I read this and thought people here would like to read it so I grabbed it and posted it here for you enjoy.
Newsweek
Sept. 25, 2006 issue - Followers of New Age spirituality have long turned to indigenous religions for wisdom and inspiration, so it has not escaped their notice that something big happens in 2012: the ancient and complex Mayan calendar studied by astrology, spirituality and history buffs alike has chugged along for 1,872,000 days, and its cycle stops (and restarts) on Dec. 21, 2012.
Speculation over the 2012 cycle change has spurred a growing cottage industry. Amazon.com shows more than 100 books on the subject, with titles like "Doomsday 2012" and "2012: You Have a Choice!" A number of spirituality conferences are already convening. This month in New Mexico, spiritual seekers will gather for a "2012 Ascension Symposium," which promises to "offer humanity global reassurance and change the Consciousness of the world"; metaphysics author Geoff Stray is giving a series of lectures on 2012 throughout 2006 and 2007, including at the UFO Conference in Nevada in February and a "Healing Conference" in Jericho, Israel, in May.
To add to the frenzy, it just so happens that the years building up to 2012 mark an unusual astronomical alignment, one so rare it occurs only in 30 out of every 26,000 years. During this period, the Sun will make its annual crossing of the galactic equator the plane that bisects the Milky Way as it appears in the sky on the same day as the winter solstice. So what does all this mean? A small group of doomsayers believe a life-ending cataclysm is on the horizon. Patrick Geryl, a Belgian researcher, says he believes the alignment will trigger a reversal in the magnetic fields of the Sun, causing it to get 10 or 20 times hotter, which will reverse the Earth's rotation on its axis and flood its inhabitants (mainstream astronomers don't agree).
Meso-American scholars are far less concerned. In Mayan cosmology, time proceeds in cycles not in a straight line. "The world collapses, but then it gets reborn," says Davíd Carrasco, professor of Latin American religions at Harvard University. (The Maya believe the same thing happens when the Sun rises and sets each day.) Literary-magazine editor Daniel Pinchbeck, author of "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl," sees the new cycle as an opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. Instead of looking at the completion of the 5,125-year cycle as "the end," Pinchbeck suggests that 2012 "could be more like the birth of the world."
As for me I’ll agree with this Daniel Pinchbeck guy I’m not saying it’ll be Shadowrun mind you although this unusual astronomical alignment that only occurs 30 out of every 26,000 years would be cool if it were the return of magic.
Anyway here is the link to the story although what I posted is the story unedited.
Story
Full Version: Proof of Shadowrun?
I for one welcome our new magic-wielding native american overlords.
But i don't like my Druidic/Noble tyrants. Can we swap?
While I was in Tikal, Guatemala I asked our guide if he thought December 2012 would result in the rise of magic, the reintroduction of dragons, mark the climax of terrible natural disasters and otherwise signal the end of the world as we know it. He said no, the calendar just restarts at 0.
That said, he also said the Mayans didn't do so much human sacrifice and mostly just sacrificed vegetables and tubers, so I kinda wonder if he's intentionally downplaying the whole thing.
That said, he also said the Mayans didn't do so much human sacrifice and mostly just sacrificed vegetables and tubers, so I kinda wonder if he's intentionally downplaying the whole thing.
The big human sacrifices were the Aztecs really and they run on a different calander, not that the mayans didn't sacrifice more than tubers of course...
| QUOTE (nezumi) |
| While I was in Tikal, Guatemala I asked our guide if he thought December 2012 would result in the rise of magic, the reintroduction of dragons, mark the climax of terrible natural disasters and otherwise signal the end of the world as we know it. He said no, the calendar just restarts at 0. That said, he also said the Mayans didn't do so much human sacrifice and mostly just sacrificed vegetables and tubers, so I kinda wonder if he's intentionally downplaying the whole thing. |
Considering they used to use blood from their rulers (who were divine) by using a barb on their tongue and penis, I'd say he was likely downplaying it a bit. However, the part about the calendar is more than likely true. (Also, most of the sarifices were POWs)
...just as long as those jackboot-wearing-magic-wielding-dandelion-eating elves don't screw up our beautiful state.
Say No to the Wall...
Say No to the Council...
Say No to the point-eared tyranny.
