2012

The 2012 phenomenon is a present-day cultural meme proposing that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur in the year 2012.[1][2] The forecast is based primarily on what is claimed to be the end-date of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which is presented as lasting 5,125 years and as terminating on December 21 or 23, 2012. Arguments supporting this dating are drawn from a mixture of amateur archaeoastronomy, alternative interpretations of mythology, numerological constructions, and alleged prophecies from extraterrestrial beings.

For lessons on the topic of 2012, follow this link.

A New Age interpretation of this transition posits that, during this time, the planet and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era.[3] Conversely, some believe that the 2012 date marks the beginning of an apocalypse. Both memes have been disseminated in numerous books and TV documentaries, and have spread around the world through websites and discussion groups. The idea of a global event occurring in 2012 based on any interpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is regarded as pseudoscience by the scientific community, and as misrepresentative of Maya history.[2][4]

Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

December 2012 marks the ending of the current baktun cycle of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. The Long Count set its "time zero" at a point in the past marking the end of the previous world and the beginning of the current one, which corresponds to either 11 or 13 August 3114 BC in the Gregorian calendar, depending on the formula used.[5]

The Long Count kept time roughly in units of 20, so 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals, or 360 days, made a tun, 20 tuns made a katun, and 20 katuns, or 144,000 days, made up a baktun. So, for example, the Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 baktuns, 3 katuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days since creation. Many Mayan inscriptions have the count shifting to a higher order after 13 baktuns.[6][7] Today, the most widely accepted correlations of the end of the thirteenth baktun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, with the Western calendar are either December 21 or December 23, 2012.[8] Even before the dating issue was settled, the early Mayanist and astronomer Maud Worcester Makemson had written in 1957 that "[t]he completion of a Great Period of 13 baktuns would have been of the utmost significance to the Maya".[9] After the correct date was determined, the anthropologist Munro S. Edmonson added that "there appears to be a strong likelihood that the eral calendar, like the year calendar, was motivated by a long-range astronomical prediction, one that made a correct solsticial forecast 2,367 years into the future in 355 B.C. ".[10]

In 1966, Michael D. Coe more ambitiously claimed in The Maya that "[t]here is a suggestion . . . that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the thirteenth [baktun]. Thus ... our present universe ... [would] be annihilated on December 23, 2012, when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion."[11] These apocalyptic connotations were accepted by other scholars through the early 1990s.[12] But more recent academic scholars have specifically disputed the apocalyptic interpretation of the Long Count calendar end-date, saying instead that it would be a cause for celebration but that the cycle would continue uninterrupted by any cataclysmic event.[2]

These scholars argue that the Long Count does not end on 13.0.0.0.0.[13] In their seminal work of 1990, the Maya scholars Linda Schele and David Freidel, who reference Edmonson, argue that the Maya "did not conceive this to be the end of creation, as many have suggested,"[14] citing Mayan predictions of events to occur after the end of the 13th baktun. The Maya, due to the cyclical nature of their calendar, also wrote the date of creation, their zero date, as 13.0.0.0.0.[15] Schele and Freidel note that creation date was inscribed at Coba as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, with twenty units above the katun. According to Schele and Friedel, these 13s should be treated as 0s, so the Coba number would be read as if it were 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0, with the units of each column beyond the second (counting from right to left) equal to 20 times those of the previous one. This number represented "the starting point of a huge odometer of time". Schele and Freidel calculate that the date at which this odometer would run out lies some 4.134105 × 1028 years in the future, or 3 quintillion times the scientifically accepted age of the universe. The issue is complicated further by the fact that many different Maya city-states employed the Long Count in different ways. At Palenque, evidence suggests that the priest timekeepers believed the cycle would end after 20 baktuns, rather than 13. A monument commemorating the ascension of the king Pakal the Great connects his coronation with events as far as 4000 years in the future, indicating that those scribes did not believe the world would end on 13.0.0.0.0.[15]

Maya references to 2012

Most Maya inscriptions are strictly historical and do not make any prophetic declarations.[16] Two items in the Maya corpus, however, mention the end of the 13th baktun: Tortuguero Monument 6 and the Chilam Balam.

