UNAM Researcher Debunks Maya 'End of World' Prophecy So-called

Our two previous posts on the alleged Maya prophecy for the end of the world on December 21, 2012, continue to receive considerable reader attention.  So when I saw this article in today's Milenio, the Mexican newspaper, it seemed only right to make it available to Jenny's readers and followers.  

The article is based on an interview conducted by a Milenio reporter with Erik Velásquez Garcia, researcher at the Institute of Aesthetic Research (IIE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), whose specialty is the decoding of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. The translation is mine. Links are provided to other Jenny's posts that relate to key concepts.  

Maya king captures another king. Glyphs tell the story. The narrative begins with a Long Count Date, which records precisely when the event occurred.

Mexico (Milenio) • The alleged Mayan prophecy of the end of the World is an absolutely Western idea profoundly rooted in the Judeo-Christian concept of ‘time’ as linear and a belief in the teleological—that is, in a Divine Plan that is to culminate with the Second Coming and the End of the World. These beliefs are totally foreign to ancient Maya thought, stressed Erik Velásquez García,.

The only inscription containing a futuristic reference to December 2012 is located in a hieroglyphic text known as "Monument 6 of Tortuguero" discovered by archaeologists several decades ago in the ruins of the Tortuguero archaeological site, in the Mexican state of Tabasco. This hieroglyphic text indicates that thirteen "baak'tuunes" (baktuns) will be completed in December 2012. 

The term "baak'tuun", related Velásquez Garcia, refers to a time period of nearly 400 years or, to be precise, 144 thousand days. But Velásquez Garcia further explains that the term

"…baak'tuun (baktun) was invented in the early 20th century by mayanists, before decryption of the hieroglyph…. Today we know that its original name was actually pik."

Velásquez García confirms that ancient Maya thinking, as formalized in the Maya Long Count Calendar, established August 13, 3114 B.C. as the mythical Creation date, or of the Órdering of the Current World. In keeping with the methodology of the Long Count Calendar, December 2012 marks the completion of thirteen baak'tuunes or piks. Thus perhaps December 2012 is better described as marking the Anniversary or Jubilee of Creation.

In this regard, Velásquez Garcia says,

"the inscription at Tortuguero 6 does not contain any prophecy of the end of the world or change in consciousness, or 'alignment' with the center of the Galaxy, or with any other notions attributed to the date."

Velásquez García avers,

"The process of stability and change—the perpetual motion of the life-force itself [called ollín]—may be the deeper meaning of the ancient Mesoamerican hieroglyph…referring to the movement, that takes place within the heart of man....  No doubt the validity of ‘mystic Mexico’ must embody this universal truth." 

In the 1970s, continues Velásquez Garcia, the U.S. "New Age" writer, Frank Waters, upon learning about the inscription at the Tortuguero site, began to fantasize about its meaning. His book, "Mexico mystique: the coming sixth world of consciousness," presumably explains the Maya “End of World” prophecy.

Velásquez García deconstructs Water’s fallacious analysis:

"By mixing Aztec astrophysics of the Five Suns, with the Maya inscription on the Tortuguero monument 6, [Waters] erroneously concluded that December 2012 [Maya date] was the date for the cataclysmic end of the Fifth Sun [Aztec concept]. Waters’ conclusion was an inaccurate amalgam of Maya and Aztec thinking; in no way was it academic [that is, supported by academic research]."

Velászquez Garcia added that "New Age" thinking has inherited this apocalyptic idea from its own Judeo-Christian tradition and added new twists, new ideas—attributing "New Age" innovations as deriving from ‘guidelines‘ set down by ancient, non-Christian civilizations. The truth is these alleged guidelines are, in fact, alien to these ancient cultures.

It gets worse: “New Age” thinking then uses these fallacious ideas as the basis for futuristic speculations, such as the supposed prophecy regarding December 2012.

Velásquez Garcia observed,

"Starting with the work of Frank Waters and including all the literature in the same vein, what we have now is commercial exploitation of this phenomenon. This exploitation says nothing about the past but a lot about the present and about us as Western society." 

Velásquez García charged,

“This prophecy is an invention. It is unrelated to the thought of the Maya culture; instead, it is rooted in the Western concept of time.”

Velásquez García concluded,

"Many people are captive to these contemporary ‘ideas’—their need to believe creates a breeding ground for these ideologies, which are successful at the commercial level. Another group capitalizes on this phenomenon by making a television series, by writing ´best sellers´ (...), or by offering escape from the end of the world for 50 thousand dollars." 

Still Curious?

Here's the link to an astronomer's engaging account: "The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare," by E. C. Krupp, Director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Here's the link: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012-guest.html

Here's the link to an earlier Jenny's post debunking the so-called Maya doomsday prediction: http://jennysmexico.blogspot.com/2011/10/maya-prediction-doomsday-2012.html

Here's the link to an earlier Jenny's post based on the interview with Catherine Wessinger, Doomsday specialist from Loyola University: http://jennysmexico.blogspot.com/2011/10/here-we-go-againdoomsday-october-21.html