Maya 2012 - The Months of the Year

Please read part one of this series here before reading about the Mayan months of the year. It will make a lot more sense if you do.

Today's date in the Gregorian calendar (common calendar) is January 5, 2012. (as of the time this hub is being written).

Today's date in the Mayan calendars is 12.19.19.0.9 (Long Count calendar); 17 Kankin (Haab or daily calendar) and 4 Muluc (Tzolkin Count calendar).

The Long Count calendar represents the celestial calendar and it is driven by the precessional alignment of the Milky Way galaxy with the Earth.

Reading left to right, the notation 12.19.19.0.9 means:

12 Baktun (1,728,000 days)

19 Katun (+ 136,800 days)

19 Tun (+ 6,840 days)

0 Uinal (+ 0 days)

9 Kin (+ 9 days)

This means that there have been 1,871,649 days or 5,127.81 years accounted for in the Long Count calendar since the last alignment of the Milky Way center with the Earth as of today, January 5, 2012 if my math is correct.

On December 21, 2012, the long count calendar will reach 13.0.0.0.0 which completes its 5,128.76 year great cycle (my math may be inaccurate here, I'm not as smart as the Maya) and will begin again. This also corresponds to our sun passing between the center of the great dark rift of the Milky Way Galaxy and 'eclipsing' the Earth.

In other words - 12/21/2012 will mark a celestial eclipse of the center of our galaxy which only occurs every 5,128 years give or take a few years.

The Maya were the first and arguably the only Mesoamerican astronomers able to calculate this celestial occurrence. The Aztecs, who are more notoriously known for the Aztec Cosmos Sun Stone, stole all of this astronomical knowledge from the Maya.

There is even some evidence that the Maya sailed over the Pacific and are originally of Asian descent. There is a great deal of resemblance between the Maya and the Malaysian people. Their designs and styles are quite similar.

The Haab, or daily calendar (see video) is determined by the numeric alignment of a circle of numbers (0 - 13) aligned with a circle of the 20 day names. Think of an inner gear with 14 teeth meshing with an outer gear of 20 teeth.

If you look at the photo of the Mayan calendar here, all you will see are the months of the year. Months in Mayan are called Uinals. There are 18 named months of the year and a small named "month" of only 5 days.

The calendar does not show the inner gear of 0-13 numbers and the other inner gear of the 20 day glyphs. This calendar only shows the named months of the solar year. If you watch the video, you will see how these gears interact to produce the 'day of the week' plus the 'month of the year'.

Now there is yet another giant sized wheel surrounding the three inner gears. It is called the "Great Round" or great wheel. This giant wheel is the source of all mystery about the Mayan calendar. The chiefs and priests and astronomers of the day kept the Great Round wheel a secret for the most part. The Great Round is what measures the 5,128 year cycle of the universe.

The Great Round could predict the solar and lunar eclipses which gave "power" to the priests and therefore the chiefs and astronomers. Technically, it is used to calculate mathematical precession of the Earth, sun and Milky Way galaxy.

This is pretty easy for us to do in today's world with our powerful telescopes and measuring devices, but imagine what it was like for the Maya! It is astounding that they could measure these things.

Today's date of January 5th, 2012 would equal to the 17th day of the Mayan month of Kankin and the 4th Muluc (day name).

Just for grins and giggles - because it truly amuses me how people have come to the conclusion that the world will end when the Mayan calendar ends, I present the "end of the world" date in Mayan!

The date for the alleged end of the world Mayan "prophecy" will be - See Photo - Click it to enlarge.