Tortuguero

The Tortuguero site dates from the 7th century AD and consists of a series of inscriptions in honor of the contemporary ruler. One inscription, known as Tortuguero Monument 6, is generally agreed among Mayanists to refer to the 2012 date. It has been partially defaced; Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone has given the most complete translation: Tzuhtz-(a)j-oom u(y)-uxlajuun pik The Thirteenth [b'ak'tun] will end (ta) Chan Ajaw ux(-te') Uniiw. (on) 4 Ajaw, the 3rd of Uniiw [3 K'ank'in]. Uht-oom Ek'-... Black ... will occur. Y-em(al) ... Bolon Yookte' K'uh ta-chak-ma... (It will be) the descent(?) of Bolon Yookte' K'uh to the great (or red?)...[15] Very little is known about the god (or gods) Bolon Yookte' K'uh. Possible translations of his or their name include "nine support [gods]", "Many‐Strides God", "Nine‐Dog Tree", or "Many‐Root Tree".[15] He appears in other inscriptions as a god of war, conflict, and the underworld, though Markus Eberl and Christian Prager believe that the Tortuguero inscription parallels the typical Maya ruler's pronouncement of a future dedicatory celebration.[17] The long count used at Tortuguero contains 20 b'ak'tuns in a cycle, so the end of the 13th b'ak'tun would not end the cycle according to Tortuguero astronomers.[15] No illustrations of Bolon Yookte' exist, though dozens of other gods' images are known.[15]

Chilam Balam

The Chilam Balam of Tizimin has been translated twice: once by the archaeoastronomer Maud Worcester Makemson and once by the anthropologist Munro S. Edmonson. Makemson believed that one of the lines in the book (licutal oxlahun bak chem, ti u cenic u tzan a ceni ciac aba yum texe) refered to the "tremendously important event of the arrival of 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 3 Kankin in the not too distant future",[18] translating it as "Presently Baktun 13 shall come sailing, figuratively speaking, bringing the ornaments of which I have spoken from your ancestors." (Her version of the text continues, "Then the god will come to visit his little ones. Perhaps 'After Death' will be the subject of his discourse.") Makemson was still relying on her own dating of 13.0.0.0.0 to 1752 and therefore the "not too distant future" in her annotations meant a few years after the scribe in Tizimin recorded his Chilam Balam.[19] Edmonson's translation does not support this reading; he considers the Long Count entirely absent from the book, with a 24-round may system used instead.[20]

Other Chilam Balam books contain references to the 13th baktun, but it is unclear if these are in the past or future; for example, oxhun bakam u katunil (thirteen bakam of katuns) in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel.[21]

New Age theories

Many believe that the ending of this cycle will correspond to a global "consciousness shift". This theory is grounded in an apocalyptic vocabulary dating back to the 1950s and draws on many of the same sources and personalities of the 1987 Harmonic Convergence. Established themes found in 2012 literature include "suspicion towards mainstream Western culture", the idea of spiritual evolution, and the possibility of leading the world into the New Age, by individual example or by a group's joined consciousness. The general intent of this literature is not to warn of impending doom but "to foster counter-cultural sympathies and eventually socio-political and 'spiritual' activism".[22] The date became the subject of speculation by Frank Waters, who devotes two chapters to its interpretation, including discussion of an astrological chart for this date and its association with Hopi prophecies in Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth Age of Consciousness (1975).[23] The significance of the year 2012 (but not a specific day) was mentioned briefly by José Argüelles in The Transformative Vision, (1975)[24] and later in The Mayan Factor (1987).[25] Author Terence McKenna independently arrived at a New Age prediction for 2012, which he later merged with the Mayan calendar end date after a discussion with Argüelles.

Author Daniel Pinchbeck popularized New Age concepts about this date, linking it to beliefs about crop circles, alien abduction, and personal revelations based on the use of entheogens and mediumship in his 2006 book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.[26] Pinchbeck argues for a shift in consciousness rather than an apocalypse, suggesting that materialistic attitudes, rather than the material world, are in jeopardy.[27] Semir Osmanagić, the author and metalworker responsible for promoting the Bosnian pyramids, referred to 2012 in the conclusion of his book The World of the Maya.[28] He suggests that "Advancement of DNA may raise us to a higher level" and concludes, "When the 'heavens open' and cosmic energy is allowed to flow throughout our tiny Planet, will we be raised to a higher level by the vibrations".[28]

Galactic alignment

Frank Waters' book inspired further speculation by John Major Jenkins in the mid-1980s, noting the correspondence of the December 21 date with the winter solstice in 2012. This date was in line with an idea he terms the Galactic Alignment.