...vive l'Oregon
...vive le Portland
...Keep Portland Weird
Say No to the Wall...
Say No to the Council...
Say No to the point-eared tyranny.
...vive l'Oregon
...vive le Portland
...Keep Portland Weird
| QUOTE (Casazil) |
| To add to the frenzy, it just so happens that the years building up to 2012 mark an unusual astronomical alignment, one so rare it occurs only in 30 out of every 26,000 years. During this period, the Sun will make its annual crossing of the galactic equator the plane that bisects the Milky Way as it appears in the sky on the same day as the winter solstice. So what does all this mean? |
Well, it means that the Mayans were pretty good astronomers. Other than that, absofuckinglutely nothing.
26,000 years sounds like a long time, an incredibly rare event, until you count up how many times 26,000 will go into the billions of years that this planet has been around and totally unaffected by such minor astronomical coincidences.
| QUOTE |
| A small group of doomsayers believe a life-ending cataclysm is on the horizon. Patrick Geryl, a Belgian researcher, says he believes the alignment will trigger a reversal in the magnetic fields of the Sun, causing it to get 10 or 20 times hotter, which will reverse the Earth's rotation on its axis and flood its inhabitants (mainstream astronomers don't agree). |
By "researcher", they mean "New-Age kook who wouldn't know actual scientific research if it bit him in the ass", and by "mainstream astronomer", they mean, "anyone who knows anything whatsoever about actual astronomy, physics, or common sense".
The sun's magnetic fields reverse on a regular cycle, every 11 years. It happens that the next one is scheduled for 2012, but given that the world didn't end in 2001 (despite the predictions of any number of the millennial breed of these wackos), or 1990, or 1979, or... I think we're safe.
The idea that the regularly occuring magnetic field reversal could somehow cause the sun to get vastly hotter is silly (there are some temperature fluctuations associated with the cycle, but they're orders of magnitude lower than that), the idea that that would somehow reverse the spin of a six billion trillion ton rock is laughable, and the idea that, if the sun were to somehow get ten to twenty times hotter, reversing the Earth's spin would be necessary to destroy anything resembling human life on the planet is utterly ridiculous.
Now if we can just get John to tell everyone else in the world...
| QUOTE (Ophis) |
| The big human sacrifices were the Aztecs really and they run on a different calander, not that the mayans didn't sacrifice more than tubers of course... |
Actually, reading up on them (my parents got a lot of stuff on the Mayans now that they're living in Guatemala), they seem a good deal more vicious than the Aztecs. The Aztecs would slice people open and let their blood fall on the ground. The Mayans would break their knees and elbows, pull out all their teeth, skin them, then crack them open stem to stern THEN let their blood fall on the ground.
X-calibur, they didn't just use a "barb". The queen and the king would puncture their tongue and penis respectively, then run something like forty or sixty feet of hemp rope through the hole until the two saw visions (no wonder they were seeing things). Then the blood clotted rope was paraded around the city before being used for some other ceremony. Some days it really isn't good to be king...
| QUOTE (John Campbell) | ||
Well, it means that the Mayans were pretty good astronomers. Other than that, absofuckinglutely nothing. 26,000 years sounds like a long time, an incredibly rare event, until you count up how many times 26,000 will go into the billions of years that this planet has been around and totally unaffected by such minor astronomical coincidences. |
But the earth is only 6000 years old!
Nezumi: I hope that was a more a string than rope.Having sympathy pains just thinking about it. Whatever happened to "it's good to be the king."?
First, "the return of magic" is a complete Shadowrunism. New Age philosophers (insofar as any New Ager can be considered a philosopher) have invented a link from this date to their belief in a benevolent Universal Whatever happening to humanity to end all bad stuff.
The truth, insofar as we know, is pretty tame compared to all that.
The Mayans had three calendars, because they were apparently a very anal-retentive sort of society. The biggest one is called the Long Count, and had five Great Cycles. Each cycle ends with a particular cataclysm: previously, the world's supposedly ended in fire, air, flood, and giant jaguar attack.
It so happens that the 5th Great Cycle, and the Long Count itself, runs out in 2012. Because the Mayans were at heart a bunch of astronomy nerds, they ended it at a spectacular astronomical event.
