The Possibilities of 2012 Apocalypse

The Possibilities of 2012 Apocalypse

With the world situation as it is, we can explore the many traditions, prophecies, and predictions that point to 2012 apocalypse as a potential end or turning point in human history.

The End of the Mayan Long Count Calendar
The most famous of the 2012 apocalypse predictions is the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar. The Mayan calendar can be pictured as a series of interlocking, concentric rotating
gears. When the smallest gear completes its cycle (1 day) the next outermost gear turns. The largest “gear” in the system, the baktun, is about to complete its final tick. It is well-established by historians that the 13th baktun is to end on December 21st, 2012. There is slightly more disagreement as to whether or not this baktun is in fact the final one. Before we address that final controversy, it is important to understand when the Mayan calendar began, and how it is mapped onto our calendar.

The start date of the Mayan calendar is established through astronomical and historical sources, as well as correlating established dates of the arrival of Spanish conquistadors and the existing native Long Count dates. The start date is widely accepted to be August 11th, 3114 BC. The end date of the 13th baktun, after ticking through all the smaller “gears", is none other than December 21st, AD 2012...the awaited and predicted apocalypse.

Time ticks by on the Mayan calendar through a series of five units of measurement, or the five “gears” alluded to earlier. The basic element is the kin, or 1 day. From there we tick up the other levels:

* 1 Kin = 1 day
* 1 Uinal = 20 Kin (20 days)
* 1 Tun = 18 Uinal (360 days)
* 1 Katun = 20 Tuns (about 19 years)
* 1 Baktun = 20 Katuns (about 394 years)

To take a random date, such as February 5th,1983, the Mayandate would be 12.18.9.12.8, with baktuns on the left and kins on the far right. December 21st, 2012, would be written as 13.0.0.0.0.

The Mayans count from zero, so the first thirteen baktuns would be denoted in the digits 0 through 12.Using the five digit arrangement shown above, time ticks by on the Mayan calendar from right to left, starting with individual kins, which after ticking by 20 times would tick
one Uinal and then reset to zero. These two cycles would continue and after 18 Uinals one Tun would click by. The iterations would continue with completions of each smaller cycle resulting in a tick of the next larger cycle up.

Some say that the baktun cycle actually ends at 19, and thus the December 2012 date is just the end of one great cycle, and the beginning of another, the 13th baktun. This is contradicted by the existence of creation myths, and the Mayan belief that the previous creation cycles lasted precisely 13 baktuns. John Major Jenkins, perhaps one of the most well-known students of the Mayan tradition, has the following to say about the thirteen versus twenty baktun cycle in his
book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012:

Schele’s argument that a twenty-baktun cycle had precedence over the thirteen-baktun cycle is not well founded, confusing what one seventh-century Maya ruler said about the nature of the Long Count with what the original creators of it intended. A repeating thirteen-baktun cycle is implied wherever Creation monuments have been found-for example, at Coba and Quirigua. Rather than looking at Classic Period examples to define the nature of the Long Count, we need to look carefully at who created the Long Count system, and where and when it arose.

Jenkins refers to ancient Mayan creation monuments as existence of the 13 baktun creation cycle. There have been four previous creation cycles according to the Maya, and we are nearing the end of the fifth. The total length of time for all five is roughly 25,000 years.
Jenkins also points out some more spooky astronomical synchronicities. The earth, as it rotates on its axis, has a distinct wobble. The wobble slowly changes and completes a cycle over a period of about 25,000 years. This wobble changes the angular alignment of the earth with the galactic plane. At the end of this cycle the solstice sun will align exactly with the galactic center. The end of the Mayan calendar, and the fifth cycle, and the date of galactic alignment with the solstice sun is Decmeber 21st, 2012.

In his article “The World Age Cosmology of the Maya Calendar End-Date in AD 2012?[11] he states:
The end-date of the 13-baktun cycle of the Long Count marks the precession-caused alignment of the solstice sun with the Milky Way, and based upon evidence in other Maya traditions including the Maya ballgame, king accession rituals, and the Maya creation mythology, there is every reason to believe that this was intentional.

