So Much for the Mayans....Try Some Aztec!

First of all, Happy New Year! I trust that 2012 will bring a wave of positive change and happiness with it. I hope you rang it in with much enthusiasm and anticipation. I know we did. (I love my daughter's expression in this....PRICELESS!)

Due to the year turning, it was inevitable that a good portion of postings on my Facebook page would be people making sarcastic comments about the Mayan calendar, doomsday...etc etc etc. Though I was surprised to see most people thinking that the Mayan calendar doomsday was New Years Day 2012, instead of the Winter Solstice, December 21st, like I had always believed. So I started looking it up to see if I had suddenly gone daffy...well....more so than normal.

Everything I've looked at shows that the Mayan calendar cycle is expected to recycle on Dec. 21st, just like I'd thought. *phew* I found an article about the cash cow that has become the 2012 doomsday "prophecy" with a quote from author Joe Nickell, who apparently writes on the topic of debunking myths and legends. ".......the Mayans, Central and South American Indians who flourished in the first millennium, never said the world was ending on Dec. 21 — only that their calendar was turning over on that date for another 394-year “baktun” or cycle, according to scholars" (Dominguez, R., 2011). Haha! I was right!

So in my quest to find such a citation, I DID look up the Aztec calendar, or tonalpohualli,  and found a really cool site that tells you what the Aztec calendar interprets or forecasts for the day (and consequentally found out that it is often described as part of the Mayan calendar). It is appropriately titled AztecCalendar.com . Today I thought was particularly spot on (though it's not like I have ever seen this site before today) and that's not just my partial Hispanic heritage talking. (I apologize for lack of formatting in the below section but blogger only allows me so much.)

The significance of this day - January 1, 2012

"Day Coatl (Snake) is governed by Chalchihuitlicue as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Coatl is the day of the snaking river that always changes without changing. It signifies the fleeting moment of eternal water. A good day for humility, a bad day for acting on self-interests.

The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Acatl (Reed) is ruled by Chalchihuitlicue, goddess of lakes, rivers and seas, goddess of horizontal waters. This trecena signifies the transitory nature of all that we may gain in life: it is a reminder to view success and failure, gain and loss, as matters of fate and not as matters of personal worth. The elementals do not reward nor punishment our efforts but, rather, construct the maze within which we might perfect our hearts. The 13 days of this trecena reveal our hearts to us, based on whether we have decided to live within the house of shadows or to seek the secret of happiness elsewhere. These are good days to travel to new places; bad days to hide in fear," (Voorburg, R., 2012).

See the parts in bold? Yeah...those are important bits to remember.

However, if you prefer to read the various theories concerning the end of the world (part of me does and part of me doesn't...I mean I don't want to be naive but I don't want to feel psychotically paranoid either...kind of takes the zest and zeal out of life...know what I mean? But hey...the Aztec calendar told me not to hide in fear...hoo ah!) I found an interesting place to start below. It is of interest to note that I can not find a bio on the author except by the internet publication he writes for, which seems to specialize in unexplained phenomenon and conspiracy theories. Also, formal references and citations for "facts" and "communications" are severely lacking, which make me question the scholarly value of the article/book. His name is Dan Eden and he writes for viewzone. This is a link to his 2012 conspiracy theory e-book which totes itself as free.....for a $10 donation. :P    http://www.viewzone.com/never/never.html

I however, read the NASA website (I don't care if it is a federally funded program, at least it is comprised of SCIENTISTS and facts :P) and it made me feel better. ;)
Debunking 2012 Doomsday Theory Links:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html
http://www.space.com/14078-apocalypse-2012-doomsday-predictions-debunked-nasa.html

References
(Look at me, Mom! I'm practicing my APA References and citations!)

Dominguez, Robert. (2011, December 31). End of Mayan calendar spurs big boom in end-of-world business. New York      Daily News. Retrieved from: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/mayan-calendar-spurs-big-boom-end-of-world-business-article-1.999260#ixzz1iFzNJAVP

Voorburg, Rene. (2012, January 1). Aztec calendar today: Today in the Aztec and Mayan calendars. Retrieved from http://www.azteccalendar.com/