(As you know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti. My concern here is the possibility of another quake related to this one which could potentially affect Haiti also, if not the whole island. This is a land of great poverty and want. Even small natural disasters are magnified under such conditions, in terms of the effect on people there.)
Shallow earthquake in the southern part of the Dominican Republic
Earthquake overview : Moderate earthquake with epicenter in the southern part of the island. The earthquake has been felt all over the island (including in Haiti)
11:28 UTC : The Dominican Republic Civil Defense has alerted all of his services minutes after the quake occurred but at the time of writing this update, NO damage or injuries have been reported. Authorities in the direct epicenter area are currently inspecting buildings and public works to assess the situation.
11:04 UTC – Rock slides have been reported along the road from Azua to San Juan. Drivers are warned to be careful in driving this road.
11:02 UTC – The epicenter has been located 17 km South-East of Ocoa. Following the local media who are referring the the Dominican seismological agency UASD, the depth of the hypocenter was at 33 km and the magnitude was measures as 5.2. Both USGS and EMSC have reported a magnitude of 5.3 at a depth of 10 km. 33 km or 10 km makes a world of difference towards damaging capability.
– As early stated in this report, the earthquake has been felt almost all over the country but will have been felt also in neighboring Haiti !
– A lot of people are downloading our QuakeSOS iPhone application, but so far people are only testing and sending SAFE alerts.
– reports from the Dominican Republic are talking about people leaving their houses in panic (normal with such a magnitude)
– Maximum recorded (reported) MMI seems to be V = moderate shaking. Moderate shaking damage can be cracks in walls at max., but we will have to wait for a few more hours to be certain that no additional damage has been inflicted.
– The area has a lot of hills (see image)
– Closest villages to the epicenter (errors are possible within a radius of 16 km) : La Palma, Calderon, Hatillo, Agua, Galeon and Bani
– EMSC reports the same values than USGS (5.3 @ 10 km)
– The earthquake occurred during the early morning hours 05:35 AM !, when almost everybody was still sleeping
– the shallow hypocenter (focal depth) makes this earthquake moderately dangerous within a radius of 20 km.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.3
UTC Time : Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 09:35:29 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 05:35:29 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km
Geo-location(s) :
17 km (10 miles) SSE (149°) from Ocoa, Peravia, Dominican Republic 33 km (20 miles) W (270°) from San Cristóbal, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic 50 km (31 miles) W (260°) from SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2012/01/05/shallow-earthquake-in-the-southern-part-of-the-dominican-republic/
The first major meteor shower of 2012 is the Quadrantid shower, predicted to peak on the morning of January 4.
The next major meteor shower will be the Quadrantid shower, which is expected to peak after midnight on the morning of January 4, 2012. This shower favors northerly latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. If the peak happens as predicted – at 7 to 8 hours Universal Time – that means eastern North America might be in a good position to watch the 2012 Quadrantid shower. Predicting the peak and the intensity of a meteor shower is always a tricky business, though. No matter where you live, the best time to watch is in the wee hours before dawn on January 4
Use the Big Dipper and the star Arcturus to locate the radiant of the Quadrantid shower
January 4, 2012 in the wee hours before dawn Quadrantids
When we say January 4, we mean in the wee hours before dawn, not that night. Although the waxing gibbous moon lights up most of the night and doesn’t set until roughly 3 a.m. local time, this is about the best time of night to watch for these meteors. Click here to know when the moon sets in your sky. Although the Quadrantids can produce over 100 meteors per hour, the sharp peak only lasts for a few hours, and doesn’t always come at an opportune time. In other words, you have to be in the right spot on Earth to view this meteor shower in all its splendor. If this year’s forecast proves correct, eastern North America, the North Atlantic Ocean and possibly western Europe will be in a fine position to watch this shower. However, meteor showers are notorious for defying predictions. This shower is worth a try at northerly latitudes all around the globe. Face the general direction of north-northeast, but take in as wide an expanse of sky as possible. Watch from about 2 a.m. until dawn.
This is a central myth of the Plains tribes, especially the Lakota, or Sioux. It tells how the Lakota first received their sacred pipe and the ceremony in which to use it. It has often been related, for example by Black Elk, Lame Deer and Looks for Buffalo.
In the days before the Lakota had horses on which to hunt the buffalo, food was often scarce. One summer when the Lakota nation had camped together, there was very little to eat. Two young men of the Itazipcho band – the ‘Without-Bows’ – decided they would rise early and look for game. They left the camp while the dogs were still yawning, and set out across the plain, accompanied only by the song of the yellow meadowlark.
