Page 8 - 201212 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2012

The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare Continued from Page 6 Broader interest in 2012 caught on beginning in 1987. In The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology, José Argüelles (an "artist, poet, and visionary historian" according to the dust jacket) linked the 13-baktun period with an impalpable "beam" from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. According to Argüelles, the Maya knew when we entered this beam and when we would leave it, and set their 13-baktun cycle to mark our passage through it accordingly. The beam, he asserted, operates as "invisible galactic life threads" that link people, the planet, the Sun, and the center of the Galaxy. Neither Maya tradition nor modern astronomy supports a belief in any such beam. It stemmed instead from Argüelles’s personal philosophy, which emphasizes "the principle of harmonic resonance." Argüelles also concluded that the planets are "orbiting harmonic gyroscopes" that “play a role in the coordination of the beam," which advances the development of anything 2016. Elsewhere he expands this approach zone Earth is the pin. There is no such planet, though with DNA. The year 2012, therefore, will bring to a 900-year period, and settles for an it is often equated with Eris, a plutoid orbiting a rosy version of the apocalypse. imprecise alignment to which Dec. 21, 2012, is safely and permanently beyond Pluto. Some If this sounds a bit familiar, you're right. arbitrarily and circularly assigned. Real insist, however, that a NASA conspiracy is in In 1987 Argüelles and his followers predicted, astronomy does not support any match between play and that Nibiru, looming in on the with worldwide fanfare, that Aug. 16–17 of that the Baktun-13 end date and a galactic approach, can already be seen in broad daylight year would bring a Maya-Galactic "Harmonic alignment. The advocates both admit and ignore from the Southern Hemisphere. It was supposed Convergence." That event turned into a global this discrepancy. to become visible from the Northern phenomenon, with thousands gathering at It's almost a sidelight that the winter- Hemisphere, too, by last May, but like a fickle Earth’s “acupuncture points” to create a solstice sun will never actually "eclipse" the blind date, it stood up those awaiting it. "synchronized and unified bio-electromagnetic galaxy's true center, the pointlike radio source Others on the Web, confused about the collective battery." Unfortunately, the date marking the Milky Way's central black hole. supposed alignment of the winter-solstice sun passed with nothing more than colorful Moreover, the winter-solstice sun won’t even with the Milky Way's center, have declared that newspaper stories and a Doonesbury satire. (A pass closest to it on the sky for another 200 the Sun is now plummeting to the Milky Way’s character explains earnestly that that the years. What did the Maya themselves think center and dragging Earth with it. The predicted alignment could bring either "mass unification about End Times? There is no evidence that result? Earth’s polar axis will shift. Most of of divine and earth-plane selves," or perhaps they saw the calendar and a world age ending in what's claimed for 2012 relies on wishful nuclear annihilation. "Either way there will either transcendence or catastrophe on thinking, wild pseudoscientific folly, ignorance probably be a crafts fair.") December 21, 2012. Some Maya Long Count of astronomy, and a level of paranoia worthy of texts refer to dates many baktuns past 13 and Night of the Living Dead. Galactic Guessing Games even into the next pictun and beyond. For So maybe the Maya were on to us after Fast-forward to 1995. That year John instance, an inscription commissioned in the 7th all. The clock is ticking. And it’s the end of the Major Jenkins packaged several of these themes century A.D. by King Pacal of Palenque world as we know it. [] into Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. According to predicts that an anniversary of his accession Jenkins, the winter-solstice point and the would be commemorated on Oct. 15, 4772. PRIME TIME PROVERBS centerline of the Galaxy will line up exactly on In all of the Long Count texts Dec. 21. Arguing that this motivated the Maya discovered, transcribed, and translated, only one to contrive the calendar to end on that date, mentions the key date in 2012: Monument 6 at On Television: Jenkins concludes that it will be "a tremendous Tortuguero, a Maya site in the Mexican state of transformation and opportunity for spiritual Tabasco. The text is damaged, but what remains “Television has done much for psychiatry by growth, a transition from one world age to does not imply the end of time. spreading information about it... as well as another." contributing the need for it.” In fact, astronomy cannot pinpoint such The Secret NASA Conspiracy - Alfred Hitchcock a "galactic alignment" to within a year, much Some advocates for the 2012 less a day. The alignment depends on the rather catastrophe say that what will actually cause the George: “Gracie, what do you think of arbitrary modern definition of the galactic devastation is an alignment of planets. There is television?” equator, and/or the visual appearance of the no planet alignment on the winter solstice in Gracie: D=3485 4=F< @98/0;1>6 3,;/6B @,=.3 Milky Way. There is no precise definition of the 2012. Nonetheless, advocates of doom connect radio anymore.” Milky Way's edges -- they are very vague and the fictional alignment to astrological - Burns and Allen depend on the clarity of your view. (Jenkins predictions or groundless claims about a says that he personally established the Milky reversal of Earth's magnetic field and Way’s edges by viewing it from 11,000 feet, far unprecedented solar storms. Many internet The ‘X’ Zone above anywhere the Maya lived.) So to give a postings and guests on all-night apocalyptic New Year’s Eve Special precise visual position for its centerline is not radio have elaborated on these themes. with Rob McConnell meaningful. 9 pm Dec 31 2012 - 1 am Jan 1 2013 Jenkins did acknowledge that the In particular, several threads of irrational Listen and Watch winter-solstice Sun actually crosses the center thought have created an internet phantom, the www.xzoneradiotv.com of the Milky Way anytime between 1980 and secret planet Nibiru. It's the bowling ball, and