We have all heard the prophetic
speculation about some great event occurring on December 21 of this
year.
First, it was the theoretical “end”
of the Mayan Calendar, something that seems less likely in the light
of evidence found by William A. Saturno on May 11 of this year. He
discovered the oldest - a 1,200 year old - Mayan calendar in
Guatemala that clearly goes way beyond 2012, and even to the year
3500 C.E..[1]
William A.
Saturno in Guatemala, May 2012
Source:
Wikipedia
Of course no one has wondered publicly
why an older Myan calendar would be taken as more accurate than a
newer one. (?) It is something like trying to get people to go back
to the non-leap year calendar over the western one we use now. Still
Saturno is a very well respected “archaeologist and Mayanist
scholar” [2
] and I have been very impressed with his work in the
past. He is probably right about the Mayans planning for times
passed 2012.
Another great promoter of this 2012
date was Terence McKenna. Famously he formulated a mathematical
model which incorporated recurring patterns in the King Wen sequence
of the 64 hexagram I-Ching, creating what he called a “time wave.”
He believed this wave represented a struggle between the forces of
“novelty” (see Alfred North Whitehead's Process
and Reality—progressive change and increasing
connectedness; increasing complexity) and “habit.” (the opposite
of novelty—stagnation, and entropy). When the wave rose up habit
was increasing, and when the wave fell novelty was increasing. He
called this “Novelty Theory.”[3]
He and some friends plotted out the “wave” (which did not
infinitely repeat, but was rather asymptotic—in other words it had
an end point) and even wrote a computer program that would overlay
the wave against any time period in history.
He chose to place the last cycle upon
important 20th Century events, such as the Hiroshima
bombing. With a little manipulation he eventually concluded that the
wave would reach the pinnacle of novelty on November 16th
2012.[3]
But after learning that the Mayan calendar supposedly ended just over
a month later, he changed his date, figuring the Mayans were probably
right.[3]
Terence McKenna
Source:
Wikipedia
Terence passed away in 2000. And in
the last few years of his life, he tended to pull back a bit from
even taking his own theory very seriously. In the years since, his
brother Dennis and many others have downplayed Terence's part in the
2012 phenomenon.[4]
Now here we are only days away from the
auspicious date. Yet, haven't we always been here? Even when we
humans are told that original information might be inaccurate (as
happened with the Mayan calendar and Time Wave Zero), we still not
only want to believe, but we BELIEVE.
It seems to be a natural human urge to
have faith in our greatest desires. It does not matter if people are
religious or not, whether they are atheists or fundamentalists, faith
in their own beliefs can trump all other factors. I have myself as my
greatest proof of this.
I have to admit riding on the 2012
train. For years I loved listening to Terence's many talks and I had
a great interest in Mayan astronomy, mathematics and use of visionary
plants, completely aside from any interest in the “ending day” of
their long count calendar. Nevertheless, like so many people in the
world I want to see dramatic changes, and was happy that so many
other people want to see them too—so much so, that I have been
willing to be open-minded about what they feel will be a significant
day.
Even Nostradamus is said to have
referred to something in this year. But I have a hard time buying the
Nostradamus thing. I've never really gotten into it, for the same
reason I don't take newspaper astrology very seriously; vague words
can be bent and manipulated to suit just about anything.
My wishful thinking has subconsciously
created in me a burning faith that some event will change
everything—transform it, or at least end some of the negativity
resident in the cycles of our destructive human behavior. I'm less
certain when it will be. My mind says “Don't be silly. We can not
rely on outside forces to correct what we humans have been doing
wrong. It is our fault, and so it is our responsibility to find our
way out the mess we've created.” My heart pretty-much agrees, but
my soul aches to see improvement in the lives of my sisters
and brothers all over the world...NOW, rather than later. Thus, I too
want to believe in December 21st, 2012. But I have a
little bit different point of view about it than most believers. Let
me try to explain...
Remember I asked: “...haven't we
always been here?” Soon after Jesus was crucified in the 1st
Century C.E., the young Christian church was a fellowship of
apocalypse believers. They took Jesus quite literally about his
return and believed it would be “any day now.” Sadly, for all of
the rest of us, Jesus did not return. Instead, his followers ended up
creating the most divisive and deadly institutions in human
history—the Christian Church. More human beings have died
throughout history in the name of a church Jesus never even wanted,
than by any other one religious influence.
Over and over again in the history of
this church groups would splinter off and claim that the “Second
Coming is at hand.” And time after time they were disappointed.
There have been at least 242 predictions about the “End of the
World.”[5]
One of these times that really stands out in American history
is appropriately called, “The Great Disappointment of 1844”...
