21 December 2012

The winter solstice on 21 December 2012 marks the end of a cycle of around 26,000 years in the Mayan Long Count calendar. When the calendar was created, the Maya were envisioning a future so distant that they could have had no concrete concept of what it would actually be like. So how could they possibly hope to predict what was to come? Their world view was a cyclical one - spring follows winter, sunrise gives way to sunset, civilisations rise and fall. They believed that the timing of the major cycles could be calculated in advance, and each one would end in some sort of natural disaster. However, throughout all the previous cycles, mankind somehow managed to survive - and entered the next phase of existence. If the current cycle is drawing to a close, this is not the end of the world, but the end of an era - and with it, a new beginning.