In the solar system, the planets and the Sun share roughly the same plane of orbit, known as the plane of the ecliptic. From our perspective on Earth, the Zodiacal constellations move along or near the ecliptic, and over time, appear to recede counterclockwise by one degree every 72 years. This movement is attributed to a slight wobble in the Earth's axis as it spins. As a result, approximately every 2160 years, the constellation visible on the early morning of the spring equinox changes. In Western astrological traditions, this signals the end of one astrological age (currently the Age of Pisces) and the beginning of another (Age of Aquarius). Over the course of 26,000 years, the precession of the equinoxes makes one full circuit around the ecliptic.

Just as the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere is currently in the constellation of Pisces, so the winter solstice is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, which happens to be the constellation intersected by the galactic equator. Every year for the last 1000 years or so, on the winter solstice, the Earth, Sun and the galactic equator come into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun's position a little way further through the Milky Way's band.

Jenkins suggests that the Maya based their calendar on observations of the Great Rift, a band of dark dust clouds in the Milky Way, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or "Black Road."[29] Jenkins claims that the Maya were aware of where the ecliptic intersected the Black Road and gave this position in the sky a special significance in their cosmology.[30] According to the hypothesis, the Sun precisely aligns with this intersection point at the winter solstice of 2012.[30] Jenkins claimed that the classical Mayans anticipated this conjunction and celebrated it as the harbinger of a profound spiritual transition for mankind.[31] New Age proponents of the galactic alignment hypothesis argue that, just as astrology uses the positions of stars and planets to make claims of future events, the Mayans plotted their calendars with the objective of preparing for significant world events.[32]

The alignment in question is not exclusive to 2012 but takes place over a 36-year period, corresponding to the diameter of the Sun, with the most precise convergence having already occurred in 1998.[33] Also, Jenkins himself notes that there is no concrete evidence that the Maya were aware of precession.[34] While some Mayan scholars, such as Barbara MacLeod, have suggested that some Mayan holy dates were timed to precessional cycles, scholarly opinion on the subject is divided.[15] There is also little evidence, archaeological or historical, that the Maya placed any importance on solstices or equinoxes.[15]

Doomsday theories

A far more apocalyptic view of the year 2012 has also spread in various media. This view has been promulgated by History Channel which, beginning in 2006, aired "Decoding the Past: Mayan Doomsday Prophecy", based loosely on John Major Jenkins' theories but with a tone he characterized as "45 minutes of unabashed doomsday hype and the worst kind of inane sensationalism". It was co-written by a science fiction author.[38] This show proved popular and was followed by many sequels: 2012, End of Days (2006), The Last Days on Earth (2008) Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (2008) and Nostradamus 2012 (2008).[39]

Geomagnetic reversal

One idea proposed in these films involves a geomagnetic reversal (often incorrectly referred to as a polar shift by proponents of this hypothesis), which could be triggered by a massive solar flare, one with energy equal to 100 billion atomic bombs.[40] This belief is supposedly supported by observations that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening,[41] which indicates an impending reversal of the north and south magnetic poles. Scientists believe the Earth is overdue for a geomagnetic reversal, and has been for a long time, even since the time of the Mayans, because the last reversal was 780,000 years ago.[42] Critics, however, claim geomagnetic reversals take up to 5,000 years to complete, and do not start on any particular date. Also, while NASA expects a particularly strong solar maximum sometime between 2010 and 2012,[43] there is no scientific evidence linking a solar maximum to a geomagnetic reversal.[44] A solar maximum would be mostly notable for its effects on satellite and cellular phone communications.[43]

Planet Nibiru

Proponents of a Nibiru collision claim that a planet called Nibiru will collide with or pass by Earth in that year. This idea, which has been circulating since 1995 in New Age circles and initially slated the event for 2003, is based on claims of channeling from alien species and has been widely ridiculed.[45][46] Astronomers calculate that such an object so close to Earth would be visible to anyone looking up at the night sky.[47][48]

Black hole alignment

An apocalyptic reading of Jenkins's hypothesis has that, when the galactic alignment occurs, it will somehow create a combined gravitational effect between the Sun and the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, (known as Sgr A*) creating havoc on Earth.[49] Apart from the fact noted above that the "galactic alignment" predicted by Jenkins already happened in 1998, the Sun's apparent path through the zodiac as seen from Earth does not take it near the true galactic center, but rather several degrees above it.[50] Even if this were not the case, Sgr A* is 30,000 light years from Earth, and would have to be more than 6 million times closer to cause any gravitational disruption to our Solar System.[51] The alignment described by Jenkins is only an apparent alignment caused by the Earth's wobble on its axis and has nothing to do with Earth's current location in the galaxy.

