Customer Reviews

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Earth spins on an axis. Like everything else that spins, it wobbles. That wobble is technically called precession, and it explains why Earthlings have seen the sun rise against different constellations over the centuries. In his latest book, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date, John Major Jenkins explains how the Maya mapped the movements of the Earth, including precession, and incorporated their measurements into their calendars.

Jenkins, who has researched Mesoamerican cosmology and calendrics since 1986, has written five other books and numerous articles about the Maya. In Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, he ties together Mayan mythology and astronomy in a scholarly discussion of the source and meaning of "end date" indicated by the Long Count calendar.

He supports his theories with nearly 200 line drawings, and provides extensive appendices, end notes, and a comprehensive bibliography.

Each "wobble" (or precessional cycle) lasts 25,800 years. Researchers believe that the current precessional cycle will end in the year 2012. This date is known as the "End-Date" in Maya calendrics. At that time, the Earth will begin a new cycle in the opposite direction.

Jenkins says his focus is "on how the precession of the equinoxes was mapped and calibrated among the ancient civilizations." He adds that his book "is devoted to exploring the Maya's understanding of the 2012 end-date and the philosophy and cosmology that go with it. This is a book about cosmogenesis, the creation of the world. The Maya believed that the world will be reborn, in a sense 're-created,' in the year we call 2012."

What does all that mean? Will humans survive cosmogenesis? Jenkins thinks we will. He says the end-date marks the beginning of a new and better world. He believes that "what looms before us is a great opportunity for spiritual growth, both individual and planetary." Others, of course, disagree, and foresee a time of cataclysmic destruction.

Regardless of whether they see the predicted end-date as a non-event, as destructive, or as an opportunity for growth, readers will find Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 a fascinating book. Astronomers and students of cosmology and mythology will especially appreciate Jenkin's research and thorough documentation.

This book seems to hold lots of promise when skimmed, but when I actually sat down to read it, I got bogged down in it very quickly. The first chapter seems like an extended foreword. The author makes some references to his travels in Central America, and some anecdotes from his travels might have livened things up quite and made the book more engaging, but no dice. The author seems to repeat himself a lot to no apparent end, and, most frustratingly, he does not provide a big picture before starting his slow slog through the details.

I think a readable book lurks between the covers of this title, but it needs a good editor to bring it out. Readers looking for something which engages the imagination like the works of Terence McKenna, Daniel Pinchbeck, and Jim DeKorne will probably come away disappointed.

Are we linked in some way we do not understand to the greater cosmos?
Your daily horoscope is unlikely to tell you. Yet, the ancient Maya,
builders of stone monuments that intricately measured the movement of
the heavenly bodies and thus the passage of time, surely thought
so. Following the lead established in Giorgio de Santillana's HAMLET'S
MILL, Jenkins reaffirms the importance of the Precession of the
Equinoxes, the stately sliding and displacement of the morning risings
of the constellations of the zodiac -- each reigning for 2,160 years
-- until a "Great Year" of 25,920 has elapsed, and the
Precession has come full circle. Unlike Santillana, Jenkins
establishes the Maya, not the Sumerians, as the most ancient of
astronomers. And his hero is not Gilgamesh but the Hero Twins of the
POPOL VUH, the creation myth of the Maya. Jenkins believes that the
act of one of the twins, Hunahpu, in shooting the heavenly ruler,
Seven Macaw, from his throne, was in fact the removal of the reign of
the polar regions of the galaxy, and the reestablishment of the
galactic center. Jenkins views the falling from the sky of Seven Macaw
as a metaphor for a change in the way we view the cosmos, not as an
actual falling of a star, or a comet. Similarly, Jenkins views the
2012 end date for the current Mayan Age as a time when, "All the
values and assuptions of the previous World Age will expire, and a new
phase of human growth will commence." His vision of the
individual's connections to the galactic center owes much to Jose
Arguelles' THE MAYA FACTOR: PATH BEYOND TECHNOLOGY. It is a hopeful
look, but so, eventually, is the view of cyclical periods of
destruction and regeneration.

This book is filled with data, analysis, specifics. The Mayan astronomy and mathematics are incredible and this work highlights how their astronomy and mathematics functioned. The book also dabbles in the metaphysical and religious arenas. But with the depth of research, documentation and explanation about the real Mayan astronomy and math, I could tolerate the small dose of evangelizing. Other reviewers have mistated the 2012 conclusions in this book. The authors make it clear that 2012 would bring rebirth of earth, heavens and humans. They downplay the cataclysmic 2012 scenarios and offer optimism about the Mayan rebirth prediction.