After a while the day began to grow warm. Crickets chirruped in the waving grass, prairie dogs darted into their holes as the braves approached, but still there was no real game. So the young men made towards a little hill from which they would see further across the vast expanse of level prairie. Reaching it, they shielded their eyes and scanned the distance, but what they saw coming out of the growing heat haze was something bright, that seemed to go on two legs, not four. In a while they could see that it was a very beautiful woman in shining white buckskin.
As the woman came closer, they could see that her buckskin was wonderfully decorated with sacred designs in rainbow-coloured porcupine quills. She carried a bundle on her back, and a fan of fragrant sage leaves in her hand. Her jet-black hair was loose, except for a single strand tied with buffalo fur. Her eyes were full of light and power, and the young men were transfixed.
Now one of the men was filled with a burning desire. ‘What a woman!’ he said sideways to his friend. ‘And all alone on the prairie. I’m going to make the most of this!’
‘You fool,’ said the other. ‘This woman is holy.’
But the foolish one had made up his mind, and when the woman beckoned him towards her, he needed no second invitation. As he reached out for her, they were both enveloped in a great cloud. When it lifted, the woman stood there, while at her feet was nothing but a pile of bones with terrible snakes writhing among them.
‘Behold,’ said the woman to the good brave. ‘I am coming to your people with a message from Tatanka Oyate, the buffalo nation. Return to Chief Standing Hollow Horn and tell him what you have seen. Tell him to prepare a tipi large enough for all his people, and to get ready for my coming.’
The young man ran back across the prairie and was gasping for breath as he reached his camp. With a small crowd of people already following him, he found Standing Hollow Horn and told him what had happened, and that the woman was coming. The chief ordered several tipis to be combined into one big enough for his band. The people waited excitedly for the woman to arrive.
After four days the scouts posted to watch for the holy woman saw something coming towards them in a beautiful manner from across the prairie. Then suddenly the woman was in the great lodge, walking round it in a sunwise direction. She stopped before Standing Hollow Horn in the west of the lodge, and held her bundle before him in both hands.
‘Look on this,’ she said, ‘and always love and respect it. No one who is impure should ever touch this bundle, for it contains the sacred pipe.’
She unrolled the skin bundle and took out a pipe, and a small round stone which she put down on the ground.
‘With this pipe you will walk on the earth, which is your grandmother and your mother. The earth is sacred, and so is every step that you take on her. The bowl of the pipe is of red stone; it is the earth. Carved into it and facing the centre is the buffalo calf, who stands for all the four-leggeds. The stem is of wood, which stands for all that grows on the earth. These twelve hanging feathers from the Spotted Eagle stand for all the winged creatures. All these living things of the universe are the children of Mother Earth. You are all joined as one family, and you will be reminded of this when you smoke the pipe. Treat this pipe and the earth with respect, and your people will increase and prosper.’
The woman told them that seven circles carved on the stone represented the seven rites in which the people would learn to use the sacred pipe. The first was for the rite of ‘keeping the soul’, which she now taught them. The remaining rites they would learn in due course.
The woman made as if to leave the lodge, but then she turned and spoke to Standing Hollow Horn again. ‘This pipe will carry you to the end. Remember that in me there are four ages. I am going now, but I will look on your people in every age, and at the end I will return.’
She now walked slowly around the lodge in a sunwise direction. The people were silent and filled with awe. Even the hungry young children watched her, their eyes alive with wonder. Then she left. But after she had walked a short distance, she faced the people again and sat down on the prairie. The people gazing after her were amazed to see that when she stood up she had become a young red and brown buffalo calf. The calf walked further into the prairie, and then lay down and rolled over, looking back at the people.
When she stood up she was a white buffalo. The white buffalo walked on until she was a bright speck in the distant prairie, and then rolled over again, and became a black buffalo. This buffalo walked away, stopped, bowed to the four directions of the earth, and finally disappeared over the hill.
I was anticipating a future conversation, feeling that anxiety, that sinking feeling that says ‘this isn’t going to be pretty’.
I was organizing a come-back in my mind. Trying to think of the best and fastest way to make my point, to not allow myself to be put down, and to respond so brilliantly, there would be no further discussion.
This woman really gets to me. Fortunately I don’t have to deal with her very often, but when I see an email from her, I cringe. She’s power driven, uses corporate-minded tactics that cuts the rug out from under me, and pressures everyone to do things her way.
I haven’t yet figured out a way to work with her without anxiety on my part.
As I was mulling this over, creating my exceptional responses, I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was just as much in my head as she was. I was responding from my head to her actions from her head; from the ego.
And I was judging HER for this.
Ouch.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s how ego works. It creates a scenario, and the automatic response in most of us is to respond in kind. Her power driven words were causing me to try to respond in an equally power driven manner.
And it wasn’t working. I was failing miserably at it; feeling badly. The words weren’t coming out right. Nothing about my comebacks worked or felt right.
