Love is the Only Certainty

Nothing is certain except death and taxes, so it's been said. And we are currently living in uncertain times. Alongside banks collapsing, giant economies under pressure, freedoms restricted, droughts - society seems so stressed out.

Is it just me, or is everyone walking around with ferocious tempers influenced in demonic ways - bickering with each other? At my local coffee shop as I lined up to get my regular cup of coffee this morning, I witnessed an argument at the front of the queue quickly turn into a brutal fight. And over what? Who gets his cup of latte five minutes quicker than the next guy?

My friend commented that to her it feels like we're on a roller-coaster hurtling towards a final dip, or piloting a plane gone out of control. It got me to thinking about all the scaremongering that is currently going on as people countdown to the end of 2012. Rather than a long count to some much needed Christmas goodwill and cheer, this year we're faced with the date some say the Mayans predicted the world would end.

Even people who do not know a lot about Mayan astrology have heard the theory that the year 2012 will bring the apocalypse. It is supposed to end on December the 21st at 11:11 am. This is a date that has always been significant to theorists, physicists, astrologers, historians and numerologists as the year signifies the end of the 13th cycle that makes up what is known as the Mayan Long Count Calendar.

In the Maya Long Count, the previous world ended after 13 b'ak'tuns, or roughly 5,125 years. The number 13 plays an important role in Mesoamerican calendrics; the tzolk'in, or sacred calendar, was divided into 13 months of 20 days each. The Mayan cycle consisted of 13 k'atuns (a unit of time). The reason for the number's importance is uncertain, though correlations to the phases of the moon and to the human gestation period have been suggested - most notably by Prudence M. Rice in the 2007 book Maya Calendar Origins: Monuments, Mythistory, and the Materialization of Time.

Read more about the number 13.

Experts on this subject tell us the people that belonged to this ancient civilisation of Central America were adept pampers and trackers of the heavens. The massive temples that were built by this early civilisation were not just tombs or places to worship the gods. They were also built to be giant observatories of the heavens. These temples were architecturally designed so that the movements of the planets, the Sun, the Moon and the stars could be tracked.

The majestic structures that the ancient Mayans built were not just places of worship. They were centres of astronomic studies that also did dual duty as temples of worship. Some temples even had cut-outs in their stones in the shapes of snakes. During sunrise, these cut out shapes would cast lengthening shadows in the shape of snakes down the temple steps. From a distance it would seem that a real snake was slithering down the steps. When the snake shadow lengthened so that it reached the bottom of the steps it marked a day. One whole day in the Mayan calendar was called a kin.

But there will be no good tidings for you and your kin come Christmastime this year, if the interpretation of the experts on the Mayan predictions comes to pass.

Are we facing a long count to destruction?

The Long Count system of measuring time was first put into practice by the Mayans around 32 BC. The reason that it was called The Long Count is because some experts believe the Mayans, who were quite dark spiritually, held the view that the end of the world was inevitable. In fact for them, it was something to look forward to, because they believed life would get easier after that. For them, it was the point they would truly come to life, similar to the view held by Christianity and other religions on the afterlife.

In essence the Mayan Long Count is the countdown to the eventual and unavoidable apocalypse that will bring about the end of the world. The high priests and shamans in the Mayan culture figured out that the Long Count is supposed to equal 5,125 years.

This period is also known as the Mayan Great Cycle. This passage of time ends exactly on the winter solstice, which falls on December the 21st. Amazingly the Mayan mathematicians were able to pinpoint the exact day and time for the world's end. The date also marks the day the Maya god, Bolon Yokte, the god of creation and war, was expected to return - and was thus seen by the Maya as "a day of creation".

To look at the possibilities of this in more detail: Some say there is actual astrological and astronomical data to back up the theory of the Mayan Long Count, and there are things happening in the sky that day that could potentially bring the end of the world as we know it.

How will the world meet it's end?

The ancient Mayan calendar (combined with a dash of New Age mysticism) has predicted that on December 12, 2012 the world will end. The occasion will be marked by the return of Quetzalcoatl, a Mesoamerican feathered serpent god, which is a nice consolation prize. But how will the world meet its doom?