We have no clue what the Mayans thought would happen -- you can thank the Spaniards for that. It's reasonable to assume they thought the world was going to get splattered again, but any elaborate belief in what the end of the Long Count brings has been entirely fabricated.
Personally, I figure it'll be a very quiet evening.
The truth, insofar as we know, is pretty tame compared to all that.
The Mayans had three calendars, because they were apparently a very anal-retentive sort of society. The biggest one is called the Long Count, and had five Great Cycles. Each cycle ends with a particular cataclysm: previously, the world's supposedly ended in fire, air, flood, and giant jaguar attack.
It so happens that the 5th Great Cycle, and the Long Count itself, runs out in 2012. Because the Mayans were at heart a bunch of astronomy nerds, they ended it at a spectacular astronomical event.
We have no clue what the Mayans thought would happen -- you can thank the Spaniards for that. It's reasonable to assume they thought the world was going to get splattered again, but any elaborate belief in what the end of the Long Count brings has been entirely fabricated.
Personally, I figure it'll be a very quiet evening.
I'm confused... Didn't the world end at the turn of the millennium?
That was the last end of the world. The next end is apparently scheduled for 2012.
Edit: iirc, the Jehovas witnesses had a few endings of the world scheduled as well in the last hundred or so years.
Edit: iirc, the Jehovas witnesses had a few endings of the world scheduled as well in the last hundred or so years.
the problem with scheduling the end of the world is that not everyone shows up for it. When it does eventually come, everyone will be invited, but most liekly, no one's going to know there was a party they were supposed to be at
| QUOTE (Holly Lebowitz Rossi) |
Speculation over the 2012 cycle change has spurred a growing cottage industry. Amazon.com shows more than 100 books on the subject [...] |
I wonder how many 2000/2001 books there were proclaiming the exact same things?
I'm in the wrong business. I need to learn how to sell lies.
| QUOTE (Holly Lebowitz Rossi) |
During this period, the Sun will make its annual crossing of the galactic equator the plane that bisects the Milky Way [...] |
Oh really? I wish the article author had provided a cite. The Sun is in orbit around the Milky Way core, it does not rise and dip across the galactic plane every year (that would be an awfully strange orbit).
She was probably just confused about his source information.
| QUOTE (Holly Lebowitz Rossi) |
[...] A small group of doomsayers believe a life-ending cataclysm is on the horizon. |
They need to get in line. No shoving! No shoving! Everyone will get a chance to be shame-faced after the fact and spout nonsense about how their statements were only misinterpreted. Plenty of room!
| QUOTE (Holly Lebowitz Rossi) |
Patrick Geryl, a Belgian researcher, [...] |
This gentleman's own website lists no academic credentials of any kind.
He's an author (subtitle added "researcher"). Hey, every author does research, I guess they're all "researchers"!.
More like Belgian waffle.
| QUOTE (Holly Lebowitz Rossi) |
[...] says he believes the alignment will trigger a reversal in the magnetic fields of the Sun, causing it to get 10 or 20 times hotter, which will reverse the Earth's rotation on its axis and flood its inhabitants [...] |
Of course, that's just
.I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I read that.
I always thought the whole Mayan calender/6th world was part of the inspiration for the Shadowrun world.
Anyone remembering the opening of Ghostbusters 2 with Peter Vankman and World of the Psychic?
| QUOTE (RainOfSteel) | ||
Oh really? I wish the article author had provided a cite. The Sun is in orbit around the Milky Way core, it does not rise and dip across the galactic plane every year (that would be an awfully strange orbit). |
Yes, really. This is the grain of truth at the heart of the massive ball of crazy. Sol doesn't actually move across the galactic plane every year, but Earth's yearly orbit around Sol causes the sun to move across our sky (this is actually just our viewing angle changing as Earth moves around Sol, but from our perspective, it's accurate enough to say that the sun's moving), following the plane of the ecliptic in a big circle (well, ellipse) that intersects the plane of the galaxy not just once but twice a year.
