Description
MAYAN CYCLES – 2012
ORIGINAL PAINTING HAND-PAINTED IN BLACK CALLIGRAPHY INK ON PAPER BY EMMA J V HOGG
PRINT DIMENSIONS | UNFRAMED –
A4 – 21 X 29.7 CM / 8 X 12″
A3 – 29.7 x 42 CM / 12 x 16.5″
A2 – 42 x 59.4 CM / 16.5 x 23.4″
‘Mayan Cycles’ – Mayan mythology – End of days myth
The Mayan have four calendars depicting the cyclical nature of time through celestial and terrestrial cycles consisting of short and long counts:
The Tzolkin, an Earth centered 260-day cycle. The Haab, a solar 365 day cycle. The calendar round, the Haab and Tzolkin combined for a 52-year cycle. And the long count calendar marking approximately 5125 years, a great cycle. A further grand cycle lasts approximately 26 000 years, consisting of 5 great cycles.
December 21st 2012 marks the end of the long count of the fourth great cycle. According to the Popol Vuh, a Mayan book of creation, we are currently living in the fourth world. To make it to the end of a world age was considered amoung the Mayans to be a celebration, while also marking a time of transition from one world age into another.
They were aware of making a choice as to how we enter our future. Moving into the next world cycle with resistance or acceptance would determine whether the transition happened with cataclysmic changes or peace and tranquility.
They viewed the earth itself as being on a spiritual journey. And what the earth experienced, we would too.
The Mayan culture saw that humanity would become disconnected from the laws of the natural world. One day falling ignorant to the interdependent relationship we share with nature. This relationship they saw as most sacred.
The so-called collapse of the ancient Mayan themselves seems to have been partly driven by nature, from effects of exhausted agricultural potential, overhunting of mega fauna and evidence of an intense 200 year drought. The reason they abandoned their ancient cities may have been partly due to losing the natural balance with their surrounding environment.
The Mayans also believed that certain celestial configurations had a direct influence on the earth and their lives. It was thought that in interpreting the celestial movements in the sky the character of an age and future ages could be prophesised.
The 2012 date marks a predicted alignment, although far from exact, of the earth, the sun and the galactic equator at the time of winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. The galactic equator marks the centre of the Milky Way, the birthplace of creation for the Mayans.
The length of the Mayan Grand cycle, 5 great cycles, is the time it takes for the earth to make one cycle of precession revealing all 12 constellations of the zodiac in the pre-dawn eastern sky. This rotation of the earth’s axis occurs over approximately 25 625 years. This axial precession affects the contrasts of the seasons differently for each hemisphere.
The 12 astrological ages each last approximately 2160 years, which gives us the total of 26 000 years, the length of the Grand cycle of the Mayans, and a complete turn of the earth on its axis.
The current time in precession was believed to be a time of no time. The darkest moment just before the dawn of the next astrological age, the moment we are in right now.
Since the last great cycle, 5000 years ago, we have spiralled faster and farther away from nature than ever before.
Written by Emma J V Hogg
