The Clockworks

Thousands of people in the Netherlands are preparing for the apocalypse. Radio Netherlands reports most fears are tied to the Mayan Calender ending in 2012… check out this from UPI.com for more information.

Before you start to panic though, let me explain the Mayan Long Count Calender. It identifies dates by counting forward from August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian Calender.

The following table shows the period equivalents as well as Mayan names for these periods:

Days        Long Count period     Long Count period      Approx solar years
1                  = 1 K’in
20                = 20 K’in                         = 1 Winal                           1/18th
360              = 18 Winal                       = 1 Tun                             1
7,200           = 20 Tun                         = 1 K’atun                         20
144,000       = 20 K’atun                     = 1 B’ak’tun                       395

Now according to the Popol Vuh, a book of creation accounts from the Maya, we live in the fourth world (where man was placed), the three previous worlds having been failures. In the Mayan Long Count the previous ‘world’ ended at the start of the 13th B’ak’tun (which we are currently in). This would mean the 14th B’ak’tun will start the day (December 20, 2012) after the end of the 13th B’ak’tun (December 21, 2012).

Based on that information, several theories have arisen as to what will happen in December… everything from Magnetic Pole Reversal to Galactic Alignment (popularized by John Major Jenkins, and a core component of a lot of New Age philosphy), most theories following an ‘End of Days’ theme.

To start off, yes the poles are weakening, but will they collapse and reverse by 2012? No. I will refer to an article titled;

‘GEOMAGNETISM How Are Geomagnetic Reversals Related to Field Intensity?‘ Eos, Vol. 76, July 18, 1995, p. 289. © 1995 American Geophysical Union by Kenneth A. Hoffman, Physics Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo;

The article can be found at the American Geophysical Union website. Hoffman’s best guess on a timeframe for a pole reversal? Two-thousand years, not the less than four years between now and 2012!

But what about the Galactic Alignment? What could that do? The short and sweet answer is NOTHING, or at

least whatever it could do has already been done! The Galactic Alignment is an astronomical phenomenon

that refers to an alignment between the December solstice sun with the equator of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The precise alignment of the solstice point (the precise center-point of the body of the sun as viewed from earth) with the Galactic equator was calculated to occur in 1998 (Jean Meeus, Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, 1997). That means just what I said, the event has happened before and will happen again, and we’ve already experienced whatever effects it could have on us.

So if you wan’t my opinion on the Mayan Long Count, I’ll just say the gears of the Doomsday Clock aren’t responding to this sort of…. “news”.