And that is also how ego works. There will never be enough. There will always be a shortage, a limitation, a lack, a need that is unfulfilled with ego. Nothing will ever be complete with ego. ‘An eye for an eye’ will go on until there are no more eyes.
There’s a part of us that understands that lack is not in alignment with our soul. Our natural state as a soul is to be abundant. This awareness gives us the opportunity to look at other options for our reactions, our emotions, our thoughts, our ways of living. Propelling us into living in the heart. If we choose it.
I decided to call this my healing opportunity.
Healing my automatic reactions to ego driven experiences.
Healing my ego responses and choosing to react from my heart.
Or rather, to not react, but to be in my heart.
Period.
I didn’t really know how to do this.
There may be a manual on it, but I doubted that amazon.com had it.
Just thinking about books gave me an idea, though.
I went into my sacred space of my heart.
I’m very visual, so when I’m there, I see incredible details.
In my sacred space of my heart, I have an Akashic records room. It looks just like an old library or book collection. Books are on shelves, and the shelves stretch way up over my reach. Fortunately there is a ladder for me to climb so I can get to the very top if need be.
Volumes and volumes and volumes of bound books are in my records room.
Recording all my awarenesses, knowledge, understanding, hopes, dreams, aspirations, as well as all the people, players, situations, lifetimes, and experiences I’ve had.
Ever.
When I need something, I go here.
Everything has already been experienced.
I’m just reliving it or relearning it, if I so choose.
I figured this wasn’t the first time around this knowledge.
Now I choose to remember it and live it.
As I entered my Akashic record room, I asked for the book or chapter that would help me heal the automatic reaction of my ego.
Immediately I was led to the top shelf of the third bookcase from the left. Climbing the ladder to retrieve it, I was a bit overwhelmed to see a huge volume entitled, “Healing Ego Driven Responses”.
Curiously I took it down from the shelf, climbed back down the ladder, and took the volume into my tiny space of my heart. Curling up in a comfortable position, the book fell open to a section titled, “Addictions”.
Under this title, written similarly to a medical dictionary, there were different addictions in sub-categories such as ‘Sugar’. ‘Emotions/Drama’. ‘Mental Beliefs’. ‘Spiritual Experiences’.
And under each sub-category, was a description of that particular addiction as well as its origin. With suggestions for healing.
I knew I probably could learn from the sub-category of sugar, but I found myself irresistibly drawn to Mental Beliefs.
Under that sub-category were several chapters on different belief systems.
Again I was irresistibly drawn to one.
‘The Need To Be Right’.
Curious, I began reading.
“The need to be right is demonstrated in the actions of a person who insists. It can also be seen in actions similar to stubbornness and persistence, but in a manner that indicates an unwillingness to allow for any one’s opinions, thoughts or feelings. This need can also be demonstrated in control issues, because controlling the outcome ensures the individual is always right.
“The origin of this addiction may be in past lives that were not healed, and also in childhood of the present lifetime. Individuals who were looking for validation outside of themselves, and were never encouraged to believe in his/her own perspective or intuition will many times build this belief system within. Individuals who were sporadically, but not consistently rewarded for good ideas, sometimes build this addiction over time. Individuals who are filled with fear of making a mistake will also build this addiction.
“Like all addictions, mental beliefs build on themselves. It starts with a subconscious decision, and in the cellular memory, becomes reinforced through subsequent experiences. Until eventually, the individual actions become those that feed the addiction, in this case, the need to be right, rather than the focused intention of the occasion or meeting.
“Healing this addiction begins with healing the fear of making a mistake. The individual must recognize that mistakes are old programs frequently associated with shame and blame. When the word opportunity is substituted for mistake, the negative connotation is replaced, and the painful emotions are neutralized. Thus, enabling the individual to view everything as an opportunity for growth. Not to be judged harshly.
“Healing this addiction may also be accomplished through the intention of releasing the cellular memory where this belief began. And with the intention that the replacement of that memory be a higher belief system embodying self love and support.
“Healing this addiction may also be accomplished through the experience of seeing it in others. Having others reflect it back. Becoming aware of it within through the viewing the actions without. Using heart-felt intention will create a powerful transformation in this way.”
Oh my goodness!
I recognized that what was giving me anxiety about this situation was my own fear of making a mistake. Of not being right. Of being judged for it. I had this very fear within me. And seeing it in her, made me aware of it. ‘Becoming aware of it within through viewing the actions without.’
I knew what I needed to do.
I invited the woman I had viewed as egotistic and the antagonist into my tiny space of my heart. The place closest to God. My space of creation for my heart’s desires.
I intended to share with her what I had learned about myself. What I had learned about us. What I learned about humanity.
When she came in, she appeared younger than I’d ever seen her. She looked around interestedly and then sat down.
