To the eighteen regular months the Maya appended a special five-day month called Wayeb composed of 5 days which were considered unnamed and unlucky. Thus the days were counted: One Imix, Zero Pohp, Two Ik, One Pohp. When the thirteenth day was reached the next day was Thirteen Ben, Twelve Pohp; then One Ix, Thirteen Pohp, Two Men, Fourteen Pohp. After Seven Ahaw, Nineteen Pohp, the next day was Eight Imix, Zero Wo.
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 in many ways, 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 BCE. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Zapotec and Olmec, and contemporary or later ones such as the Mixtec and Aztec calendars. 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.
By the Maya mythological tradition, as documented in Colonial Yucatec accounts and reconstructed from Late Classic and Postclassic inscriptions, the deity Itzamna is frequently credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendar system to the ancestral Maya, along with writing in general and other foundational aspects of Maya culture
Maya Calendar
The Maya developed a sophisticated calendar. The ritual calendar that developed in Mesoamerica used a count of 260 days. This calendar gave each day a name, much like our days of the week. There were 20 day names, each represented by a unique symbol. The days were numbered from 1 to 13. Since there are 20 day names, after the count of thirteen was reached, the next day was numbered 1 again. The 260-day or sacred count calendar was in use throughout Mesoamerica for centuries, probably before the beginning of writing.
The Maya also tracked a vague solar year in which they counted 365 days per year. Because they could not use fractions, the "quarter" day left over every year caused their calendar to drift with regard to the actual solar year. The 365-day year contained months were also given names. numbers 0-19 before they changed, so that the count goes Zero Pohp to 19 Pohp, then continues with Zero Wo.
Month Names and Approximate Meanings
Earth changes based on Mayan
Precisely at midnight on Dec. 21, 2012, the planets Pluto, Uranus and Neptune will be in perfect alignment, an extremely rare event that takes place only once in 26,000 years.
The Mayan calendar has predicted this long before the telescope was invented. The Mayans were able to predict eclipses of the sun, although these were not visible to them. They were able to calculate the average revolution of Venus with an error of just one day in 6,000 years.
How these ancient and simple people were able to do all these without the use of modern instrument has never been discovered. Nor why their civilization suddenly vanished around 800 CE.
This cosmic event which will occur on Dec. 21, 2012 is known as “galactic synchronization.” This means that the earth and solar system will be in line with the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way. According to the Mayan calendar, this astronomical synchronization marks the end of the present world age or cycle and the birth or beginning of a new one.
The Mayan prophecy does not say nor does it imply that it would be the end of the world. But certain unprecedented changes would take place on planet Earth that will affect all its inhabitants. Planet Earth is on the last 5,126 years of its present cycle which, according to the Mayan calendar, began on Aug. 13, 3114 BC and will end on Dec. 21, 2012.
“The Maya,” according to Gerald Benedict, in his fascinating and important book, “The Mayan Prophecies for 2012,” were able to work with vast periods of time and calculated that it would take a cycle of approximately 26,000 years for a constellation to reappear over the same observation point on earth. Modern astronomy has confirmed this period as 25,800 years.
According to Benedict, “What will actually happen is that at sunrise on Dec. 21, 2012, the sun forms a conjunction with the galactic center of the Milky Way at the constellation of Scorpio. Because of the precession of the equinoxes the winter Solstice sunrise has been moving toward that point of the Milky Way known as the ‘galactic center.’ Thus, the planet Earth and the solar system will come into galactic junction with the rest of the universe.”
And what, according to the Mayan Prophecies, will happen to our planet at the end of this present earth cycle?
1. “There will be violent sunspot activity that will cause a radical change in the Earth’s magnetic fields, perhaps amounting to a reversal of the poles.”
According to Benedict, even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed this. NASA has predicted that there would be very intense solar storm in 2012, and the sun would reverse its magnetic poles because of the ending of the 11-year sunspot cycle. This would cause disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic fields.
2. “The end of each Mayan age, or sun, is marked by extreme natural catastrophe. The Earth will experience violent earthquakes and volcanoes together with the side effects these produce.”