Some versions of this idea elide the 2012 "galactic alignment" with the very different "galactic alignment" proposed by some scientists to explain a supposed periodicity in mass extinctions in the fossil record.[49][52] The hypothesis supposes that vertical oscillations made by the Sun as it orbits the galactic center cause it to regularly pass through the galactic plane. When the Sun's orbit takes it outside the galactic disc, the influence of the galactic tide is weaker; as it re-enters the galactic disc, as it does every 20–25 million years, it comes under the influence of the far stronger "disc tides", which, according to mathematical models, increase the flux of Oort cloud comets into the Solar System by a factor of 4, leading to a massive increase in the likelihood of a devastating comet impact.[53] However, this process takes place over tens of millions of years, and could never be assigned to a specific date.[52] Many scientists now agree that this hypothesis is incorrect, as the Earth is currently close to the galactic plane, and the last extinction in the fossil record was only 15 million years ago.[54]

Further reading

These books address Mayan astronomy, recorded prophecy, and the Long Count calendar:

• Finley, Michael (2002). "The Correlation Question". The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy. Retrieved 2007-06-04.
• Voss, Alexander (2006). "Astronomy and Mathematics". in Nikolai Grube (ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain * * Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant eds.). Cologne: Könemann. pp. 130–143. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.
• Wagner, Elizabeth (2006). "Maya Creation Myths and Cosmography". in Nikolai Grube (ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (Assistant eds.). Cologne: Könemann. pp. 280–293. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.

• This article contains an illustration of Coba Stela 1.

This is a sampling of the dozens of New Age books on the subject of 2012:

• Pyramid of Fire (2004), Galactic Alignment (2002), Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (1998), Tzolkin (1994), all by John Major Jenkins
• The Orion Prophecy (2001) by Patrick Geryl and Gino Ratinck

8Sam Osmanagich (2005) (Online text reproduction). The World of the Maya. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press (Euphrates imprint). ISBN 1-59333-274-2. OCLC 64204367.

• 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006) by Daniel Pinchbeck

This book is credited with starting the public infatuation with 2012.[2]

• Serpent of Light (2007) by Drunvalo Melchizedek
• Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End (2007) by Lawrence E. Joseph
• How to Survive 2012: Tactics and Survival Places for the Coming Pole Shift (2008) by Patrick Geryl
• A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change (2008) by John Peterson
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012 (2008) by Synthia Andrews ISBN 1592578039
• 2013 Oracle: Ancient Keys to the 2012 Awakening (2008) by David Caruson ISBN 9781571781949
• The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities (2008) by Gregg Braden, (2006)
• 2012: Seeking Closure (2009) by Gregory Bernard Banks
• The Maya End Times : A spiritual adventure to the heart of the Maya prophecies for 2012 (2008) by Patricia Mercier