Meanwhile, Earth's precession on its axis causes the points in its orbit where minimum and maximum inclination of its axis towards the sun occur - the solstices - to track around the plane of the ecliptic on a 26,000 year cycle (this is the same 26,000 year cycle over which our pole star changes). In 2012, precession will bring Sol at the December solstice very close to the point in Sagittarius where the galactic plane and the plane of the ecliptic intersect. And then... well, we'll be tipped a tiny fraction of a degree farther from (or closer to, depending on your hemisphere) the sun when it appears to cross the galactic plane than we have on any of the other 26,000 times it's happened in the last 13,000 years. For whatever that's worth.
It's also worth noting that there's some debate as to when the Long Count actually began and ends. The 2012 date was proposed because it coincides with the intersection of the ecliptic and galactic plane at the solstice, and fits well enough with the incomplete archaeological evidence available. It's not a coincidence when the numbers were deliberately and explicitly picked to get that result. It's doubly uncoincidental because the theory is that the Mayans picked that date for the ending of the Long Count because it coincides... etc., which just means that their astronomy was better than the Classical Mediterraneans', who utterly failed to account for the precession of equinoxes in their astrological bullshit, resulting in signs of the zodiac that are now roughly a month out of synch with anything that's actually happening with the sun and the thirteen (yes, 13) classical constellations that cross the ecliptic.
| QUOTE (John Campbell) |
but Earth's yearly orbit around Sol causes the sun to move across our sky [...] following the plane of the ecliptic in a big circle (well, ellipse) that intersects the plane of the galaxy not just once but twice a year. |
That I can buy.
I find it absolutely impossible to visualize mentally.
The solar ecliptic is canted at an angle in comparison to the galactic ecliptic, and then the earth is tilted yet again, and we're whirling along around the Earth's axis while going around the sun . . . (and the precession of the poles)
Where's Pixar when you need them?
as i understand it, the Mayan Long Count does not actually predict the end of the world (or even a world) in 2012. see, according to the calendar, the last time the world ended was on a 13.0.0.0.0. 21DEC2010 is a 13.0.0.0.0, yes, but with the way the calendar works, that's kinda like saying "a Tuesday". the full date of the last time the world ended is
| CODE |
| 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0 |
21DEC2012 is only going to be
| CODE |
| 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.13.0.0.0.0 |
so we've actually got a lot of time before the end of the world shows up.
Wow so many thoughts on a story that I posted just for shits and giggles.
Just imagine the response if I had posted something of real evidence lol.
By the way I think several of you are way smarter than me but I can live with that.
Someone has to be the brains in this world.
All I can say DON'T ask me we'll all die lol.
Just imagine the response if I had posted something of real evidence lol.
By the way I think several of you are way smarter than me but I can live with that.
Someone has to be the brains in this world.
All I can say DON'T ask me we'll all die lol.
| QUOTE (fistandantilus3.0 @ Sep 26 2006, 05:18 PM) |
| Nezumi: I hope that was a more a string than rope.Having sympathy pains just thinking about it. Whatever happened to "it's good to be the king."? |
I went ahead and googled it. Wikipedia says this:
| QUOTE |
| A common practice of women participating in the bloodletting rituals was for the woman participant to pull a rope through her tongue. The painful part is that the rope had thorns all over it. This made for an extremely difficult and messy situation for the women involved. |
I forgot the thorns. The king's rope had thorns too. So wiki descripes it as a rope. Since both the penis and tongue are fairly elastic organs, I imagine it would be physically possible to pass a rope an inch in diameter, not counting the jagged thorns, through it. I just can't imagine said organ being useful for very much thereafter.
Edit: Doing as much research as my cringing gonads will allow, I'm not sure if the king actually passed the rope through his penis. I seem to recollect that from the book that I read, but the sites seem to indicate the only thorny hemp rope used was on the tongue. The man just stabs his penis with a long sting ray or sea urchin spine and spills blood on paper to be collected and burned, thereby feeding the blood spirits.
Wiki also says:
| QUOTE |
| The Maya sometimes conducted what was known as a "heart sacrifice"; they would cut open the chest of a person and physically remove the heart. The Maya would sometimes use knives made of obsidian glass. It was oftentimes very sharp, and was substantially more efficient in cutting body parts or skin, whichever was being cut in order to fulfill the sacrifice. Sacrifices sometimes occurred with very small children, with some children bought expressly for the bloodletting ritual. |
(This is only on their article on Mayan bloodletting.) The Aztecs were pansies.
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