So to many observers of the Mayan calendar, its end date perfectly coincides with an extremely rare astronomical event. Jenkins goes on in the same article to state that other civilizations have associated the solstice-galaxy alignment with major earth events:

Egyptian cosmology describes a Zero Time, or Zep Tepi, of 10,800 B.C. during which the gods reigned supreme and the foundations of Egyptian civilization were laid. This period indicates the previous time that the solstice axis was lining up with the galaxy. The ancient Vedic material with its World Age doctrine of the Yugas also points to a time some 13,000 years ago that was a Golden Age of light. Specifically, Vedic astronomy describes the cycling of the sun around a celestial origin point called Vishnunahbi (this would be the apparent motion of the sun around the zodiac resulting from precession), and implies that we are now approaching a turnaround point.

The coincidence, or synchronicities as some would say, between the Mayan calendar, galactic precession, and events here on earth is quite startling. But the Mayan scholars aren’t the only ones portending great change in 2012...apocalypse..!
2012 Apocalypse...

2012 Nostradamus Predictions

Did Nostradamus Predict Doom in 2012 Apocalypse ?

Several respected Nostradamus scholars believe that the famous seer did in fact predict World War III around this time.

One of the more active proponents of a Nostradamus-predicted World War III in 2012 is Dr. Michael Rathford, author of the book The Nostradamus Code: World War III 2008-2012.

In his book, Dr. Rathford claims the between the years 2008 and 2012, World War III will erupt and transform the world forever. Nuclear bombs will be dropped, the Catholic Church will be ravaged and destroyed and the antichrist will arise.

Specifically, in Dr. Rathford’s analysis[12], war erupts in the middle east, ostensibly after Iran, or a similar nation, decides to drop a nuclear bomb on Israel. Israel responds in kind. Europe then interferes to protect precious oil supplies in this era when resources and food are so critical. This causes Iran, or the middle-eastern nation, to attack Europe with nuclear weapons, most of which land in Italy. The Catholic church is ravaged, and the Pope is forced to flee into hiding. The stage is set for the rise of the antichrist.

Rathford continues his depiction of the height of the war with volcanoes, earthquakes, floods and droughts, especially affecting the United States, which will bankrupt itself during this time.

The antichrist rises to power in the middle east, taking over Iran.

Rathford completes his cataclysmic war with a helping of the following, in chronological order:

* A communication breakdown between two superpowers leads to cataclysmic consequences.
* A third world leader causes significant problems.
* A war simulation in England backfires and results in real-world action.
* The US electorate system fails to produce a president, and civil war is narrowly averted through a new election.
* Rathford eventually wraps up his analysis of Nostradamus by stating that the current world will fall away, and a new enlightened world will take its place.

It’s important to understand that this is just one interpretation of the predictions of Nostradamus. Other students of the famed seer, such as John Hogue, don’t predict such a detailed turn of events. Hogue, however, has been on record saying that a third world war is predicted for the next decade.[13]

In October of 2007 The History Channel aired a program entitled “The Lost Book of Nostradamus."[14] In this two hour documentary the idea is put forth that a lost book has been discovered, and the illustrations depicted therein warn of great cataclysm, even the end of the world, for the winter solstice in 2012.

The show follows both the history and content of an obscure collection of illustrations, long hidden in the National Library of Rome. The book was inscribed with Michel de Notredame, or Nostradamus.

Within the book were several watercolor illustrations depicting strange events, and often symbolic objects.

The show claims the book was tucked away within the Vatican until such time as it should be discovered, and its secrets revealed.

The show interprets one picture toward the end of the book as showing the alignment between the solstice sun and the galactic center, scheduled for December 21st, 2012.

Ultimately, the show cannot, with certainty, attribute the book to Nostradamus, and ultimately, their interpretations of the images are just speculation.

Did Nostradamus predict the end in 2012? It is hard to say he did. But with all things Nostradamus, until the event happens, the prescience of his knowledge won’t be revealed.
Timewave Zero

Timewave Zero is a theory that suggests time, or rather the novelty of existence within time, follows a series of self-similar patterns, or a fractal. This timewave, so to speak, has exhibited a fractal series of peaks and valleys, and through calculation, reaches a singularity in 2012.

Terrence McKenna is credited with forming the Timewave Zero theory based on his correlations between the King Wen sequence of I Ching hexagrams and events in world history.

The theory is somewhat difficult to grasp, but the key points are that the I Ching, when graphed, displays an uncanny similarity to the novelty of events throughout human history. Furthermore, this pattern shows up again and again when applied to smaller sections of time, such as the history of a civilization, or even the events of your day.

