Note: We’ll have a new column by Carlos Cedillo next week. In the meantime, we’re offering you this gem from the member edition archives, from Dec. 14, 2012 — just one week before the fabled Capricorn solstice of that year. This is just one example of the in-depth astrological writing you have access to with a premium membership to Planet Waves.
Dear Friend and Reader:
It’s time for yet another visit with the chart for 12/21/12 before the event itself. Well, maybe ‘event’ is too strong of a word, though this seems to be the conclusion of a 5,125-year span of history that began on Aug. 11, 3113 BCE, day one of the first baktun of the Mayan long count.
Long means pretty long. The big day concludes a span of 5,125.37 years, or exactly 1,872,000 days. On Friday, at the Capricorn solstice, the long count reaches day 13.0.0.0.0. This will conclude the passage of 13 baktuns, or phases of 144,000 days (each lasting about 394 years).
Is this the end of the Mayan calendar, or do we proceed into the 14th baktun (assuming, that is, that time continues at all)? That’s something of a mystery. Logic would say we move onto baktun 14, but the Mayans were in love with 13, which factors prominently into their spiritually oriented short-count calendar that is still used as a kind of ‘astrological’ reference today. The 5,125 year span of time indicated is one-fifth of a precessional cycle (that is, the full cycle of ‘astrological ages’). The long and short counts were among many calendars innovated by the Mayans, which also included a civil calendar. Unlike our calendars, theirs could handle long spans of time neatly and with precision.
They managed to land the ‘end date’ of the long count on the winter solstice, thousands of years in advance. That is pretty impressive, don’t you think? They were really into daykeeping, and they were good at it. And I am sure they would be impressed at all the fuss we are making today — or that anyone even knows or cares at this late date in history.