20 February 2007
Shrove Tuesday 2007
Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, and I am feeling decidedly non-celebratory; in fact, discouraged about the state of the world and the state of life. One hopes that this will pass, but first we have Lent to get through, always a cheery time of year. At least it's warm enough so the ice has started melting.
11 February 2007
The Mayan Calendar
I've been thinking about the Mayan calendar, and why everybody seems to be so concerned about it. There’s a good article about the Mayans by Frank Joseph in the latest issue of Atlantis Rising magazine, in which he points out that the Mayan calendar—for their civilization, or for the particular age of Earth in which we and they find ourselves—begins precisely on 12 August 3113 BC, and ends on 21 December 2012 AD.
That gives us exactly 5125 years, 4 months, and 9 days. The Mayans, we are told, measured everything by the true celestial Great Year that corresponds to one full turn through the precession of the equinoxes, or about 25,765 years or so. http://www.crystalinks.com/precession.html
The period given by the Mayan calendar amounts to just about a fifth of that, but not precisely so, and we are repeatedly told that the Mayans were very precise, accurate folks when it came to mathematics and astronomy. So what’s up with the discrepancy? And why a fifth, or 72 degrees of the circle, a quincunx? Usually the magic numbers tend to come in threes or fours or sixes or twelves.
And another thing: the world as we know it did not begin in precisely 3113 BC, although I’m sure some swell things happened that year. That date doesn’t match up with the 4004 BC date or whatever it is that Bishop Ussher calculated for the beginning of the world back in the 18th century; or with the dating of the Jewish calendar; or the building of the Pyramids at Gizeh (no matter whether you like Zahi Hawass’s calculations or John Anthony West’s); or much of anything. [Yes, I know some sources will say that the first Egyptian dynasty and the founding of the city of Uruk happened right around 3113 BC. Other sources seem to think that the dates aren't nearly so neat--with a wiggle room of a few centuries.]
Things were happening long, long before that date, and I’m betting things will be happening on 22 December 2012 and for years to come. We may or may not like those things, but they will come to pass, and probably will be covered by CNN and Fox News. And people will still be listening to rock’n’roll.
That gives us exactly 5125 years, 4 months, and 9 days. The Mayans, we are told, measured everything by the true celestial Great Year that corresponds to one full turn through the precession of the equinoxes, or about 25,765 years or so. http://www.crystalinks.com/precession.html
The period given by the Mayan calendar amounts to just about a fifth of that, but not precisely so, and we are repeatedly told that the Mayans were very precise, accurate folks when it came to mathematics and astronomy. So what’s up with the discrepancy? And why a fifth, or 72 degrees of the circle, a quincunx? Usually the magic numbers tend to come in threes or fours or sixes or twelves.
And another thing: the world as we know it did not begin in precisely 3113 BC, although I’m sure some swell things happened that year. That date doesn’t match up with the 4004 BC date or whatever it is that Bishop Ussher calculated for the beginning of the world back in the 18th century; or with the dating of the Jewish calendar; or the building of the Pyramids at Gizeh (no matter whether you like Zahi Hawass’s calculations or John Anthony West’s); or much of anything. [Yes, I know some sources will say that the first Egyptian dynasty and the founding of the city of Uruk happened right around 3113 BC. Other sources seem to think that the dates aren't nearly so neat--with a wiggle room of a few centuries.]
Things were happening long, long before that date, and I’m betting things will be happening on 22 December 2012 and for years to come. We may or may not like those things, but they will come to pass, and probably will be covered by CNN and Fox News. And people will still be listening to rock’n’roll.
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