McKenna himself did not predict doomsday in 2012, but rather thought that some monumental event would forever transform humanity.
Christian Prophecy

The world of Christian Prophecy has grown very crowded over the last two thousand years ago. The earliest Christians looked to the Apocalypse of the Apostle John, written in his exile on the Island of Patmos after divine revelation. This mysterious book is the most comprehensive biblical treatment on matters of the end, but additional prophecies appear in several books of the old testament, and also in the eschatological discourse of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

No prominent Christian groups predict with any sort of certainty the return of Christ in 2012. But nearly all traditions look around the world today, behold the abominations therein, and wonder if we are nearing the end.

In the world of Catholic eschatology, which has been studying the Scripture for two thousand years, there exists some variation in beliefs or predictions regarding the end times. While the basic premise is the same, when one tries to pluck out very precise interpretations variations do occur. There is, however, some commonly believed events that will precipitate the end of history(from EWTN, full note at[15]):

The Catechism provides us with a general order of events at the End [CCC 673-677]. Chronologically they are,

1. the full number of the Gentiles come into the Church

2. the “full inclusion of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of the full number of the Gentiles” (#2 will follow quickly on, in the wake of, #1)

3. a final trial of the Church “in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” The supreme deception is that of the Antichrist.

4. Christ’s victory over this final unleashing of evil through a cosmic upheaval of this passing world and the Last Judgment.

As Cardinal Ratzinger recently pointed out (in the context of the message of Fátima), we are not at the end of the world. In fact, the Second Coming (understood as the physical return of Christ) cannot occur until the full number of the Gentiles are converted, followed by “all Israel.”

Approved Catholic mystics (Venerables, Blessed and Saints, approved apparitions) throw considerable light on this order, by prophesying a minor apostasy and tribulation toward the end of the world, after which will occur the reunion of Christians. Only later will the entire world fall away from Christ (the great apostasy) and the personal Antichrist arise and the Tribulation of the End occur.

The books Prophecy for Today by Edward Connor, and Vincent Miceli’s The Antichrist are two good sources for end times discernment.

In more recent time the notion of a Rapture, a great tribulation, and a thousand year reign of Christ on earth has become popular. This theory, largely promoted by John Nelson Darby in the 19th century, is relatively new given the two thousand year history of the Church.

This idea has been expanded by many evangelicals, with some discerning very specific predictions based on the Scriptures in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. For example, Joel Rosenberg, author of The Ezekiel Option, believes the war of Gog and Magog, as spoke of in Ezekiel, will come to fruition as Russia and Iran attacking Israel.

The most comprehensive (and popular) of these scenarios was illustrated in the wildly popular Left Behind series, and similar series such as The Christ Clone Trilogy. Both of these series start off with the Rapture of Christians into heaven and a seven year period of tribulation here on earth. The Antichrist rises to power, deceives man, and triggers the return of Christ who reigns for a thousand years.

Despite the differences between older Christian eschatology and more recent interpretation, there are several consistencies within all Christian traditions, namely a great deception caused by the Antichrist that leads many souls astray, a trial of ultimate evil, and the return of Christ.

An excellent treatment of the end times is achieved in the novel Father Elijah by Michael D. O’Brien. The novel follows a Catholic priest who is a convert from Judaism, and his role in the final days. It is a beautiful work of literature.
Peak Oil

Perhaps the most staggering of all scenarios, and by far the one most realized in today’s daily headlines, is the notion of peak oil.

Peak oil is the idea that worldwide oil reserves are limited, our use of them has skyrocketed over the last century, we’re running out, and as we do, civilization is going to collapse. While the complete and total collapse of industrial civilization may seem preposterous, the peak oil theorists have done their homework. This is one idea that is actually unfolding in today’s headlines and has already impacted your life. Up for debate among peak oil theorists is when exactly the peak occurred or will occur, how fast society can replace its source of energy (if it even has time), and what the ramifications on our lives will be.