We sat and smiled at each other.
And kept smiling and smiling.
I found I had nothing to say.
There was nothing to say.
It was complete.
“Healing this addiction may also be accomplished through the experience of seeing it in others. Having others reflect it back. Becoming aware of it within through the viewing the actions without. Using heart-felt intention will create a powerful transformation in this way.”
I felt at peace.
And so, it appeared, did she.
After quite a long time of sitting in silence and smiling at each other, quite comfortably, she got up and left.
Later that morning, when I went to my computer, I saw an email from her.
Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.
The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.
“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.
“This is evolution in action.”
Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan’s research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.
The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia’s east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.
The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.
It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.
“If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion,” Morgan said.
“It’s enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters.”
Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.
If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species — a literal survival of the fittest — Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.
“We don’t know whether that’s the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we’ve generated from these animals,” he said.
“Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals.”
The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn’t appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.
Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.
“We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don’t fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate,” he said.
“And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two.”
NEW YEAR’S FIREBALL: The first bright fireball of the New Year streaked over the southwestern USA on Jan. 1st at 03:15 UT. It was visible from Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. “I was able to see it out my window,” reports amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft from his rural observatory outside of Santa Fe. “It was brilliant turquoise blue.” Ashcraft operates a combination all-sky camera/forward-scatter meteor radar system, which captured the fireball’s flight. Click on the image to play the movie–and don’t forget to turn up the volume to hear the ghostly radar echo:
Cameras belonging to NASA’s All-Sky Fireball Network also recorded the fireball from multiple locations. An orbit calculated from those data show that the fireball was a random meteoriod hailing from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It hit Earth’s atmosphere at 26 km/s (58,000 mph), which is relatively slow compared to other meteoroids, and disintegrated 82 km above Earth’s surface.
People Don’t Just Think With Their Guts: Logic Plays a Role, Too
ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2011) — For decades, science has suggested that when people make decisions, they tend to ignore logic and go with the gut. But Wim De Neys, a psychological scientist at the University of Toulouse in France, has a new suggestion: Maybe thinking about logic is also intuitive. He writes about this idea in the January issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
Psychologists have partly based their conclusions about reasoning and decision-making on questions like this one:
“Bill is 34. He is intelligent, punctual but unimaginative and somewhat lifeless. In school, he was strong in mathematics but weak in social studies and humanities.
Which one of the following statements is most likely?
(a) Bill plays in a rock band for a hobby.
(b) Bill is an accountant and plays in a rock band for a hobby.”
Most people will let their stereotypes about accountants rule and pick (b). But, in fact, we have no idea what Bill does for a living — he could be a politician, a concert pianist, or a drug dealer — so it’s more likely that only one random possibility, the rock band, is true, than that both (a) and (b) would happen to be true.
This line of research has suggested that people don’t use logic when making decisions about the world. But the truth is more complicated, De Neys says. When most people read a question like the one above, there’s a sense that something isn’t quite right. “That feeling you have, that there’s something fishy about the problem — we have a wide range of ways to measure that conflict,” De Neys says. For example, he has shown with brain imaging that when people are thinking about this kind of problem, a part of their brain that deals with conflict is active. “They stick to their gut feeling and don’t do the logical thing, but they do sense that what they are doing is wrong,” De Neys says.
De Neys thinks this sense, that something isn’t quite right with the decision you’re making, comes from an intuitive sense of logic. Other scientists have found that children start thinking logically very early. In one study, 8-month-old babies were surprised if someone pulled mostly red balls out of a box that contained mostly white balls, proof that babies have an innate sense of probability before they can even talk. It makes sense, De Neys says, that this intuitive sense of logic would stick around in adults.
This research deals with the basics of how we think, but De Neys says it may help explain more complex decision-making. If you want to teach people to make better decisions, he says, “It’s important to know which component of the process is faulty.” For example, if you want to understand why people are smoking, and you think it’s because they don’t understand the logic — that smoking kills — you might put a lot of energy into explaining how smoking is bad for them, when the actual problem is addiction. It’s a long way from a question about Bill’s career to understanding something like why someone decides to get married, for example; but research like this should help,” De Neys says
Unusual very shallow magnitude 4.0 earthquake in Ohio
Last update: January 2, 2012 at 12:23 pm by ByArmand Vervaeck and James Daniell
Earthquake overview : A single shallow earthquake alerted people in Ohio and even in the neighboring states. Some officials suspect “fracking” to be at the origin of this earthquake, others say that there is no proof that the earthquakes are caused by fracking but are caused near brine injection wells, not fracking. Update 02/01 – 12:19 UTC
An official in Ohio said on Sunday that the underground disposal of wastewater from natural-gas drilling operations would remain halted in the Youngstown area until scientists could analyze data from the most recent of a string of earthquakes there.
