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Health & Fitness

Today: Winter Solstice, Shortest Day of Year, and Mayan Doomsday or Resurrection?

Today is 12-21-21 on the Mayan Calendar. Is it doomsday or a new beginning?

The day of reckoning has arrived, December 21, 2012. It is also Winter Solstice which is the shortest day of the year. For most people today is a regular day - the end of the week and the beginning of some holiday time off. Across the globe there are people who fear that today is the end of the world, the Apocalypse or Doomsday. Their apprehension is real to them.

In my line of work I have been asked literally hundreds of times over the past few years if the world will end on 12-21-12. My answer has always been “No.”

Part of a factor in all the ruckus has been the Mayan Long Count Calendar which has cycles called b'ak'tuns. One of their cycles ends around the current Winter Solstice. The Mayans were interesting people.  Their civilization extended through part of present day Mexico, Belize and Central America. They built huge pyramid complexes, had their own written language and knowledge of astronomy. It was this data that they utilized to create their calendars.  They were aware as many indigenous cultures have been that everything occurs in cycles.

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The Native American Tradition

Black Elk, a famous Medicine Man of the Oglala Lakota said:

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“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles.

This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”

Many native cultures were more aware of cycles and patterns because they paid close attention to nature. Often their very survival depended upon being aware of pending weather changes. They realized what had occurred before would come again.

Modern man has forgotten the old ways and the time has come to become aware of our path on this planet as well as our connections to nature and each other. We are more alike than not. That is the fact.

The Mayans were advanced for their time in that they not only observed what would occur in nature but they also watched the sky. With their knowledge of astronomy they were able to plot the course of stars and constellations.

Mayan Elders Speak

The Mayan Elders or spiritual leaders don’t believe that today is Doomsday. They have been speaking out for a while about this being a time of transformation from the old ways that have taken away our sustainability on the planet and trapped people in poverty and old political paradigms.

One such elder is Carlos Barrios who wrote about his research from studying 600 Mayan Elders on http://malaysianbossanova.wordpress.com. He and his brother Geraldo see this time as a period of global transition. Many Mayan Elders are speaking out today doing their best to calm fears and help people understand what is really happening.

Spiritual Transformation

My belief is similar to the Mayan Elders. I think that this period in time signals a road to transformation. Today is only a single point of awareness on a long road of change that has been slowly occurring for a while now. Science and spirituality are the same and they must merge to save our world.

Spirituality is what we know with our hearts to be true and science is what we have proven. Quantum mechanics with its quarks, dual wave particle physics, God Particle and multiple dimension theories is validating what many spiritual teachers, uneducated mystics, and elders have told us.

Our world in many ways is growing in leaps and bounds with population but falling behind in compassion and unity. This needs to stop. Ironically the brutal shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school last week slapped away the last shreds of doubt on our plight. We cannot continue as before, we must look after each other and our planet. I suspect that is the point of today.

The Mayans with their math, astronomy and calendars simply whispered a truth which we know down deep inside that; "This isn’t the day but change is a must to avert future distruction." It is as simple as that.

Humanity has a beautiful seed of survival that resides in each of us that requires only the breath of compassion to soar. Perhaps it is time to unleash that part of ourselves.

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