The sources of oil are drying up. Worldwide oil production, depending on the source of data, has either just peaked, or is about to peak. According to Kenneth S. Deffeyes, oil production stopped growing in 2005[16]. But oil consumption hasn’t. Basic economics states that when demand for a product rises, yet supplies don’t, the price of the product will go up. The price of oil has skyrocketed to heights never before seen. Even adjusted for inflation, the price of oil is higher than it has ever been. For most of the 20th century oil maintained a 2008 inflation-adjusted price between $20 and $35 per barrel. In the late 1970s oil briefly ran over $100 per barrel in 2008 dollars. But over the last few years prices have soared, with oil hitting $145 in July 2008[17].

Oil consumption is greater now than ever before. World population is greater now than ever before. These two items combine to form quite a problem. Consider what has happened to oil prices just over the last couple of years as supplies have just peaked. What will happen to the price of oil when supplies are half of what they are today, yet consumption and demand are even greater? If just a small setback in supply can have shocks on the price, what about dramatic setbacks in supply? Just passing the peak in oil will have enormous ramifications in all aspects of life.
Everything is Tied to Oil

You might not care about the price of oil. Maybe you don’t even drive a car, or you work at home, or you live in the city and walk everywhere you need to go. In our modern society, everything is tied to oil. Matt Savinar, who runs the site Life After the Oil Crash, points out quite well how everything we do in this modern world is tied to petroleum. The vast majority of our food supplies are subject to pesticides and fertilizers that come from oil. They are harvested using machines that not only run on oil, but nearly all of their parts are manufactured (and the raw materials mined!) with the aid of oil. Food is packaged and shipped to your supermarket, often across thousands of miles, using oil-powered transport. Savinar successfully makes the case that modern medicine, water distribution, and national defense are all powered by oil. Plastics? Yes. Computers? Yes. Ironically, even alternative fuel implements such as solar panels and windmills rely heavily on a traditional petroleum-based manufacturing process.[18]
The Collapse of Civilization: Blackouts in 2012

So if the engine that powers the world is breaking down, what happens? In short, a lot of bad things could happen. In a paper entitled “The Peak of World Oil Production and the Road to the Olduvai Gorge,” Richard Duncan describes the lifetime of industrial civilization as being limited to 100 years. For us, the 100 years began roughly in 1930, and will come to a dark closure around 2030. The Olduvai theory predicts widespread, permanent blackouts to begin in 2012.[19]

To envision what this new oil-parched world might look like, Savinar quotes journalist Paul Salopek[20]:

…the consequences would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And carless suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big box stores, not to buy Chinese made clothing transported cheaply across the globe, but to scavenge glass and copper wire from abandoned buildings.

2012 Metaphysical Predictions

Metaphysical predictions

2012 is sometimes claimed to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse). Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order.[who?]

Accordingly, several eclectic authors claim that a major, world-changing event will take place in 2012:
The 1997 book The Bible Code claims that, according to certain algorithms of the Bible code, an asteroid or comet will collide with the Earth.
The 2006 book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck discusses theories of a possible global awakening to psychic connection by the year 2012, creating a noosphere.

Other prophecies and apocalyptic writings and hypotheses for this year include:
Terence McKenna's numerological novelty theory suggests a point of singularity in which humankind will go through a great shift in consciousness.

2012 A New GeoPolitical Order

A New Geopolitical Order

If you’ve not been living in a cave since the millennium you may have noticed that the world economic picture is changing. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as everyone has the right to pursue, and hopefully obtain, prosperity.

Countries such as India and China are rising in prominence. The Gulf states, long rich on oil, are increasingly becoming a world center of business. Just look at Dubai, along with China, they’ve invested billions into America’s financial institutions. This was made easier and cheaper by America’s subprime mortgage collapse.

At the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, billionaire George Soros claimed the United States is at the end of a cycle and its currency will be dumped around the world. Soros said we’re at “the end of a 60-year period of continuing credit expansion based on the dollar as the reserve currency.”

The result? The world is ready for a new economic order, and according to Nouriel Roubini, America looks like an emerging market, not an economic leader. Further sentiment was expressed by the head of Kuwait’s national bank that America needs to get used to being bought up by foreign sovereign wealth funds, in other words, foreign governments.[9]

To further complicate the world stage, as if in anticipation or in a test of US dominance, Russia and China have both announced preemptive nuclear strike policies. For Russia, this may very well entail creating mobile units with nuclear strike capabilities distributed throughout the country.