Based on his
interpretations of the prophecies in the book of Daniel (Chapters 8
and 9, especially Dan. 8:14 "Unto two thousand and three hundred
days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed"),William Miller,
a Baptist preacher, proposed that Jesus Christ would
return to the earth during the year 1844. The more specific date of
October 22, 1844, was preached by Samuel S. Snow. Thousands of
followers, some of whom had given away all of their possessions,
waited expectantly. When Jesus did not appear, October 22, 1844,
became known as the Great Disappointment. [6]
William Miller
Source: Wikipedia
As far as I know, no Christians of high
repute are claiming Jesus' return this year. But, how will we
generalized, mongrelized believers in the “whatever” of December
21, 2012 handle the probability that nothing at all will happen
on that date? I, for one, will be disappointed, but I will
not be surprised. This is an important distinction to make.
We - humanity - have an addiction to
desiring heavenly, mystical, magical, alien or otherwise “outside”
intervention in our affairs. But this is not a shortcoming of our
species. In my opinion, we should have had some celestial personage
interacting with us for our entire history. According to the Urantia
Book this earth is different from other similar worlds by not having
a superman and/or superwoman to guide us and comfort us. Instead we
make up heroes – that is what our obsession with celebrities is –
and we expect from them superhuman abilities and moral behavior. But,
hey, talk about great disappointments!
I was at the bank the other day
depositing $1.90 to keep my business savings account from becoming
overdrawn. Embarrassing, but true. Anyway, I have become friends
with Amy, the Customer Service Manager there. She and I were joking
around. I said that I was hoping I could make it through to the end
of December and avoid a service charge, due to the “end of the
world.” She laughed. We agreed that this idea of a great
transformation or celestial revelation-thing had been over-predicted
in history. I said, “Someday though, something really will be
coming to our world.”
But she rightly replied, “Yeah, but
how will we ever know the difference ahead of time?” She had a good
point. Terence used to ask, “how can we tell shit from Shinola?”
And in the context of this year, how do we know?
Well, obviously we don't “know” at
all. Knowing requires hard evidence that can be accepted by a
majority. I'm not a big proponent of relying on “specialists”
(especially in this particular field), but if Richard Dawkins
(probably the best known skeptic in the scientific world) suddenly
woke up and claimed that he received a message directly from Zeta
Reticuli (where the “Greys,” a group of aliens in popular media
come from[7])
that the UFO's would be landing at 11:11 Universal Time (or 6:11 am
EST), on December 21, I might be more likely to sit up and listen. I
think we all would. But it looks like it's not happening. And, if
nothing happens on the 21st of December, Richard Dawkins
[8]
will have a little laugh to himself, presumably knowing that he was
right all along.
Richard Dawkins
Source: Wikipedia
Here is my proposal...
IF there is a higher power; something
that exists above humanity, outside of it, this date (December 21,
2012) would be the IDEAL time to do “something.” It may not have
been part of the celestial plan, at first. Yet, I tend to think that
the simple fact that millions of people are paying attention to the
date makes it even that much more likely that something will
happen. Why would any supermortal agency let this opportunity slip by
without a little bit of magic becoming manifest?
Technically, it is most likely that
nothing will happen at the end of this month. But, I am very sure
that if that is the case, no-one will ever promote a date again
for celestial intervention in human affairs. Why would they?
Inaction on this 2012 date would mean that all bets are permanently
off in this regard. This might be a good thing. People would no
longer suffer from unrealistic expectations, only to be periodically
“disappointed.” And, if there is a heaven, it will reinforce the
concept that “God [only] helps those who help themselves.” By
this philosophy, we are brought back to the celestial “tough love”
perspective.
I certainly don't presume to be able to
see around this corner, myself. I've told you what I want,
personally, and what many want collectively. But, what I ask fellow
believers in the 2012 phenomenon is this: If you are like me and you
want a major change in the world, something that might only be able
to come from outside, focus your thoughts on that. MAKE the
change if you are an atheist or FORCE the attention of Higher Powers
if you believe in such a thing. REQUEST their attention.
There will not be another opportunity
as clearly-defined in popular culture as we have right now. Maybe we
can use this time to project a collective self-fulfilling prophecy,
or a cry for assistance.
If there is no Higher Power, then none
of this really matters anyway; my beliefs should be discounted, and
the electromagnetic forces that are slowly ripping apart all of
material reality (see, entropy)
will eventually leave our universe a cold and eternally dark place
where no mind will function and no life will exist. That is OK too.
What is TRUE is REAL. And if no Primal Person rules truth or reality,
so it shall be. I respect that perspective even if I don't believe it
myself.
For now, though, here is a human prayer
to the Universe and for humanity: At this point, let us just sit back
and relax. Let us eat, drink and be merry. Let us be born and let us
die. Let the skeptics find peace and/or let the believers find
reason. Nothing will change what is about to happen now. Take this
time until the 21st of December to reflect on all that has
come before, all the might transpire and all that we desire and
expect from existence.
Online Sources
[1] Alternate
Mayan Calendar
[2] William A.
Saturno
[3] Terence
McKenna
[4] Dennis McKenna
[5] List of
Predictions about the End
[6] The Great
Disappointment
[7] Zeta Reticuli
[8] Richard
Dawkins
Published
on the World Wide Web
December
18, 2012
©
2012 Omega Art and Music