• Aliens attack: Scientists are discovering more and more evidence of planets capable of hosting life, and evidence of life itself. While the current examples are closer to single-celled amoebas than blaster-wielding lizards, there is no telling when our celestial neighbours will pay us a visit. The light-hearted among us say whether they'll bring muffins or lasers is as yet uncertain.
• Asteroid: The last time the Earth was hit by an asteroid it destroyed the dinosaurs. Could we meet a similar fate in 2012, or the near future? NASA's Near Earth Object Program shows no evidence of any large objects heading our way, yet. And they do sometimes miss objects until the last minute. But Russian scientists have determined that a giant asteroid called Apophis will likely collide with the earth on April 13, 2036 (or failing that others could hit between the years 2880 to 3797).
• Solar flares: While NASA says that there is no real danger from 2012's solar flare-ups, others believe that a solar storm could completely disable the world's satellites and electronics. As astrophysics Alexei Dmitriev so succinctly explained when asked what the result of the storm could be, "Global catastrophe!"
• Plague: Bird flu and swine flu gave us a fright in years past, but the real plague could be released upon the world any minute. Scientists have reconstructed the DNA microbe of the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, in the hope of figuring out what made it so very powerful. The New York Times reports that a lab recently grew a H5N1 flu virus, "one of the most dangerous flu viruses ever known, and made it even more dangerous - by tweaking it genetically to make it more contagious."
• Humans playing God: Fear has surrounded the Large Hadron Collider, an enormous machine that examines minuscule atoms, ever since it was switched on. New York Times science writer Dennis Overbye theorises that discovery of the Higgs boson (aka the God particle) might ripple back in time and "stop the Collider before it could make [a Higgs boson], like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather." One simple way for it to avoid being created would be to prevent the Earth from being created.
• Life is but a dream: Taking a hint from the end of many a cheesy television episode, some entertain the possibility that our world and everyone on it are simply part of another being's dream. When that great alarm clock in the sky rings, it's all over for us.

Astrologically the Mayan date is important as it marks when the Sun is going to cross what is astronomically known as the Milky Way Equator. Incredibly mathematical, the Mayans could predict centuries into the future when predicting the trajectory of the Sun. Further, there is a lot of imagery representing the Milky Way in works of art done by the Mayans. The sea of stars of the Milky Way is essential to the Mayan myth of the Sacred Tree.

According to myth, a constellation known as the Seven Sisters (the common name for the Pleiades, a star cluster named for seven sisters who are companions of Artemis in Greek mythology) is at its highest point in the sky during a great calamity, and associated in legend with the biblical flood and the sinking of Atlantis. This constellation, which looks like a small cluster of grapes, is long associated with some ancient end-of-the-world beliefs. Both the Aztecs and Mayans believed it would be overhead at midnight on the night the world comes to an end.

However it's best to note that the Seven Sisters (which has traditionally been a signal for the time of year to honour the dead, too, such as All Saints Day on the 1st of November) was directly overhead on the 31st of October in 2001. This happened in conjunction with a full moon at midnight no less (Halloween's first full moon since 1955), but we are still here to tell the tale. Trick-or-treaters will now have to wait until 2020 for the next Halloween full moon.

Read more about moons and superstition.

But there is alway some danger if you look for it. In 2015 the alignment of the moon may cause havoc again - by being slightly closer to the Earth than normal. Although astronomers believe it won't produce "supertides", they say it will cause higher tides than usual. However the tides are predicted to be even higher during the spring equinox, March 21, of that year when the Earth, Moon and Sun all line up exactly, in what is known as "the syzygy effect", which increases the gravitational pull. It will also coincide with an almost complete eclipse of the Sun.

In many of the Mayan drawings, the Sun (also called Kin in ancient Mayan) is symbolised as a canoe that carries Mayan deities across the sky. In many drawings on temple walls there is a progressive series of images that shows the end of the world as symbolised by the canoe sinking into the Milky Way. Astrologically the crossing of the Sun over the Milky Way Equator is scheduled to happen at exactly 11:11 am GMT on December the 21st in the year 2012, seemingly corresponding with Mayan myth.

Others say this type of astrological event is unheard of as the Sun will technically be in what is known as the "dark rift" of the Milky Way, in conjunction with the exact centre of the universe.

Is the world getting worse - or better?

“You can't kill a legend with science.”
— Adrian Shine

Every major religion, minor religions you've never heard of, non-religious spiritualists, and even atheists and agnostics agree in 2012 something will happen. There are millions of people around the world sensing this big event is coming. But is it?