There are luckily no reports of serious damage.
Earthquake-Report received a big number of experience Felt It reports. We thank the many people sending us their testimonies. The Felt It reports can be found below.
NPR writes : Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity. The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes. “The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking,” he said. “Fracking” is common in this area of the state, but this earthquake, and the others in the area over the past year have been near a “brine injection well“, and not any fracking wells. Officials do now believe that the earthquakes are related to the injection wells, but not fracking.
Earthquake-report.com knows that fracking is a highly controversial issue. Both sides have a hard time to proof that they are right. The heated discussion is not only actual in Ohio, but also in a number of other US States.
Feli It map – image courtesy USGS
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2012/01/01/unusual-very-shallow-earthquake-in-ohio/
It is completely appropriate that this new year begins on a Sunday, the traditional first day of the week, signifying new beginning, changes, revelations, choices, and so much more. This will be a year of firsts in so many ways. Change will be a major theme this year, and some of it can be dramatic, even cataclysmic. Secrets will be coming out at a faster pace than ever before. There is a potential for war and famine to strike deeply, swiftly, and harshly. And then things will make an 180 degree turn. Peace will return, accompanied by political strife that will not really affect the masses of the population as they have learned many hard lessons through the war times. In drought and famine stricken areas, the weather will become clement, but with the possibility of too much moisture. The happy medium will be difficult to reach, especially in the first half of they year. Continue reading →
Year of Destiny: 2012 Journey Through Time and the Cosmos! By Antot Masuka
THE MAYAN CALENDAR
The Mayans developed a simple yet comprehensive calendar system that allowed them to describe the internal processes of time or nature, often referred as an underworld, meaning that which goes on within that is often kept from plain sight.
The following article will be appearing in this month’s Winter Edition of ‘Ingress’magazine, a publication of The National Council for Geocosmic Research NCGR http://www.geocosmic.org
The Mayans used a Vegesimal system that rises by factors of twenty, with one exception. A day is a Kin. Twenty (20) Kins is a Uinal. Eighteen (18) Uinals represents a Tun (360 days). Twenty (20) Tuns is a Katun (7,200 days). Twenty (20) Katuns is a Baktun (144,000 days). A Pictun consists of 2,880,000 days, a Calabtun is 57,600,000 days and a Kinchilitun is 1,152,000,000 days or 3 million 154 thousand years, Alautun, which is 20 tuns raised to the sixth power or 63.1 million years and finally a Hablatun, 20 tuns raised to the 7th power or 1.26 billion years. Each cycle is broken down into thirteen stages, evolutionary processes or heavens that evolve from seed to maturity.
AZTEC AGES OR SUN GODS
The idea that December 21, 2012 may bring the end of the world is based on the Aztec Sun Disk (shown above) that shows 5 ages or Sun gods. The first Sun god Tezcatlipoca took the form of a jaguar and destroyed the world. The world was destroyed by a great wind when the reign of the second Sun god, Quetzalcoatl, came to an end. Tlaloc was the third Sun god, but Questzalcoatl wasn’t happy and made fire rain down causing destruction and the end of that age. The fourth Sun god was Chalchiuhtlicue (lady of the jade skirts), the goddess of water – lakes and streams. The fighting gods caused a flood, which destroyed the Earth. The fifth Sun were two gods, Tecciztecatl and Nanauatl. The gods decided that the first to offer his life in a blazing fire would be Sun god. Both jumped in creating two Suns (bianry stars) that shun brightly. The gods wouldn’t stand for this, so they threw a rabbit into the face of Tecciztecatl to dim his brightness. And so he became the moon, doomed to chase the sun forever, but never to shine as bright.
MAYAN WORLD AGE Many authors believe that we are living in the fifth and final Mayan world age or cycle that started on August 11, 3114 BC. Our present world age that started in 3114 BC consists of 5,125 years. When you insert the Aztec creation story that describes five world ages of creation (four of which have passed) into the Mayan Long Count calendar the number of years is close to a precession year lasting 25,625 years (5,125 times 5).
Many authors believe that four world ages came immediately before the start of the Mayan calendar in 3114 BC, but the historical records do not support the existence of such earlier cycles or ages that we can easily fit into a neat package of 5,125 years periods going back into time or readily associate with the Aztec Sun Disk. No author has offered dates for these four previous world ages that can be used as a guide to understanding the cycle that started 3114 BC. Some claim that the prior world ages or cycles were longer than the fifth world age that started 3114 BC. Dr. Paul LaViolette believes that some earlier cycles lasted up to 820 million years for the Age of the Jaguar or Mammalian Age.
