Chacchoben, Japan’s Disaster and the Mayan Prophecy

On our visit to Mexico we had the chance to scope out some Mayan ruins. We ended up taking a tour to Chacchoben, “the place of red corn.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately. Mostly because of the chatter I’m coming across on the Internet about the disaster in Japan and how it’s one more sign of the 2012 Mayan Prophecy and the world coming to an end.

I’m going to reiterate what our guide, Daniel, told us. (I nicknamed him Jaguar because he said that’s what his last name translated to and because of a jaguar call he used to gather all of us.)

ARE WE DOOMED?

Near the end of our tour of Chacchoben, he addressed the elephant in the room no one had yet mentioned: the Mayan calendar, the so-called “prophecy” and the impending end of the world.

As he put it, the whole Mayan Prophecy business had been blown way, Way, WAY out of proportion. (Although, it had been good for Mayan ruin tourism.)

Basically, as he explained it, the Mayan calendar is 1,300 times more accurate than ours. That doesn’t mean it’s precise enough to predict the end of the world, as many are interpreting by the fact the calendar ends in 2012.

Instead, he suggested if the Mayan culture were still operating today, they’d likely be formulating a new calendar. When the current one ends it signifies a cycle of the Mayan calendar is coming to an end, not the entire world.

HAITI, JAPAN, EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS

He also went on to talk about the Haiti earthquake. He explained how the axis of the Earth shifted a little because of it, and how that affected an alignment with the Milky Way which has some bearing on the 2012 date. (Sadly, my notes aren’t much help. I figured they’d jog my memory as to why Jaguar said this is significant in the world not ending, but it didn’t.)

Basically, him and all of the other guides joked, “Remember Y2K? 2012 is going to be a lot like that.”

Although, if you look at the earthquake in Haiti, which happened just a year ago, and the current crisis in Japan, you might be tempted to say, “I dunno. These natural disasters are getting worse and worse and happening more often. Sure seems like the world might be getting ready to explode or something.”

Perhaps.

Then again, the world has seen a lot of natural disasters in its time. We happen to live in an age where there are both more people and more ways to document chaos as it’s happening. The result is loss of life is higher when tragedies strike and we learn about it virtually immediately.

But it doesn’t portend the end of the world.

Also, bear in mind Death doesn’t always signify just an end, but a beginning. Think of all the good that comes out of these tragedies too. Even for all the grief and heartache, we learn new ways to evolve as people in a global society.

IN SUMMARY

I don’t believe the world is coming to an end. I believe it’s going to keep on changing (perhaps at a faster pace than we’ve previosuly been accustomed to), and forcing us to change with it –whether it’s 2012 or beyond.

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.