocking parts. Wikipedia puts? it this way:
“The Maya calendar is a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by some modern Maya communities in highland Guatemala. These calendars can be synchronized and interlocked, their combinations giving rise to further, more extensive cycles. The essentials of the Maya calendric system are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 6th century BC… Although the Mesoamerican calendar did not originate with the Maya, their subsequent extensions and refinements of it were the most sophisticated. Along with those of the Aztecs, the Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood.”
The great Mayan calendar mystery puts people on edge because the calendar itself allegedly stops at the end of that year. Some argue that it’s just because they ran out of stone – others say its because those ancient people knew something we don’t. Whatever the cause – it’s not the only indicator of an apocalypse that year. Some Buddhists seem to agree. We pulled this next bit off of Cogwriter.com:
“The Tibetans Kalachakra contains a prophecy that 860 years after its introduction into Tibet, which happened in 1127, the conditions would be fulfilled for a twenty-five year period that would culminate in the appearance of the Tibetan version of New Jerusalem, the hidden city of Shamballa. Eight hundred and sixty years after 1127 is 1987, and 25 years after that is 2012.”
The same website also says the Hopi Indians had similar legends:
“The Hopi prophecy is an oral tradition of stories that Hopis say predicted the coming of the white man, the world wars and nuclear weapons. And it predicts that time will end when humanity emerges into the “fifth world.” The Mayan calendar predicts a similar end in 2012; some Hopis have said their prophecy roughly coincides with that time. The tradition says the years after 2012 could be a golden age with humans at peace. It also says the world will go through a time of trial, suffering and purification before a time of “one-heartedness””
You may find yourself astonished to learn that the Mayan calendar maker who lived all those years ago may not have intended any sort of prophetic poise. After all – the calendar itself makes no predictions. Not only that – the entire calendar doesn’t even end in 2012 – it seems to speak more of a major worldwide transition. Perhaps some take that as an indicator of the second coming. Maybe others believe that’ll simply be the time when cable prices finally get regulated to a scale poor people can afford.
Whatever the case – an awful lot of folks are expecting something major to go down. As for us – we’re digging a large pit in our backyard and intend to fill it full of Twinkies and a cockroach roaster. That ought to tide us over until the major turmoil ends.
Speaking of which – if someone could please invent a cockroach roaster by that time we’d be ever-grateful.
Just make sure it’s portable.