Winter Solstice 2012: What is Ending? What is Beginning?

There seems to be a desire for something big and momentous to take place on December 21st, 2012.  What if it just quietly slips on by?  What then?  There has been so much discussion and speculation preceding this specific date.  It almost boggles the mind.  I have articles on file going back 10 to 15 years where various authors write about what is now at my very doorstep and yours as well.

So what can I add to the hullabaloo that might have any significance or meaning at all?  What I feel I can do is give you a synopsis of what I have researched, and what I do know surrounding the astrology of this date.  After all, you probably don’t have time to do the digging and searching I have done.  We all have our interests and specialties.  So I am going to use a question and answer format that guided me to find some answers:

What is the significance of 12-21-12?
We know from our point of view here on Earth, the Sun crosses in front of the plane of our galaxy twice a year.  At the Winter Solstice we experience our Sun at its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees.  Fair enough.  It is the longest night of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere and we celebrate ‘the return of the light’ as the Sun begins to ‘ascend’ back towards the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year.

This year, however, is supposed to be the end date of the Mayan Calendar on 12-21-12.  Again, this is debatable since there is no conclusive evidence other than one small fragment of Mayan writings found in a museum in Germany of all places which gives this date in Mayan terms, not Gregorian terms.  Even the Mayan elders, such as Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, head of the National Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala, Day Keeper of the Mayan Calendar, the 13th generation Quiche Mayan High priest, and a Grand Elder of the Continental Council of Elders and Spiritual Guides of the Americas says, “We don’t know exactly if it is going to be 2012 or if it is going to be later on.  Because 2012 is a Gregorian date, sometimes it does not coincide with the Mayan calendar…”  Even the researcher and scholar, Carl Johan Callerman, who wrote The Purposeful Universe:  How Quantum Theory and Mayan Cosmology Explain the Origin and Evolution of Life argued that the end date of the Mayan Calendar was October 28, 2011.

It just seems to be a general consensus that this winter Solstice marks the end of the Mayan’s Long Count Calendar which began in 3114 B.C. (Gregorian) and is a 5125 year period of 13 b’ak’tuns (each b’ak’tun is 394.2 years long) since the beginning date inscribed on Mayan monuments such as the Temple of the Cross at Palenque.  The ‘zero date’ of 12-21-12 is simply like resetting your odometer to zero.  One cycle has ended.  Time to begin a new cycle.  Remember, Mayan calendars are circular.  Think cycles.  We in Western traditions are in the mode of linear thinking or Big Bang beginnings and Big Bang endings.  Mayans were not.

The other major significance is this:  the Solstice Sun is aligning with the Galactic Center and completes a 26,000 year cycle.  This is big, dramatic stuff!  This is where I encourage you to read people who have been studying and delving into this one as their sole life work/journey such as John Major Jenkins who has written multiple books on the subject.  The one I like is entitledGalactic Alignment, The Transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions.  Mr. Jenkins has a mission and he is thorough in his investigative style.  He puts together all the major cycles:  the Hindu cycle of 25,920 years, the Nordic great cycle, the Babylonian, and South American/Central American cycles which he calls ‘vast cycles of collective spiritual gestation for humanity’ and argues that they are all inter-connected and pretty much all are coming to a conclusion sometime between now and 2220.

He writes that we are about to enter a 13,000 ascension phase of the ‘Great Year of Precession’.  He writes that our Western Civilization has had a major death wish and that ‘it is time for our deepening immersion in materialism and death-worshipping behaviors to end.’

He writes that the 2012 shift ‘is really about an open door, a once-in-a-precessional-cycle zone of opportunity to align ourselves with the galactic source of life’ and that ‘we as humanity have been falling deeper into unconsciousness for 13,000 years (!), but the alignment of the Solstice Meridian with the Galactic Plane (1975-2021) is the shift zone, after which consciousness begins a reversal, a disembodiment of spirit as we en-lighten through each successive year and each successive incarnation, the universe now fully supporting our spiritual endeavors and our yearning for the highest freedom.  Our role, as the alignment generation, seems to be to not blow it, to believe in our highest potential, buried though it may be under millennia of ignorance and materialism.’

