I’m an astrologer – it’s what I do. I also understand the power of suggestion, and what I’m about to suggest is that the Mayan Myth, as promulgated by modern (self-appointed) masters, is nothing more than a fable. Fairy tale. Smoke up the old smoke stack. Maybe just smoke blown up something else.
I have a bookshelf full of Shakespeare material. Complete works, individual plays, academic treatments, note about notes, several good biographies, and, a personal favorite, The Truth Will Out, a reasonably argued, anti-Marlowe, Shakespeare Conspiracy Theory, that does, in my mind, hold merit.
Alongside that text, I was reading another good, if more standardized (Stratford school of thought), Shakespeare biography. I liked it, I’ve written about this before, but I liked the way the scholar (author) would phrase the suppositions. Turns out, no matter which school of Shakespeare theories one admits to? Turns out that there is very little evidence, either way.
Which is why I read, with great interest, an astronomer who was debunking the Mayan 2012 Myth. There are errors, lots of errors in the methodology of “Mayan” translations. Transliterations might be a better term. The so-called “long count” of 5,200 years is off. It’s actually 342 year cycle. To admit that would ruin the industry and its mythology.
The adamant conspiracy theorist will argue, then, how about Nostradamus? Middle French is to modern French what Middle English is to modern English, sort of a distant cousin. So read the original, then seriously try to see how those are connected to current events. Most, if not all, of the noise about the prophet deals with the colorful if not factual translations then interpretations. Layers upon layers, and never let the facts get in the way of a good story, right?
I don’t have the magazine handy. It was either a “Sky and Telescope” title or a “Planet Report,” or some other similar astronomy magazine. Astronomers don’t believe in astrologers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in their work. Besides, until just a few centuries ago, we were all on the same team.
The article was about dealing with the “2012 Hype.” True, too. Astrologically? Astronomically? Archeology? Those three art/sciences bare this out: nothing.
Not the end of the world. Not the end times, unless, of course, one subscribes to my theory that Xmas decorations before T-day is a symbol of the end times?
2012, Mayan Myth: fail.*
*That’s from someone who writes horoscopes for a living. Think about it.