Notes

1. Sitler 2006, Defesche 2007
2. G. Jeffrey MacDonald "Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?" USA Today 3/27/07.
3. For a sample of views see discussion and interviews in New York Times Magazine article (Anastas 2007).
4. The Uses and Abuses of the Ancient Maya, David Webster, Penn State University, prepared for The Emergence of the Modern World Conference, Otzenhausen, Germany. Organizers Jared Diamond and James Robinson
5. Finley, Michael (2002). "The Correlation Question". The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
6. Schele & Freidel 1990: 246
7. "The Astronomical Insignificance of Maya Date 13.0.0.0." by Vincent H. Malmström, Dartmouth University, undated (accessed 26 May 2009)
8. Sitler 2006[page needed]
9. M.W. Makemson. "The miscellaneous dates of the Dresden codex" Publications of the Vassar College Observatory 6. p. 4.
10. Edmonson 1988: 119
11. Michael D. Coe, The Maya, 7th ed. Thames and Hudson 1966, 2005, p. 211
12. Carrasco 1990: 39; Gossen & Leventhal 1993: 191.
13. Milbrath 2000: 4
14. Schele & Freidel 1990:81-82, 430-431
15. Van Stone 2008
16. Houston & Stuart 1996
17. Eberl & Prager 2005
18. Makemson 1951: 219
19. Makemson 1951: 30, 217
20. Quote: "The baktun or Long Count dating system does not appear directly in the Tizimin." See Edmonson 1982: xix, also p.195 op cit.
21. Roys, Ralph (1967) The Book of Chilam Balam of Chuyamel. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. p. 111. c.f. Richard N. Luxton, The Book of Chumayel: The Counsel Book of the Yucatec Maya, 1539-1638. p.274.
22. Defesche 2007
23. See in particular, chapter 6 ("The Great Cycle - Its Projected Beginning"), chapter 7 ("The Great Cycle - Its Projected End") and the Appendix, in Waters 1975: 256–264, 265–271, 285 et seq.
24. Arguelles, Jose (1975). Transformative Vision (1st edition ed.). Shambhala. ISBN 0394730674.
25. Argüelles, José (1987). The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology. Inner Traditions/Bear & Company.. ISBN 0939680386.
26. Pinchbeck 2006
27. Anastas 2007. As quoted in interview for this New York Times Magazine article, Pinchbeck claims to discern a "growing realization that materialism and the rational, empirical worldview that comes with it has reached its expiration date...[w]e're on the verge of transitioning to a dispensation of consciousness that's more intuitive, mystical and shamanic."
28. Osmanagich, Sam (2005). The World of the Maya. Gorgias Press. ISBN 1593332742.
29. Stross, Brian. "XIBALBA OR XIBALBE". University of Texas. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
30. Jenkins, John Major. "What is the Galactic Alignment?". Alignment 2012. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
31. John Major Jenkins (1999). "The True Alignment Zone". truezone. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
32. For an in-depth look at this subject, see Coe, Michael D. (1992). Breaking the Maya Code. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05061-9. OCLC 26605966; Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317; and Pinchbeck, Daniel, 2007. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Tarcher Books. ISBN 1585424838.
33. Meeus, Jean (1997). "Ecliptic and galactic equator". Mathematical Astronomy Morsels. Richmod, Va: Willmann-Bell. pp. 301-303. ISBN 9780943396514. OCLC 36126686.
34. John Major Jenkins. "Introduction to Maya Cosmogenesis". Retrieved 2009-05-11.
35. Terence McKenna, interviewed on the Art Bell Show, 1997-05-22. Accessed: 2009-09-22.
36. McKenna, Terence; McKenna, Dennis (1975). The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching. HarperCollins. ISBN 0816492492.
37. Quoting McKenna in his panel "Dynamics of Hyperspace", Santa Cruz, CA, June 1983.
38. John Major Jenkins, How Not to Make a 2012 Documentary, alignment2012.com, July 28, 2006.
39. "Armageddon series". The History Channel. 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
40. 2012: No Killer Solar Flare, Universe Today
41. Jeremy Hsu, Sloshing Inside Earth Changes Protective Magnetic Field, space.com, 18 August 2008
42. "Geomagnetic field evolution during the Laschamp excursion"
43. "Solar Storm Warning". NASA. 2006. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
44. Ian O'Neill (2008). "2012: No Geomagnetic Reversal". Universe Today. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
45. Govert Schilling. The Hunt For Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto. Copernicus Books. pp. 111.
46. David Morrison (2008). "Armageddon from Planet Nibiru in 2012? Not so fast". discovery.com. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
47. Phil Plait (2003). "The Planet X Saga: Science". badastronomy.com. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
48. Mike Brown (2008). "I do not ♥ pseudo-science". Mike Brown's Planets. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
49. "2012: Earth's polar reversal". Jiro Olcott. see Google for more examples
50. See this StarryNight simulation
51. "Is it theoretical for a supermassive black hole to have an apocalyptic effect on the planet earth?". Cornell University. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
52. "Astronomy Cast: Alignment with the galactic plane". Universe Today. 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
53. Michael Szpir. "Perturbing the Oort Cloud". American Scientist. The Scientific Research Society. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
54. Erik M. Leitch, Gautam Vasisht (1998). "Mass Extinctions and The Sun's Encounters with Spiral Arms". New Astronomy 3: 51–56. doi:10.1016/S1384-1076(97)00044-4. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
55. See the fictional publicity for the film by Sony Pictures Inc.

