The year 2012: Myth and legend

by Nelathi DE SOYSA

A great deal has been said and written about the special significance of the year 2012. Movies including "2012", "Doomsday", "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow" present a view that the world will soon end with chaos, blood and mayhem. This bleak and life-threatening future has been given many hours of public airtime, fuelling collective fear and mass hysteria.

The central issue around the 2012 controversy is why the calendar of the Mayans, an ancient civilization that thrived in South America from 2000 BC to 250 AD mysteriously ends on December 21, 2012. The Mayans had the only fully developed written language of their time, with advanced knowledge in mathematics and astronomy. Although some scholars see the abrupt end of the Mayan almanac as indicating a stoic belief that the world would catastrophically end, others see evidence of a more holistic, cyclical view, with positive rhythmic patterns being seen in earth's ebb and flow.

However, positive drama does not sell movies! As the director of the "2012" Sony Picture, Roland Emmerich states, "....we came up with this idea that a global flood would be a great movie.... during the course of coming up with the story, we found this phenomenon about 2012, and we incorporated it into our movie...". Evidence to indicate that (contrary to ever popular belief), there is no factual basis to the box office hit. This may come as a relief to many of us!

"Then where do these collective fears about 2012 come from?", the inquiring mind might ask. The answer is quite simple. All of these stories precipitate from an actual stellar event that is destined to occur on December 21, 2012 when the planets in our solar system (including the earth and sun) will align with the central sun (also known as the center of the Milky Way). This happens only once in every 26,000 years, and is of great interest to historians, astronomists, archaeogists, anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists alike; all for very different reasons.

As to what the actual impact of this galactic alignment will be on the inhabitants of earth, nobody can accurately foretell, and there is no evidence to indicate how other civilizations coped with events before us. With the lack of evidence, some stipulate that there could be very real magnetic and energy implications for earth's inhabitants, including mass extinction and earth changes, some of which are already occurring (some would say), with increasing frequency.

Conversely, there are those scholars who bravely counter humankind's romance with gloom and doom to propose a more positive scenario. They say that what the Mayans as well as the Hopi and other cultures really believed was that 2012 would bring with it the dawn of a new Golden Age where humankind would live out its highest ideals, the wounds of war would heal and where genuine care and concern for one another would prevail. From a historical perspective, instead of fearing this date, many ancient cultures joyfully awaited it's emergence with eager anticipation.

For us all living in the current age, will December 21, 2012 be yet another none-event (like Y2K) bringing in its wake mass hysteria, religious frenzy and trauma to many? Or, on the contrary, will it actually herald an epoch when 'the lion would co-exist with the lamb' as written in the Bible and other ancient texts where a new era of love and co-communion would unfold, with barriers between peoples and cultures being torn apart to let peace reign supreme?

Here's an interesting question. What do you believe will happen? Your belief in fact, may be a critical harbinger of what is to come. If it is indeed true (like some ancients believed) that either negative or positive events could occur, depending on the mood of the collective conscience, then it may behove us all to wisely choose to believe in the self-fulfilment of a positive and magnanimous dawn of a better tomorrow.

Can we imagine co-creating and actively working towards an age foreseen by ancient cultures when we would live in simple, gentle harmony with nature? Could we leave our fears, prejudices, limitations and our communal propensity to believe in mass extinction, disasters, and annihilation behind, as a new year and indeed, new era begins? For the sake of us all, and for the cause of nature which appears to be bleeding at this time, as evidenced by the reduction of polar ice caps, depletion of ozone and the felling of life-giving rain forests, it is imperative that we dare to dream such a grand and noble dream.

Yes, we can change the course of our own human history as done by countless civilizations before us. The change begins with the individual's thoughts, beliefs and actions which form the collective whole. This is where the annals of history for 2012 and beyond are being written, even now. Let's make sure that the ancient prophesies come true, as dependent on the actions we take and choices we make on a daily basis.