Scientist and author, Maurice Cotterrell, The Super Gods and The Mayan Prophecies, strongly insist that this period is not the completion of a cycle that can be attributed to the Mayan calendar.
In fact Cotterrell argues that the Mayan calendar goes beyond 2012 to include other cycles far into the future that exceed 1,872,000 days and that “at best it can only be considered to be 13/20ths of the Pictun, the next largest period” that began on August 11, 3114 BC.
THE AGE OF MAN Zacharia Sitchin, author of The Twelfth Planet believes that The Age of Man, a time when human beings were given dominion over the Earth, started around 3,100 BC. The Mayan universe that started on August 11, 3114 BC corresponds to the start of ‘The Age of Man’ described by Sitchin. This date also corresponds neatly with the starting dates of civilizations that seem to spring up from out of nowhere in Sumer, Egypt, India and further east in China. Mênes was the first Egyptian Pharaoh to unite Upper and Lower Egypt starting the 1st Dynastic Period dated around 3,100 BC – 3,200 BC defining the apex of Egyptian civilization. On the Atlantic side of the globe, early Mayan and Mesoamerica civilizations took off as well with new monolith constructions at Palenque, Mexico.
Sitchin own viewpoint is that Mayan 2012 prophecies hold no particular significance, and does not mark the return date for Nibiru often referred to as Planet X.
John Van Auken of the Association of Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, Virginia identifies the world ages as 1) Age of the Jaguar, 2) Age of Water or the Fish, 3) Age of Fire, 4) Age of Turkeys, 5) Age of Movement, 6) Age of Spirit of All Living Things, and 7) Age of Melting Into Oneness Again! He believes that we are ending the Age of Movement on December 21, 2012, the image in the center of the Aztec Sun Disk surrounded by four diagonal squares, entering the Fifth Sun or Age of Spirit of All Living Things after which we will enter the last and final Age of Melting into Oneness Again. He does not offer dates for when the sixth or seventh world age will end, but notes that Nostradamus saw into the future well up to 3797 AD.
AZTEC AGES OR SUN GODS The idea that December 21, 2012 may bring the end of the world is based on the Aztec Sun Disk that shows 5 ages or sun gods. The first Sun god Tezcatlipoca took the form of a jaguar and destroyed the world. The world was destroyed by a great wind when the reign of the second Sun god, Quetzalcoatl, came to an end. Tlaloc was the third Sun god, but Questzalcoatl wasn’t happy and made fire rain down causing destruction and the end of the age. The fourth Sun god was Chalchiuhtlicue (lady of the jade skirts), the goddess of water – lakes and streams. The fighting gods caused a flood to destroy the Earth. The fifth Sun were two gods, Tecciztecatl and Nanauatl. The gods decided that the first to offer his life in a blazing fire would be Sun god. Both jumped in creating two Suns (bianry stars) that shun brightly. The gods wouldn’t stand for this, so they threw a rabbit into the face of Tecciztecatl to dim his brightness. And so he became the moon, doomed to chase the sun forever, but never to shine as bright.
MAYAN LONG COUNT CALENDAR The date of origin of the Mayan Long Count calendar is August 11, 3114 BC, representing a cycle of 13 Baktuns which ends on December 21, 2012. But the real meaning of the ending of this cycle is open to debate since most of the records and inscriptions which were written by the Mayans in the Classical period (250 BC – 900 AD) that would have given us an unequivocal understanding of what the closing of this stage or heaven truly means were destroyed by Europeans who conquered the Americas during 15th and 16th centuries.
Contemporary Mayans living in the Yucatan, Mexico and the greater part of northern Peru and Central America believe that when this world ends, possibly through annihilation or destruction around December 21, 2012, another world shall begin! Will this renewal come from Super Gods as Cotterrell maintains is unknown.
Contemporary Mayans also believe that each world age was part of an evolutionary cycle designed to perfect life in the world. They believed that man’s perfection will be achieved at the end of this world age. In their view, the world will not end suddenly in 2012. Man will be recreated anew! There will be a new beginning after the end of this world age to allow life to continue, only that the new world will be very different from the one in which we live. These views are very much in line with the spirit, myths and cosmology mastered by Mayans living on the Classical period, but they are not rooted in any specific Stela or inscription found at Mayan archaeological sites that can be quoted authoritatively. Part of the reason for this is that Mayan prophecies and cosmology is still part of a secret order of Mayan elders who use the oral tradition of passing knowledge and wisdom from one generation to another.
Maurice Cotterrell argues against ideas proposed by John Major Jenkins that the winter equinox of 2012 shall come into direct alignment with the Galactic Center. Cotterrell believes that this is not accurate nor is it scientifically valid. If any such alignment were to take place it would not occur at a single moment in time because of the vast area that the center of the galaxy represents, which is still under debate by scientists. The Sun’s crossing of the galactic center would most likely take a greater period of time exceeding the proposed 36 years advocated by proponents of this theory.
