2012- what's it all about, anyway?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:54:39 GMT

Posted by: sunfell

Note to readers: Yes, I do use Wikipedia for a lot of starting references. Often, it has some great links to other sites and information drill-downs. Wikipedia isn't the be-all or end-all for research- it is simply a starting tool, as are Google searches. I am aware that some people see it as biased (and even inferior)- but that can hold true for any site- it's all opinion until someone digs deeper and finds more information. I hope to assemble a collection of reliable and authorative websites and people for future reference. Right now, we're at the 'spray paint around the area we want to dig up' phase.

OK, that's done.

Where do we start? What's the root and the reason for all this 2012 interest?

The root of the whole 2012 mythos comes from the Mesoamerican Maya culture. They had some remarkably accurate calendars.

This Wikipedia article does a decent job of describing the culture of Mesoamerica (middle America), where the original basis of the 2012 predictions came from. It mentions the Mayan calendar, but not 2012.

And there is a another Wikipedia entry about the Maya calendar and their systems of tracking time. In it, I found an excellent quote that is the basis of this community:

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about December 21, 2012, a forecast that mainstream Mayanist scholars consider a misinterpretation, yet is commonly referenced in pop-culture media as the 2012 problem.

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble[12], executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. in Crystal River, Florida. "To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting", she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."[emphasis mine]

Sadly, quite a few people have 'cashed in' if the endcap I saw in Barnes & Noble the other day is to be believed. There is going to be a lot of fear, uncertainty, doubt (FUD) and misinformation about this whole thing, and it will escalate a lot as the year and date approaches. We are not out to defame anyone, but we do want to provide a counterbalance to all the fabricated stuff that will be heavily circulated.

A search on Amazon revealed 59,973 results mentioning 2012 total (with quite a few non-related titles), 199 results for "2012 prophecy", and 62 results for "Apocalypse 2012".

Google lists 678,000 results for "2012+apocalypse" alone.
2012+end of the world yields 12,700,000 results.
2012+predictions yields 1,440,000 results!

We have a lot of stuff to sort through! I already have a few books on the subject, and hope to read more, but I encourage folks here to do the same thing- it helps to separate fact from fantasy.

There is a lot of fantasy out there, folks. Go look up "Harmonic Convergence" if you don't believe me.

Debunking the myths and misinformation about 2012 is only part of the purpose of this community. There are a lot of wonderful things to uncover and discover that totally eclipse the whole 'doomsday' aspect of the date. Like the ancient mysteries and civilizations who created the calendars, and the whole journey to enlightenment and 'ascension'. Yes, there is a lot of nonsense out there about those, but I hope that people will wake up on the morning of December 22 2012 with a deeper respect for humanity, mystery, metaphysics and this planet, and in possession of a world-class bullshit filter. If I can do that, I will feel like I've succeeded.

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2012: Investigating the Possibilities

2012- what's it all about, anyway?