Perhaps in a time of peace this would just seem like bluster, but both Russia and China are aligned in direct opposition to the west in key hair-trigger geopolitical situations.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going since time immemorial. On one side you have the secular nation of Israel, carved out of the British Mandate after World War II, and home to many diverse groups throughout history, and home to some of the holiest sites in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. On the other side you have the Palestinians, many of which are unwilling to accept the existence of the state of Israel. It is a widely held, but false belief, that prior to Israel a sovereign nation of Palestine existed, and therefore modern Palestinians have a right to it, while Israel is squatting, but no such nation has ever existed. The name Palestine was given to a broad swath of territory within the British Mandate.

The British Mandate itself was carved from the Ottoman Empire following World War I. Under the Ottoman Empire the region was home to diverse groups, living in largely tribal communities. Jews and Arabs have lived in the area for ages.

So what we have is an area home to diverse groups, historically living in tribes, and subject to various world powers, now reacting, and fighting, over areas of individual sovereignty.

The situation is not going to improve anytime soon. Unfortunately, forces aligned against the existence of the nation of Israel include Syria and Iran. Pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon aren’t helping things either. Iran is backed by the Russians, and to some degree, the Chinese. Israel is backed by the United States, and to some extent, the nations of Europe.

The entire region is a powder keg. Iran has repeatedly stated that Israel should be wiped off the map, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad routinely declares that the “Zionist regime” will come to an end.

Iran has promised a massive retaliation if Israel or the United States attempts to bomb away its nuclear capability. Russia has stated that it would use nuclear weapons to defend itself and its allies.

Taiwan has proved itself to be a hair-trigger as well. China has repeatedly warned the United States about getting involved if a conflict breaks out over Taiwan. In fact, in 2005 a top Chinese general warned that if US weapons targeted Chinese territory or military assets, they would have no choice but to respond with nuclear weapons.[10]

2012 Year of The Dragon

2012: The Year of the Dragon

Far off, unknown, beyond the range of thought,
scarce reached by gods, the years' rough haggard mother,
stands a primeval Cave in whose vast breast,
is Time's cradle and womb. A Serpent encloses,
the Cave, consuming all things with slow power,
and green scales always glinting. Its mouth devours,
the backbent tail as with mute motion it traces,
its beginning. At the entrance Nature sits,
the threshold-guardian, aged and yet lovely,
and round her gather and flit on every side Spirits.
A Venerable Man writes down immutable laws.
He fixes the number of stars in every constellation,
makes some of them move and others hang at rest.
So all things live or die by predetermined laws...
When the Sun rested on the cave's wide threshold,
Nature ran in her might to meet him; the Old Man bent
grey hairs to the proud rays. [1]

Claudian (c. 370-408), Roman poet

Of all the world's monsters, the dragon appears to be the most universal. Dragons appear in the early literature of the English, German, Irish, Danish, Norse, Romans, Greeks, Babylonians, and Egyptians - and in oral tales from every inhabited corner of the globe.

The word "dragon" is derived from the Latin dracon, which came from the Greek word for serpent, spakov. Spakov can be traced to the Greek aorist verb, spakelv meaning "sharp-sighted one" (a reference to the perceived good vision of snakes), and is related to many other ancient words to do with sight, such as darc (Sanskrit for see), derc (Old Irish for eye), torht (Old Saxon) and zoraht (Old High German) which both mean clear, or bright.

The distinctions between words that describe dragons and snakes are often blurred, and are to some degree interchangeable. The old German word for dragon, "lindwurm", literally means "snake-worm" The ancient Anglo-Saxon word "wyrm" has been translated as meaning any of "dragon," "serpent," or "worm". An English folktale which dates back to the early fifteenth century tells of Sir John Lambton battling "the Worm." The original story makes no mention of this "worm" having legs. Early pictorial representations of dragons were almost always shown as large snakes, but from the sixteenth century onward images associated with the Lambton story are of four-legged dragons. We must consider ancient dragons to be more like giant serpents, and less like the more modern fantasy images that we know so well from role-playing games and books like The Hobbit.
The Bible interchanges the words dragon and serpent liberally.

"When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child."

"Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth."

(Revelation 12:7)

[ A good Biblical description of a dragon can be found at Job 41 ]
The themes of chaos and disaster are often linked to dragon lore, as well as the processes of fertility and re-birth, and the revolutions of the cosmos.