Lawrence E. Joseph - Aftermath: Prepare For and Survive Apocalypse 2012

So heres the situation: we have received a tip that the year 2012 is going to be a lulu, quite possibly catastrophic to an unprecedented degree. The source is an ancient Mayan prophecy that the date 12/21/12 will signal the birth of a new age, with all the joy, blood, and pain that would naturally accompany any birth. Few of us know much about Mayan culture, and under normal circumstances we could probably just ignore the whole thing, were it not for three important facts: (1) the Maya have been right before, (2) the Sun is mounting toward a climax of unprecedented ferocity in 2012 at the same time, perhaps coincidentally, that the Earths protective magnetic shield against such solar outbursts is weakening dramatically, and (3) apocalypse is in the air.

After five years of research, first for Apocalypse 2012: An Investigation into Civilizations End (2007) and then for this book, I have come to the opinion that the ancient Mayan prophecies regarding 2012 should not be accepted as divine decree but neither should they be dismissed because they are not conventionally scientific. The year is best understood as the crescendo of a metamorphic process already well under way. It is not necessarily a firm deadline but rather a compelling shorthand for the possibility of civilization-altering cataclysm and/or revelation occurring within our lifetimes.

At bottom, the Mayan prophecy for 2012 is based on a simple astronomical observation. On 12/21/12, the day of the winter solstice, the Sun will eclipse, that is to say, interpose itself, between the dead center of the Milky Way galaxy and the Earth. Imagine a perfect cross, or crosshairs, forming between the Suns meridian (vertical equator) and the Milky Ways ecliptic (horizontal equator) on that perhaps fateful date. This celestial formation, which the Maya call The Tree of Life, planted right in the black womb of the galaxy, occurs once every 5,200 years, a period called a sun or an age. On 12/21/12, we will be entering the Fifth Age, called Job Ajaw, an age destined to restore balance and bring enlightenment to humanity, eventually.

For the Maya, 12/21/12 is the celestial equivalent of the clock striking midnight, for the beginning of a new age. The rest of itthe joy, blood, and pain part, and all the predictions of catastrophe and revelation that have gone along with itis all interpretation and lore. It could be that 12/21/12 proves as inconsequential as any other New Years Eve, an arbitrary if useful demarcation of time and therefore a good excuse for a party, but nothing more than that, no real physical change of any significance.

In order to evaluate the validity of the Mayas 2012 prophecy, it is necessary to examine the track record of other determinations made using the same astronomical system. More than a thousand years ago, during what is called the Classic Mayan culture, Mayan astronomers calculated the length of the solar year to within eight-tenths of a second of what we, with all our supercomputerized technology, now determine it to be. In a nutshell, the Maya understood the cosmos as a five-dimensional space-time continuum called najt, composed of the conventional three dimensions, a fourth dimension of time (as Einstein proposed), and a fifth dimension, frequency, or level of vibration. Using this theoretical framework, they proposed the existence of wormholes, vibrational tunnels through the space-time continuum that contemporary astrophysicists have also hypothesized and whose physical properties they have just now begun to investigate. The importance for us is that events occurring unfathomably far away can and do have a real-world impact on our planet and its inhabitants.

We inhabit a reality shaped and modeled after the cosmos, and we vibrate in tune with the movement of the stars, writes Carlos Barrios in The Book of Destiny (HarperOne, 2009). Barrios is a Mayan shaman from Antigua, Guatemala, whom I have known and worked with for several years. This, of course, is the basic principle that underlies astrology, practiced by all civilizations. Hard to argue with such lofty sentiments, but how, one wants to know, does Mayan astrology translate into this-world relevance and accuracy? Centuries in advance the Maya accurately predicted that on a date known as One Reed, Ce Acatal, or, in our Gregorian calendar terms, Easter Sunday, April 21, 1519, their civilization would be devastated by butterflies. These butterflies turned out to be the sails of Hernando Cortss eleven Spanish galleons as they rounded the horizon. Thus began the Spanish conquest of what is now Latin America. A bloody good guess.

Even more striking is the ancient Mayan prediction made almost two millennia ago that on 12/21/12 humanity would move into the Ethereal Age. With the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957, thats exactly what humanity began to do, move into the ether, the stuff of outer space, the void that, though largely a vacuum, is anything but meaningless or useless. Okay, so the prophecy made two thousand years ago was fifty-five years off. The timing and essence of the foresight derived from their astronomical observations was preternaturally apt. Today, just a few years shy of 2012, virtually all of our telecommunications, military security, law enforcement, finance, and trade is conducted by satellites orbiting in the ether of outer space. It is no stretch to say that humanity has now entered the Ethereal Age.

From time immemorial, the Sun has pummeled the Earth with giant blasts of radiation, and usually we are none the worse for wear. Upon colliding with the Earths protective magnetic field, these blasts, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), create beautiful auroras, also known as the northern lights. It may also be that the biosphere makes use of these radiation inoculations in some constructive way. CMEs peak and ebb in frequency and intensity over an eleven-year cycle, known as the solar cycle. Occasionally these peaks are extraordinarily intense, as has occurred several times over the past century and a half. In 1859, the northern lights were visible all the way down to the equator, so brilliant that one could read a book by them at midnight over much of the Northern Hemisphere. This event was far more spectacular than destructive, aside from a few fires and a rash of disruptions in telegraph service. But back then, society did not run on electricity, was not stitched together by power grids that would have shorted out all around the globe.

Were a solar event of that magnitude to happen today, global civilization would be devastated. According to a recent report, Severe Space Weather Events, issued in December 2008 by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences: Impacts would be felt on interdependent infrastructures with, for example, potable water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 1224 hours; immediate or eventual loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, transportation, fuel resupply and so on. These outages would probably take months to fix, straining emergency services, banking and trade, and even command and control of the military and law enforcement.