Wow.  I certainly hope he’s on the mark, because the signs of the times splashed across the headlines every day of national/global news are not very encouraging.  What is encouraging are more what we share as people making effort to become conscious and share love and light with each other.  That evidence is passed off as ‘new age’ fluff by many, or simply ignored as inconsequential in economic/political frameworks.  However it’s people like Inelia Benz with her Ascension 101 who are igniting global awakenings and a different form of community.  These movements are coming in many styles and forms through many light workers around the globe.  I find that heartening.

What is the actual astronomy of this particular Solstice?
I think it wise to check out the scientific realm, particularly NASA when it comes to astronomical information.  I also think it wise to realize that NASA’s view is purely materialistic.  For example, I recently attended an evening slide presentation and lecture by the highly esteemed Dr. John Billingham who was inducted into the NASA Ames Hall of Fame for his contributions to space medicine, astrobiology and SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).  He’s a funny little man, quite in his head.  I found it astounding that after 30+ years of searching, plus millions of dollars invested, NASA has not one sign of intelligent life anywhere in outer space.  No, not one sign.  Did it ever occur to them that ‘intelligence’ might be something other than what can be measured by sound signals?  Haven’t they ever heard of or explored the right brain?  Simply baffling this idea of one-sided intelligence…

NASA is writing dozens of articles on this 12-21-12 date, however.  They only address ‘the end of the world’ scenario which is obviously connected with Western thoughts obsession with big bang beginnings and endings.  Not yet, they say.  Definitely not this Solstice.  No rogue planet Nibiru returning, no major comic alignments, no comets or asteroids about to wham us, no flipping over as in ‘pole shifts’.  As their spokesman astronomer, Don Yeomans, says, “None, zero, zip, nada.”

They don’t even consider the sun a threat even though it is approaching maximum activity in its 11-year cycle when it does reverse its poles.  This Solar Cycle 24 will peak in 2013, so there’s still some unknowns due to the fact that Earth’s magnetic field is decreasing, which is its only way of protecting all of us from the Sun’s harmful rays.

There are, however, certain people who work with both science and astrology that I also like to read.  One such man is Tapan Das ‘who has 37 years of technical management experience in telecommunication, wireless, IP, WiFi and ASIC. He holds M.Sc in Electronics from the U. Of London, and a PhD in Microwave Electronics from the U. of Bradford, UK ….He holds 7 patents……..He has an active interest in astrology and has published a paper on the scientific theory of consciousness in the journal of NeuroQuantonology.  He has even published a book titled Why Astrology is Science: Five Good Reasons.  Mr. Das does state that the Earth, and the Sun will be exactly aligned with the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, for the first time in 26,000 years.  There will be The Great Celestial Conjunction when the ecliptic cross and the galactic cross form an eight pointed cross overlapping together.  Also, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn will line up roughly along a line which is an equally rare event.  He suggests that possible magnetic turbulence could be the result.

Mr. Jenkins also theorizes that our Sun is heading for its closest approach to the Galactic Center sometime in 2220, +/- three years.  Obviously, we won’t be around to herald that one!

What do respected Mayan Elders today say about all of this?
My research found five different elders speaking out on the potential meaning of this time period.

I’ve already mentioned Alejandro Oxlaj who also says, “…..one thing is for sure, it is certain that you all will know when this happens, because it is going to be a long period of darkness.  It is a change of sun; it is another sun that is coming……Nobody can stop this………..it is a change.  But all the beings on Earth, like people, animals, plants, there is always seed left behind for the next generations…..”

Don Cirillo, a Mayan Elder who is from the Maya Itza Council, also implies that there is now a window of time in which Maya prophecies will be fulfilled that began in October of 2007 and ends as late as December of 2015.
Miguel Angel Vergara, a Mayan priest and Master teacher, and a director at Chichen Itza for many years states in a transcript from he teachings at a ‘Prophet’s Conference in July 2012:  “…..What is going to happen on this date?  What this stele tells us and in a clear and direct way, is that we are going to conclude a period of time, an era, a sun, a final cycle, and then initiate a new one…..”

Think about this, Miguel Vergara is not a ‘New Ager’.  He is a respected Elder of a very ancient indigenous people and this is more of what he has to say,  “We are living, in this moment, a process of Change of Consciousness in all of us….A golden era, but based on a change in thinking and a change in consciousness, based on being and acting differently; loving, respecting, and honoring all the elements of life on this planet:  earth, water, air, fire, ether, human beings, mountains, rivers, volcanoes, lakes, animals, plants, trees, caves, cenotes, temples, pyramids, etc. etc.”

