Mayan Civilization (a mesoamerican civilization that existed in the 10th Millennium BC) has been steeped in mystery for hundreds of years. It is only recently that Meso-American Astrologers, Anthropologists and experts in Cuneiform script have been able to reveal the secrets contained in the mayan literature, most important of them are the Mayan Calendars.
Yes, Mayan people used more than one calendar - not just to keep track of dates but to lead a life in harmony with the Creation. And we have been told that their most important calendar called Tzolkin (which started as far back as 2114 BC (4000 years ago) suddenly comes to an end on 21st Dec 2012.
Does this portent a global catastrophe? Is the world going to come to a grinding halt? Or does this hint at something more spiritual? Lets go on a journey and figure out what the experts say.
To get close to the Mayan mindset and culture, we need to look at their calendars. There are two calendars that is of interest to us, one is called the Tzolkin - which was used to forecast the day spiritually, and the Long Count - that was used to measure period over a span of thousands of years.
The Tzolkin consists of 260 days divided into 20 Zodiac Signs (as against our 12 zodiac signs) and 13 Galactic Energies or Tones from the Sun. The 20 Zodiac Signs have a symbol but the Galactic Tones are simply referred by a number 1 to 13.
The Long Count Calendar several measurements of periods. The lowest one was called a ‘Kin’ which is roughly equivalent to 1 Day. 20 Kins make a Uinal. You can say that Mayan observed a 20-day ‘month’. The Year consisted of 18 such months or Uinals. Mayan Year was called a ‘Tun’ and had 360 days. 20 Tuns made a Katun (of 19.7 years) and 20 Katuns made a Baktun of 394 Years. They also had higher (but less used measures) like Piktun (7900 years), Kalabtun (158,000 years), Kinchiltun (3.15 Million years), Alautun (63.1 Million years) and Hablatun (1.26 Billion years). Interestingly, a Hablatun happens to be 1/13th of the 16.4 Billion years ago when the cells first appeared on the earth. You will find several patterns of 20 and 13 in the calculations above. Both the numbers were very special to the Mayan.
The Mayan believed that there were 9 Patterns of Creation (each with a Day and Night). The road to Creation is like a pyramid with 9 levels. (in fact most of the pyramids around the world including Egypt are of 9 levels!) . Each of these 9 levels represent an immensely long period of time, with each level above of shorter duration. You can imagine this as a set of vessels - the biggest vessel is at the bottom (level 1) and a vessel 20 times smaller than that is kept inside the first vessel (level 2) and so on until we reach the 9th level.
What this means is that the rate of Creation has been accelerating! What took a million years to create at one level would take only 50,000 years at the next level and 2500 years in the next… Have you ever wondered why the world around us and our life seems to be moving faster and faster?!
I will leave you with just the 9 Patterns and the period they represent to chew on….
1. Cellular - 1.26 Billion years - began 16.4 Billion years ago
Yes, Mayan people used more than one calendar - not just to keep track of dates but to lead a life in harmony with the Creation. And we have been told that their most important calendar called Tzolkin (which started as far back as 2114 BC (4000 years ago) suddenly comes to an end on 21st Dec 2012.
Does this portent a global catastrophe? Is the world going to come to a grinding halt? Or does this hint at something more spiritual? Lets go on a journey and figure out what the experts say.
To get close to the Mayan mindset and culture, we need to look at their calendars. There are two calendars that is of interest to us, one is called the Tzolkin - which was used to forecast the day spiritually, and the Long Count - that was used to measure period over a span of thousands of years.
The Tzolkin consists of 260 days divided into 20 Zodiac Signs (as against our 12 zodiac signs) and 13 Galactic Energies or Tones from the Sun. The 20 Zodiac Signs have a symbol but the Galactic Tones are simply referred by a number 1 to 13.
The Long Count Calendar several measurements of periods. The lowest one was called a ‘Kin’ which is roughly equivalent to 1 Day. 20 Kins make a Uinal. You can say that Mayan observed a 20-day ‘month’. The Year consisted of 18 such months or Uinals. Mayan Year was called a ‘Tun’ and had 360 days. 20 Tuns made a Katun (of 19.7 years) and 20 Katuns made a Baktun of 394 Years. They also had higher (but less used measures) like Piktun (7900 years), Kalabtun (158,000 years), Kinchiltun (3.15 Million years), Alautun (63.1 Million years) and Hablatun (1.26 Billion years). Interestingly, a Hablatun happens to be 1/13th of the 16.4 Billion years ago when the cells first appeared on the earth. You will find several patterns of 20 and 13 in the calculations above. Both the numbers were very special to the Mayan.
The Mayan believed that there were 9 Patterns of Creation (each with a Day and Night). The road to Creation is like a pyramid with 9 levels. (in fact most of the pyramids around the world including Egypt are of 9 levels!) . Each of these 9 levels represent an immensely long period of time, with each level above of shorter duration. You can imagine this as a set of vessels - the biggest vessel is at the bottom (level 1) and a vessel 20 times smaller than that is kept inside the first vessel (level 2) and so on until we reach the 9th level.
What this means is that the rate of Creation has been accelerating! What took a million years to create at one level would take only 50,000 years at the next level and 2500 years in the next… Have you ever wondered why the world around us and our life seems to be moving faster and faster?!
I will leave you with just the 9 Patterns and the period they represent to chew on….
1. Cellular - 1.26 Billion years - began 16.4 Billion years ago
2. Mammalian - 63.1 Million years - began 840Million years ago
3. Family - 3.1 Million years - began 41 Million years ago
4. Tribal - 180,000 years - began 2 Million years ago
5. Cultural - 7900 years - began 102,000 years ago
6. National - 396 years - began 5,116 years ago
7. Planetary - 19.7 years - began 1755 AD
8. Galactic - 360 days - began 4th Jan 19999. Universal - 20 days - 10th Feb 2011
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