In Cotterrell’s viewpoint, it is impossible to accurately calculate the line for the galactic elliptic. To do so would require knowing the mass of the galaxy, a task which science has not yet undertaken. Proponents of this argument claim that the Sun will cross an imaginary galactic elliptic, that is only a guess, between 1980 and 2016, which includes December 21, 2012 as one of those dates robbing it of its mystical Mayan Long Count calendar meaning and significance.
For the Mayans, the dark rift near the center of the Milky Way galaxy marks the black road to the underworld. This is visualized as a celestial mouth akin to the vagina from which new life emerges. The emergence of Lord Xibalba is synonymous with birth. The appearance of the Sun from the dark rift would be a natural point in Mayan cosmology indicative of a new beginning from some ending point. December 21, 2012 seems to suggest that some ending of the current world order will take place around this date triggering a renewal of life on Earth shortly thereafter.
Many cultures celebrate winter solstice as the death, burial and resurrection of the Sun. On the 20th of December the Sun is mythical killed (stops in the sky), buried on the 21st (stationary on the elliptic), and resurrected on the 22nd (increase in declination moving towards the summer solstice).
There is no shortage of ideas, opinions and speculations of what will happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar ends on December 21, 2012, which has fed a frenzy of news stories, articles and media publications!
Nevertheless, when you closely examine the Mayan Calendar system, some interesting facts emerge that tie into cycles found in nature. For example, the 400-year Baktun cycle is equivalent to the amount of time it takes the Earth’s core to rotate around a fixed point on the surface. The twenty-year Katun cycle corresponds to the time it takes the Earth’s magnetic field to rotate around a fixed point on the surface.
The Mayan Calendar allowed them to accurately record the cycles of other planets. Venus was particularly important to the Mayans. Its dual rising in the east and the west forms a Vesica Piscis representing the incarnation of spirit into matter, which is the basis of all life on planet Earth. Being the brightest celestial object in the night sky, Venus is associated with the star of Bethlehem.
MAYAN PROPHECIES FOR 2012 Mayan 2012 prophecies that relate to the Mayan Long Count calendar come from The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. These prophecies state that:
“In the final days of misfortunes, in the final days of tying up the bundle of the thirteen (baktuns) … then the end of the world shall come and the baktun of our fathers will ascend on high.”
“Presently the Baktuns thirteen shall come sailing… Then the god will come to visit his little ones. Perhaps ‘after death’ will be the subject of his discourse.
“These little valleys of the earth shall come to an end. For those katuns (7,200 days) there shall be no priests, and no one believes in his government without having doubts”.
Don Alejandro Cirillo is the elected leader of the National Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala and a thirteenth generation Quiche priest. He believes that 2012 shall be characterized by major earth changes, probably earthquakes and floods, but most significantly by a darkening of the Sun that will last many days where electricity will fail, crops will fail and we will not be able to buy clean water, fresh food or fresh air. When the Sun returns, this will signal the start of a new world age.
2012 is expected to bring about the fifth world of creation, marked by the return of ether, the fifth element allowing for the fusion of polarities changing forever the nature of material things and the start of the fifth root race according to Edgar Cayce.
Some researchers believe that when the boundary of the galactic plane is reached, you get a kind of Coriolis Effect, changing or reversing the resonance we experience coming from the galactic center.
The Mayans calculated the orbit of Venus with amazing accuracy and detail. Venus transits the Sun in pairs of transit 8 years apart. On June 6, 2012 Venus will transit the Sun. Venus last transited the Sun on June 8, 2004. In 2004, Ronald Reagan died three days before the Venus transit took place on June 8th. And two days after the transit, the beloved Ray Charles passed away as well.
The Mayans considered the first appearance of Venus as an evil omen and considered it to be a good day for warfare. They viewed the transit as the warrior twin of Venus. The first sighting of the morning star that was frequently represented by bloody situations. The Mayans glyph for the Venus transit shows the Chief holding the severed heads of his enemy with blood trailing from the victim’s neck.
Prior to June 2004 transit, the last transit occurred in 1761 and 1769. Future Venus-Sun transits will occur in December 2117 and December 2125.
EARTHQUAKE PREDICTIONS FOR 2012 Major Earthquake coming for North America at about 8.0 magnitude. Once this earthquake strikes the west coast of California, they shall not stop. The eastern side of the Pacific Ring of Fire shall become activated forcing people to move from California to Arizona and adjoining states. Watch the San Joaquin Valley! This earthquake is likely to send oil and food prices soaring, triggering massive inflation and collapse of the dollar.
A major earthquake shall also strike Northwest, USA in the Montana/Wyoming/Colorado area east of the Rockies!