“The Maya teachers taught us saying, ‘If you believe, you can create, and if you can create you can manifest.’ You can do it since you are a potential creator!”

“Each atom of creation has three parts:
1.  Material
2.  Consciousness
3.  Energy
We are able to communicate directly with the consciousness of the atom that forms the elements of life; the Sun, the Moon, the River, the Sea, a Mountain, a Volcano, the wind, the rain, a hurricane, an earthquake, the fire, and ask them, with great faith, these Guardians, caretakers, or Divas of this phenomenal nature whatever it may be, to transform to a different form, a positive form, a form in balance and harmony.”

“This is a part of our Maya Consciousness.  Imagine that thousands of human beings unite with us in this great crusade to activate our Maya Consciousness:  a consciousness of love and wisdom, to help our beautiful planet and all the beings that live here.”

Mayan Elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun states that ‘apocalypse’ is a Western concept that has little or nothing to do with Mayan beliefs.  His native Guatemalans if asked the significance of 12-21-12 probably wouldn’t know what you were talking about.  They have real concerns such as ‘Is it going to rain today?’

Finally, Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij (a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide) of the Eagle Clan, says this, “Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly.  It’s just their imagination.  Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya.  They say that the world will end in December 2012.  The Mayan elders are angry with this.  The world will not end.  It will be transformed.”

“We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun.  This is the time in-between, the time of transition.  As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes………It will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy.”

“Humanity will continue, but in a different way.  Material structures will change.  From this we will have the opportunity to be more human.  We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions are converging now.  The is no time for games.  The spiritual ideal of this era is action.”

Having covered a very brief (though long for a blog) synopsis of my discoveries, I give you the actual chart for Winter Solstice on December 21, 2012 exact in Washington DC, USA at 6:12 AM EST.

Winter Solstice 2012

What does this chart symbolize?

First of all we see an exact and amazing Yod, or Finger of God configuration lining up across the Ascendant/Descendant axis of the Washington DC chart.  Jupiter, the great god of expansion, sits at the apex of the Yod retrograde in Gemini.  At either end of the base of this Yod is Saturn in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn, and even more amazingly sits Venus in Sagittarius opposite Jupiter, nearly at the degree of the Galactic Center, and also conjoining Mercury in Sagittarius.  Five planets in one configuration!

Jupiter holds the focal point of powerful energy that involves radical transformation (Pluto), painful learning experiences relating to our relationships with the earth and each other (Saturn) and our philosophical belief systems symbolized by Venus/Mercury in Sagittarius.  Jupiter in Gemini must try to understand something crucial to changing consciousness (Gemini) that may be both dazzling and confusing as Neptune/Chiron in Pisces activate the focus of a T-square also involving Venus/Mercury opposite Jupiter.  The Neptune/Chiron pair brings in suffering and redemption themes as well as the need to bring a spiritual essence into the equation of all this mighty change.  Now we have 7 bodies in our Solar System involved in one strong configuration!

Jupiter in Gemini retrograde may mean that we have to process all the data swarming in every direction now.  We are literally bombarded with energies that impact our mind, body, and consciousness; not to mention our feelings.  The Moon in Aries sextile Jupiter and trine Venus/Mercury may mean that many of us are excited, even exhilarated at the changes coming so thick and fast.  For others it may be just too much intensity since Pluto is also squaring this Moon of the mass unconscious. But Jupiter in Gemini demands that we keep moving and staying curious.  We need to keep asking the right questions in order to receive the right answers.

And then there’s the Sun in Capricorn still conjoining Pluto, as it has been for several years now.  What powerful transformations are in the works?  What are yet to come?  Pluto is squaring Uranus and certain upheavals are yet to unfold as we head for 5 more exact hits before 2015 is over and done with.

There is also a ‘mini-grand trine’ in this chart.  Look at that Saturn trine Neptune/Chiron in water signs, both in sextile to Sun/Pluto in earth/Capricorn.  Hard work and perseverance coupled with intuition and spiritual guidance will lead to greater transformation and healing.

I would love to keep going, but I feel this is long enough.  Too many words!  We also need to ‘feel our way’ and trust what arises in our hearts.   By keeping our hearts open we will receive exactly the truths and information we need to know through this gateway into a new cycle yet to be revealed.  Namaste.