John Major Jenkins ties together many threads of Mayan cosmology/spirituality/teachings in a way that will satisfy those who value true academic scholarship. A landmark book that we Westerners can read, while the traditional Mayan daykeepers, priests, and h'men tucked away in the recesses of the Maya lands keep bits of this wisdom in their hearts and traditions.

John Major Jenkins has looked into the question of why the Maya ended their 13-baktun cycle in the Gregorian year 2012, and has researched the matter in incredible detail, and comes to conclusions that result from detailed study of many archaeological and specialist works. His study shows that the Maya deliberately targetted this point in time as the end of the cycle, and the evidence is found in king-accession rites, mythology, architecture, and the ball-game.

As you will know if you've read other reviews, the reason is the alignment of the winter solstice sun with the galactic equator - an event that happens only once in a cycle of precession - around 26,000 years. This IS NOT the "alignment of the solar system with galactic centre" or any of the other misrepresentatations of his work that have appeared.

This work stands whether or not anything noticeable happens in the years around 2012 - the fact is, that the Maya predicted that something would happen around 2012. This has become evident since the publication of this book, since the Tortuguero prophecy entered the public domain. In April 2005, the existence of Tortuguro monument 6 was revealed, (though known to a few specialists before that). The stela gives the end-date 4 Ahau, 3 Kankin, 13 Baktun (a combination of 3 calendars that gives the 21 December 2012 date) and gives an accompanying prophecy of the return of the Nine Gods.

Notice the favorable reviews by the quality reviewers; ie. those published authors who can and do understand the momentous material contained in this work (and try to ignore the glib quips by those who admit having difficulty with scholarship.)
I am amazed to see Jenkins constantly associated at Amazon with 'new age' and 'millenium' authors rather than scholars like de Lubicz and John Michell. By all means read this book, and see his new Galactic Alignment as well!

The book is rambling and almost unreadable. It is filled ideas that are presented without any substantiation and no other interpretations of the Maya glyphs are discussed. I have the feeling that the author falls into the trap of seeing what he wants to see. He uses incredible stretches to create a link between his own beliefs and the Maya remains. His many words seem to contain little substance, other than a reiteration of his own ideas. He keeps repeating his main theme as if it is a proven fact. When his ideas are contradicted by others, in keeping with most writers who are proposing incredible beliefs without proofs, he attacks the person rather than the person's ideas.
Most of his scientific ideas are false or make little sense. He does not mention that the center of the Galaxy cannot be located with the naked eye and can only be located by infrared and radio astronomy. Setting his unimportant alignment to a particular date would require incredible precision in locating the galactic center. In chapter 17 he descends into incredible foolishness. What can he have been thinking when he wrote, "The universe is revealed as a multidimensionally interwoven ecology of evolving intelligences, set to make their presence known by AD 2012." Or, "How else do transdimensional influences emerge into our world unless they have been brought through the central nexus via a type of conjuring." These silly statements that make no sense go on and on in this chapter and in chapter 25. Maybe some people are fooled into believing that his use of long, important sounding words give the writing a semblance of deep erudition. To me they are just nonsense. How can he say, "They gazed deeply into the cosmic center, the Black Hole in the center of our galaxy, and to them the work of modern physics would probably seem like child's play." All these foolish comments cast a dark cloud over everything in the book and hide any real ideas it may contain.
In summary, I think the book is nonsense to the extent that I am familiar with the material. For an assessment of his extreme interpretations of Mayan glyphs it will be necessary to talk to an expert on the subject. To me his explanations seem to be too farfetched to have any credibility.

With his better than academic decoding of the mysterious Maya glyphs that incorporate both their colorful mythology and sophisticated astronomy, John Major Jenkins has validated that shamans, with their out-of-body clairvoyance, were responsible for the amazing accuracy of Mayan and other Mesoamerican calendar systems that cover thousands of years of earthly, planetary, and galactic motion. That Mayan deities represent astronomical bodies, as did the pantheons of Egypt and Mesopotamia, is equally validated by Jenkins. His emphasis on the famous Long Count calendar shows that when the rising sun on the December solstice of the year 2012 conjuncts with the Milky Way's galactic center - or birth canal of the Great Mother of us all - a new age is expected, one in which humanity will mutate spiritually into a new relationship with space-time and the material universe.

Full of interesting facts about the Mayan civilization, how they saw the earth and their brilliant understanding of the Universe. I now understand how the complex calendar works. As to the prophecy, yet again, we can only wait and see!