References

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• Barkun, Michael (2006). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Comparative studies in religion and society series, no. 15 (1st pbk print ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24812-0. OCLC 255948700.
• Carrasco, David (1990). Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers. Religious traditions of the world [series]. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-061325-4. OCLC 20996347.
• Coe, Michael D. (1966). The Maya. Ancient peoples and places series, no. 52 (1st ed.). London: Thames & Hudson. OCLC 318157568.
• Coe, Michael D. (1992). Breaking the Maya Code. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05061-9. OCLC 26605966.
• Coe, Michael D. (1999). The Maya. Ancient peoples and places series (6th, fully revised and expanded ed.). London and New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28066-5. OCLC 59432778.
• Defesche, Sacha (2007), W.J. Hanegraaff, ed., 'The 2012 Phenomenon': A historical and typological approach to a modern apocalyptic mythology., University of Amsterdam
• Eberl, Markus; and Christian Prager (2005). "B’olon Yokte’ K’uh: Maya conceptions of war, conflict, and the underworld". in Peter Eeckhout and Geneviève Le Fort (eds.). Wars and Conflicts in Prehispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes: Selected Proceedings of the Conference Organized by the Société des Américanistes de Belgique with the Collaboration of Wayeb (European Association of Mayanists), Brussels, 16-17 November 2002. British Archaeological Reports International Series, no. 1385. Oxford, UK: John and Erika Hedges Ltd. pp. 28–36. ISBN 1-84171-706-1. OCLC 254728446.
• Edmonson, Munro S.; ed. and trans. (1982). The Ancient Future of the Itza: The Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. The Texas Pan American series (Text of Chilam Balam de Tizimín MS. translated and annotated by Munro S. * Edmonson; 1st English trans. ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70353-8. OCLC 11318551. (Yukatek Maya) (English)
• Edmonson, Munro S. (1988). The Book of the Year: Middle American Calendrical Systems. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. ISBN 0-87480-288-1. OCLC 17650412.
• Gossen, Gary; and Richard M. Leventhal (1993). "The topography of ancient Maya religious pluralism: a dialogue with the present". in Jeremy A. Sabloff and John S. Henderson (eds.). Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D.: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 7th and 8th October 1989. Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. pp. 185–217. ISBN 0-88402-206-4. OCLC 25547151.
• Hanegraaff, Wouter (1996). New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Studies in the histories of religions series (ISSN 0169-8834), no. 72. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 90-04-10695-2. OCLC 35229227.
• Houston, Stephen; and David Stuart (1996). "Of gods, glyphs and kings: divinity and rulership among the Classic Maya". Antiquity (Cambridge, UK: Antiquity Publications) 70 (268): 289–312. ISSN 0003-598X. OCLC 206025348.
• Jenkins, Philip (2004). Dream Catchers: How Mainstream America Discovered Native Spirituality. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516115-7. OCLC 54074085.
• Makemson, Maude Worcester; ed. and trans. (1951). The Book of the Jaguar Priest: a translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with commentary. New York: H. Schuman. OCLC 537810.
• Milbrath, Susan (1999). Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. The Linda Schele series in Maya and pre-Columbian studies. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-75225-3. OCLC 40848420.
• Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317.
• Pinchbeck, Daniel (2006). 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Tarcher. ISBN 978-1-58542-483-2. OCLC 62421298.
• Schele, Linda; and David Freidel (1990). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya (pbk reprint ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-688-11204-8. OCLC 145324300.
• Sitler, Robert K. (February 2006). "The 2012 Phenomenon: New Age Appropriation of an Ancient Mayan Calendar". Novo Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions (Berkeley: University of California Press) 9 (3): 24–38. doi:10.1525/nr.2006.9.3.024. ISSN 1092-6690. OCLC 357082680.
• Van Stone, Mark (2008). "It's Not the End of the World: What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012". FAMSI.
• Voss, Alexander (2006). "Astronomy and Mathematics". in Nikolai Grube (ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain * Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant eds.). Cologne: Könemann. pp. 130–143. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.
• Wagner, Elizabeth (2006). "Maya Creation Myths and Cosmography". in Nikolai Grube (ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant eds.). Cologne: Könemann. pp. 280–293. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.
• Waters, Frank (1975). Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness. Chicago, IL: Sage Books/Swallow Press. ISBN 0-8040-0663-6. OCLC 1364766.
• York, Michael (1995). The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-8000-2. OCLC 31604796.

External links

• The Quickening
• The History Channel, 2012 program listings and video clips.
• 2012 Articles, Books and Websites Compiled by TheCityEdition.com
• Archaeoastronomy, Information on equinoxes, precession and other concepts.
• Apocalypse 2012 Skeptic point of view.