Just as many people will get on unperturbed with their Christmas shopping, of course, because doomsday fears have cropped up repeatedly throughout history. There will always be people throughout the ages who make such bold predictions of doom. In fact, predicting the end of the world may be one of its inhabitants' oldest pastimes. And in ever new ways. Alongside nuclear war, ecological catastrophe and super-volcano eruptions as "risks that threaten human civilisation", scientists say we should now add artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to our list of doom.

And as certainly as the end of the world has been predicted many times in history, it's more likely that the Long Count will signify either nothing at all, or symbolise a time of transformation. This seems to be denoted in the number 11:11 - which is apocalyptic in other religions and cultures - used in this system. Rather than a destructive transformation, some have interpreted it as a new beginning of consciousness marking the end of an era - suggesting that spiritual phenomenons also oddly linked to the number eleven and its combinations (such as twin flames) will play an important part of the shift that is going to occur around that date.

Read more about love and the number 11.

People in opposing camps say that, as much as some people love to believe the unbelievable, the world will not end on December 21, 2012, nor will we spontaneously reach a spiritual awakening. There is no connection to the Biblical Book of Revelations and its doomsday scenario. Some think it could just be that the Mayan culture's timekeeping system didn't extend beyond the impending planetary alignment because it was over a millennium in the future.

Moreover, the Mayans had more than one calendar. According to some experts, the calendar in question used by the ancient Maya civilisation is not a prediction to the end of the world in December 2012 as some believe, citing evidence to the contrary. A new reading of a Maya tablet mentioning the 2012 date suggests that it refers to the end of an era in the calendar, and not an apocalypse. Yet, even with the National Geographic publishing an article about this discovery of a Maya mural which contradicts the 2012 "Doomsday" myth, many still believe that the world will end in December.

It serves to remind me that people are always interested in legends - and as the famous movie quote from a character, in one of John Ford's westerns, says: When facts become legend, we print the legend. This is what films do after all, take facts and turn them into myths - but the silver screen knows it's this that draws people to a story. Similarly, the situation with the Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury, which was attacked in 2010 and is seen as mystical by Christians and pagans who flock to it alike.

According to legend, the thorn tree sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus's follower and great-uncle, when he stuck it in the Somerset soil after voyaging to England in the 1st Century AD. Said to have brought with him the chalice used at the last supper with Jesus as well, thus sparking the legend of the holy grail, the significance of the thorn tree that sets it apart from other trees is it flowers twice a year, once at Christmas and once at Easter.

The thorn tree reputedly survived until the 1650s, when it was cut down by a Puritan soldier who saw it as a lingering symbol of pagan superstition. It's believed cuttings had been taken, but the one that was cut down in Glastonbury was definitely not planted from cuttings by Joseph of Arimathea. It was planted by a council official in the summer of 1951, to commemorate the Festival of Britain. In fact, that one died due to drought, and was secretly replaced a few months later.

But we enjoy perpetuating a myth, because legends make for far better reading. Even myths sired by tiny mistakes made long ago we still think are reputed facts. Although the belief that the world was flat was eliminated as far back as ancient Greece (and not the Middle Ages) there is a still a Flat Earth society today who believe we live on a platform rather than a globe.

Comparable is the Moon landing conspiracy theories which purport that the landing on the Moon in 1969 was faked with Hollywood-style special effects. That NASA announced in August 2006 they had lost all of the original video tapes of the Moon landing won't help assuage the disbelievers any, but once a conspiracy theory takes hold, even evidence to the contrary will not change the mind of those that want to believe in it.

End of the world predictions

To back up the Mayan Doomsday theory, some say there are signs in modern society which predict the end of the world. Here are a few of the most popular:

• Religion versus science in a public war. While America continues the intractable conflict between creationism and evolution, in Europe we are peering into the formation of life itself - scientists operating the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) are searching for the Higgs Particle, which is theorised to explain why matter has formed. Scientists describe it as the biggest scientific finding into the nature of existence this century, because the location of the Higgs particle proves that matter is formed from a particle, not from the touch of a heavenly finger. Religious groups could seize this opportunity to further push fanaticism across the world in response to "attacks" on "family values" and religion.
• War in the Middle East will bring a third world war. Some believe that Israel seems intent on pulling America into a war with Iran, publicly calling for America to green-light an attack to curtail the Iranian regime's alleged nuclear weapon development project. Critics say Middle Eastern hostilities wouldn't hurt the politicians back in the West so they might not shy away from it; wars get presidents and prime ministers elected (as long as we're winning.)
• Americans lose their rights and the rest of world follows. Theorists believe that Americans will lose their right to due process. In December of 2011, led by former POW, John McCain, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It grants powers of indefinite detention to the federal government at the sacrifice of American freedom, despite there being no act of terror on American soil since 9/11. Coupled with the Patriot Act and unchecked police violence against peaceful protesters, it's clear that as America's grip on global dominance slips, Big Brother intends to bully American citizens into submission its critics say.

  They point out that under the new NDAA indefinite detainment laws passed by Congress, Occupy Wall Street activists could be labelled as enemy combatants (domestic terrorists) in 2012 and held without trial or consul. Members may be shuttled away indefinitely, sending shock waves of actual terror through the movement.

• The end of the European Union cements financial collapse. The Greeks are blamed for a lot of the modern world's ills - such as corrupting Christianity by misquoting the original Aramaic scriptures and the creation of xenophobia (hatred between the races) to name a few. But now it looks like they could be blamed for the end of the European Union, and by default, the end of the world as we know it.

  Critics warn that the EU, so proud of their collective power, is diminishing right before our eyes. As nation after nation teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, the entire Euro experiment is threatened. First Greece, then Ireland - now Italy, Spain and Portugal all under debt pressure. On top of that the United Kingdom, with its huge political and financial power, has abandoned the concessions led by Germany and France designed to retain order and stability within the EU. Some theorists claim Germany has engineered the collapse in order to regain its continental supremacy, but that seems silly, especially considering Germany has lost a fortune investing in dysfunctional countries like Spain and Greece.

  Another theory is that other possible beneficiaries of the collapse of the EU are Goldman Sachs employees. The company's ex-execs are presidents of Greece and Italy, and Sachs executives ran major posts in the Greek banking system before the collapse and the current head of the EU's central bank is a former Sachs executive, as well. When all's said and done, Goldman Sachs could be virtually the only entity left standing when the EU collapses, ready and willing to pick up the very expensive pieces of the shattered economy. On his website, London Loves Business, market analyst Clem Chambers recently predicted that both the US and UK markets will crash in 2012. Will this be the final crash that breaks the world's back and throws us back into the dark ages?

• The internet will be officially filtered. Adherents to this theory say that we know Big Brother watches our every online click. It should be no surprise, then that the governments across the world are trying to push the censorship envelop even further with laws that give powers of immediate shut-down of sites - especially those that offer pirated content. This has been heavily influenced by the movie and music industries that have been hard hit by the past ease at which content can be pirated on the internet, but people worry that any such laws might be drafted so vaguely as to provide loopholes for future despotic control.
• Food shortages will cause global hunger. Some theorists envisage a world where food shortages mean we won't have enough to feed the global population and billions will starve, while seeds become a commodity more precious than gold as food prices rise. Agribusiness companies wouldn't care, however, because they would still be rich.

Perhaps what is more interesting, is how people are fascinated by a countdown to the destruction of the world as we know it. If you are reading this after the 21st of December 2012, then the only certainty with such predictions is that many more predictions about the end of the world will follow. As we have seen, the human race is very fond of predicating its own end.

From politics to finances, we live in a world where the people in power spin information to generate fear, and it isn't just third world countries where such a climate exists. But to simply focus on that (and what is says about the current mental state of our times) is to ignore all the key breakthroughs that are driving innovation and powering abundance in the world today.

Even if new technology does eventually get a mind of its own and kill us, at the moment it fills the future with promise. New super materials for our comfort continually being discovered, cars that fly, augmented reality eye-wear, print-your-own robots and tiny robots that can join together to form functional tools to come in a decade or so, new financial institutions to help society being planned, endangered species brought back from the brink of extinction - we're hardly going back to the fatalities of medieval times.

And though it's true that globally things seem grim at the moment, losing hope is not the way to turn things around. Hope is important, and love is its driving force. It's when we are absent of both we will truly be lost.

As with death, and taxes, there is something more certain, the certainty of which can overcome any fear of an uncertain future - and that is love. To me, love is the only certainty that matters, because it makes us matter.

Yours in love,