3. Although the Earth will be at risk, it is prophesied that as we move toward 2012, “it will become increasingly apparent that the various races, religions and classes that divide us, mask an essential unity and despite the conflicts, people will be drawn closer together. The prophecy emphasizes that only by realizing our inherent unity can the problems now facing both our planet and our civilization be solved—it points to a more outward-looking interfaith dialogue and mutuality.”
4. According to a Mayan priest, “The Earth will not end on Dec. 21, 2012. It will be transformed.”
And Pacal Vocan, one of the most widely known Mayan leaders and prophets, foresaw that “human beings will develop a universal telepathic facility, a considerable heightening of our senses and a more perfectly focused self reflecting consciousness.”
Already the heightening or elevation of human consciousness is beginning to be felt all over the world, despite all the material problems mankind is experiencing right now.
There is growing awareness that we all belong to this one planet—not only to our own individual country. If this planetary consciousness accelerates, and the Mayan Prophecies certainly point towards that direction, then the message of the Mayan calendar is one of hope and a beginning of a new era, as we leave the destructive nature of the past.
Concludes Benedict: “The prophecy calls us to reconsider what it means to be a human being in the broader context of the whole of nature, to rethink our relationship with it, and to acquire a new understanding of the meaning and purpose of life.”
The Maya practiced a form of divination that centered on their elaborate calendar system and extensive knowledge of astronomy. It was the job of the priests to discern lucky days from unlucky ones, and advising the rulers on the best days to plant, harvest, wage war, etc. They were especially interested in the movements of the planet Venus — the Maya rulers scheduled wars to coordinate with its rise in the heavens.
The Mayan calendar was very advanced, and consisted of a solar year of 365 days. It was divided into 18 months of 20 days each, followed by a five-day period that was highly unlucky. There was also a 260-day sacred year (tzolkin), divided into days named by the combination of 13 numbers and 20 names.
For longer periods, the Maya identified an elaborate system of periods and cycles of various lengths. In ascending order, these were: kin (day); uinal (20 days); tun (18 uinals/360 days); katun (20 tuns/7,200 days); baktunbaktun (20 katuns/144,000 days), and so on, with the highest cycle being the alautun (23,040,000,000 days).
These units were used in the Maya Long Count, which calculated the time elapsed from a zero date set at 3114 BC. In the Postclassical Period, the method of notation was somewhat simplified, and the Long Count katuns end with the name Ahau (Lord), combined with one of 13 numerals; and their names form a Katun Round of 13 katuns.
This change makes it difficult to correlate the Mayan count with the Christian calendar, but scholars are fairly confident that the katun 13 Ahau, which seems to have had great significance for the Mayan, ended on November 14, 1539. It has been calculated that the next katun, which the Popul Vuh describes as the catastrophic end of the world, will end on December 21, 2012. Naturally, this has inspired quite a bit of speculation as to what might happen on this date.
Until the mid-20th century, scholars believed the Maya to be a peaceful, stargazing people, fully absorbed in their religion and astronomy and not violent like their neighboring civilizations to the north. This was based on the Maya's impressive culture and scientific discoveries and a very limited translation of their written texts.
But since then, nearly all of the Mayan hieroglyphic writings have been deciphered, and a much different picture has emerged. The texts record that the Mayan rulers waged war on rival Mayan cities, took their rulers captive, then tortured them and ritually sacrificed them to the gods.
In fact, human sacrifice seems to have been a central Mayan religious practice. It was believed to encourage fertility, demonstrate piety, and propitiate the gods. The Mayan gods were thought to be nourished by human blood, and ritual bloodletting was seen as the only means of making contact with them. The Maya believed that if they neglected these rituals, cosmic disorder and chaos would result.
At important ceremonies, the sacrificial victim was held down at the top of a pyramid or raised platform while a priest made an incision below the rib cage and ripped out the heart with his hands. The heart was then burned in order to nourish the gods.
It was not only the captives who suffered for the sake of the gods: the Mayan aristocracy themselves, as mediators between the gods and their people, underwent ritual bloodletting and self-torture. The higher one's position, the more blood was expected. Blood was drawn by jabbing spines through the ear or penis, or by drawing a thorn-studded cord through the tongue; it was then spattered on paper or otherwise collected as an offering to the gods.
No comments:
Post a Comment