The world is becoming more and more aware of the Mayan calendar and the infamous date of December 21, 2012. But, are you aware that the world will end a year before that- IF we believe the Aztec calendar which says the actual date is December 24, 2011. Just when we were getting ready to follow the hype of 2012, along comes this 2011 date to spoil the party!

December 24, 2011?

The sacred Aztec calendar is properly called the Eagle Bowl. It represents the solar deity Tonatiuh. The amazingly accurate calendar has been in use in various forms for more than 2,000 years. A Zapotec prophecy, based on the Eagle Bowl, states: “After Thirteen Heavens of Decreasing Choice, and Nine Hells of Increasing Doom, the Tree of Life shall blossom with a fruit never before known in the creation, and that fruit shall be the New Spirit of Men.”

The present fifth epoch is called Nahui-Olin (Sun of Earthquake), which began in 3113 BC and will end on December 24, 2011. It will be the last destruction of human existence on Earth. The date coincides closely with that determined by the brothers McKenna in The Invisible Landscape as “the end of history” indicated by their computer analysis of the ancient Chinese oracle-calendar, the I Ching.

Now who or what are we to believe?

The Mayan calendar coincides with the approx. 26,000 trek around the universe when our Sun alings directly with the galactic center: the crossing of the galatic plane which won’t happen in a day. n the other hand the Aztec date of December 24, 2011 does happen on a very rare and unusual planetary alignment- if that’s worth anything. On that date, all the planets in the solar system will be spaced 30 degress apart: a statistical fact that happens once every 45,200 years. But, who keeps traack of such things and what’s the point of that anyway?

Within the disagreement of the dueling calendars what we can agree upon is that history and civilizations for tens of thousands of years have pointed to a period of time (that we’re now entering) as being either metaphorically catastrophic or physically so. Maybe both?

Maybe 12.24.2011 is the beginning of STUFF that ends 12.21.2012?

Who knows!

One has to give some thought as to why the Mayans were so interested, obsessive, over the concept of time. Hey, there were no tough schedules to meet, no 8:30 am morning staff meetings, not even a plane to catch. So, what’s up with the obsession with time? Maybe there’s a clue in Hurricane Ike.

I could help but be struck with the pitch dark world that I lived in called Houston, Texas. On Saturday night, September 13th as I drove around my neighborhood (before the curfew) not seeing one light. It was a strange and weird feeling. To add to the mystery, there was a full moon.

As we moved into the third night without electricity, I began to get some sense of what life might be like living with the sun and moon. One spent the day doing daylight things and then one prepared for night, with no light, save a candle or flashlight. They didn’t have generators either. It was back to nature living- of a sort.

As Lawrence Joseph wrote, “The role of the calendar in Mayan life with the awareness of cyclicity in the movement of celestial bodies and the evolution of mathematical skills by which they could manipulate the numbers derived from from those calendar cycles.” In other words, it’s what they had time for as much as anything.

But, I sense a more meaningful spiritual encounter as well. Surely they had help beyond their intellectual skill so that they could see the dark rift and interpret things that we’re only now understanding with the air of telescopes out there in space. What they knew is beyond extra time at night. What they knew came from somewhere beyond and someplace deep within as well.

Why don’t we go there….before 2012!