6.1 – 6.6 million people shall be overtaken by earthquakes.
Florida shall come under heavy flooding around June 2012.
USGS world earthquake activity map on the Internet shall show lots of earthquakes striking all over the world, all at the same time, throughout Asia, Middle East, and Europe in an almost even-spaced distribution! These earthquakes shall range from 5.0 to 7.0 magnitude.
POLE SHIFT Some researchers believe that we may experience a reversal of the Sun’s polarity that may trigger the possible reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, which all could be triggered by a celestial phenomenon coming from out of the dark region of the Milky Way Galaxy.
NEPTUNE IN PISCES Neptune ingress of the astrological sign of Pisces on February 4th, 2012 promises to fulfill the meaning of the word ‘Maya,’ which means illusion. Illusion is a veil of consciousness. Being the ruler of the mutable signs, Neptune sits on the rim of the known versus the unknown. It promises that we shall have new thoughts and ideas of things that we have never thought of before. The mysteries of Mayan prophecies and 2012 predictions shall be revealed to us as time marches on, but few if any will have their expectations met on what Mayan 2012 prophecy and cosmology is all about. One thing is almost certain, as we move through 2012 to meet 2013 and 2014, the Mayan Long Count calendar shall give birth and impetus to a new string of research and understanding that shall transform our understanding of astrology, astronomy and cosmology forever!
LOOKING AHEAD
Much of the current world order is crumbling; the environment is under attack. In almost every sphere of life things seems to be falling apart. It is self evident that we are reaching an ending of some sort, a point of crisis if you wish – terminal saturation according to Riley Martin!
At a minimum, Mayan 2012 prophecy assurance us that a new world is coming, that there shall be a new beginning, a new dawning and new recreation of the current world order. Our role and place in that world is unknown. We saw what happened to the Mayans, how they were brutally treated by their conquerors. We also saw what happened to just about every other civilization since the dawn of creation. Case in point, the Library of Alexandria; how those precious, irreplaceable books were burned three times over the course of history just to extinguish their light. The people of enlightenment throughout the ages and the history of the world since the start of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3114 BC have all been under attack and most have been destroyed. No period was more destructive than the Age of Pisces (55 BC to 1781 AD) that brought us into total darkness and complete utter ignorance. Conquerors hate light, they hate to assimilate or learn from those whom they conquer. There is no reason to believe that we will be spared similar fate, catastrophes, annihilation or destruction. Nothing under the Sun gives us that divine right and privilege. It seems to be the path of nature to destroy and recreate.
At best, we can look around and observe what is dying and what is on the rise in our personal life and in society. We have lost faith in government. Pastors and priests no longer serve us anymore. Money is abundant but not evenly distributed. In the abundance of great wealth, people and animals are dying and suffering. Technology is on the rise. How will the blessings and seed of technology become our worst nightmare in the future? Already this is expressing itself in the unemployment lines. There needs to be a realignment of values. But how will this come about? Who will start it? What will trigger a realignment of the global society? These are the unanswered questions that Mayan 2012 prophecies beg us to ponder.
CONCLUSION We have reached a point in time where oil, money and technology can no longer sustain us. Venus transit of the Sun shall demand that we seek the natural order questioning intensively the road upon which we have traveled since the fall in 9,500 B.C. We have moved out of the Golden Age, the Garden of Eden of prehistory and have developed a profound understanding and control of natural forces and have uniquely developed the capacity to dominate and extinguish all life forms on planet Earth. On the verge of committing ecocide, we have become the agent of death for the world’s ecological system. Who or what shall become our agent of death other than ourselves? Within the twinkling of an eye we have become space travelers embarking on a planetary and cosmic journey of inter-galactic dimensions.
Mayan Long Count calendar and predictions ask us to question our role in the universe and on the planet in particular. We can no longer hide from the enormous burdens and responsibilities that the new age demands of us as individuals or as a society. Mayan 2012 prophecies demand that we pay close attention to detail least we delude ourselves into believing that we are in any way, shape or form different from our brothers and sisters that walk this Earth or any of the creatures of the land, air and seas that live in the flesh.
We are on the cusp of our own evolutionary path that shall lead to a higher human form that is now in the process of being changed or re-birthed! Since our creation, but more accurately, since the event of the Flood, we have been in the midst of two different evolutionary paths: one of the masters of space and time and the other of the extinct hominids that preceded us. As time marches on, we are slowly and slowly being disconnected from the path of the sky gods and native hominids, and more and more we are coming into our own being of who we are and were intended to be. Hence, the development of man is not complete, and for this we must press on and be prepared to endure a lot!
Use the Big Dipper and the star Arcturus to locate the radiant of the Quadrantid shower
